Here's a handy boat that can be rowed, sailed, and powered with up to three large adults. The Passagemaker Dinghy is easy to build but looks great and performs beautifully. A smooth glide when rowing, spirited performance when sailing, and steady handling with an outboard mark this latest entry in our fleet of graceful build-it-yourself boat kits.
This is the perfect dinghy for folks with larger boats. Are you tired of moving heavy, traditional dinghies that weigh 200 pounds, or struggling with a limp, awkward inflatable that can't be rowed or sailed? CLC designer John C. Harris has drawn an elegant, Norwegian-styled pram that weighs only 90lbs, but can survive real abuse in the dinghy park. With a 650-pound payload, the Passagemaker can haul the entire crew in one go, or ferry blocks of ice and jerrycans of drinking water from the quayside to the mothership. The sailing rig components store flat inside the 11'7" hull; fasten three shrouds and the mainsheet, hoist up the mainsail and jib, and you've got a fast, fun, stable sailing dinghy that will please even the most ardent and discriminating sailing enthusiast.
If you have a long harbor to cross, a 2, 3, or 4 horsepower outboard will drive the Passagemaker to harbor speed limits and beyond. Transom height is 15 inches, sized for short-shaft outboards. An electric outboard for fishing lakes will work great, too. If you don't want to lug around an outboard and smelly gas, you'll be delighted to discover how well the Passagemaker rows: there's plenty of rocker for low wetted surface and the transom won't drag in the water to slow you down.
A Great Daysailer At CLC we've long since tired of dinghies with makeshift sailing rigs. This was what drove us to create the Eastport Pram, the Passagemaker's smaller sister. With its ample sail area and efficient hull, the Eastport sails better than any 8-foot dinghy has a right to. With a 78-square foot sloop rig, the 11'7" Passagemaker is even more exciting. While many Passagemaker builders will be using their boat as a tender to a mothership, even more people will be drawn to the design as a fun and practical daysailer. Slide the 90-pound hull onto the family car, throw in the kids, the dog, a cooler, and a picnic basket, and spend Saturday afternoons gliding around the lake or bay. When you're done, the Passagemaker can be leaned up against the side of the house or wedged into the far corner of the garage.
The rig is called a "gunter sloop." In this rig, a lower mast supports a taller mainsail with a yard. This allows for shorter spars, all of which can be stowed within the hull's length for trailering or towing behind a bigger boat. It's a handsome rig, and powerful on all points of sail with the jib-and-main combination.
A lug rig is available; scroll down for more info on that option.
See what Sailing magazine had to say about the Passagemaker.
Easy to Build The Passagemaker Dinghy is built using CLC's proven LapStitch™ technique, which yields a rigid, durable, beautiful hull without resorting to complex molds. The kit consists of okoume marine plywood panels---computer cut for accuracy, mahogany trim, and all of the epoxy, fiberglass and hardware you'll need. Begin by stitching the hull panels together with copper wire. Then fill the LapStitch™ joint with thickened epoxy, and reinforce the bottom with fiberglass on the inside and outside. Add mahogany rails, and glue the seats into the interior (they form airtight tanks for safety). Standard bottom skids and a big skeg protect the bottom for dragging across gravel beaches. Finish by coating the entire hull in several layers of clear epoxy for a lifetime of durability and low maintenance, then sand and apply paint and varnish.
The Passagemaker Dinghy is well within the reach of first-time boatbuilders. There are no tricky steps and no special tools are needed. Completion will average 100 hours for the sailing version. The daggerboard trunk is included in the base kit, so you can upgrade to the sailing option at any time in the future.
Passagemaker Take-Apart We've had hundreds of requests for a take-apart dinghy. Take-aparts or "nesting" dinghies can be disassembled to take up less space when stored on the deck of a trawler or sailing yacht. The Passagemaker Take-Apart is identical to the standard kit, except that the front 45" unbolts and stows in the rear 93". The interiors of both standard and Take-Apart versions are identical; there are no compromises made to rowing, sailing, powering, or towing ability in the Take-Apart design, although the Take-Apart weighs about four pounds more. Outwardly it's actually difficult to tell the difference between them.
Optional Lug Rig: There is an option for a lug rig, which is substituted for the stock sloop rig. It uses a free standing mast, offers somewhat simpler handling both ashore and on the water. While not as fast upwind, the lug rig still provides serious horsepower and includes a set of reef points for extra windy days.
Build this boat if:
You're looking for a fast, fun, and versatile daysailer
You need a stable platform for fishing, including with a light outboard
You need an attractive tender with a large payload
Sure. There are a dozen hard points in the interior where you 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.
We've tried rowing with one, two, and three people aboard, and you could do it all day. The Passagemaker has a nice glide and continues to be easily driven even with a heavy load aboard. A second rowing position is an option. This allows the rower to move to the forward seat and balance a passenger sitting in the rear seat. With one person or three people aboard, rowing is from the middle seat. 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 specifying a large, deep skeg, which also helps tracking when you row and protects the bottom when you drag the boat up the beach.
While the Passagemaker is built like a wooden boat, it's useful to think of it as a plastic boat with a wood core. With every surface sealed in epoxy, there is none of the maintenance trouble you may associate with old-fashioned wooden boats. We expect the Passagemaker to live outdoors and be used hard for decades.
4HP is max. 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.
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.
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.
Where's the best place to sit while sailing the Passagemaker? It 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.
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.
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Window Size Requirements:
If you are building the Passagemaker Standard indoors, make sure you've got this much room to get it out when you're done (measurements in inches):
