fulcrum rocket sailboat review

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Fulcrum’s Latest Rocket Launch

By Dave Reed
Updated: December 23, 2020

If one were strolling the shoreline of Bristol, Rhode Island, in late 2020, one might have admired a small craft gliding across Narragansett Bay. Low to water and swift, it was a dinghy for sure. But what the heck was it?

A triangular lateen-looking sail with thick red, white and blue stripes might lead one to believe it to be a Sunfish. Or even a Sailfish. Nope. It was the new Fulcrum Speedworks Rocket prototype. It may have looked old school from afar, but as the saying goes, looks can be deceiving.

The prototype launched that day by Dave Clark, the young entrepreneur and boatbuilder responsible for the pint-sized UFO foiling catamaran, has plenty of back story, and we’ll get to that shortly, but first, we must face the big colorful elephant in the room. Yes, that would be the Sunfish, the most iconic recreational centerboard dinghy of all time.

The Rocket is kind of like a Sunfish, but is not a Sunfish. It is a Sunfish that has been modified in very targeted and specific ways to make it perform better while maintaining simplicity and low cost. Steve Clark, David’s father and co-developer, says this is the combination of attributes sailors and small-craft dealers across the United States are seeking today. If anyone would know, it would be Steve, past president of Vanguard Sailboats, once the dominant builder of one-design dinghies in the States—including the Sunfish. According to both father and son, the Sunfish’s builder, LaserPerformance, has not met this demand and there is an opportunity to deliver “an alternate fundamental product in the marketplace.”

“With the UFO, we already have a very technologically advanced and different product,” says Dave Clark. “It sells well to people who want tectonic change. We wanted to add a boat for those who the UFO doesn’t appeal to as much. The sailing market on this continent gets showered with ‘smarter’ boats time and time again, and for hundreds of thousands of board boat purchases, those people have passed.”

Why, Clark then posits, do so many sailors today still choose to buy iconic boats of the past— new, used, beaters and all? That’s easy: “Simplicity, safety, ease of use, cost.”

With a demand accelerated by a pandemic-induced rush on small boats, Clark’s company, Fulcrum Speedworks , had been looking for an opportunity to add something to its line. The opportunity presented itself when he came across a collection of small-boat tooling listed on craigslist. A score he identified in the pile of molds was the tools for the 14-foot Howmar Phantom. He and a buddy promptly rented a Penske truck and beelined to Bethel, Maine, where he forked over $1,800, dragged molds out of the barn and drove away with a bed full of fiberglass history and the start of his next venture.

“There’s always been a need for a new-model year of this thing,” says Clark who has an obvious fondness for what he says is “a uniquely potent example” of a good board-boat hull. “For those who don’t know the Howmar Phantom, it’s the second-most successful board boat ever introduced—after the Sunfish,” he says. “They sold about 1,000 of them per year for about a decade through the late 70s and early 80s.”

The elder Clark, a student and professor of high-performance sailing, says the Sunfish, Phantom and others of its ilk fall under the category of “board boat,” which he likens to the various scows preferred by American lake and flat-water sailors. “[Board boats and scows] are hard bilged with a bow whose primary entry angle is parallel to the water plane,” he says. “They could also be considered sharpies. In particular, V-bottom sharpies like Lightnings, Windmills and Snipes, but the low freeboard and beam-to-length ratio place them more in the scow genus. Board boats and scows both feature generous low-aspect-ratio sail plans. The result is a high sail area-to-displacement ratio and sail-area-to-wetted-surface ratio with a very low center of effort.”

Translation: they’re wickedly versatile boats across the wind range.

The Phantom was marketed as the recreational family sportsboat at the time, Clark says. During the 1970s, there were numerous attempts to capture a share of the board-boat market and take a slice out of Sunfish’s dominance. Builders littered the continent with cheap clones that were not as good; the Howmar Phantom was an exception. “It was not just a cheaper Sunfish but a slightly larger board boat that brought new performance and features to the party,” says Steve Clark. “I could design a new hull, and I flatter myself that it would be better than the Phantom hull, but we would have to go to some effort to prove that claim.”

So rather than start from scratch with an entirely new design, they simply improved upon the Phantom. “We saw the opportunity to salvage a storied and well-thought hull, and reconfigure it within its own legacy,” says Dave Clark. “This boat was destined to be constantly improved and renewed, so we are carrying on that journey into the 21st Century.”

