The Goat Island Skiff Project Begins

Michael Storers Goat Island Skiff is a GREAT boat. We decided to build one for ourselves and use the boat as a test for producing high-quality, perfectly fitting kits to sell to amateurs and other professionals with little time on their hands. The goal for these kits is that they produce a hull with perfect lines that have been adjusted by a professional so new boatbuilders can get a fair hull that goes together easily. Every boat needs refinement. With our patterns, a CNC file will be made, and CNC kits will be produced. With Storers thorough manual, a new boatbuilder can build a great boat for themselves and enjoy doing it because things fit and much of the tricky work has been done for them. Time will be saved and boatbuilders can get on the water sooner.

Clint modified the boat by adding a mizzen, making the boat more along the lines of a sail-and-oar boat and more easily singlehanded.

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Photos of a Good Flat Bottomed Skiff

Back in April I wrote two posts about flat-bottomed sailing and rowing boats (see Discussion About Flat-Bottomed Boats and Sharpie Hulls and Fine Sections ).

Things have been pretty hectic at our place since the disasterous flash-flooding which hit our area on January 10, 2011, but over the last few weeks Ive been getting back to work on some over-due jobs, one of which is a nice flat-bottomed skiff for a customer in Brisbane. She is a Jim Michalak-designed Mayfly 14 and is a good example of a well-designed flat-bottomed hull. The point to note is the relationship between the curve (or rocker) of the bottom when viewed in profile, and the curve of the topsides when viewed in plan-view. These two shapes, in combination, determine the chine-line, and the the flow of water around that chine. The aim is to reduce cross-flow to a minimum in order to minimise eddying.

A nice, simple boat, showing the pivoting leeboard, centreline hatches, and external chine log.

Many people find external chine logs difficult to accept, but they have some advantages. They are much easier to install on a boat which isnt built on a strongback, avoiding compound bevels and determination of length. In addition, they provide good protection to the chine, which is somewhat vulnerable on a flat-bottomed boat. Phil Bolger had a theory that if the hull was properly shaped, an external chine log may reduce drag, by delaying the point at which cross-flow occurred. In addition, I guess that they provide a bit of extra lateral resistance, which is good in a sailing boat.

Brutally simple pivoting rudder design which requires only one rudder cheek. The key is the amount of blade above the pivot point, as it provides support to the blade regardless of which tack the boat is on. The patch at the bottom of the blade is where Ive cast in a block of lead to sink the blade. It is covered with a small patch of 200gsm/6oz glass to prevent cracking between the lead and the plywood. The white is epoxy and sanding filler. 

Very simple, but rugged, mast step and mast partner, well braced by framing on the other side of the bulkhead.

Close-up of the mast step showing the very necessary drain hole to get rid of water in the step. This is all a bit rough at this stage, still waiting for some clean-up and fairing work.

Close-up of the external chine log, rounded over on both edges, and showing how Ive brought the epoxy/glass bottom sheathing around the bottom edge and up over the chine log. This is to protect the vulnerable edge grain of the 1/2" plywood bottom.

Outer stem made from a superb piece of Celery Top Pine from Tasmania. Hard, dense, and strong. Still waiting for finishing work and fairing.

Close-up of the external gunwale/sheer clamp, laminated from two beautiful pieces of Silver Quandong. Note how in a simple boat like this, there are plenty of places where the edge grain of plywood planking is vulnerable - this needs to be considered, with action taken to protect the edge. The edge of this plywood will be treated with three or four soaking coats of epoxy prior to being painted, but even then it will have to be watched in service.

Detail of the corner joints in the hatch framing. Once again, Silver Quandong

The single-sided pivoting leeboard allows for a clean and open interior. Although simple in concept, the leeboard design requires great attention from the builder when fabricating the leeboard upper and lower guards, so that the board is absolutely parallel to the centreline of the boat. Trickier than it looks!

A nice, simple, rugged boat. The external stem cap is yet to be trimmed, and at this stage Im planning on finishing it off with a Jonesport Cleat.

So, there you have a nice little boat. But you dont get something for nothing. These boats might be easy to build, but they consume large numbers of silicon bronze screws, and the structure is quite heavy. However, she should give long and trouble-free service, given that she is painted properly (she will be) and stored properly

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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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A new rig for a Goat Island Skiff Spruce for Roger Longs Yawl Dory and more Birdsmouth Masts and Spars

The finished mast and spars delivered and stepped into John Goodmans Goat Island Skiff Yawl #1 in Houston, TX. John does the Texas 200 in a few weeks!

