Owing to her light weight and refined shape, Harrier is exceptional under oar or sail. Designer Dias rows the boat here with author Bennett.
RAN TAN was built to Tony Dias’s Harrier design, which is, in part, a development of an earlier design of his, Marsh Hawk. But Tony will tell you that Harrier was drawn specifically for Ben Fuller, for campcruising, with a good deal of input from Ben himself. A small-boat aficionado, Ben comes from a background of rowing boats and sailing canoes—he has an interest in just about any small boat that rows and sails fast, and he is unafraid of high-tech. But he also knows and appreciates tradition better than anyone—he has been curator at Mystic Seaport and Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, and is now curator of the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine. He came to Tony with his ideas, and together they created the Harrier double-ender.Tony takes up the story: “We started with Marsh Hawk, a round-bottomed double-ender with an external keel, but Ben wanted a boat that would beach easily. We were both very interested in the plank-bottomed wherry shape—there’s a Piscataqua wherry in the collection at Mystic; it reminds me of working boats I’ve seen in Portugal. So, our idea was to take Marsh Hawk, chop off the keel, flatten out the bottom like a wherry. In a Banks dory or a mackerel seine boat, the shape, and therefore the way the boat behaves, makes you feel at home, even though you’re in an open boat in rough water—that’s what I think we were after.”
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Comments (4)
Possibly the only row sail boat out there with a toe strap. Wide external decks make hiking pleasant and let you power up enough when light to see double digits on your GPS.
I made bunk boards but finally settled on KISS sleeping on the bottom with a boat cushion to feel the bailing well. And have settled on a tent made from a hammock shelter.
We did go up from a tapered 2 1/4 carbon mast to a 3 incher as we’d forgotton that you don’t want any bend in a lug rig, and have made a stepping box to make it easy to get mast up and down. I have straps set so I can carry the mast as a bowsprit when rowing, with same straps for the long oars when sailing.
Great info Ben, as I wondered about sleeping aboard this boat. In SoEast Mass & RI, sleeping aboard is mandatory for small boat overnight cruising.
Looks pretty close to ideal!
Tony deLima, proprietor of Forte Carbon Fiber in Ledyard, Connecticut, has been with RANTAN from the start, and built the mast she now has. He has also built carbon tubes for other luggers. They’re not cheap, but figure my sticks are now a couple of decades old; my original main is now the mizzen in a Jewel.
Kmehlsphotography.com
Possibly the only row sail boat out there with a toe strap. Wide external decks make hiking pleasant and let you power up enough when light to see double digits on your GPS.
I made bunk boards but finally settled on KISS sleeping on the bottom with a boat cushion to feel the bailing well. And have settled on a tent made from a hammock shelter.
We did go up from a tapered 2 1/4 carbon mast to a 3 incher as we’d forgotton that you don’t want any bend in a lug rig, and have made a stepping box to make it easy to get mast up and down. I have straps set so I can carry the mast as a bowsprit when rowing, with same straps for the long oars when sailing.
Great info Ben, as I wondered about sleeping aboard this boat. In SoEast Mass & RI, sleeping aboard is mandatory for small boat overnight cruising.
Looks pretty close to ideal!
Who is the supplier for the carbon mast?
Tony deLima, proprietor of Forte Carbon Fiber in Ledyard, Connecticut, has been with RANTAN from the start, and built the mast she now has. He has also built carbon tubes for other luggers. They’re not cheap, but figure my sticks are now a couple of decades old; my original main is now the mizzen in a Jewel.