<Excerpts below are taken (c) from Practical Boat Owner, no 6, June 1967>
 

COVER GIRL'S BOAT

by John Watney

THE HURLEY 22 is claimed by her builders - Hurley Marine Ltd, Plympton, Devon - to be the combination of boat for the racing enthousiast and family cruiser at an exceptionally low price for her size and standard of finish and fittings.
Certainly, with four berths and at least all the basic needs of a cruising family built-in, she is fair value for money.   Just how much boat one should expect for just over £1000 is a matter of personal opinion. What one does get with the Hurley 22 is a boat which looks like a yacht. Handles like a yacht, and has a genuine seagoing hull form and sailing gear. She is very capable of being raced, with little modification, in JOG events and of giving a good performance.

Of importance to the cruising man and all potential owners who are more concerned with getting back before a storm, in time for the pub or for work on Monday morning, than showing how clever they are at sailing a boat when there is no wind at all or too much wind, is the auxiliary engine arrangement. The engine recommended is a 9 or 10 horse-power outboard which fits in a lazaretto below the aft deck hatch. It can be safely left on the boat when she is unattended and can be raised when under sail. The engine well in the hull is then closed with a lid and no buoyancy is lost and there is no propeller drag. For the shallow-waters sailor, and those who have a mud berth, there is a bilge keel version, but the ballast keel model with a draught of 3 feet 9 inches is the real boat.
A  Formica-lined galley unit  is fitted on the port side with a sliding top over the small sink to provide a working  surface.   The  cabin is mahogany trimmed.  With the head ot the double bunk in the fore peak and half of each of the quarter berths there is ample sitting room. Anchor chain and sails can be stowed in the fore peak locker, although it needs, a bit of 'tunnelling' to gel up there. A foredeck hatch over the middle of the double berth makes the whole cabin light and airy on a fine day, and gives quick access on deck if the cabin is cluttered with other crew.
The cockpit is self-draining.  A comfortable slope on the after ends of the cabin structure either side of the companionway provides comfortable backrests for crew resting or sunbathing on the cockpit benches. A lifting tiller gives more room in an already roomy cockpit and is fine for the helmsman who likes to steer standing up.
The whole boat is factory-made, and it is completely made on the premises.   That includes the alloy spars, sails and a trailer if required. It is a tenet of Hurley sales' policy that they like a customer to visit their factory at Plympton and see his boat —or one like her—being made. Made, rather than built, because they are fibreglass construction.   The alloy spars have stainless steel and Tufnol fittings, and the mainsail is fitted with roller-reefing. Standard rigging is in stainless steel with polythene rollers.


Sketches of the Hurley's Interior



HURLEY 22: WHAT THE DESIGNER SAYS

George Hurley and I felt that there was a growing demand for  small sailing cruisers of deep keel yacht form, as well as for twin keel sailing cruisers. So we went ahead with both versions at once. The Hurley 22 was to be the first of the range and, after completion of the deep keel type, I set about designing the bilge keel version using the deep keel lines plan down to the waterline and re-drawing the underwater part for twin  keels. The wooden plug of the deep keel type was then used for mould making and subsequently suffered the indignity of having its bottom cut off and a new one substituted for mould making of the twin keel hull.
The second moulding was the superstructure, acceptable to both types of hull. The cockpit was designed to be self-draining and has intelligent sized gate valve seacocks fitted. The cockpit is also a very adequate size for sunbathing—in fact I decided to allow the cabin after bulkhead to rake aft and down instead of having it vertical, to allow a more comfortable backrest.
The after locker, or lazarette, was designed with a well and trunking to take a 9 horse-power outboard motor both for stowage and action, this obviates the need to balance precariously on the afterdeck to mount the engine. It may all be done from the cockpit and, furthermore, allows the propeller to operate efficiently where it has the best possible immersion. The yacht will, of course, accept an inboard engine in which case the after locker becomes general stowage.
The third and final moulding is the interior and this has been moulded to achieve a high finish, and to reduce building time and costs. The need for wood trim on glass boats cannot be too highly stressed, in my opinion— the result is mahogany trim in the cabin, afrormosia handrails on deck and, perhaps most important of all, a varnished afrormosia sheerstrake and capping to set off the sheer. The three hatches on deck are unusual and worth noting—they are fibreglass, but by bonding in an imitation teak veneer the effect of a varnished teak hatch has been achieved, whose gloss finish is obtained by the use of a clear gel coats.
 The sail plan is of normal proportions, and in addition to the standard mainsail and working jib the sail plan shows a genoa, spinnaker, spinnaker staysail and storm jib to obtain the utmost performance from the boat. The rudder is of high aspect type which gives a very good degree of sensitivity even when hard pressed in a blow. With a ballast ratio of 40 per cent, and the centre of gravity of the ballast kept low, she has proved herself to be a stiff little yacht, well able to stand to her cloth.
The cast iron ballast keel was designed to be fitted down into the hull moulding and, in order to distribute the loading properly, three galvanized mild steel straps are contoured into the keel and run up to the level of the datum waterline. These straps are bonded to the hull and the ballast casting sits down snugly on to them and is bedded in place with a casting fill.
I am quite sure that there are a great many yachtsmen who dearly love the amount of space offered by the chine-shaped sailing cruisers, but who now, having been baptised, require a boat with more performance. Therefore, the intention with the Hurley 22 is to offer this really good performance together with lashings of space and the very minimum of maintenance.
So far, the Hurley 22 and Hurley 18 have been on exhibition at over a dozen major boat shows in England, Europe and America, and both boats have been remarkably well received with several hundred orders resulting.

lan Anderson


HURLEY 22

SPECIFICATION
Hull and deck:        Colour-impregnated polyester resin laminate,
                      with double thickness at stress points,
                      reinforced with laminated beams
Exterior trim:        Afrormosia
Interior woodwork:    Mahogany and BSS 1088 marine ply
Standing rigging:     5/8in circ 7x7 stainless steel wire with polythene rollers,
                      stainless steel rigging screws
Running rigging:      Three-strand Ulstron halyards. Plaited mat nylon sheets
Deck fittings:        Gunmetal
Blocks:               Tufnol
Sails:                Terylene
Spars:                Aluminium alloy with stainless steel fittings
Standard equipment:   Terylene roller reefing mainsail and working Jib.
                      Tufnol sheet winches. Stemhead roller. Chain pipe.
                      Bilge pump. Galley unit with sink, water tank
                      and pump Marine toilet.

MAIN DIMENSIONS
Length overall      22ft 0in (6.7m)
Beam                7ft 6in (2.22m)
Draught—fin         3ft 9in (1.14m)
bilge keels         2ft 6in (0.76m)
Cabin headroom      5ft
Displacement        3,900lb
Ballast             2,3001b
Thames measure      4.3 tons

SAIL AREAS          sq ft (sq m)
- Mainsail           118 (10.97)
- Working jib        122 (11.35)
- Total working area 240 (22.32)
- Storm jib          39 (3.63)
- No 1 Genoa         140 (13.0)
- No 2 Genoa         187 (17.4)
- Spinnaker          336 (31.3)