How so? You have to see it to believe it, as I did on a recent raw winter’s night, meeting Dave Clark after dark at the family farm in Warren, Rhode Island. Inside a barn, alongside a half-restored wooden International 14 and an almost complete new International Canoe, the white-hulled Rocket prototype sat on its dolly, its sail and spars piled atop, ready to launch at any whim. The most noticeable feature is the deck layout—Clark did away with the Phantom’s crammed and enclosed cockpit and stretched it wide open from the centerboard trunk all the way to the transom. Through saving weight with a modern laminate and materials and ensuring it has durability (and yes, he smacked the deck forcefully to show me it could take a bit of blunt-force trauma), Clark says he now has a board boat that “will perform better and be a better family boat than before.” Better foils will certainly help, too.

In the process of 3D scanning the tooling, he says, they started to question a lot of the highly-improvable areas of the boat. Consequently, he butchered the old deck mold to get what he wanted: a more comfortable, more practical, and better-looking craft. The original Phantom eventually weighed upwards of 130 pounds (dry) so Clark set out to shave that down considerably, for the obvious reason that a proper beach boat better be easy to move around and put atop the family wagon.

“Make something light and strong and you’ve already done the best thing for it,” he says. Using a vacuumed-bagged vinylester resin and thermoplastic honeycomb core laminate, he has the hull weight reduced to a respectable 90 pounds.

Light. Strong. What else could he possibly do to redeliver a universal centerboard dinghy that a wide-range of sailors can relate to? That’s easy. He preserved the lateen rig (although, technically, Steve Clark points out, it’s a crab-claw sail), iconic and simple in its setup and trim: one mast, two lightweight spars linked with Spectra strops and a single halyard. “There were countless conversations about putting something more modern on it,” he says. “I can walk up to this thing and start it like a lawnmower. Pull the string, cleat it, and off we go. There’s not a simpler rigging system on the planet than a lateen mainsail. It’s a throwback but for a really good reason.”

Clark says the first hulls of the Fulcrum Rocket will be punched out in January 2021 and he’s already taking orders ($4,600 including North Sails Dacron sail and Fulcrum-made dolly). He’s forecasting a production run of several per week, so step right up, he says, because this Rocket launch is going to the stratosphere. And if, by chance, your goal is to go higher, ask him about the optional “Interceptor” upgrade…the one with the rudder elevators. Because good is never good enough.

More: Dinghy , Fulcrum Speedworks , Sailboats
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Rocket Sailboat by Fulcrum Speedworks

Shoreline Sailboats is pleased to offer the Rocket sailboat – “The classic – made modern”

Launch into a new adventure on a strikingly innovative execution of a timeless favorite. 90 lbs of hull weight, built for strength, built for fun and built to go quick. Built to take friends along.

Take your daughter for her first sail ever. Share a sunset sail with your spouse. Use its agility and ample storage to backpack by sailboat for a weekend. Kick it off the beach and get some much-needed endorphins as you plane upwind and downwind in a fun medium breeze. Do all of these things on your new Rocket built by Fulcrum Speedworks in Bristol RI. All for $5,200.

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Wait, haven’t I seen one of these before?

In a way- but no. Not even close. The Rocket builds on the strong fundamental positives of the classic American “Board boat”, a boat type which first came into the world about 80 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of board boats have been made over the years by boatbuilders across the continent, from the Sailfish, to the Aqua-finn, to the Sunfish, the Phantom, the Scorpion and countless others, they have become an North American backyard icon on par with charcoal grills, above-ground swimming pools and pickup trucks. Board boats of all kinds have been loved for generations for a good reason. Their simplicity, ease of use, safety and affordability has stood essentially unmatched.

The Rocket is that classic form made modern by way of careful and sweeping improvements across the entire platform. An old favorite has jumped forward thanks to modern methods and materials. This is what happens when a company that makes hi-tech foiling UFOs gets to execute a classic concept.

Construction and Performance

Made from an intensely rugged and extra lightweight cored composite construction, the Rocket weighs in at 90 pounds, fully 40% lighter than conventional builds of its type. Consider the process of launching and landing it, pulling it up the beach on the dolly etc. Light things are less cumbersome and easy to move around. Your back is already thanking you. The wind likes light boats too. Light boats accelerate more easily and hold quick speeds more readily. They’re easy to handle on the water and safer as a result. At an excellent power to weight ratio, the Rocket can really move! In light wind it’s quick and in good breeze it will plane upwind, downwind and on reaches. Go there faster! It’s no UFO, but it’s an impressively quick dinghy vs. other 14 foot dinghies on the market.

