Deer Isle Koster "KDI" Kit Version

Hull #3 of the KDI will soon be cut on the CNC machine and built. The computer model is a refined version of the first two built out west for designer Bruce Elfstrom. The modeling was done in collaboration with 3D CAD extraordinaire, Dan Clarke.

We will keep folks posted as the first kit version is cut, built, and released to the market sometime this Fall.

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A trip to sail the Deer Isle Koster aka, "KDI"

The Deer Isle Koster is a new kit that will hit the market by November. We are very excited about

this addition to the catalog. I finally had a chance to sail with the designer, Bruce Elfstrom, at his summer camp on Deer Isle in Maine. Bruce designed these boats for his daughters to sail. It is always wonderful to visit the provenance of a great design and to sail with the designer!

I was most struck by how high the KDI pointed sailing upwind. The foils and jib headed lug rig are very effective. I was also struck by how nicely the helm balanced and, overall, how easily she sailed. I was most satisfied about this last point because this little boat will make a great boat for introducing children to sailing small boats.

Both well over 6' and 200 pounds (I will not go into specifics!), Bruce and I had plenty of room in the cockpit with room for kids and under deck places to stow snacks and other gear.

We are currently finishing the 3D model work which will be used to make the 2D parts that are cut on a CNC routing machine and become the basis for the complete kits. To learn a ton more about how this works please read a PDF about boat kitting.

Also feel free to visit the WoodenBoat Forum thread on the KDI.

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New Stitch and Glue Dinghy

Congrats to Barbara Simon, the new owner of the Willard Beach Dory (WBD), a new stitch-and-glue dory skiff drawn by Roger Long who has retired and is off cruising. Roger left behind a few gorgeous designs for me to 'kit' and market as new boats, the (WBD) being one of them. The others are the YawlDory and a 16' Herreshoff-like double paddle canoe, which is a thing of beauty and may be the only paddle boat I end up putting in the catalog.

The WBD is out of 6mm plywood and will be rowed in and around Casco Bay. She'd be an ideal tender being light, maneuverable and a good load carrier. The oars are our custom spoon blade oars with high quality 14" leathers by Swanson Boat Company.

Stitch and Glue is a quick way to get a boat, but this project was a reminder that this type of construction can take longer than one thinks if you try to get a yachty finish: hiding the fiberglass tape and fillets takes some fairing. With lapstrake, there is a clean plank line to follow. However, the S and G structure is light and strong and relatively inexpensive as kits go.

What other S and G designs do people like that are not available as kits and should be?

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Small Reach Regatta Finishes in Drake Rowboat

This sail is right off a Shellback dinghy, but a new more efficient downwind rig is in the works when we aren't making other peoples' rigs!

(photos by Christophe Matson in his Goat Island Skiff)

My wife, Ellie Chase, and I finished up a fabulous 3 days of rowing and sailing in Drake along with almost 40 other boats ranging from 12 foot dinghies to 15 sail and oar boats, to 22 foot daysailers. Drake often got to the lunch stops first because we were able to row upwind and sail downwind. It turned out that most of the time we rowed in tandem.

We love this mode of boating for getting around but you have to like to row and be in a good rowboat. And there is no need to ruin the lines of a rowboat by making it be able to sail, as long as you stick to sailing off the wind. We can sail easily on a beam reach down to a run. In the above we maintained 3.5-4kts in maybe 5-10kts total true wind.

See more at http://www.facebook.com/groups/104933556820/

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Sail rigs delivered, launched, and being shaped

Drop in Sail rig, ready to go with custom canvas sailbag.

Yawldory Elyssa just launched. We built the masts and spars.

Caledonia Yawl birdsmouth-hollow mast designed by Clint (giving the 'evil eye' above) and built in-house by Steven Bauer and the CY owner.

One of our favorite projects is making birdsmouth-hollow masts and spars, but even more rewarding is working with great sailmakers who specialize in small boat sails. We work with them to have the sails made to fit the spars and lace them, make the lines, attach blocks and hardware so that someone can get a complete, drop-in rig from us and go sailing. It is very rewarding. Just delivered was a complete sail rig in a custom canvas sail bag by Mobile Marine Canvas. Just launched was a wicked-light set of masts and spars for the Yawldory Elyssa by Roger Long. The first sea trial was very successful. The masts are spruce made with the birdsmouth construction. Being finished right now in the shop is a new design for a hollow mast for the Caledonia Yawl. We have modified the original mast drawn by Iain Oughtred to be lighter and stronger for Birdsmouth construction. The tolerances involved are a little finer than working with solid masts, because the stiffness and strength of the mast will be a function of overall diameter, wall thickness, and wood type. All these factors, including the on-water use of the mast/spar, are considered when we design and build a mast. The important thing is that the load in the boat is what will exert the stresses on the mast. This load comes primarily from the weight, heeling moment, and crew of a small boat, more so than the wind strength.