To find good spruce you need to go right to the source. I enjoyed some wonderful walking with a customer who is having a Yawldory by Roger Long, N.A., built and wanted the Spruce for the spars, masts, and oars (my job) to come from her friends land. We walked (i.e., bushwacked) and tagged a few nice Spruce trees.

 

Birdsmouth Masts under construction for a Michael Storer Goat Island Skiff. With Michaels blessing, Clint drew a yawl rig for the boat.

 

Varnishing the Sitka Spruce/Northern White Spruce Birdsmouth mast allows the grain of the Sitka to deepen and develop the contrasting lighter-colored Northern White Spruce. You get some of the benefits of Sitka for half the cost by mixing it with the local spruce we get hear in Maine and Canada.

The two masts are for the Goat Island Skiff, a birdsmouth on the left and a hollow-rectangular mast on the right. The mast on right is a customers that I took in to check for chafing and leathered the chafed areas to prevent more.

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Goat Island Skiff Boat Kits Available

Our first kit offering at Clint Chase Boatbuilder is a plywood and timber kit for the Michael Storer designed Goat Island Skiff (GIS). Why buy a kit? Folks are sometimes offended when I suggest this, feeling that it is thought they dont have the skills to make the parts themselves, but that is not it at all. We build all of our boats in the shop from kits!!! Even professionals do it and the reason is that it makes the build process quicker and smoother and the result is more professional. In the case of the GIS, we have made parts and built the hull of the boat, making all the small tweaks that professionals with a good eye make to the lines of the boat to make them look eye-sweet. Any design, no matter how well drawn, will need some eyes on it in 3D to make final tweaks. We also have checked bevels and made some adjustments for a rabbeted gunwale, which covers the end grain exposed at the top of the gunwale. Our kit captures all these professional practices so you can get a better boat. Currently, kits are cut per order, but we may move to CNC when volume increases.

We were attracted to this design initially because of the sail plan, a beautifully proportioned Balanced Lug. Upon further reflection we noticed something was missing for RAID sailors and for others who might use the boat as a sail & oar craft. It needed a mizzen. A small mizzen gives great control of a small boat, allowing one to lie head-to-wind for reefing at sea or for heaving-to. It allows you to back off a beach or a dock, with practice. It is useful for trimming the sail plan, adjusting weather helm to create "feel" in the tiller. A mizzen makes single handing much easier, especially for switching between oars and sail, because the boat will tend itself and stay head-to-wind while you stow oars and fidget with things at the mast. For a useful diagram showing How to Sail a Lug-Yawl, by James McMullen.

We can supply a kit for the GIS as well as the mast and spars. Masts are round, hollow using the Birdsmouth technique. Yard and boom for the GIS are solid, laminated Northern White Spruce. Laminated spars stay straighter over time with changes in moisture content in the wood. We can make custom 9 oars specifically designed for the GIS. Rowing in the Goat Island Skiff is quite enjoyable, whether it is from the dock to a local area with wind, or coming back when the wind has petered out. Products for the Goat Island Skiff can be seen in the GIS Flyer on our website Goat Island Skiff Page.

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Comment regarding Photos of a good flat bottomed skiff

Graham has written with a comment about leeboards: -

Nice pics. My life seems to be one long series of overdue jobs, so I know what a relief it is to be back on task!

The external chine logs I dont mind so much, but the leeboard?? I know there are some really good practical reasons for going down that path, and I know that Phil Bolger was a great advocate of them, but they take some getting used to.

Apart from the increased internal space, do you think you could just remind me what the benefits of a leeboard are; especially when used in conjunction with a flat bottomed hull like this one.

Well, Im not an expert on the subjuect, but the most obvious advantage of leeboards is exactly what Graham has pointed out - less clutter inside the part of the boat in which people want to sit. Now, having a centreboard case in there with you is not necessarily a bad thing. Ive found a case to be a great way to brace ones feet; to bundle people away from each other when sleeping; and to use as a sort of improvised set of hiking straps by hooking the soles of your feet under the upper external framing of the case while hiking out.

Another advantage of leeboards is that they are providing lateral plane from the surface of the water down to their tips, rather than from the bottom of the centreboard case to the tip. The problem there is that I suspect that the "end plate" effect of the bottom of the hull over the centreboard more than makes up for the increased effective area of the leeboard.

But despite all of that (including arguements about better hull strength without a centreboard slot), there is one overwhelming practical advantage of leeboards for a cruising dinghy, and that is avoiding the plague of having sand and shell-grit pumped up into the centreboard slot while the boat is pulled onto the beach with wavelets surrounding her. That is the reason why my centreboard designs have a positive method of forcing the centreboard down, rather than just relying on a block of ballasting lead in the board - a jambed board is a potentially serious problem, particularly when leaving a lee shore - you must be able to get the board down quickly, and the combination of sand and shel-grit inside a case is a serious problem. It is also a very good arguement in favour of a dagger board rather than a pivoting centreboard.

