. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. The "Tugantine," with spars or "gaffs" supporting its sails they're taking a little more ; One of the people who took special notice was Merritt Walter, a naval architect from Norfolk. "He kept telling me my boat couldn't sail, according to all the rules," Briggs says. "But since it was sailing, he said 'just think what we could do if we had a boat designed to use sail.' The old Steel Rebel did have a serious limitation: because of the hull design, she could n
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. The "Tugantine," with spars or "gaffs" supporting its sails they're taking a little more ; One of the people who took special notice was Merritt Walter, a naval architect from Norfolk. "He kept telling me my boat couldn't sail, according to all the rules," Briggs says. "But since it was sailing, he said 'just think what we could do if we had a boat designed to use sail.' The old Steel Rebel did have a serious limitation: because of the hull design, she could not sail upwind. But Briggs was so convinced the wind was saving him money that he told Walter to design a new boat. The vessel was to be a diesel-powered, sail-assisted tug set up to double as a commercial fishing boat. Financing was the first obstacle. Briggs was proposing a $300,000 risk— a newfangled design with no track record. "The bank took a good, hard look at it, and decided to go along," Briggs says. The keel of the new boat was laid on April Fools' Day, 1978. Not since Noah began his Ark had there been such chuckling. The Norfolk Rebel, a steel-plated, light tug, 51 ft. long, was launched May 22, 1980. From the water line down, she's a sailboat, trim, with a full keel. But she also sports a 320-horse V- 8, assorted electronic gear, and a fish hold. The masts are designed to carry 1200 square ft. of gaff-rigged sail, in- cluding a foresail that can be used with a retractable bowsprit. Walters and Briggs had conceived neither a sailboat nor a conventional workboat, but a hybrid for which there was no nautical term. They coined the name "; "We all held our breaths during the first trials," Kathy Hill remembers. "With a new design, you never really know how it will perform. But it worked beautifully. She was prac- tically turning on a dime, and wasn't squatting or digging in the way you might expect a sailboat to do under tha
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