The Duckling 17 is a robust, elegant, and fast pulling boat. Its predecessor, the Duckling 14, was designed and built in 2007 by Sam Devlin to meet a client’s need for yacht tender that he could use for sliding-seat rowing for exercise, and fixed-thwart rowing with a passenger seated aft. Years later Sam created the Duckling 17 with an overall length of 17′ 3-5/8″ and a beam of 3′ 5-3/4″. One might think that stretching a boat from a previous, shorter version is a relatively simple, straightforward process, but without attention to the altered proportions of the hull and aesthetic tweaking to create a visually pleasing and performance-driven boat, you might wind up with a longer, awkward-looking, if not ugly duckling.

For a durable and non-slip finish Devlin often uses spray-on truck-bed liner on the interior and sometimes exterior. The drop-in rowing rig is by Piantedosi, the oars by Dreher.Dale McKinnon

For a durable and non-slip finish Devlin often uses spray-on truck-bed liner on the interior and sometimes exterior. The drop-in rowing rig is by Piantedosi; the oars by Dreher.

While it is obvious there is a connection between the two boats, Sam doesn’t remember how direct the lineage is. He kept referring back to his nearly 40 years of experience with his Oarling design to inform the refinement of this new hull design. It’s somewhat of a cross between a wherry and dory: The bottom is wherry-like, but above the waterline the Duckling 17 has the characteristic widening of a multichine dory. Unlike the Oarling, the new Duckling “didn’t need to be such a cargo carrier as the Oarling, so I kept the freeboard down and I widened the beam a little bit,” Sam said. He wanted to create a boat “that carries weight a little bit more efficiently between strokes than the Oarling, and with a longer waterline it would.” The new design keeps the boat in the recreational singles category for races, and sets a course toward a fast tandem pulling boat. He thinks this design would be an excellent double at 21′, and I’d have to agree.

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