Two years ago, when I was considering building my next sailboat, I daydreamed about a compact, shoal-draft solo cruiser with a comfortable cabin that has no need of an engine. My sailing in recent years involved cruising and racing my trimaran, sometimes in very lively conditions. That boat was all about speed and distance. Perhaps I’m getting old and lazy and even a bit cranky, but no more jibs, no more winches, no more twangy-tight shrouds for me. I’d had enough of fooling with the noise and maintenance of engines and the careful timing and physical effort that sail rigs demand simply to change direction. I wanted to revisit the low-key end of the boating spectrum, gunkholing the shallow and protected places that few cruisers visit.I had expected there would be a good list of production boats to fit the bill, and an even greater selection of plans and kits for the home builder. But no, my search was a frustrating one until I recalled seeing Chesapeake Light Craft’s Autumn Leaves in WoodenBoat No. 249. It was not just a boat that I could make work for what I had planned, but one that John Harris had drawn from scratch for exactly this purpose. Add to that the availability of a CNC-cut plywood kit and a timber package milled of quality stock, and my decision was all but made. The Autumn Leaves has a towing weight of about 1500 lbs. and doesn't require a large truck to pull it. The Volvo here has a towing capacity of 3,300 lbs.
David Dawson
Read this article now for Free!
Enter your email address to finish reading this article now.
— OR —
Subscribe now for $29.99 a year! You'll have access to our new issues as they are published, and access to our entire archive of back issues, starting with our inaugural issue in September 2014. Subscribers can also post unlimited classified ads. This is an extraordinary value!
I am beginning to think that Phil Bolger’s boat philosophy is beginning to really catch on. Boats with an open mind indeed! Wonderful work, David!
Rob
Hi David
I owned a Bolger Old Shoe, a 12′ flat-bottom yawl, a similar concept to Autumn Leaves. Just loved it. I beach cruised through the Whitsunday Islands on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef for a couple of months in 1980 in her. What a capable little ship.
Autumn Leaves looks similar. She is great looking and should be even more capable than Old Shoe was. Great job on the construction and good to see you stuck to the designer’s plans.
Happy sailing,
Jim D.
I saw TERRAPIN at the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival this past October. The weather was truly frightful and my small boat stayed firmly tied to the dock while the Autumn Leaves was out playing in the wind. She is a lovely design, finished well. Thanks for bringing her out
Nice work on the build. She looks versatile and fun, ready for a mess about. Thanks for sharing your story.
Kent
It’s not that I dislike Bolger’s designs, they just look odd. In spite of that, I have built two of them, a Bolger Bobcat and a Gloucester Light Dory. Both excellent handling craft. Great job building the Autumn Leaves!!
And I built and sailed a Bolger Martha Jane. This boat reminds me of a nicely downsized MJ. Once the Martha Jane ballast was increased to 1000 lbs, she was a formable sailer. With 600 lbs of ballast Autumn Leaves should be really steady. I’m really impressed!
Jim, John Harris built an Oldshoe for himself some years back, and that boat was one of many influences on the design of Autumn Leaves.
Steve, I bought plans for the Martha Jane back in the ’80s, but never built the boat. Autumn Leaves is definitely a similar concept, scaled down for the solo cruiser. So building TERRAPIN brings me back to what I was thinking of doing some 30 years ago. I’m really impressed by how unboxy this “box boat” looks once in the water and under way. There’s some real design sleight of hand involved in achieving this.
I have just finished my Bolger Chebacco, a long and slow process. I have yet to sail it, but looking forward to spring. I think Steve was wise to build “unpowered” because the Pennsylvania certification requirements are beyond reach for a homebuilt. I have a great deal of respect for many of Bolger’s designs and it is good to see others recognizing the attributes. Very nice job on the boat, enjoy it.
Richard,
Pennsylvania has gotten very confusing when it comes to homebuilt boats. I did request an unpowered registration, but they gave me a powered sticker. But, either way, my CLC kit project made an important difference. If you buy a kit rather than build to the plans, CLC will provide a certificate of origin as builder of the boat. So the boat, although assembled at home, can be registered as a factory-built craft from Annapolis, Maryland. In Pennsylvania, this is an important difference. New state rules outlaw the sale of a homebuilt boat. I really like the Chebacco, too. That was on my short list before I went with the Autumn Leaves.
I also saw TERRAPIN at the 2019 Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival. It was blowing hard enough to blow my ball cap off while cruising the docks. Got a picture of TERRAPIN while dropping the main and getting ready to anchor. David made it look so easy! Nice boat.
Comfortable seat in cabin is excellent feature. The Montgomery 16 Kat Bote, is another good example of a comfortable cabin seat on a small boat.
The TERRAPIN seat is in best position, centered looking out the companionway.
Dave,
I beat you into the water by only a few weeks, but you really beat me by a lot when it comes to finish. I am in the process of having a custom gaff mainsail designed and made for INDIGO. I am still considering the appointments for the cabin while you are already sleeping in TERRAPIN. Thanks for the video by the way. Congratulations on a job well done. Maybe we might be able to sail together one day.
Al
Thanks, Al. It would be great to sail together at some point. When a few more Autumn Leaves get built, maybe we could set up a national meet.
Way back in 1966, I bought a Lone Star 13, a beautiful little masthead sloop designed by Thomas Faul and Charles Wittholz. I fell in love with it as I was learning to sail in a Philip Rhodes designed Penguin. It had a beautiful sheer line and enough hollow in the bow sections to curl a wonderful bow wave. I traded the Penguin in on an LS-13 after only a month and learned that its other great feature was lever-action bilgeboards. I no longer sail, but I still love sail boats and I’ve wondered over the years why bilgeboards aren’t used more often.
It took me a while to learn to get the most out of the LS-13, but once I did I could sail it competitively with Flying Dutchmen Jrs. I sailed it on Texas lakes and rivers (the San Bernard and the Brazos) and through the surf in the Gulf of Mexico. One of the biggest mistakes I ever made was selling it because my wife wanted a boat with a cuddy cabin. We bought a Luger Leeward kit boat that my dad had built. It was OK, but never captured my heart the way the LS-13 did. 🙁
Hi David,
Beautifully constructed and the video is convincing. Am sorely tempted to order the CLC kit this weekend. I live in northeast PA. If there’s any way I could visit your TERRAPIN, I would be much obliged. Have built the CLC Skerry and as such have become a believer in the balanced lug rig (Skerry). Autumn Leaves has sitting room and countertop space, as well as the built-in capability for rowing – all plusses for coastal cruising and gunkholing. Thanks for your well-written article!
Brad
David,
Thanks for sharing. I’ve admired AUTUMN LEAVES since John first talked about her on the CLC site. Your piece sure brings her to life for me. You’ve done a wonderful job building her. Love the lug-yawl rig.
John is an artist with a practical streak. I’ve been enjoying his Peeler Skiff design on Narragansett Bay since we built her in 2014. She’s an impressive combination of engineering and functionality and I was very pleasantly surprised by how pretty John was able to make a flat-bottomed skiff.
Cheers,
-Dick-
What model Load Rite trailer? I will be finishing an Autumn Leaves this year.
Ron