Paul Gartside, designer of the 10′ sailing pram Spitfire, says that he drew it with “youngsters in mind.” He describes it as a “neat little boat to learn to sail in and hopefully one that might instill the magic of a real wooden boat at an impressionable age. From the builder’s perspective [it’s] a great place to hone traditional skills.” A small transom-bowed lapstrake dinghy, Spitfire is a fun sail-and-oar boat for two people—adults as well as “youngsters.”Before building the Spitfire, we had tackled a few other builds and were glad to have the experience—construction of this small boat is sufficiently complex that it would tax a beginner. Indeed, Gartside says of the design, “this [is] real boatbuilding. It doesn’t get much more challenging, regardless of size.” Thanks to the warm dry weather on Syros, we were able to build the boat outside beneath a simple shade awning. We built the Spitfire upside down on a strongback, planking it in spruce because cedar is hard to come by in Greece. Once the hull was fully planked, we turned it upright for fitting out and decking, first painting the interior—the ends would never again be so easily accessed.
Fani Skoulikidi
Read this article now for Free!
Ready for a second free article? Create a free account by entering your email address and a password below.
— OR —
Subscribe now for $29.99 a year and have immediate access to all of our content, including hundreds of small-boat profiles, gear reviews and techniques, adventure stories, and more! You can also browse our entire archive of back issues starting from September 2014, as well as post unlimited classified ads. This is an extraordinary value!
I love the deck! Gartside has a wonderful eye for line. His takes on a type regularly surpass all others in my opinion, even besting the fabled Herreshoffs. He mates practicality and tradition with yacht-level grace and balance of line. I’m yearning for his 7ft #80 as a tender for, later, something bigger, but there are two to complete in the progression between now and then and I’m less and less confident in my ability to complete beyond what I’m on.
A very attractive boat, and you did a beautiful job. It is very similar to a Howard Chapelle dinghy found in his book, “Boatbuilding.” His is 9 feet long, and about 3’10” in beam. He says the boat can be built strip planked, cold-molded, or lapstrake. When I made a model of it, I used lapstrake. The Chapelle pram is not decked and has a daggerboard rather than centerboard. I put a centerboard in my model, and a T-shaped seat/rowing bench to allow more than one rowing position. He shows a mast, but only gives mast and boom lengths, so I think you can play with your own rig details.
I note the lack of a skeg in this design. I see some prams have a sort of bow skeg in addition, which may be to help in tracking