But it’s not just lighter weight and greater speed. The Rocket is also palpably more stable than comparable boats on the market, thanks to having the widest parts of its V-bottom situated directly where you sit. As one customer puts it. “The sailing motion and sea-kindliness is entirely different. It is a more sophisticated motion and not so abrupt as the SF which can be very squirrelly. This is more stable, and sails more consistently and predictable. It points a little better and close-hauled sailing is entirely different and I’m able to sail more consistently and keep my heel angle as desired rather than reacting to the SF’s abrupt motion. It’s far more comfortable to move around in and great with a passenger. Better boom clearance for tacks/jibes.”

The Rocket comes with an expansive full length cockpit which stretches all the way to the stern. The cockpit bottom is padded with soft non-slip marine deck foam which is both gentle to the touch and rugged to survive the elements. This allows ample room to bring friends or cargo. Three or four kids can easily take the Rocket for a sail together, two adults can take the Rocket for a sail together.

With 6 feet 3 inches of floor length on the cockpit, there are easily four feet of cargo space in the back for dry-bags while still leaving room to sail comfortably. This makes the Rocket the pickup truck of the dinghy world. Stick your camping gear in the back and use it for sail-powered backpacking, or simply go sailing with the dog and a big cooler. You name it, it’ll go in your Rocket.

Hoisting the sail could not possibly be any easier thanks to the Rocket’s timeless tried-and true lateen sail setup. The sail, boom and gaffe lay down on the deck waiting for the halyard to be pulled. Pull the halyard 10 feet and cleat it. Congratulations! You’re done. Go sailing. Repeat these steps in reverse when you land. There is a good reason why the lateen sail has been uses on millions of production sailing dinghies since the 1950’s. Dollar for dollar, outing for outing, nothing gets the job done more easily.

Contact Shoreline Sailboats for more information about the Rocket

THE MELGES 15!

THE ROCKET! Built in the USA

Sunfish – sail a classic.

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this is the rocket

Big pimpin'.

Manufacturer’s comment: “Yup! Now we have an exceptional $4600 daysailer, family boat, adventure boat and buoy racer in our product line. Just saying that makes me feel like Santa Claus. We’re beginning deliveries over this spring and I’m extremely excited about it.

Don’t get me wrong, the UFO is having its best year ever. But that doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t also make improvements to the sailboat market that stand outside of the positives that foils bring to play. Fulcrum is expanding in order to bring the broader market one of those improvements.

We call it the Rocket. The Rocket is a magnificent family boat that’s unparalleled in ease of use, value and versatility. And at 40% lighter than similar dinghies, the thing actually rips, too. How’s it so light? We engineered it this year with this year’s materials and techniques, rather than those found in 1950. Ironically, it’s also extra strong and extra stiff.

Composites really have advanced a lot in 70 years, as has everything else. A triton 28 and an AC75 are both composite boats. One is from the past, the other is from the present. And you saw it right, that’s a tried-and true one-string-to-start lateen rig. No rig on the planet is faster to take sailing. If I’m taking my wife out on the river to watch the sunset or launching on a pure impulse to sail for 15 minutes before a zoom meeting, I don’t want to get bogged down in even the second or third simplest setup. Get me out there! Launch the Rocket !”

-Dave Clark

screwed out of a medal

speed and smarts

the end is near

After 19 years in publication, Sailing Anarchy has remained true to its roots as a community oriented, edgy sailing publisher. We have long been, and will continue to be, the leader in providing inside stories, great reports from around the globe, along with the informative, snarky, profane coverage that you have come to expect. Others come and go, dilly dally with bullshit, while we remain Anarchists to the core.

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Thumbnail Filmstrip of Fulcrum Rocket Images

Sku: rocket fulcrum rocket.

Description

The Rocket is the ultimate recreational sailboat - designed with the latest construction and materials to be light weight, stable, easy to rig, simple to sail, and sure to make everyone smile. If you're looking for a sailboat for the family, the Rocket is a great fit. The 6' open cockpit has plenty of room for 2 adults and even safe inboard seating for small childern. All of this comes in at just 90 lbs making the Rocket easy for anyone to mange on land and on the water. Plus, that light weight design also give the boat great acceleration and make it esier to maintain higher speeds - all in the name of pure fun.

