Building the Caledonia Yawl
Modern construction techniques for a fast, reliable, traditional sailboat.
- Geoff Kerr —June 10–23
Tuition: $1150 two-week course
The Caledonia Yawl, designed by Iain Oughtred, is large, versatile, and eye-catching. Based on an inshore fishing boat from the Shetland Islands, this 19′6″ double-ended, lapstrake hull decries her powerful Viking ancestry. This modern version is built with epoxy-glued marine plywood, and is ultralight, quick, maneuverable, easy to trailer, and requires low maintenance. Her simple traditional rig belies a wonderful, seaworthy craft whose performance routinely dazzles observers. Daysailing or beach cruising, single handed or with 10 people aboard, the Caledonia Yawl is a great boat.
This two-week course will expose students to the full range of epoxy boatbuilding techniques, as well as plenty of traditional wooden boat building procedures. Working from Iain Oughtred’s exquisite drawings, Geoff will lead you through the lofting, station mold construction, and erection of the building frame. Stems will be laminated and shaped. The keel and floor timbers will be made, set up, and beveled. The planking process will then begin. Students will learn the skills of lapstrake planking, as well as many of the modern techniques of efficiently working with plywood. After she’s planked, you’ll get out and install the outer stems, keel, and skeg; give the hull a professional dressing up; and turn her over for fitting out. Installation of the rails and breasthooks follow, and if we have enough time and interest you’ll build and fit the centerboard trunk. At the end of the two weeks, the class will have produced a beautiful, trailerable hull ready for fitting out, and students will have learned skills and techniques applicable to a wide range of wooden boat designs.
Instructor Geoff Kerr brings a wealth of Caledonia experience to this course, as this design is a specialty of his Two Daughters Boatworks shop in Westford, Vermont. Geoff will bring along his own Caledonia, a boat he has sailed long, hard, and often for the past 10 years. Not only will we have the real thing on hand to make concepts and shapes tangible, but she’ll be in the water for demonstrations and class outings. There will be ample opportunity to try her out, and to discuss such big-picture questions as sails, spars, oars, trailers, motors, and the like.