Passagemaker Take-Apart

With more sail area than a Laser, she most certainly will. Performance is lively even in light air, and the Passagemaker will tack to windward with aplomb. With loads of stability and a deep hull that you sit inside---rather than on top of---the Passagemaker is a wonderfully comfortable daysailer for two adults, or for an adult and a bunch of kids. Also a perfect sail trainer.

It's a sloop, with a "sliding gunter" mainsail. There is an 11-foot aluminum mast supported by stainless steel shrouds. (The shrouds simply clip on, and the rig is tensioned with the jib halyard.) The gunter rig gives you spars that are short enough to store inside the hull for storage, trailering, or towing, without sacrificing performance.

The correct answer to this has everything to do with trimming the boat. If you're alone, you need to sit as close to the center of the boat as possible; a boat that weighs only 90 pounds will trim down by the stern badly if a solo sailor sits back there. If you have two people aboard, you can sit on the aft seat under sail because the boat trims level with one person forward and one person aft. I find sitting on the bottom most comfortable in either case.

We've rowed the Passagemaker with one, two, or even three people aboard, the boat glides nicely and is easily driven. With two people aboard, use the optional second rowing position at the bow set, to balance the passenger sitting in the rear seat. Row from amidships when alone or with three people aboard. A foam plug for the daggerboard trunk is standard in the kit.

We went to considerable effort to ensure that the Passagemaker tows straight by giving the boat a large, deep skeg. This helps tracking when the boat is towed or rowed. It also protects the bottom when you drag the boat up the beach.

It certainly ride in davits. There are a dozen hard points in the interior where one can install eyebolts for a lifting sling. The Passagemaker is strong enough that if the eyebolts are properly installed, it could survive being filled with rainwater while hanging in the davits.

The maximum size is a 4-hp outboard. The Passagemaker is not meant to plane, so a larger outboard than that would be unnecessary. With a 2HP gas outboard the Passagemaker will break the 6MPH speed limit in most anchorages. The Passagemaker is also ideal for fishing with an electric motor.

The sides and bottom are 6mm okoume marine plywood. The bottom panels are sheathed in 6oz fiberglass fabric for durability. Rubrails are mahogany. Frames and seats are 9mm okoume for rigidity. Every wooden part is sealed with multiple coats of epoxy for protection from the elements.

CLC'S LapStitch™ Construction

Patent No. 6,142,093 

Our system combines the unquestioned grace of lapstrake hulls with the proven ease of stitch-and-glue construction. The strength of the LapStitch™ joint is such that the designs require comparatively little fiberglass or fillet work, making them especially easy to build.

Lapstrake hull shapes evolved over millennia. Many would suggest that the type reached a high-water mark with the Viking longboats, but the actual building method was little changed right up into the 20th century. Planks were riveted together, and the technique required prodigious skill on the part of boatbuilders.

Over the last few decades, the advent of modern adhesives and high-quality marine plywood brought about the first major innovation in lapstrake building methods: "glued plywood" lapstrake hulls. This method of planking produces very strong, stiff, and beautiful hulls that never leak. This is progress, to be sure, but glued lapstrake boats still require molds and arcane joinery skills. It isn't a process suited to amateurs.

In 1997, Chesapeake Light Craft developed a way to build lapstrake boats without molds or complex "rolling bevels" on the lapstrake planking. Using sophisticated computer design software, we are now able to devise hull shapes that will assume a round-bottomed shape without a jig or "torturing" of the wood. A special "rabbet," or groove, is machined into each strake so that they are self-aligning. They are wired together just like a stitch-and-glue kayak. When these joints are filled with epoxy, the result is a remarkably stiff and strong hull that is visually indistinguishable from traditional lapstrake planking.

LapStitch™ construction is featured in these CLC boats:

• Northeaster Dory
• Southwester Dory
• CLC Cradle Boat
• Passagemaker Dinghy Standard
• Passagemaker Dinghy Take-Apart
• Eastport Pram
• Eastport Nesting Pram
• Eastport Ultralight Dinghy
• Skerry
• Skerry Raid
• Tenderly Dinghy
• Lake Union Swift
• Annapolis Wherry
• Annapolis Wherry Tandem
• Chester Yawl
• Sassafras 12 Canoe
• Sassafras 16 Canoe
• Faering Cruiser
• Team Dory
• Whitby Pilot Gig
• Rhode Runner - The CLC Runabout

After more than 15 years of development, the evolution of LapStitch™ has reached the stage where we can render complex lapstrake hull shapes in complete confidence without "strongback" molds.  Chesapeake Light Craft can design and build for you LapStitch™ hulls of any shape or size.  

Why can't it be pointy in front? The Passagemaker Dinghy is a pram, a boat with transoms at both bow and stern. You'd need a boat several feet longer to combine the same stability and capacity with a pointed bow. This is why you see so many prams used as tenders. Most importantly, the full bow allows passengers to step into the bow from a beach or a dock without the need to bring the boat alongside. If you've ever been at a crowded dinghy dock, you'll know how useful this is. The bow transom never touches the water while the boat is in motion and thus causes no drag.

Sorry, but until digital rights management technology for marine architectural work catches up to that used for books and music, we are unable to transmit digital plans. Currently, only study plans and manuals can be sent digitally.

Not easily. You would assemble the boat on deck and slide it into the water first. If you could stand on a swim platform or in shallow water, you could assemble the Passagemaker while it was floating. Both sections will float separately.