If having fun on the water with the family is your goal, the Rocket is your boat.

Light weight hull - Only 90 lbs!
Easy to rig and simple to maintain lateen style rig
Inboard seating for small children
Soft, comfy, non-slip foam grip on the cockpit floor
North Sails sail with window
Ratcheting mainsheet block
Made in the USA
Length: 14' 2"
Width: 4' 4"
Hull Weight: 90 lbs
Fully Rigged Weight: 110 lbs
Sail Area: 81 sq ft

Fulcrum Rocket

Introducing the Fulcrum Rocket, a remarkable sailboat that combines ruggedness, lightweight construction, and exceptional stability for an unparalleled sailing experience. Crafted from extra lightweight cored composite materials, this vessel weighs a mere 90 pounds, making it effortless to handle both on land and water. One of the standout features of the Rocket is its easy launching and landing capabilities, allowing you to embark on sailing adventures with utmost convenience. Whether you’re a seasoned sailor or a novice, the Rocket makes the entire process hassle-free, and the lightweight and stable construction of the boat ensures a safer sailing experience compared to other boats on the market. Comfort and versatility are also key aspects of the Rocket’s design. The boat is equipped with an easy-to-use sail system and features a full-length cockpit that stretches all the way to the stern, providing ample space for passengers and cargo. Whether you’re planning a solo adventure or a group outing, everyone can enjoy the journey comfortably. The Rocket is a testament to innovation, combining cutting-edge materials, thoughtful design, and ease of use. This sailboat is a true gem for those seeking memorable adventures on the water. Get ready to set sail and explore the world with the Fulcrum Rocket!

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Sailboat Guide

2024 Fulcrum Speedworks Rocket

Description

Seller's Description

LOCATED IN BUFORD, GEORGIA

Brand New Fulcrum SpeedWorks Rocket Sail with family or friends. The Rocket’s spacious 6’3” cockpit has the room to: Teach lessons, Sail with friends, Bring your dog or pack for a weekend sailing adventure. Fast - Fun - Easy to Rig and Launch - Car-Top it to Wherever You Sail (only 90 LBS!) In Stock Now

Basic Boat Information Make: Fulcrum Speedworks Model: Rocket Year: 2024 Condition: New Category: Sail Builder: Fulcrum Speedworks Designer: Fulcrum Speedworks Construction: Fiberglass Boat Hull ID: fulcrums2024 Has Hull ID: Yes Keel Type: Other Dimensions Length: 14 ft Length Overall: 14 ft Beam: 4’4 ft Max Draft: 2’9 ft Min Draft: 0’4 ft Dry Weight: 90 lb Other Boat Class: Daysailers

Disclaimer The Company offers the details of this vessel in good faith but cannot guarantee or warrant the accuracy of this information nor warrant the condition of the vessel. A buyer should instruct his agents, or his surveyors, to investigate such details as the buyer desires validated. This vessel is offered subject to prior sale, price change, or withdrawal without notice.

Equipment: Specifications 90 pound hull 14 feet 2 inches long 2ft 9 inch draft 4ft 4 inches wide 6ft 3in cockpit 81 Sq Ft sail area Rigged with North Sails and Robline Outfitted with Allen Brothers hardware Sails & Rigging Sail faster.

Rigging and spars have been upgraded to support 10% more sail area.

Longer and wider hull provides greater stability.

Light and powerful, plane upwind.

Sail with confidence in wind over 15 knots.

Sail easier with modern composite rudder and daggerboard.

OPTIONS: Sail Color

USA Bliss Tequila Sunrise Jay Stinger Plain Topside Colors White Deck Pads Upgrade

Rig and Sails

Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3

SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
D : Displacement in pounds.

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Ballast / Displacement * 100

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
LWL: Waterline length in feet

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )

D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
LOA: Length overall in feet
Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

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90lbs 169in Length Overall 75in Cockpit (6 ft 3 in) 81 Sq Ft Sail Area Vaccum-Infused Vinylester Fiberglass Composite

Rocket: $5200 -fully outfitted hull -complete assembled mast and spar -sail and all lines / ropes -daggerboard and rudder - eva foam padding lined cockpit (add deck pad expansion kit for foam coverage on gunwales and daggerboard trunk), direct factory shipping is available at cost.