This spirited daysailer packs a whole lot of fun into a small package. The design brief called for a simple boat with high performance potential around the buoys, but that was also easily sailed in a relaxed daysailer mode. Aesthetically she is unabashedly a modern boat, but with aesthetic elements that harken back to traditional pilot cutters.

Her relatively narrow beam, lightweight hull, and high ballast ratio will make her easily driven so a massive rig and crew weight on the rail won’t be necessary to sail fast. The balanced hull lines will make her well-mannered, but with enough reserve righting moment and planning area aft that she will have plenty of “get up and go” downwind! She is decidedly a fast daysailer rather than a sportboat, and is intended to be sailed from within the cockpit rather than on the rail. An electric pod drive provides unobtrusive auxiliary power. 

The deck layout provides all the “tweakability” expected in a performance daysailer with twin jib tracks, double-ended vang, backstay, cunningham, outhaul, traveler, car adjusters, etc all led into the cockpit. But she can still be sailed in a set-and-forget daysailing mode with all sheets easily within reach of a single-handed helmsman. 

Cruising accommodations weren’t high on the priority list in this design brief, so her minimalistic interior includes only the essentials to keep weight to a minimum. The open space under the foredeck houses the propulsion battery and leaves some space for stowing sails. Aft of the mast she has two full-length settee/berths port and starboard with sitting headroom above- just enough for camping. The open interior gives plenty of opportunity to show off the beautiful woodworking that goes into her laminated wood structure – every inch of it will be on full display! 

The first boat built to this design, dubbed the “Prothero Sloop” is being built by Sean Koomen and his students at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock, WA. She is being built side-by-side with a Jim Franken designed full-keel pilot cutter as part of their “Twins” project.

Hopefully we’ll see one here on the east coast as well!