Schooner 18

Shell Boats

The Schooner 18 is an iconoclastic camp-cruiser from Shell Boats of St. Albans, Vermont. Her aft cabin offers several advantages over the more typical forward-placed cabin—including good forward visibility. This arrangement, however, requires remote steering in the form of a pedestal-mounted wheel.

BIG SWIFTY is an 18′ schooner from Shell Boats of St. Albans, Vermont. Her design is called the Schooner 18, and is the largest in proprietor Fred Shell’s Swifty line, whose basic hull form and techniques range from the 7′ Leif up to the boat featured here. The evolution of these boats has coursed over the past 25 or so years, and was inspired by a synthesis of Dutch and Norwegian hull forms and construction methods, as well as the Joel White-designed Nutshell pram. The Swifty moniker was given in honor of a legendary musician, whose identity we’ll return to after considering some of this boat’s attributes.Fred Shell sails more than any builder I know. He’s the first on the lake in the spring, and the last off in the fall. He copes with the hard-water season on Lake Champlain by tinkering with iceboats. Since, like most of us, he doesn’t live on the waterfront, feeding his habit requires boats that are easily trailered, launched, and rigged. Fred fills these needs by designing and building a variety of imaginative designs, making them available as kits or finished boats. Shell boats’ hallmarks are low cost, simple construction, economical materials, light weight, and good performance.