Sailing the Eve 16

Today I received the following comment from Dennis about my previous entry: -

I like what you are doing with the blog, Ross. Great Stuff! On another note, did you get to sail EVE? What did you think of the design? -- Dennis

Well, I didnt sail the boat personally, but both of the hulls I built were finished off by their respective owners, and both have been sailed. One of them went on to be used in the Jody Foster film, "Nims Island". As far as I know, the other one is still in the hands of the original owner.

The Eve 16 was a development that Mike Roberts carried out on his well-known Green Island 15 design. What he did was to run the Green Island 15 through his Maxsurf program and get the program to round-off the sharp edges of the straight-sided and flat bottomed Green Island 15. Mike wanted the boat to be built as a strip planked hull, and I believe that at least one was done that way by an owner-builder.

This is the first Eve 16 hull I built, showing the original sheer line, and in the process of being fitted out by the owner

Here she is heading out of the driveway on launching day

However, both of the customers I had for the Eve 16 were keen to try out my idea of having a strip planked bottom up to around the fairly hard turn of the bilge, and then change to glued lapstrake for the rest of the planking. Mike wasnt keen, but good-naturedly agreed to me doing it that way.

The results were excellent. The first boat was built as per the plan, using my planking method, but the second had a little extra hollow cut into the sheer at the request of the owner. If you look at the pictures, you can see that the sheer strake is a bit skinny in the middle, but the revised sheer line is more pleasant to the eye - the original looking a bit flat.

This is an upside-down photo I took to check the new sheer line that we were marking on the second hull to be built. You can see that there is not too much hull to be cut away, but the visual difference was amazing.

The new sheer line being displayed just before I towed the hull to the owner for the finish work. This is the boat in the sailing photos, and the one which ended up in "Nims Island"

The boat that I saw sailing went very well indeed, and seemed to sail just as well as the Green Island 15 which is not surprising given the origin of the hull, and the fact that the rigs and layout were identical.

The second boat under sail in Manly Yacht Harbour

And another view of the same boat

Now, Im worried that everybody will go off and buy plans from Mike, so here are some pictures of some of my boats - after all, it is my website and you all get the pictures for free!

A Phoenix III sailing powerfully on the west coast of U.S.A. It looks like she has a triangular mainsail, but it is just the angle of the sprit mainsail

Me sailing Periwinkle on launching day

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Cara 16

Very few of these craft were built during the 1980s to a design by John Shuttleworth and built by Amber Boats. A classic looking gaff day boat with a semi modern underwater section which balances stability and a steel centre board.

Locally a member of the Old Gaffers Association sails this fine example "Miss Nighy" above.

Further afield I received an email from another Cara owner who sails "Carrots" in the Golf of Morbihan, below.

They might be few and far between but if a Cara 16 comes up for sale it would make a really nice day sailor.

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New Boat CIY 16

The Calendar Islands Yawl 16

A Sail-and-Oar Dinghy for one or two people

The CIY 16 began as a 19 x 6 1/2-foot daysailer design with a deck and coaming with a bit of Herreshoff flavor. A friend who sails the Goat Island Skiff design by Michael Storer wanted a similar boat -- singlehanding, lightweight, lug rigged sail-and-oar dinghy -- but with a hull shape more amenable to Maine waters. I immediately thought of my CIY lines that I had drawn years ago and that had been sitting untouched and in need of inspiration. I had already put the lines into the computer so I scaled them down and reworked them to make this hull. The specs are:

LOA 15 1/2

Beam 5 1"

Displacement ~522lbs

Depth amidships 19"

DWL is 310" x 132"

Cp is 0.54

The hull has a wide plank keel for rolling the boat up and down the beach. The skeg is there for tracking under oars, but the cutaway allows the stern to come through the wind when tacking. The lines are fairly straight forward and full aft. In a breeze she will plane. Yet trimmed on her DWL, the transom is out of the water and the stem is in the water and shell row fine with 10 oars so long as we keep her light. Construction will be 1/4" plywood: bottom and garboard stitch and glue style, with lapstrake sides, about 5 strakes total for topsides.

Its always fun designing something really new. The next steps are to put in all the planks in the model so look forward to that post. Ill be looking for someone to prototype the boat. Let me know if you are interested. Stay tuned!

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Calendar Islands Yawl 16 Update

Specs

LOA 15 6"

Beam 5 2"

Anticipated Hull weight 150-200 lbs

Displacement ~520 lbs

Here are some screen shots of the CIY model with lapstrake planking. The garboard is actually stitch-and-glued to the bottom, glassed, then the rest of the planks are plywood lapstrake with no fiberglass required. The bottom exterior is definitely oriented towards a lot of beaching as this is a sail-and-oar dinghy with an emphasis on sailing.

The waterline shows quite a bearing aft which should allow for a good planing when the wind is up and the crew is sitting aft and hiking out.

Now that the hull is complete, I can begin thinking about how to layout the interior structure with CNC cutting and kit building in mind but also so that the boat can be scratch built from just the plans or full size patterns.

Ill also sketch the rig but I bet folks know what the rig will be since its implied in the name. The CIY is named for the over 365 islands that dot Casco Bay. These islands and the sailing around them are the intended waters for this exciting boat.

The plan is to find a willing boat builder out there to build the first hull. I will sell the kit at my cost. Its a great way for someone to get into the boat they want for significantly less than what will be the retail cost.

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