Had my 75th birthday this past week. Happy to report that I seem to be thriving, and am back to work designing and promoting new sailboats. It looks to me as if the interest in sailing old, completely depreciated sailboats is at an all time low, with prices for thirty-year or older fiberglass boats near zero. At the same time I have been sought out by a number of highly committed, admittedly wealthy folks whose greatest joy is a brand new, necessarily hugely expensive, small sailboat. In the past two years I have sold three such new designs- the French and Webb built Paine 14 and Paine 15, and the Michael York built York 18. Two of the former have been sold and built, and two of the latter are on order nearing completion. A third boatbuilder will be meeting with me later this month whose intention is to commission a 22-foot version of my upmarket Herreshoff inspired daysailors. The vast combined product of the now essentially defunct fiberglass sailboat building industry is now depreciated to scrap value and nothing but a bother for anyone to own, but a new fleet of elegant, high performance, easily maintainable new daysailors seems to be rapidly emerging, all designed it appears by me.
As I have turned 75 years young I feel it is time to pass PETUNIA on to a younger and more capable steward. If you would like to own this wonderful Herreshoff 12 1/2 and understand the efforts needed to keep an 83-year old yacht going, please go to the “classic sailing yacht designs” pages of this website where more information is available.
PLEASE COME to my art show Friday July 26 at 5:00 PM. Granite Gallery, Tenants Harbor, Maine. Watercolors, like Youthful Indiscretion, oils, pencil and ink sketches.
I wanted my friends to know that I have decided to build a Paine 15. The first one is nearing completion at French & Webb, and you can learn more about it by going to their website or phoning Todd French. I loved AMELIA- my Paine 14- so much that I came to regret selling her a year ago. The only recourse was to build another- but the larger version suited my requirements a bit better. I bought the cold-molded wood hull from French & Webb, who collaborated with Belmont Boat Works to complete my high-tech vacuum bagged hull. I’ll post a few photos as she takes shape. This is how she stood on May 28.
The bulkheads and transom are in place and the keel deadwood will be added next.
Mike York wanted the York 18 to be unsinkable, and to make an inadvertent swamping a non-event. So together we developed this very elaborate internal fiberglass unit. It encompasses the forward bulkhead with a stowage nook, the subsole with bosses to receive the real hardwood sole slats, the aft bulkhead, and the afterdeck. If you think about it you can picture this as a very expensive bathtup. There is absolutely no way that sea water can get out of this bathtub and into the hull proper. Even the decision to locate the aft hatch for gear stowage on the afterdeck rather than the more conventional location on the face of the aft bulihead was made to insure that no water could ever find its way out of the “tub.” It is beautifully tooled and fits precisely into the hull, contributing to the stiffness of the hull itself.
THE TWO HULL HALVES, LEAD BALLAST AND INTERNALS ARRIVED AT CHUCK’S BARN ON AN AUSPICIOUS BLUE SKY DAY MAY 8
Chuck Paine faced a real dilemma. His two most recent designs are both being built less than an hour away from his home in Tenants Harbor. Both are pure Chuck Paine- fast, elegant, high tech but safe enough to be sailed by a 74-year old. In the end the 15-foot French&Webb-built Paine 15 won out over the 18-foot York 18, because it fit in his barn. Keep coming back to this blog and you can keep track of progress.
Mike York, standing next to the York 18 mold with one of the hulls laid up in it. His crew did a great laminating job. He is excited to have made good progress and is looking forward to sailing on the first boat this summer.
The Paine 15 is a new sailing design which will be built by Todd French up in Belfast. The first one is sold and will be sailed near San Francisco, and the second is just getting started for a very special customer. She is the latest design in my series of high performance keelboats styled to look like the Herreshoff 12 1/2.
This photo was taken six weeks ago. She is nearing completion now. Stop by Todd’s shop and have a look.
At the festival we arranged to meet up with “Queen Bee” and her partner Mikey. She is the little lady that lived aboard her 24-foot “CAROL”, a little double ender of my design that one cannot stand up in, for a number of years. The boat was on a mooring, so she had to row into shore to go to work and row back to spend the night on the boat. Part of the fun of doing what I do ffor a living is meeting interesting people like Bee.
ChuckPaine.com LLC is a new company which will focus upon putting small, very seaworthy sailboats into the hands of the next generation of nautical adventurers. We will emphasize small to midsize yachts because they enable aspiring voyagers to get out there before their geriatric years. Unlike my old company, now closed, we will leave motoryacht design to others—the world does not need more ways to use up its precious one-off gift of liquid energy. Corporations are not all faceless automatons running on autopilot. At least the small ones are steered, influenced, perhaps inspired by their leaders. Hence this Blog, in which Chuck Paine blurts out his personal take on subjects as varied as his yacht designs as works of art, his clients, his other life as an oil painter, and the state of the world in general. Don’t forget this is a blog, and it’s a lot more fun for others to read when people who read it (THIS MEANS YOU!) post your comments- positive or scathing- for all the world to see.