Ive been having an interesting discussion with a fellow in Maine about the effectivness of long, shallow keels. He sails a Phil Bolger Oldshoe and I occasionally sail a Bolger Micro - both of which have long, shallow keels. Both of us have been pleasantly surprised by just how effective these keels are - despite what the theorists will tell you. If you get the chance, read Arthur Ramsomes books in the Swallows and Amazons series (I read my first one at about eight years of age, and Im still reading the twelve-book series on a regular basis - they are that good), where he describes Swallow, a 14 ft clinker sailing dinghy with a shallow keel.

Here is me sailing along happily in my leeboard-equipped Bolger Nymph. The boat is on a run, with the boards raised, but I can assure you that they worked very well indeed!

This jpg shows my Whimbrel design (17ft x 6ft 9in), which incorporates leeboards for many of the above reasons. These plans are quite detailed, and although close to being finished, will still be a month or so. Too much work on my plate, and only one person to do the jobs!

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Caravelle A 14 1 2 foot rowing skiff after the Echo Bay Dory Skiff

 

Well, Spring is springing here on the Maine Coast so it is time to start unveiling some new designs at Clint Chase Boatbuilder. The pictures are of a scale model of a new skiff design by Eric Risch. We have been collaborating for years on the Echo Bay Dory Skiff and when a couple on Marthas Vineyard said, "We want a bigger version of the Echo Bay", I went to Eric and said, "We have a project!". This is the result of a redrawing of his old design, Caravelle. The result will be a stable but slippery rowing skiff with a transom that well clears the water, an immersed stem to prevent slapping/pounding in harbor chop, and space for two to row with their dog. Moreover, shell weight 90 pounds and be easily cartopped with a custom canvas cartopping cover. We plan to start construction on two skiffs May 1 and launch after July 4th.



More to come about Caravelle and the Echo Bay DOry Skiff Kit packages.

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Echo Bay Dory Skiff Kits and Caravelle Commission

The Echo Bay Dory Skiff (EBDS) by Eric Risch is now in the process of being organized into DXF files for CNC cutting. The first 5-7 kits will be released at the WOoden Boat SHow this June in Mystic, CT., where families will build the boats with Clint Chase in 2.5 days, launching on the third day at the show. Caravelle, the EBDSs big sister, will be on display before it goes to customers in Marthas Vineyard will use her for exploratory rowing with their doggy in the stern sheets and for use as a tender to their sailboat on their mooring. They will car-top the boat regularly.

Eric Risch, boat designer, expounds upon the development and merits of his two fine skiffs..........

"One’s first impression of the 11½ foot Echo Bay Dory Skiff and her longer sister, the 14½ foot Caravelle, is that they look quite different from most skiffs their size. If their steeply raked ends with faired sides seem to have the “spring” of a traditional dory yet have the comfortable feel of a skiff, such impressions would be correct. Both designs are a studied effort to marry the best of the flared sided dory and flat bottomed skiff. This involved some very delicate tweaking of proportions from 25 years of experience with my original dory-skiff. The intent was to start with the clean, simple lines of a flat bottomed boat and make it both easily driven and be able to handle a bay chop with more confidence than typical of small boats.

So in the dory-skiff tradition, the Echo Bay and Caravelle’s flared bow and raked transom provide lots of potential buoyancy allowing a drier ride when water gets “bumpy.” Although overhangs do come at the expense of waterline, my original 12½ footer handled a steep bay chop with aplomb and just loved to slide over the waves with minimal fuss.

The flared hull sides offer a wide range of stability while retaining a wide enough bottom for a comfortable feel of initial stability. The idea was to use some of the traditional advantages of a dory’s secondary stability but minimize initial tenderness—assuming one chooses not to carry a full load of fish! In addition, the moderately wide bottom enables both boats to be very easily driven under oar while the ample beam at the sheer provides a good placement for the oar locks.

Some flat bottom skiffs are famous for the tendency to “slap-slap-slap” in the bow region from the water hitting the bottom panel—this can be quite annoying. Consider too that pounding into a chop robs energy from forward motion. The Echo Bay and Caravelle’s bow stems terminate well below the waterline, making a nice quiet row. When coupled to their strong skeg aft for balance, the boats track very securely in a crosswind, providing a more solid feel than is typical of their length.

