When the owner of the Wheeler 55 Syntax asked us to build an appropriate tender to grace his new yacht, our ears perked up. Brian Larkin and I have been kicking around some ideas for our “ultimate tender” for years, and this was a good excuse to bring those ideas to fruition. The design brief was simple, but with small boats the competing priorities make the tradeoffs even more of a juggling act than on larger craft. She had to be:

• stable enough for confident boarding from a dock or mothership

• capable of carrying up to four people plus baggage

• easy to row

• suited to handle a small electric outboard

• and finally, she had to have a timeless quality that would look beautiful tied up to any of our boats!

The inspiration came from an old cedar lapstrake skiff built by Arno Day that was rotting away in Brian’s garden. Arno built these small utility skiffs for most every lobster boat that came out of his shop. They weren’t built to be anything special, but their hard chine hull provided great stability and load-carrying capacity while still being easily driven. While that particular boat was way too far gone to pull any lines off of and we haven't been able to track down any existing examples, the idea remained. 

This design makes use of plywood lapstrake construction to make a rugged boat that is light enough for easy handling while keeping the timeless look of a lapstrake hull. The hull shape is quite flat amidships to provide a lot of initial stability - key to climbing aboard easily - and to give a large enough waterplane to carry a variety of loads with ease. While she rows quite well, the owner intends to use her primarily with a lightweight electric outboard. This drove the amount of rocker and deadrise aft to be slightly less than I would draw for a pure rowing skiff, but helps put the volume where it’s needed for higher speeds under power and also helps her handle weight aft better. Although she won’t be towed by this yacht, an additional benefit of the reduced rocker that is very important to those of us who cruise on non-planing powerboats is that she will tow better at 6-10 kts than most other rowing skiffs. While the bottom around midships is fairly flat, there is quite a bit of twist to the bottom forward to give a reasonably sharp entry. The section shapes forward keep her quite dry and prevent any hint of the pounding tendencies flat-bottomed skiffs and some garvies can exhibit when being rowed in chop.

All these tradeoffs highlight a recurring theme - when balancing general utility as a tender and efficiency, the balance leans toward utility, but all in moderation. 

The theory is all well and good, but theory on its own is hardly worth the paper on which it’s printed. After looking at our schedule for this spring and realizing there was no way we could squeeze in even a small project this spring, we got in touch with Mark Littlehales, a boatbuilder who had spent many years as one of the lead carpenters here at BBY before retiring to Vermont. He agreed to take on the project, and his impeccable craftsmanship is evident throughout.

Our initial sea trials have shown great promise. She slips through the water under oar power with minimal fuss both solo and with a full load. Under power, she behaved exactly as intended and proved to be well-mannered with both the intended lightweight and low power motor as well as heavier motor we tested. The longitudinal benches that run from the main thwart to the sternsheets allow for exact positioning of the helsman’s weight under power.

By far the most prevalent dinghy on our dinghy dock is the Joel White-designed Shellback. Joel’s timeless design straddles the line between tender and small craft remarkably well. This new skiff has slightly more drag through the water than a shellback due to increased wetted area, but is significantly more stable and handles heavy loads better. Over a long row the efficiency of a Shellback would win out, but around the harbor the stability and carrying capacity of this design are going to be super practical. The other common dinghies on our dock are variations on traditional flat-bottomed skiffs. In comparison to these floating pick-up trucks, this new design is just about as stable and significantly easier to row. Tracking and maneuverability are also significantly improved.

I’m quite happy with how this design has worked out. Although not yet drawn, she’ll be well suited to a sailing rig and allowance for that has been in the plans throughout… More coming soon!