In the 1950s, Howard Chapelle drew an 18' sharpie power skiff. He called her Campskiff. She was designed for the low-powered 5–10-hp outboard motors of the day and was intended to take her crew into the backwaters and creeks of the Eastern estuaries. For her hull planking, Chapelle called for 1⁄2" cedar or mahogany. The bottom was planked with the same material, but was a full 7⁄ 8" thick. For ward, the lines drawings show a full hull and a stem that just settles in at the waterline. Her proportions are nearly perfect.Some 30 years later, designer Karl Stambaugh revisited the design, and the resulting Redwing captured the intent and all of the grace of the earlier sharpie. A close study of the two boats shows some well-thought-out improvements. With a LOA of 18' 6" and a beam of 6' 6", Redwing is bigger than Campskiff. She also has more freeboard and a finer entry. From any angle Redwing’s sheer is lovely, which is no easy feat for a flat-bottomed skiff. The house, motor well, and gracefully curved coaming complement the hull shape and add greatly to the boat’s appeal and function. The designer points out that Redwing is a light boat, 850 lbs, but she will carry heavy loads. With a motor, fuel, and batteries aft in the well and crew sprawled out in the cockpit, it will be necessary to place ballast forward, maybe several hundred pounds of it, depending on what gear is aboard, in order to trim the hull. The bottom of the stem should ride just below the waterline when the boat is at rest. Thus trimmed, handling in tight quarters even with a breeze up should be fine.
Photo by Bill ThomasKarl Stambaugh’s REDWING 18 is a plywood boat based on a Howard Chapelle design of traditional construction. Stambaugh designed his version “to make her easier to build while keeping the traditional appearance of the Chapelle design.”
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!
Seems like the Redwing would make a perfectly fine small sailing craft; with the addition of a centerboard, and a mast step. Nice gaff or marconi rig with a correctly size jib. Perfect pocket cruiser? No?
Right, I had exactly the same thoughts. Would be a fine motor sailor.
As a life long sailor, these are the kinds of powerboats that appeal to me. No need to go fast, just a steady nice-and-easy, stately manner. I think if I were to build one, I would add a small folding windshield to the cabin top, there are times when blocking the breeze needs to be done.