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Next Year's Family Boatbuilding Project?

A lot of people ask for a skiff that can take a motor.

http://www.francois.vivier.info/albumsfr/sorine/sorine_moteur/index_fr.html

http://www.francois.vivier.info/albumsfr/sorine/sorine_aviron/index_fr.html

She is a rowing/sailing/motoring skiff by Francois Vivier.

What do you think?

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Family & Corporate Boatbuilding

Some new photos up at my Flickr site for the two past corporate and family boatbuilding events at Mystic Seaport.

One thing we love is that all our participants launch every boat on the third day and they always look great, the people and the boats!

It is interesting that 29 boats were built at Family Boatbuilding and even out of the biggest group of 18 canoe builders led by "man with PA system", none of these canoes were launched and paddled on Sunday.

However, we were out there rowing for a solid hour in our Echo Bay Dory Skiffs. Yeah, kit builders!

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Family Boatbuilding at Wooden Boat Show

We (myself, Christophe Matson, Eric Risch the designer of the EBDS, and Steven Bauer) had a wonderful time guiding three wonderful families through the construction of 3 beautiful Echo Bay Dory Skiffs this past Friday through Sunday. The skiffs were all made from precut kits, allowing for the quick, efficient construction.

Day 1 was assembling hull sides.

Day 2 was attaching chine logs, gunwales and bottoms.

Day 3 was installing seats and outerkeel as well as doing some shaping and sanding.

Then all 3 familes launched their creations. In fact, out of nearly 30 boats built at the Show, we were the only 3 that launched!

Not one boat leaked. One family rowed across the river to their home and the others loaded on the cartops to drive home to New Jersey and Colorado. They will receive sailing kits to complete their boats.

Big thanks to Wooden Boat's support of Family Boatbuilding, to Eric Risch for giving us the design rights to use this boat, and to Christophe Matson for his patient skilled help with the families. Finally, thanks to the families for signing up with us. It was a blast, especially seeing you all rowing on Sunday.

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Rowing & Sailing in France & Finland: Part 1

I recently returned from a wonderful 2 week business trip in Europe. The 'business' in France was to sail and better get to know Francois Vivier and his designs. I felt it was a good idea as his sole US and Canada kit agent and boatbuilder to better understand the cultural backdrop to his boats. I had also hoped to get on many of the that I carry in my catalog but have not had the occassion to sail on to date. The plan was to sail in Pen-Hir to Semaine Du Gulfe Morbihan (photo left at sea), one of the premier boating festivals in the world with 100s of Vivier boats in attendance as well. The trip met and exceeded all expectations. Not only are Vivier's small boats well represented but there were numerous large vessels of his design sailing in the Gulfe. I was able to get onto all the boats and gain a good feeling for how they row and sail.

While hove to in the 250-boat voile-aviron fleet (sail & oar), I was able to sail with Nicolas Vivier in his Morbic 12 and transfer to a kit built Ilur afterwards. It was a fantastic morning with this sort of activity, bouncing

from boat to boat and seeing so many Vivier boats in one place. It was like a

"live" floating advertisement for his boats!

The pictures don't do justice to just how many boats there were in the sail & oar fleet, one of 7 fleet

s in the Festival which took place over the whole Gulf and rotated night to night through the different p

orts. Other boat in the fleet were: Le Seil, Minhouet, B

eg-Meil, Ebihen 15, Ebihen 18, Aber, and Francois first sail & oar boat, Aven.

I was more taken with Aber than I had thought: she is beautiful, fast, and seaworthy.

If you speak French or even if you do not, it is worth watching a video about Francois and his work shot at the Morbihan week on board Pen-Hir and aboard Francois's motorboat design, Koulmig, pictured in the background.

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Back to business: boat kits and complete boats

First off, I am now in 100% complete control of my Gmail account again. Someone in Egypt hacked in because I was not careful enough about protecting my password. Upgrade passwords and never have it on email anywhere! Learn from my mistakes. My email, boatkits@gmail.com, is completely safe, now.

