The Perfect Rowboat, Sailboat, or Both?

Do you like the idea of a boat that can row and sail but they often don't like the idea of compromising on one or the other? It is a trade-off. A good sailboat's lines are not good for rowing and a rowboat's lines are not good for sailing. The latter is true mainly because the hull is quite narrow and fine on the waterline, especially at the ends. A fast rowboat's lines just don't provide the stability, often, for sailing and the addition of a slot for the board introduces drag and makes the boat slow for rowing. Wooden Boat's long time manager of their boathouse often cites the Joel White Shearwater as an example. Reluctantly, listening to customer demand, Joel White added the centerboard and it really made a difference in the sailing ability: it made it possible. But it also introduced noticeable drag when rowing: the boat was slower under oars. Drake is very similar to Shearwater, only narrower and longer on the waterline, no daggerboard, and therefore faster under oars. Drake sails downwind fabulously because of the moderate keel to provide some lateral resistance and enable excellent tracking for rowing. We don't have a centerboard, so there is no drag induced (though a tight fitting plug for a daggerboard trunk can fair the slot to the hull reasonably well). I've been asked a number of times, and I just will not add a daggerboard to Drake. She is just a blast to sail downwind and can sail as high as a beam reach quite fast. The sail adds tremendous range when you consider the sail as auxiliary power.

But if you want to sail upwind, and row well, you need a boat with a lot of flare in the hull and a shape that provides excellent secondary stability. Joel White's Shearwater and his 18' version of the boat are good examples. Another ideal example is the dory. What I love about the dory is that it is narrow at the waterline and flares out to a generous width, for a rowboat, at the rail, usually 4'8-5'. The Deblois Street Dry is nearly 5' at the rail. The stability this shape produces lends itself to sailing (see photo of me sitting on D St D's gunwale), but the narrow width at the waterline when the boat is not heeled means that it will row well. The double ended shape of the waterline on a dory keeps the ends fine for rowing ability. Drake shows a similar shape (see photo): narrow waterline, 4'1" at the gunwales provides secondary stability.

The Marblehead Gunning Dory is, to me, perhaps the perfect boat. If I could have only one boat (let's not think about that...what a shame that would be!), I would have a gunning dory or a Swampscott Dory. Come to my annual Shop Talk & Messabout to see both of these dory types in the flesh and meet two experts on dories: Sam Manning and Walter Wales.

Thank you to Chris Partridge, blogger in the UK: Rowing for Pleasure for bringing up the subject of rowing vs sailing characteristics in a boat

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Invitation to Fall Shop Talk & Messabout in Portland, Maine

Please join me for the 2^nd annual � �It�s a tradition now� � shop talk and messabout. This year we�ll welcome our guest designer/builder Walter Wales. Also with him will be WoodenBoat�s Associate Editor Karen Wales (Walter�s wife) and renowned illustrator Sam Manning and his wife Susan.

Walter is an acknowledged expert on the Marblehead Gunning Dory originally built by Will Chamberlain of Marblehead, Massachusetts. Sam illustrated John Gardner�s �Dory Book�

Walter and Karen will bring their Gunning Dory REPUBLICAN, built in 1960 by Capt Gerald Smith from Will Chamberlain�s molds.

Walter and Sam will talk about the history, design, construction, and use of this famous dory type. In addition to REPUBLICAN we�ll have a couple other dories on site to look at and discuss.

You can read about the Marblehead Gunning Dory in John Gardner�s books, �The Dory Book� and �Wooden Boats to Build and Use.�

Bring a boat because afterward we�ll head to East End for a sailing and rowing Messabout. Snacks and drinks provided in the shop, but bring a lunch

WHAT: 2^nd Annual Shop Talk & Messabout

WHERE: 25 Deblois Street Portland, Maine. Deblois is off Brighton Avenue

WHEN: Saturday, Oct 23^rd 11am. Messabout after lunch. Sunday rain date (stay posted on my blog for weather update)

MAP: http://tinyurl.com/ClintShop

CCBB Blog ClintChaseBoatbuilder.blogspot.com

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New Francois Vivier designed Yawl with Clint Chase

Francois Vivier and Clint Chase are busy designing a new dayboat/weekender. This has been a fun collaboration and we have a lot more work to do. By this time next year, it is planned that we will be building this boat in our shop for our family use and for showing in 2012. Francois's boats are designed with a CAD-CAM approach, meaning the drawings are done in the computer, files are generated, and these files can be used to do CNC cutting of all the drawn boat parts, such as bulkheads, molds, and planking. Some of the design requirements were:

� 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 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.

What I am most excited about is getting my kids out sailing again.

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Free Goat Island Skiff Yawl Plan

Drake and family at the beach

Drake is getting built in the shop to test the fitting of the kit before they get shipped off to first customers in WA and PA. Kent Fosnes in WA will be exhibiting Drake next year at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. All kits are tested more than once to ensure everything goes together properly. Many of these CAD drawn, computer numerically controlled (CNC) parts are cut to the thousandth of an inch! Accuracy and precision are among a number of value added benefits to a kit. More info about CNC cutting and those benefits is forthcoming.

The first GIS Yawl doing the Texas 200 endurance event.

After the busy summer, I am back in action. Just finished are some plans for my GIS yawl that I am making available for free on my GIS page. Enjoy looking at the yawl and the other tidbits of info I include. Our GIS will be going together in October.