Both boats can also serve as capable tenders for moderate to larger yachts. I towed my original 12½ footer on cruises and was pleased how well she behaved. In addition, sailing versions will be available. Their compact sprit rigs keep the center of effort low for ease of handling a moderate range of wind. But narrow boats designed for oar tend to be quite spirited—this is a quality that is best appreciated by more experienced and agile sailors.

The Echo Bay Dory skiff is set up for a single rower and for one additional passenger. The Caravelle is essentially a stretch version for tandem rowing. Both boats have an open clean look and are quite light weight for their length to be car-toppable in a practical sense. Neither relies on complicated framing for stiffness and uses instead one ring frame in the single and two ring frames in the double. The hull is 6mm Occume marine plywood that has a reputation for looking beautiful for decades. Both have “screw-and-glue” chines making it boat that will remain tight whether on the water or in your garage."

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Why the Yawl Rig for the Goat Island Skiff or for any boat

I am asked this a lot and wanted to put something together to answer this and other questions. I added the mizzen to the GIS because I wanted a boat for myself that would be easier to singlehand on longer excursions and for use in sail-and-oar events such as the Small Reach Regatta, the Texas 200, and other RAID events like the Shipyard School Raid and Sail Caledonia. Many, many of the boats you see in these events have a mizzen.

For my own use of the GIS, a mizzen is needed for a variety of reasons:

1) to hold the boat into the wind while the sail is raised, lowered, or reefed while singlehanding or sailing with my kids.
2) to hold the boat into the wind while rig is unstepped and stowed and oars are rigged for rowing
3) to be able to hold the boat to windward or to heave-to while underway for taking short breaks to move people, re-stow gear, or go to the bathroom with out getting blown off course.
4) to be able to back off docks and beaches and control steering in tight spaces
5) to be able to tune the weather helm felt by the helmsman by trimming the mizzen

Other FAQs

Is the designer aware of your changes to the Goat Island Skiff?
Yes, I have a great working relationship with Michael Storer whom I consider a friend. He and I correspond often and he has OK-ed the addition of the mizzen and trusts that I will design and build the new rig so that it fits in with the concept of the GIS. For example, all pains will be taken so that this addition adds very little weight to the boat. The mizzen mast will be a lightweight, birdsmouth mast.

Is the lug sail the same and is it stepped in the same place or how has the lugs position been adjusted for the new mizzen?
I have designed new sail rigs for boats before, for dories actually. After drawing the new rig, finding the new center of effort (CE) of the added sail area, and moving things around, the new CE and old CE are in the same place such that the centerboard does not need to be changed. In the GIS, the lug is the same standard sail (105 SF) and it will step in a secondary partner/step forward of bulkhead #1. It turned out that the lug needs to be moved forward only 9" keeping things tied into the bulkheads for structural integrity and simplicity. The original mast step is retained so the boat can be sailed with or without the mizzen. The GIS Yawl is is still the usual standard GIS, but with an added mizzen. You can take the boat out with more flexibility in rig choice.

Has one been built and how well does it work?
I expect to have a GIS Yawl on the water this summer, my personal boat, but orders for sail rigs and boat kits may prevent that from happening. However, one kit is going to a customer who will be doing the yawl and plans to be sailing this summer in the Texas 200. I have no doubt that the boat will go as well as the standard, upwind and downwind, but with the added benefits of the mizzen for RAIDs and sail0and-oar type of use. If the mizzen is not needed, leave it ashore and use the Goat as the standard lug-only arrangement.

You can learn more about How to Use the Yawl Rig in my blog post.

or the Goat Island Skiff page on my website.

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Goat Island Skiff Build for Making Kits

My own build of the GIS continues until this Friday when kits for the boat go out, the patterns for which are based on this build. The assembly of the sides is quite typical of a self-jigging skiff, with side panels wrapped around bulkheads, glued, and carefully leveled to prevent twist in the hull. These builds are notorious for twist getting built into the hull. It is easy to see when the boat is in the water without any people or gear, and the transom sits out of level with the water. With this sighting trick in mind, you will see it more often now!

Pre-finishing is always employed to make finishing and painting a more efficient process. I use "scrape-filling" to fill the grain of the wood and seal the plywood in epoxy.



I approached this hull differently because of the twist in the side panel as it wraps around the first bulkhead, developing compound curvature as it fairs into the stem. Putting the whole thing together in one glue-up session, solo, is a workout. But boy was it fun. Ive built a few dozen boats like this; this skiff was the most fun to assemble.

I started by glueing and screwing the panels to the first then second bulkheads, the place where the compound curvature in the panel is centered.



The stem was fastened then the hull was zipped up from the midship frame aft. It is now glued with no twist in the hull fore-to-aft.



I am also posting on the Michael Storer Boats Forum.

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