New Website in Development

Stay tuned for the release of my new website for my kits and plans business

www.Chase-Small-Craft.com

Some Articles on My Boats

Recently two came out, one in Small Boats Monthly and the other on the brand new, UK-based Barnacle Bill. Small Boats covered the Calendar Islands Yawl and Barnacle Bill had a piece by a customer in the UK who has built and avidly rows a Drake 17.

http://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/calendar-islands-yawl/

A Calendar Islands Yawl based in Duluth, MN

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http://www.joomag.com/mag/0021558001447415734

The orogonal Drake 17 rowed by me in one of the Small Reach Regattas

Sorry these may not show much unless you have a subscription. Believe it or not I don't read much boats stuff....but these are very well worth he money. Both rags will require good contact and readership. So far the writing is excellent!

November at the Studio

Progress on mkII Deer Isle Koster

The new KDI kit in CAD file view

Files and plans are in the last week or two of development for the KDI, mkII. I am taking orders for kits and plans. There are four excited builders waiting for them to arrive. Won't you join them!?

Many want to know the changes from MkI. Mainly, the boat has been brought back up to the original 5'10" beam that Bruce drew on the original KDI's. Another change is that the nearly flat garboards and solid wood keel have been replaced by a piece of 3/8" plywood and the first two planks. The joints are glassed and the bottom sheathed (see hatch markes in picture below). This will make building simpler and alow the builder to make a very durable bottom for beaching. The mk II wll be roomier inside and I expect it to have faster off-wind speeds. The specs for the new KDI are below.

KDI SPECS

LOA 14'

BEAM 5'10"

LWL  12'5"

Beam WL 51 1/4"

draft 5"

Displace. 595 lbs

Sail area 97 SF

KDI Design Project

KDI Update

Hull & Deck Built

KDI Mk2: Looks the same for the most part from this perspective. 

You can see different color planks. That foot wide strip will be stitch-and-glue style so that it can be fiberglassed.

Narrow entry makes her fast.

She is just over 5'10" wide not including the rubrails.

Happy September!

Late Summer Update and Announcement

The KDI project is fully funded thanks to a group of enthusiastic sponsors. Thank you! I now have a lot of work to do through October!

Drake Raceboat in perspective (more screenshots below)

In November and December I hope to have funding to further develop the Drake Raceboat. A campaign to get this crowdfunded begins. Three sponsors at $600 each (or six at $300) will get the project funded and you will get a full suite of plans, and preferred status for first kit cutting with a 10% discount. Please contact me at boatkits@gmail.com if interested. The final design brief for the DRB is as follows:

• A fast rowboat in the Drake spirit optimized for single, fixed- or sliding-seat rowing
• Ideal for fitness rowing and the open water racing curcuit 
• 18'3" LOA (kit) stretchable up to 20' by spacing out molds (plans)
• Waterline length almost 17', 27 1/2" waterline beam
• Max beam is set at 4' so boat can be rowed in fixed seat class with 8 1/2' oars
• Sliding seat is an equal option in this boat, the Poseidon rig being the ideal, using sculling length oars
• Oarlocks for sliding seat can be mounted using Shaw and Tenney oarlock brackets or a custom made outrigger that fastens to gunwales (TBD)
• 5 kts speed potential race pace with 6kts in sprints
• Flotation tanks optional in sides or ends, but more likely flotation bags will be used and canvas decks to shed water
• Glued lapstrake construction, 4 strakes per side (4mm), no fiberglass 
• Estimated weight below 75 lbs at kit length
• Numbers from computer model"

Cp = 0.58
Volume Displacement = 306 lbs
Center of Buoyancy = 53.9% aft
Wetted Surface Area = 27.74 sf
Waterline Length = 16' 11 1/2"
Maximum Waterline Beam = 27.6781"
Water Plane Area = 24.5 sf
Center of Floatation = 53% aft
MSA 70.1711896 (+/- 1e-08) square inches

More screenshots from the computer model of the DRB

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: clintchaseboatbuilder.blogspot.com/p/st-lawrence-river-skiffs.html


Instructor: Clint Chase


Session 1: August 10– 15, 9 AM- 5 PM


Tuition: $1000

Updates and Launches

I'm slowly updating the webpages on the blog. In the meantime, three Deblois Street Dories are slated to launch in the next several weeks, including two in Maine and one by a woman who teaches college Geology in Indiana. The first Drake19 rowboat will launch midsummer. I will do sea trials with Walter Baron, the builder. An Echo Bay or two should launch. And a Caravelle sailing skiff will also launch this season. Lots of activity!

My Favorite little boat

The Echo Bay Dory Skiff

I recently built another quarter scale model of the EBDS as part of an eventual workshop. Unlike my first model of the boat, which was just hull panels stitched together to check the lines, this one is a full build; all parts are scaled down to one quarter size. Additionally, the rig was modeled. It was fun to build I have a nice addition to my living room space!

Echo Bay quarter scale model with sprit rig

Boothbay High School students are making progress on their second EBDS build from plans and full size patterns. These two boats they built were actually the first ones of the MkIV version of the boat. Their first boat was sold to a couple in Gardiner and the second one will also be auctioned off.

Boothbay Regional HS students' build as of April 2015

The Echo Bay Dory Skiff is about as much fun as I have ever had in a 12' boat. It sails and rows beautifully, weights just over 80lbs, and can be built within a week from a kit with two people, I miss my skiff but will build another!

EBDS at rest in Mystic, CT.

Planking the Deblois Street Dory

Deblois Street Dory Building

Bar Harbor, Maine

Planking the hull

I spent the last 24 hours in Bar Harbor helping a customer get the planking going on his DSD. He has been pining after his own D' Street Dory for a few years and is very excited about his project. We met at the Small Reach Regatta, where he and his wife row and sail their current stitch-and-glue dory. He wanted to build a real dory and one with more performance and capacity than the others available. He chose the DSD!

Hull #1 built in 2007, on the shores of the Maine Coast

He set up the strongback very accurately, scarphed planks, and got everything ready for my visit. I arrived at 11am and after the 10-cent tour of his new, beautiful, custom house perched on the edge of Acadia National Park, we got to work. By 8pm we had the garboards fit and glued and looking perfect. Pretty good time for 2 people going hard at it and taking a lunch and dinner break, too. Garboards are often a two-day project because they can be the trickiest to fit.

The latest mkII version of the DSD under construction on MDI

The DSD kit is available, just give a call at 207.602-9587 or email boatkits@gmail.com

Drake 19 hull #1 built on Cape Cod

I took a pleasant 3 1/2 hr trip down to Wellfleet, MA, way out on the arm of Cape Cod, to meet Walter Baron of Old Wharf Dory Co. and see the first ever Drake 19 "in the flesh".

Walt of Old Wharf, boatbuilder on Cape Cod

The boat looked great to me. I was so pleased. Even as the designer, I was struck by how much boat there is; it is 19'2" LOA afterall. Designed to be an open water, cruising rowboat for one, the boat would also make an excellent tandem rowboat for rows in the harbor or in more open water.

Drake 19 rightside up.

The interior has two side tanks on either side of the sliding seat system. The tanks will help the boat be self rescuable, with some additional flotation in the ends, The rails slide right into precut holes in the frames of the boat. Everything fits just so.

Sliding seat system integrates into the CNC cut structure of the boat

After this build, and with a few months to finish out the drafting and writing of the manual, the boat will be available as a kit.