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Day Three in Drake: The final day of the Small Reach Regatta

The final day was going to have big shoes to fill after an incredible reach and row day 2. The rowing group gathered at breakfast to scheme a separate rowing group to explore along MDI's north coast and down to Bar Harbor. We did just that with the generous support of the chase fleet whose member take very seriously there job to watch everyone, help us stay safe, and get us out of trouble when we need it. The sailing fleet (most of the boats) went to Bean Island just east of Hancock Point and the rowing group (5 boats) went south to Bar Island on an absolutely windless morning and a fast outgoing tide. After lunch on Bar, we had a rolicking return as the seabreeze turned on and was blowing a steady 15 kts. Drake shone again as we surfed down the white-capped, following sea. I had left the sailing rig ashore to be a pure rowboat today. The timing was perfect on the way back into Lamoine Harbor area: the entire sailing fleet was also returning. After a little racing in the rowboats, we coalesced into a parade of sails past the state park where onlookers marveled at the sight reminiscent of the age of sail when it was commonplace to see so many sails filling a waterfront view.

Learn more about the Small Reach Regatta

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Small Reach Regatta: Day 2 in Drake Rowboat

I was a little nervous beginning day 2 on a long reach with a potentially gusty offshore breeze that would carry the fleet 8+ miles to the lunch stop. The cracked mast step was only glued back together last night. Would it hold? This was going to be the same tack that I was on when it snapped. I didn't want to ruin this sail!

While the rowboa

ts and sailboats waited for the whole fleet to be launched and hoist sail for the departure, I

lounged on the floorboards enjoying an egg sandwich made by the caterer who cooks for the event. The food is great and the camaraderie while dining is something I enjoy every year. I saved my sandwich for this moment, laying back on the thwarts in the morning sun watching all the sails around me skitter about waiting for the moment when the lead chase boat would say "every body is in, let's go!".

The sail was east to Flanders Bay where we were to lunch at a bar connecting Ash and Sheldrake Islands (family islands that I arranged for us to have as a lunch spot). The fleet sailed on port

tack on a beam reach for all 8 miles to the stop. It was a hoot to say the least. Drake was right up with all the Caledonia Yawls and other larger sail craft. People were quite surprised to see this long, skinny rowboat pass them or hold position next to boats with much larger sail areas. And to my delight the mast step held.

But this morning was proving something that I try to espouse whenever possible: a rowboat with at least some keel to it can sail downwind quite

fast, but not up wind. And you don't need to ruin

the lines of the boat for rowing and you do not need to add the complexity and drag that a centerboard or daggerboard introduces. Lee boards are simply not necessary for off the wind sailing. Drake has enough stability and keel to even sail without any slippage on a bean reach, and this was a revelation this morning on Frenchman Bay.

The lunch was quick as the tide was eating up the bar -- we arrived a little too late. But the scene was quite spectacular with MDI and Tunk mountain and islands all around. I was the first boat to the bar and the 50 or 60 boats sailing into the bar was just a blast to watch.

The return trip was a 8-mile row to windward, through Sorrento Harbor right by Hancock Point and dir

ectly to Lamoine State Park. Drake showed her stuff by being able to row a steady 4+ knots back to the start line and beat most of the sailboats that had to tack many times to get home. This is what she was designed to do: sail smartly off the wind and row efficiently upwind. If this were a real RAID I would have no doubt t

hat we could be very competitive and with a larger boat for two rowers, probably win. But I enjoy the autonomy, privacy, and relaxation that rowing and sailing alone can bring.

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Drake in the Small Reach Regatta on the Coast of Maine: Day 1

The Small Reach Regatta was the next stop in my busy summer. The SRR is a gathering of 70 sail-and-oar boats, this year, at Lamoine State Park and put on by the Downeast Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association. Irowed and sailed (downwind) his rowboat design Drake and consistently finished in the front of the fleet (but of course it wasn�t a race!).

This event is an annual gathering and a wonderful chance to test and showcase the boats CCBB sells and builds to designs from around the world, for example Michael Storer in Australia, Francois Vivier in France, Eric Risch in Maine, Bruce Elfstrom's beauties and my own designs. We will be carrying kits and building boats produced by a Finnish builder, Suomen Puuvenepiste. These are unique, semi-exclusive agreements to bring new sailing and rowing boats into the US market as CNC cut kits, bare hulls, and finished boats up to 25 feet. My hope is to bring a demo boat from all these folks to boat shows and events like the SRR. Next year we'll have a Goat Island Skiff Yawl to show off like this one built by a kit customer in TX for the Texas 200:

The event was three days. Day 1 was a short windy upwind row and downwind return to a classic small Maine coast island. Every day features an interesting lunch stop, a wonderful opportunity to rest and to look at others' boats. Moreover, I see it as a learning experience to talk to the builders and owners of the boats. I learn something new from every one of the boats. For me, the SRR is about the finest form of professional development I can get.


On the downwind return to camp, a small squall came through and the force overcame my mast step..."WHAM!"...I heard the snap and the boat lurched and we nearly capsized. The first night was a quick repair with polyurethane glue while the sun set. Day two was to feature a long, fast broad reach to the lunch spot, and there was no way I was going to miss sailing that stretch! I was repairing until I couldn't see anymore boat...will it work?

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