Design and Construction
The Rowan 22 has a fibreglass hull and deck. Her triple keel gives a draft of roughly 2.92 to 3.22 feet, depending on load, and lets her settle into shallow marinas.
She displaces 4,080 pounds and carries 1,400 pounds of iron ballast, giving a ballast ratio of 34 percent. Her displacement-length ratio of 312 places her firmly among heavy cruisers. The beam is a modest 8.25 feet against an 18-foot waterline, producing an l/b ratio of 2.67. The result is a narrow, purposeful little hull rather than a beamy weekender.
A capsize screening value of 2.06 and a Motion Comfort Ratio of 19.7 further reflect the stable, damped character Roy built into the boat.
Rig and Handling
The Rowan carries a masthead sloop rig, worked with modest gear suited to a small boat. Her jib and genoa sheets are 22 feet long and 3/8 inch in diameter; the mainsheet is 55 feet, and the spinnaker sheets are 48.4 feet.
The prototype and early demonstration boat, however, revealed a serious steering flaw. The original rudder had twice the area of the later standard pattern, with a huge leading-edge cutaway to clear the prop. The keel also dropped straight down from the stern to carry the cutlass bearing.
That oversized blade made the boat refuse to steer in reverse under power. Going forward, it shook the helm so violently that cold-weather use brought on white finger. Under sail, the shaking worsened with speed and dragged the boat down. Production boats moved part of the cutaway into the keel. Owners who fitted a shortened Jouster rudder or built a larger-bladed replacement found the helm transformed: lighter, dinghy-like through turns, and better able to point.
Performance
Owners describe the Rowan as a safe and capable sea boat. One logged eleven knots through the water in a storm off the Channel Islands, while others regularly touched nine knots—well beyond her theoretical displacement speed of 5.7 knots.
She sails far beyond her yardstick rating of 98. A large ghosting genoa, together with a boomed, self-tacking inner staysail, was found to improve light-air performance markedly. Roy’s deliberately underpowered design kept her manageable, but she refused to come about in a Force 7 off Yarmouth until the rudder issue was addressed.
Rudder and Aperture Issues
The Rowan’s main cluster of known defects concerns the rudder and propeller aperture. On the prototype, the oversized rudder and its prop cutaway caused dangerous steering behavior and severe helm vibration. Owners cured the problem only by replacing the blade.
Later hulls moved part of the aperture into the keel structure. At least one owner cut the keel aperture with an industrial jigsaw and made good the area in GRP. Any surviving early boat that still carries the enormous original rudder should be assumed to suffer from poor steering in reverse and white-finger-inducing helm shake until proven otherwise.
Verdict
The Rowan 22 is a small, heavy, genuinely seaworthy cruiser let down only by a rudder design that the factory itself changed during production. With the right blade, she’s a joy to helm and punches far above her rating.
Pros
- Heavy, stable hull with a triple keel and shallow draft for sheltered exploring
- Proven capability in Channel storms at speeds well beyond her theoretical displacement speed
- Roy’s underpowered brief makes her forgiving for family crews
Cons
- The original oversized rudder caused uncontrollable steering in reverse and violent helm shake
- Early aperture geometry required owner modification for the boat to sail properly
