READER BOAT: Te Jewell called Umami


by John Hartmann


Eight seasons of sail and oar cruising along the Maine coast in a home-built 15-foot open sailboat had been a process of happy discovery. That boat, an Ilur class dinghy designed by French naval ar- chitect Francois Vivier, is an enormously capable little vessel which opened worlds of solo adventure for me. It soon became clear, however, that a boat with an actual cabin would make multi-day cruises along the coast with my wife a real possibility. Te benefits of building from a CNC-


cut kit had become apparent throughout my previous build, so a kit boat seemed the obvious choice: The ease of build, superbly precise fitment, and time sav- ings make kits an excellent choice for homebuilders and professionals alike. Te next boat would need to live on a trailer, where marine plywood/epoxy construc- tion, which is less susceptible to drying problems than traditional construction methods, would make sense. As a trailer sailer, I wanted a boat that would be modest in size, to remain easily launched and retrieved. For multi-day trips she would need to have a cabin large enough


16


for two berths and comfortable sitting headroom…and the boat should be able to be single-handed. I focused on the Jewell, another Vivier


design which came to life as a collabora- tion with Vivier’s North American associ- ate Clint Chase of Saco, Maine, who also cuts Vivier kits. She has been described by Vivier as a re-imagining of his earlier raid boat, Stir Ven, keeping that boat’s excellent performance with a larger and more comfortable cabin. Jewell is 19'8"


LOD, 24' sparred length, with a beam of 7'4", weighing around 1500 pounds. Te hull has a ballasted box keel, with a ballasted NACA-foiled centerboard and a foiled kick-up rudder. She is built in the current fashion of


many CNC-designed boats, with an “egg crate” of interlocking transverse bulk- heads and longitudinal stringers forming the building jig and most of the vessel’s interior structure and furnishings, with a glued-lap hull. Te box keel, keel plank


SMALL CRAFT ADVISOR


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84