Pictured is a recent boat kit heading out of the shop...CNC (computer numerically control) precut plywood kit and a timber kit. The pieces of mailing tubes over the ends of the long parts protect the precut scarf joints while the kit is shipped (this one a kit to Durango, CO).

Back to business and to pick up from the last few posts, I want to share a PDF and link to my webpage about how my kits are produced, why it makes more sense to built boats out of my catalog from kits or full size patterns, and the general idea regarding the 'economics of boat kits' (i.e., why the extra cost of a boat kit is smaller than many think) will come next time.

http://www.clintchaseboatbuilder.com/CNC.html

My pitch for building from boat kits PDF (Google Docs)

In a nutshell, boats designed in the computer are actually drawn full size already to a higher degree of precision (thousandths of an inch) than on the lofting full size by hand (1/16th's of an inch). The difference is that a planks can be precut in advance, glued together with a precut scarf, and bent around bulkheads, hitting every mark on the spot. Interior components and the building jig itself are drawn into the computer model to exactly fit the boat. Therefore, to take a computer aided drafted (CAD) boat and loft it by hand introduces natural errors that were carefully avoided in the CAD process.

Because the parts can all be predetermined off the computer model, they can be nested onto fewer sheets of plywood than a manually (scratch-built) boat can be done. Also, it avoids cutting mistakes which often requires buying extra wood. This offsets the extra cost of a kit and wastes less wood.

The time it takes to manually cut parts to a boat, if you look at it in a hourly rate kind of way, would also offset any remaining difference in cost between building from scratch versus building from precut parts in a kit.

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Goat Island Skiffs Rule

We have a new Facebook and Twitter presence!!!

Like us on Facebook

www.facebook.com/clintchaseboats

Lots of updates direct from boat show thanks to Chris Freeman and his social media prowess.

Our Twitter is

www.twitter.com/clintchaseboats

The Show is over. It was a great time and people loved the Goat Island Skiff. The message was clear: the GIS is about as much boat as you can get for the money/effort/time, etc.

The first builder of the Yawl version, John Goodman and family, has a great video that really shows the skiff's stuff.

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Maine BoatBuilders Show

Here is a boat moving in for the Show....it is that time of year again. The Maine Boatbuilders Show started Fri and tomorrow is day 3 already. This year has been a good show so far and tomorrow should bring even more interest. People are really intrigued by what I have to offer, a couple dozen truly unique boat kit designs most of which are available only through CCBB!

This is the first time a Goat Island Skiff has been displayed at a US boat show as far as I can tell and people are loving the boat. My boat is still unpainted, but there are always a few boats at this show that are in progress, which makes it a lower key boat show. The philosophy behind this show is that it is a boatbuilders show. People talk to the boatbuilders not reps and, in the case of an unfinished boat, get a rare glimpse into the workings of a boatbuilder, work that is normally inside a shop until it is all painted.

Lastly, we are live on FACEBOOK and TWITTER. Like us on Facebook

www.facebook.com/clintchaseboats

www.twitter.com/clintchaseboats

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Economics of Kit Building

I receive a lot of questions and comments regarding the true cost of building a boat from scratch, full size patterns, and kits. Since I track time and materials closely, I have found that building from kits makes a lot of sense from an economic stand point. I took some discussions with customers/potential customers and put together this PDF on the 'economics of kits'.

In a nutshell, the cost of building from a kit is not as much more than building a boat from scratch as people think because of the extra plywood required to build from scratch not to mention the time savings.

In the meantime, we are making progress on the first professionally built Goat Island Skiff (yawl version) which will be at the Maine Boatbuilder's Show in Portland on March 18-20th. Please stop by. We'll be in building 2 near the stairs up to food court.

When I post next, I'll have a PDF link that goes into more detail about how the designs/kits are produced in CAD and CNC cutting.

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New Blog by Francois Vivier

Francois Vivier, famous boat designer of France, has started a new blog. If you are using Google Chrome you can very successfully translate the page to English and read the text with little difficulty.

Vivier has many designs that are not evident on his english website, mainly because he must translate all plans and building instruction to english, a huge effort.

But he will make the effort with an order or strong inquiries. I am his US agent, so if any of these designs are of interest, please let me know.

A number of new boats are emerging, such as the skiff 'Sorin' above, aimed at "budget" oriented home projects. The first of these was a dory and he also has a couple skiffs.

The site is http://blog.vivier.info/

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