Dashews End Quest for Functional Power Boats; Will Go Cruising Instead
By Peter A. Janssen
After more than a decade, Steve (Skip) and Linda Dashew are throwing in the towel. They are no longer designing or building their iconic FPB (Functional Power Boats) line of aluminum-hulled, long-range cruisers. Dashew wrote on their blog, “The time has come for us to do some cruising. Although we would have rather had the FPB marque continue, we simply could not find an approach that guaranteed our standards would be upheld.”
The Dashews have been cruising together around the world for abut 40 years, writing eight books on weather, seamanship and offshore cruising (five are still on Amazon). They started Deerfoot, their own line of sailboats, with a 68-footer in New Zealand in 1980. It was a long, slender, high-performance, long-range cruiser designed to be handled by a couple, and the line was built in fiberglass and aluminum. They sold it after a few years and built a new Sundeer line at TPI Composites in Warren, Rhode Island, before moving on another project, Beowulf, an 80-foot aluminum, water-ballasted 80-foot ketch.
Then they turned to power, launching the FPB line (“the un-sailboat”) in 2005 with Wind Horse, an 83-foot explorer yacht with an unfinished aluminum hull that looked more like a sleek military ship than a traditional trawler or round-bilge, long-range cruiser. It was designed to be safe, with a double bottom and watertight bulkheads. It also was meant to handle any kind of offshore weather, and was self-righting in case of a knockdown. It also was relatively fast, with a shallow draft, and could be handled by a couple.
On its shakedown cruise, Wind Horse went 7,000 miles from New Zealand to California, powered by two 150-hp John Deere diesels, averaging 11-12 knots and burning only 7.4 gph. The Dashews cruised on Wind Horse for seven years, covering 67,000 nm, and started the FPB line. The largest FPB was a 97-footer, which Dashew says was the largest size a couple could operate together; he also said it was ‘the strongest structure ever offered in a production boat.”
Today, there are about a dozen FPBs cruising somewhere in the world. Dashew estimates they have covered a total of about two million nm. The Dashews will continue their own cruising, while spending time in their land home in Tucson, Arizona. He also offers some good advice for anyone looking for a long-range cruiser. First, he says, “Be clear about what you want to do with the yacht, and the risk profile of the areas in which you may cruise.” And then, “Get to know some of the owners well enough so they will give you honest feedback (very few people will tell you want they really think, if it’s negative.” Read more:
