"That's why I design boats for open water, so I can get out there, sit in the swell, and just look out..."

--Clint talking to his wife about the shared need for salt air and long horizons


On this page we document some of the personal designs that Clint has drawn and continues to draw by paper and pencil. Clint learned design from Paul Gartside boat designer and through a lot of trial and error. We combine a lot of time using boats on-water with in-shop boatbuilding experience to draw appealing boats. They are slowly being modeled and CAD drawn for CNC cutting and addition to our online catalog of boat kits.

Boat Plans

Drake "open-water" Rowboat

Deblois Street Dory


Custom Design Work


A Swampscott Dory, the ultimate sail & oar boat 

Designed by Clint Chase

Plans available, lofting recommended. Please email.     

Kit Status: Planned for development in winter2010-11





    LOA 18'6"
    Beam 4'11"
     Depth Amidships 1'7"

The Design Brief:

  • A traditional open Swampscott dory that will be more family friendly (for a dory!)
  • To be rowed primarily by two people but one can row by moving thwarts around
  • Can take a large load for extended trips along the Maine Island Trail
  • Can also be taken out for fun sailing or a leisurely tandem row
  • Designed with a mix of glued plywood-lapstrake planking and traditional cedar strakes, riveted
  • A greater degree of secondary stability to take a larger sail rig (a 105 SF balance lugsail)
  • Multiple rig for flexibility, balance lug yawl (from Goat Island Skiff), a traditional dory rig, and perhaps a boomless, standing lug
  • Built fairly light for a dory with glued ply and cedar planking
  • More sheer than traditional Chamberlain dories and Gardner's variation

Shane Hall building hull #1 of the D' St. Dory in Portland, Maine.

        




...an 18'8" open day boat for the family or a RAID! 

Design Project in the works






     LOA 18'8"
    Beam 6'6"
       Displacement ~1300lbs     

Design Brief:
  • An open boat capable of taking on open water
  • Safe and stable for the whole family, possibly some fixed ballast
  • A feeling of safety with side decks an depth amidships
  • Rigged as a sloop-yawl or Lug-yawl (consider a high-aspect standing lug and carbon mast!)
  • Can be rowed for auxilliary power but best with a Torqueedo motor on transom bracket
  • Exciting sailing is a must, but control and safety is as well both in shore and in open water
  • plywood-epoxy construction

Clint's Unique Design Approach

  • Scaled Sketches are made to the design brief made with customer
  • A typical 1 1/2" = 1' scale lines drawing is created
  • The lines are lofted to 1/4-scale
  • A Quarter Model is built to line off the planking, check the sheer, and make sure all lines work well together, such as the dory model below.


  • The lines plan is modified and refined. Chine boat lines are redrawn to represent the actual plank lines (laps). Round bilged boats are redrawn to capture corrections and 'tweaks' determined through the modeling process.
  • Customers receive their plans in 1/4-scale form, 3" = 1'. This enable them to make their own 1/4-scale model and proceed right to construction without lofting.
  • Customers can choose to get plans in typical 1 1/2" = 1' scale if needed


Sail Rig Design and Modification

Below is a sketch of a new rig for a Beachcomber Dory. Many traditional designs can be reorganized to take more modern wigs. We modified the Goat Island Skiff to take a mizzen. We have altered the interior construction of other designers' boats -- adding decks, moving structural elements slightly, and changing the centerboard -- to better suit the owners needs. Clint can do this sort of work because of a his on-water experience and knowledge of the subtle effects different rigs and design elements have on the boat's comforts, looks, and performances.



Custom Design of Small Boats

Below is a lines plan for Clint's own open-water rowboat, Drake, which he designed specifically for his own use in open water rowing. You can see his other custom designs by clicking here.



Measuring Old Boats


We can take lines off of an older boat and reproduce these lines and build replica. This sort of work is typically done for historical restoration and, recently, was done for a family needing more of a boat that was built by an ancestor but plans were not available from which to build (pictured below).

Other Services

  • Modifying plans for a traditional boat for glued-plywood, glued-strip, or cold molded construction      
  • Designing oars to match rower and boat
  • Designing new sail rigs for traditional boats

Other Designs in the works
  • A 20' family daysailer with cuddy and sliding gunter rig (lines complete from Paul Gartside's course at Wooden Boat School)
  • A 15' sailing dinghy with standing lug (lines complete)
  • An 18' tidal waters canoe for exploring estuaries and inshore waters with a sail rig (preliminary sketches)