Margaret Preisser died last August, almost halfway through the project. "I'm sorry she isn't here to see the finished product," Jones told a large gathering of friends standing on the dock at Port Annapolis Marina.

There is no doubt that mom would have been awfully proud of what Jones accomplished. As the BC Boatworks Web site proclaims: ''It's more than engineering… it's art!"

This is the second race boat the Cape St. Claire resident has designed and built by himself. Jones labored over the original BC 27, designed for the Midget Ocean Racing Club rating rule, for almost three years in his backyard. That boat, named Problem Child, captured Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association High Point honors six times in either MORC or PHRF B class.

This BC 27 is radically different - an ultra-light sport boat designed for speed and thrills. This Problem Child will compete in the PHRF A2 class against designs ranging from an Antrim 27 to a Farr 37.

"I'm tired of worrying about rating rules and winning. I just wanted a boat that was fast and fun to sail," Jones said. "This boat will be unbeatable in certain conditions, unable to win in others. Either way, it should be a blast for the crew."

Jones spent 16 months building this iteration of the BC 27 at Port Annapolis with friends stopping by to help. Bill Blosser probably put in the most volunteer hours while regular Problem Child crew members Ron Katz, Chris Moore and Steve Carr also devoted significant time.

"Brian has been thinking about this boat for a long time. He was always talking about what he would do with his next design, about all the new ideas he would incorporate," Moore said. "He certainly has upped the game this time. It's a very impressive boat and I'm excited to take her out sailing."

Jones calls his latest BC 27 a "low-speed sport boat" because he sacrificed some performance for stability. Most sport boats, such as a Melges 24 and Mumm 30, are designed for downwind planing conditions. Because the bulk of his racing will be done on the Chesapeake Bay, Jones wanted a boat that also sailed well to windward.

Problem Child II weighs 2,500 pounds with half of that in the keel and bulb. The hull was constructed of S-Glass, an aircraft grade fiberglass. Both the inner and outer hull laminates are comprised of Kevlar cloth while the mast, boom, bow sprit, keel and tiller are all carbon fiber. To say the hull lines are beautiful would be an understatement, which is a testament to the amount of time Jones and friends spent sanding and faring.

With a downwind sail area of 1,050 square feet and an upwind sail area of 500 square feet, the BC 27 is more powered up than a Mumm 30 and only slightly less than a Melges 32, Jones said.

Jones is so pleased with the design he is looking to sell it to an existing manufacturer for mass production. A secondary option would be to find a foreign builder to import completed hulls as ordered. If neither of those plans work out, Jones will custom build more BC 27-footers himself.

Problem Child, dressed with a metallic paint color known as Cordovan Gold, is a top-of-the-line model. Jones plans to sell the base boat without carbon accents or metallic paint, for $80,000.

"I believe this is as good as any production boat on the market," said Jones, who hopes to debut Problem Child in the Race to Oxford in early August. He will spend the next month sail testing the boat to sort out any issues. "We're going to take the boat out in a breeze and try to break it."

Jones, a 45-year-old Severna Park High graduate, has always been interested in boat design. He still has a portfolio of hull and rig drawings he did as a teenager and would probably have earned a degree in Naval Architecture had he not "hated school so much."

Instead, Jones started his own marine electronics company called BC Boatworks that has serviced the Chesapeake Bay region for the past 15 years.