Design Projects

Sponsorship and Commission Opportunities

2015-16

A new approach to getting projects funded and delivered is through a model sort of like crowdfunding. A design project is any boat design that is either started from scratch or a project where an existing design (that has been built) is reworked or it may be a boat that has been design but not built which needs further development.

The KDI has been crowdfunded for this Fall...a number of sponsors pay into the project and receive the plans for free and a discounted kit. I benefit from having paying work, We all benefit by having the work get done! 

The hull lines for the new KDI sketched out.

Another design project is the Drake Raceboat. It has never been built, but needs sponsorship or a commission to finish the speculative work that I have started...a 3D hull model. Further work to do is to build a hull model,  finish designing the interior, create cutting files and draft the plans. The Drake Race is all about speed and efficiency but retains the seaworthy faering-esque hull.

The Drake Raceboat has been modeled in the computer but that is it until sponsorship comes along.

Another design project is the Caravelle Skiff. It has been built a few times now, but soon a sailing model will be launched and from those sea trials a set of revisions will me made (I will call it a mk2 model) and the plans and kits will be delivered to those who preorder kits. I am looking for a few more preorders. A gent in NYC will cartop his skiff to all sorts of places around LI Sound for sailing and rowing.

Lastly, an example of a scratch design project is my brief detailing what I will likely call the Calendar Daysailer, which is actually the precursor for the sail-and-oar boat the Calendar Islands Yawl. This new boat model will be 90% daysailer with water ballast and a motor well and a lot of space for 4 people to go out sailing. 

Contact me at boatkits@gmail.com

Developing the Calendar Islands Yawl Daysailer

Be part of the Calendar Islands Yawl project this winter

Calendar Islands Yawl daysailer

New design

the brief:

      Hull above will be modified to create more of a daysailer hull form with ample freeboard and some deadrise for choppy water. Narrow flat bottom will be retained for beaching.

·         Capacity will be up to 4 people maybe 5

·         Loa ~18’8” x ~6’6’

·         Weight estimate ~200lbs

·         Plywood stitch and glue bottom and lapstrake topsides 9mm ply

·         Large foredeck with coaming and high bow make it a dry boat

·         Lug-awl rig or gunter-sloop configurations w/ centerboard

·         Auxiliary power by oars or small OB motor

·         Interior layout with side benching and a thwart across to stabilize cb trunk and provide a spot to row from

·         Motor well aft, 2.5-4hp

·         Side benches aft and forward compartment provide positive flotation

      The idea is to find an interested group of people to help fund this work. If you are interested in having a fantastic daysailer that you can have an influence in the design, please email me at boatkits@gmail.com

Early Summer 2015

Early Summer Activities and Updates

Prep, prep, prep!

Mostly my work focuses on watching four Deblois Street Dories getting finished, one of which has hit the water. Compass Project's Dory launched successfully with a a bunch of excited students who helped build her. Compass is looking for another big project commission to use in their work with at-risk youth.

2015 Compass Project launch of the DSD.

I am busily preparing the cutting of more Echo Bay Dory Skiff kits which will be built in Maine. This is the very latest version of the Skiff and any tweaks in the design demand a lot of attention to make sure all the details get done correctly. Those files are done and ready for more customers. It is hard to believe over 30 Echo Bay's have been built now!

Also in the works are the files for cutting the first ever St Lawrence River Skiff kit for the Bain & Co. Annie model. I am back in the computer model after quarter scale modeling the hull.

Quarter Scale Model of the St. Lawrence River Skiff,

Annie

to be built at ABM in an August 10th workshop.

Here is the information for my workshop in August. Spread the word! Contact me for more info.

NEW! St. Lawrence River Skiff Building

Clint Chase, an instructor at the WoodenBoat School, The Landing School, and The Compass Project, will teach how to build a St. Lawrence River Skiff. 

This boat is plywood and strip-composite constructed.

 One kit will be built in the class and raffled off to one student on Saturday. The boat will have some finish work to still be completed by the raffle winner.  Participants must register by July 27 to make sure the class will run.  

For more information about the boat visit the webpage about the Skiffs.

Instructor: Clint Chase

Session 1: August 10– 15, 9 AM- 5 PM

Tuition: $1000

Works in Progress

16' Calendar Islands Yawl

project complete

CIY hull #1 on Lake Superior, May 2015.

The lines plan for this lug-yawl have been done for a few years now, drawn as a 19 foot daysailer. A fellow Goat Island Skiff nut and I began talking in 2012-13 about a Maine-waters-friendly version of the GIS, one that can better handle choppy water especially beating to windward and one that is more oriented towards dinghy cruising. I took the CIY lines, scaled it down to 15 1/2' -- the longest boat that can be gotten out of two sheets of scarfed plywood. The hull form has been tweaked to maximize sailing potential without losing the joy of rowing the boat when the wind dies. The CIY 16 will be ideal for daysailing or sail-and-oar boating where sailing will be the primary focus. Yet, with the transom clear of the water, the clean underbody, and the lightweight of the boat, she'll row like a feather and the skeg will allow for good tracking. The 10" wide, reinforced keel-bottom will take repeated beachings for years. This boat is as much about sailing as it is about sailing or rowing to explore the local islands.

