SOULMATES is a unique performance cruiser. Most cruising sailors would turn away from her because of her eight-foot draft, powerful sail plan, small tankage and tiller steering. She is spritely to sail and care has to be taken to adjust sails often.
Racers are not interested in all the extra weight I have added with the anchor roller sprit, windlass, cockpit coamings, water heater, watermaker, hydrogenator, dodger, and extra storage lockers. But for me, being a retired racing sailor, SOULMATES is a terrific compromise. I don’t mind going on the foredeck to take down the jib, which is on hanks. I have settled the running backstay issue so that they don’t have to be adjusted — as long as there is at least one reef in the main. Dropping the huge main is a piece of cake thanks to the ball-bearing luff cars, Dyneemalazy jacks and the UK Sailmakers Lazy Cradle; I just let the halyard go and the sail falls instantly into the cover (see photo). I carry one spinnaker in a dousing sock and a Code Zero on a bottom-up furler. I like to sail fast!
SOULMATES was built in 1991 by Goetz Custom Sailboats and originally named KATIE G, after Eric Goetz’s then three-year-old daughter. Goetz had Rodger Martin design his boat to be a doublehanded ocean racer and fast cruising boat. Her design date is apparent in the fractional rig, with four sets of in-line spreaders and running back stays that hold up the towering carbon rig (see image of the sail plan).
A few years later, most new designs incorporated masts with fewer sets of swept back spreaders to eliminate the need for running back stays. The boat’s plumb bow and deep bulbed keel are on par with modern designs. SOULMATES is helmed with a tiller instead of a wheel to give the driver better feel for steering as well as to save weight. Needless to say, she is much more racer than cruiser. Click here to see some of the modifications I have made over the years.
The boat was built with a water ballast system that allowed 2000 pounds of water to be pumped to either side of the boat or to be pumped overboard. When I bought the boat, I disabled the system since most handicap systems severely penalize water ballast. Since I raced with a crew of 10-11, I had plenty of weight on the rail. In 2021, I converted the four water ballast tanks (two on each side) into vast amounts of storage space.
SOULMATES has many custom touches; the most unique feature is the gimbled stove. The stove and oven are part of a unit that includes pot lockers on either side. The whole unit is gimbled. The stove/oven/pot locker unit has a circular bottom that rides on halyard sheeves. Not only does the stove stay level, but the tops of the pot lockers on both sides of the stove stay level too. When the boat is heeling, the tops of the pot lockers become level surfaces that the cook can use forpouring a cup of coffee or plating dinner. The “U” shaped galley is secure in a seaway; there is no need to wear security belt. While turning in a circle the cook can reach the double sink, stove, utensil drawers, pantry lockers and the fridge.
To save weight, there is no headliner on the overhead. One of the ways that the quality of the build is shown is the perfectly smooth overhead. The ceiling of the cabin was sanded, faired and spray painted with Awlgrip, which is a difficult and time-consuming process. Instead, most boat builders save time and money by covering up rough fiberglass work with a headliner. All the furniture is built with fiberglass and cored panels to keep the boat light and strong. Even the teak and holly floorboardshave a foam core. The leaves of the drop-leaf saloon table are finger-tip light.
The main cabin bunks all have block and tackles so that the bunks on the windward side can be raised to keep them level. This replaces using lee-cloths, which I find uncomfortable. The upper saloon bunks can be lowered to form sofa backs for the lower bunks. In the photo, the port upper bunk is raised for sleeping and the starboard bunk is shown lowered as the sofa back.
In the 12 years that I owned the boat before starting my dream cruise, I had never sailed the boat in the ocean – just on the flat coastal waters of Long Island Sound and New England. But now I can say the boat is a dream to sail in the waves. Because of all the reserve buoyancy above the waterline in the bow sections, we never buried the bow surfing down waves. When I told Eric Goetz about my experiences he said, “I had asked Rodger(Martin) for flare in the topsides forward to keep the bow from driving under. There is a lot of reserve buoyancy in the front six to seven feet. Another feature that I particularly like is the sunken forward end of the foredeck. It is pretty cozy and secure when one is all the way forward. And the big hawse holes drain that well very quickly.”
Eric Goetz was one of the top custom boat builders in the world. Goetz boats have won at the highest end of international yacht racing. His boats won in the America’s Cup (Bill Koch’s AMERICA3), the Admiral’s Cup, and the Maxi Worlds, as well have competed successfully on the TP52 circuit, the Whitbread/Volvo race, the TransPac, Kenwood Cup, Southern Cross Series, Sardinia Cup, and countless other regattas around the world. Since 1975, Goetz has built over 200 boats.
