I work as a naval architect designing high-speed naval craft in an office where the engineers and the most senior naval architect all have the same credo: Never own a boat you can’t carry. Given my career, I felt it was my duty to build a boat with my son and daughter. I considered designing the boat—I certainly have the technical skills—but thinking I could get the design spot-on on the first try seemed hubristic, so it just made sense to go with a proven design. The Chester Yawl fulfilled many prerequisites and needs.My home in Norfolk, Virginia, is just 250 yards from the shore of the Chesapeake Bay, so I usually hand-launch my boats from the beach. I also have two teenagers, so I need boats big enough to include them on my outings; my rule is to own only boats that I can launch with a dolly, so we needed a boat in the 150-lb range.Length would be limited to 15′—my garage is 19′ x 19′, and we’d need room to walk around the boat while building it—and a rowing boat would be the best addition to the fleet. I already have two small sailboats and didn’t need a third; and I didn’t want a canoe because its paddlers are facing the same direction, not ideal for conversation. With a rowboat, I could take to the oars and chat with a passenger sitting in the stern. The boat had to be able to handle some waves—the southern end of Chesapeake Bay can quickly turn into a mess of 1′ to 2′ waves when the wind picks up. I wanted an aesthetically pleasing boat with some built-in flotation and the ability to self-rescue if needed. I also wanted an interesting project, not, for example, a single-chine hull we could throw together in a single weekend. And finally, it had to have an aesthetically pleasing, classic shape—I wanted an heirloom, not a workboat.
Read this article now for free!
Sign up here (No credit card required) to finish reading your 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!
What a great, salty-looking boat!!
Beautiful boat and well executed. I’m sure she will provide years of fun. Congratulations.
This design is part of a generation of true recreational rowboats that was inspired by the Oarmaster Trials experiment, held each year on Cape Cod in the 1990s. Among the fundamental discoveries of the Trials was that, for recreational purposes, a well-designed 100-lb boat could do everything better and easier than a 200-lb one. Today, except at museums, it is rare to see a new replica of a heavy, 19th-century oar-powered workboat. The boats we’re seeing most often weigh between 70 and 125 lbs., have waterline lengths between 14′ and 16′, rounded hull sections and molded beams under 4′. This trend is a direct result of Trials winners and high finishers dominating the long-distance, fixed-seat, open-water racing scene in the mid-1990s. Those boats were not racing craft, but rather they are versatile, family-friendly designs that offer a level of performance and convenience that workboat replicas never could.
I own the more rugged Expedition Wherry also by CLC. You are 100% correct on the plans and thoughtful features the fine folks there put into their boats. I love my Wherry. If you are in the Annapolis, Maryland, area, they will be having an open house there on the 17th and 18th this May.
Thanks for the nice write up on the boat, and the information about where you use it. Very helpful, we plan to explore that area a bit, having family in Suffolk, Virginia.
Cheers
Clark and Skipper
I built a Chester Yawl about a decade ago. It regularly cruised the Potomac River but also saw the Atlantic and Pacific as well as other rivers and lakes. I was particularly happy with its ability to work through choppy waters even when in a trough deep enough that you can’t see the shore. Beaching through the surf always presents a challenge in any rowing craft but the Chester Yawl’s higher lines resulted in keeping it on top without worry of catching the bow in the sand as can happen with shorter sheer, pointy bows.