CIY hull #1 on Lake Superior, May 2015

Drake 19 Expedition Rowboat 

Project complete

Modeled on the very successful Drake 17, the general hull form was stretched and then the hull lines tweaked to favor tandem rowing and camp-cruising. Hull #1 has been built by professional boatbuilder, Walter Baron of Old Wharf Dory Company. 

Drake 19 hull #1 in the shop of Old Wharf Dory Co.

See the Drake 19 photo album

Echo Bay Dory Skiff mkIV version 

Project complete.

The EBDS launched by students at Boothbay Regional High School in late Spring, 2014. They build from plans and full size patterns and are currently (May 2015) building the second of two from those plans.

When I began my boatbuilding business, the idea of doing kits had not fully formed and I had not fully accpeted or understood the power of computer modeling the boats and cutting kits from these models. I had built over a dozen EBDSs with proven shop patterns that I labored over. No model could rival those shop patterns, or so I thought. I digitized the patterns and never 3D modeled the boat. The kit is great, I love my own boat, but it remains the one boat not modeled in CAD. There are many advantages to doing so, including ease of making modifications, calculating weights and volumes, and visualizing the boat. With years of EBDS experience under our belts, Eric and I will be modeling mkIV and making some changes that include:

• establish a max length of 11'10", the longest one can go with only one scarf per side plank
• Improved skeg and sheer
• calculate flotation and include precut tank or flotation compartments as an option
• optimized thwart locations, mast partner configuration
• fine tune the sailing balance of the boat with both a sprit and lug rig option
• make a set of more detailed construction plans for "scratch" building with a new lug rig option
• make full size patterns that a builder can have printed on paper
• kit version will be quicker and easier to build employing CNC mortise &* tenon joinery

The original EBDS (left) built 26 years ago and the current mkIII kit version.

Fast coastal racing rowboat

Updates here

Mocking up the rowing station in the new boat.

I am in the early stages of conceptualizing a new design for fixed seat rowboat racing in the Essex, Blackburn, and other open water races. The design brief is:

·

~18 LOA, 17 lwl minimum…would look at more if drag is really low

·

Fixed seat rowing, single rowing station, little gear capacity needed

·

Oars must be 8 ½’

·

Oars need to be on gunwale (no outriggers)

·

Undecided RE: pinned, horns, or feathering locks

·

Cartoppable solo and launchable at hand launch sites

·

Speed important want to be able to cruise at 5kts, hold 6 kts for a stretches

·

Able to safely navigate through lobster boat wakes, and wind driven chop on the harbor

·

Tracking is excellent, but need to be able to turn around up river,

·

No tripping over forefoot in following seas

·

Flotation tanks F & A in 4mm ply or places for bags to tie in

·

Double ended or narrow y-shape transom

·

Low WSA and high prismatic, speed important, but not as risk of being unsafe for open water races such as Blackburn

·

Narrow on waterline but some flare for secondary stability, dryness

Cedar-strip construction or 4mm plywood, possible composite tooling

Screenshots of the Drake Raceboat, a narrow, fast 18-footer inspired by the Drake 17 and 19.

8' Gardner Pram

Update May 2015: On the backburner, need to eat and sleep!

This is the same 8' pram that Gardner has in his books. I modeled and cut a kit for a student who needed a tender for his livaboard sloop. I'd like to finish this soon with the feedback from the first boat.

Gardner pram prototype off the CNC cut mold set up.

Daysailers

The West Coast KDI launched in 2012

Update May 2015: The latest KDI is being built on Bainbridge Island, WA by renowned author Lawrence Cheek (May, 2015) and the last launched was in NJ last year. I am hoping to develop a mkII version not that a handful have been built. Ideally, I can take some advance orders to fund the work.

New Jersey KDI launched in 2014

A second west coast KDI. This one is being built on Whitbey Island, WA.

CNC Plywood Kit w/ plans and manual $2,800

KDI Specifications

LOA 14'

LWL 13' 4"

Beam 5' 3"

Depth amidships 1' 7"

draft board up 5 1/4"

draft board down 36"

sail area 102 sq. ft. max

Hull weight ~175lbs

The KDI was originally designed by Bruce Elfstrom of Lyme, CT, a talented, amateur boat designer who has a penchant for Swedish and Norwegian styled boats. He wanted his popular KDI to be available as a kit so we set to work in 2011. The KDI kit pictured here, hull #3 built in WA, is a huge success. Others are being built in the US and they are available in Australia, France, and the UK. Currently, only kits are available. A plans package may be created in the future that does not require the kit. But I feel the kit is the best for new builders. Explore the links to learn more about the KDI!

