The Golant Ketch is a 20′ hard-chined camp-cruiser designed by Roger Dongray. Dongray is perhaps best known for his Cornish Shrimper, which he designed in 1976 with the intention of building only one in plywood, for himself. But after various friends showed an interest, 10 more plywood boats were built, and in 1979 Cornish Crabbers started building them in fiberglass and have now delivered 1,132 of them. At first glance the Ketch and the Shrimper seem to have similar hull shapes, but this is perhaps only because the eye is distracted by their wide-plank clinker-effect construction. The Ketch is actually slightly longer and wider, and also has a finer bow, a fuller stern, and a less-raked transom.In September 2013, after a 24-year career in the wine business, Keith McIlwain enrolled in the Lyme Regis Boat Building Academy’s nine-month Boat Building, Maintenance, and Support course, in which about half the students get the opportunity to build a boat for themselves. For some years Keith had admired the 18′9″ round-bilged Golant Gaffer—another Dongray design, from 1993—but was worried that her fixed keel and 2′9″ draft would make her difficult to road-trailer. So when he came across the Gaffer’s centerboard cousin, the Golant Ketch, of which just one had been built at that time, he knew that this was the boat for him. The foredeck is recessed to keep lines and gear from going overboard.
all photographs by Nigel Sharp
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I am really liking the first two issues of SBM. If you are considering requests, I would love to see a lot more pictures, and I would prefer that they were huge without having to click on them.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the publication. As SBM grows we’ll aim at adding more photographs. Presenting the photos in very large sizes poses a couple of problems. It would slow the loading of the pages and make it difficult to arrange the layout for easy reading of the text. Still, it’s a good suggestion and I’ll bump photos up to larger sizes when I can.
Christopher Cunningham, Editor
Very nice job.
A possible cause of the difficulty lowering Daydream’s mainsail may lie in the position of the span which hoists the aft end of the gaff. I have had a similar problem with the main on my Clint Chase / Francois Vivier Jewell.
The forward end of the span is ahead of the mid-point of the gaff. Very little weight of the main sail is supported by the throat halyard. The gaff needs to be kept peaked up at a steep angle while the main is lowered. Alternately, the forward end of the span might be moved aft.
Look in Leather’s “Gaff Rig”. I use the paper version – 2ed. Figure 25 shows six different arrangements for rigging the peak halyard. Five of them show no attachment to the gaff ahead of the mid-point.
I haven’t changed my gaff span (yet). I get by keeping the gaff peaked up as I ease the throat halyard.
Terrific article. I would have liked to see a photo of the Cornish Shrimper just for comparison sake. Also, it would be great to see some short video of the boat under sail. Thank you, the first two editions of SBM have been great so far.
There are lots of photos and a wealth of information for the Cornish shrimper on the web sites of The Shrimper Owners Association and Cornish Crabbers, a manufacturer. We don’t, unfortunately, have any videos of the Golant Ketch under sail.
Christopher Cunningham, Editor
I quite agree. We’ll make a point of having future contributors shoot video clips to illustrate their articles.
Christopher Cunningham, editor