21. The Search For Heavy Weather: How WIND HORSE Changed Offshore Powerboat Design - with Steve D...

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 04:00:00 +0000

The Search For Heavy Weather: How WIND HORSE Changed Offshore Powerboat Design, with Steve Dashew

In this episode, Sue Grant is joined by renowned yacht designer, sailor, author and offshore passagemaker Steve Dashew to discuss FPB 83 WIND HORSE, the yacht that became the genesis of the FPB fleet and fundamentally changed the way he thought about offshore powerboats.

Sue and Steve discuss:

•  The origins of FPB 83 WIND HORSE
•  The transition from sailing yachts to offshore powerboats
•  Designing for heavy weather
•  Stability, safety and offshore survivability
•  Fuel efficiency and long-range cruising
•  The evolution of the FPB fleet
•  Testing boats in real-world conditions
•  Challenging conventional thinking in yacht design
•  Lessons learned from decades of passagemaking

The conversation begins with a simple question: why go looking for heavy weather? For Steve, the answer was straightforward. When designing WIND HORSE, "the bottom line was how comfortable they would be at sea and how they'd handle heavy weather." After decades spent designing and sailing some of the world's most capable offshore sailing yachts, he had never encountered a powerboat that inspired confidence in difficult conditions.

Steve explains how the journey towards WIND HORSE began aboard his final sailing yacht, BEOWULF, a 78-foot water-ballasted ketch capable of remarkable passage times. Yet an unexpected boom failure during a passage from Panama ultimately forced a rethink. Faced with the prospect of spending another three or four years designing and building a new sailing yacht, Steve and Linda began exploring an idea they had previously dismissed: a serious offshore powerboat.

What followed was a design process that challenged almost every accepted convention. Naval architects questioned the concept. Experienced boat owners doubted it would work. As Steve recalls, "everybody said we were nuts."

The result was WIND HORSE, a yacht designed around efficiency, comfort and offshore capability rather than traditional powerboat thinking. Yet even after years of design work, there was only one way to know if the concept really worked. Steve admits that they "wouldn't know the answer" until they had been offshore in genuine heavy weather.

The episode explores the early sea trials in New Zealand and the growing realisation that the boat was attracting attention from experienced commercial operators. Ferry captains and fishermen began taking notice. According to Steve, "when you start attracting the attention of the professionals in a country like New Zealand, you know you're onto something."

One of the most fascinating parts of the discussion centres around a passage from the Bay of Islands, where WIND HORSE encountered a confused sea state made up of multiple crossing wave systems. Steve explains that "the seas from one direction aren't what get you in trouble or make you uncomfortable. It's when you get a crossing sea state, or sometimes two or three seas crossing."

It was during this voyage that the FPB concept truly proved itself. Passing through squalls and breaking seas, Steve experienced something entirely new. After decades of offshore sailing, he suddenly realised that there was "nothing to do." The absence of sail handling, reefing decisions and constant weather management created a very different offshore experience.

Reflecting on those early passages, Steve admits that he "had never realised up to that point how stressful it was" sailing BEOWULF. WIND HORSE offered something different: the ability to maintain passage speeds while dramatically reducing the physical and mental workload associated with long-distance cruising.

Sue and Steve also discuss the realities of yacht design, the limitations of modelling and CFD analysis, and why real-world experience remains irreplaceable. As Steve puts it, "you really don't know until you get the boat in the water in a confused sea state." Despite decades of technical development, many of his final design decisions are still guided by instinct, explaining that "the final decisions are always made by feel."

The conversation goes beyond heavy weather and into the philosophy behind the FPB range. Steve discusses reliability, simplicity, maintenance and why accessible systems matter offshore. In his view, if "you have good access, then you can check things," preventing small problems from becoming large ones.

The episode concludes with the story of how WIND HORSE evolved from a personal project into the foundation of an entirely new fleet. Steve never intended to return to boatbuilding and recalls that "when we built WIND HORSE, we thought that was the last boat." Yet demand quickly emerged, and before long the FPB 64 was on the drawing board.

For anyone interested in offshore passagemaking, yacht design, heavy weather seamanship or the origins of the FPB fleet, this is a fascinating insight into one of the most influenti...