West Coast KDI on display at Port Townshend's Wooden Boat Festival

Thanks to the East and West Coast "Stevens"

Thanks to Steven Borgstrom and the Bauer's, Celie and her dad Steven, this kit really got going. Every kit needs prototyping before wide release. This process reveals major and minor issues that need fixing and helps clarify the plans details. The sea trials of the west coast KDI have gone well and we are excited to have a final KDI kit ready to go. At some point in the future, I will get to drawing some plans that don't require the kit. For now, the boat requires the kit to be built. Enjoy this video of the KDI sailing on Puget Sound.

Watercraft (UK) article download

KDI Links

WoodenBoat Forum on East Coast KDI kit build

WoodenBoat Forum on West Coast KDI kit build

Jewell: trailerable cabin classic yawl

Update May 2015: I was involved in the design of this wonderful boat and will continue to offer kits for it even though the other Vivier kits are no longer sold through me.

Study Plans for Jewell $10

Jewell CNC Plywood Kit $6,681.00

Jewell Specs

LOA 19' 8"

LWL 17' 9"

Beam 7' 3"

Draft 1' 3" board up/4' board down

Weight 1367 lbs

Ballast 265 lbs in keel/66 lbs in c.b.

Sail Area 237 sq. ft

Jewell is the result of a cross-Atlantic collaboration between Clint Chase Boatbuilder and Francois Vivier Naval Architecte. I desired for years a daysailor like Jewell and it was not until I began working with Mr. Vivier as his US kit agent that a conversation started around a boat for the North American market. Two years int he making, Jewell is everything I want in a sailboat. The following is excerpted from the 2011 Professional Boatbuilder design contest in which Jewell received an honorable mention.

"In January 2010, I got in touch with Clint Chase, a young boat-builder in the state of Maine, USA. I was looking for somebody able to market boat kits in North America and Clint was looking for designers to develop his boatbuilding and kit business. We had a very fruitful discussion by e-mail and phone and he expressed the need for a new day boat for his family. Jewell was born. A first draft project was drawn in 2010 and the final project was designed in April 2011. As a family friendly day boat, Jewell has to meet the following main requirements:To be trailerable by an ordinary car, and therefore light, and be able to beach temporarily for loading/unloading.  To have a large, wide and deep cockpit, comfortable, allowing for fishing and a place where children could be safe.To have a stable hull for family sailing but give excellent performance for raids and weekend sails “with the guys”.To have a cuddy cabin, with a toilet for women and children, a small galley to heat some meals and two berths to spend a night or two on board, or for napping.We also made the choice of a yawl rig, firstly because it is beautiful, and also because Americans are fond of yawls. I was happy to make something different than the gaff sloop I generally prefer on such a day-boat (Stir-Ven, Beniguet, Lilou...). The yawl rig is very versatile, allowing one to sail under main only, or under mizzen and jib. The mizzen also allows the boat to safely point into the wind, tending itself while the skipper starts the motor, puts in a reef, or entertains the kids. In Jewell, the main mast is shorter and lighter, so easier to step. The jib has overlap in order to improve pointing ability. The luff is short in order to have it well tight. It is always a mania for me to design fast boats, especially to windward, as it is also the best for safety. The jib is small and fitted with a roller furling system to avoid the need to come on the fore deck at sea. The mizzen is a leg-of-mutton sprit sail which stow simply rolled around the mast. On a trailerable boat, the centerboard case is generally cumbersome, either in the cockpit and/or in the cabin. On Jewell, the case is almost invisible. The centerboard rotates under the cockpit allowing the skipper or crew (even a 6’6” person) to sleep athwartship on the cockpit floorboard! I usually give to my designs name of rivers (Aber, Elorn, Laita, Aulne...), islands (Ilur, Ebihen, Béniguet, Méaban...) or capes (Pen-Hir, Toulinguet, Beg-Meil...) in Brittany. This time, Jewell is an island, but in the state of Maine, where Clint use to sail, on the other side of the pond!"

The CNC cut building jig for Jewell

Jewell modeled in 3D CAD

Trailer is easy with Jewell's hull shape and a customized trailer

The first kit cut was in France for a German client. The first boat built was actually in Maine. I cut the kit for a commissioned boat built by French and Webb in Belfast Maine. As of this writing the boat is receiving final coats of paint. Here is a building sequence.

Chris cleaning up epoxy squeeze out along the garboard/bottom seam

After turnover, the first task is removing bulkhead supports

Boatbuilder Peter Webb and Chris Gardei with owner working out the interior construction

Stainless steel rudder-tiller housing.

NACA shaped rudder and Torqueedo

Reefing comb glued to boom

Setting up mast on tabernacle

Getting close

Watercraft UK article by F. Viver and C. Chase download

Jewell Links

Jewell on VivierBoats.com

Photo Album of First Jewell built by French & Webb

Other Vivier Boats though CCBB

I can sell a number of F. Vivier's boats as plans and kits as his US & Canada agent. See the Vivierboats.com website and look for the models with my logo. Prices are roughly as follows and may change:
MORBIC $2,855
ILUR $3,555
BEG-MEIL $3,560
EBIHEN 16 $5,050