The Drascombe Scaffie, now marketed as the Devon Scaffie, is a British trailerable

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology ...

that was designed by John L. Watkinson and first built in 1978. The modern Scaffie is based upon a traditional British boat design that dates back several hundred years.Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages 48-49. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994. The Scaffie design is one of a large range of similar Drascombe boats with different hull, cabin and rig configurations.

Production

The design has been built by Honnor Marine Classics in

Swanage Swanage () is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately south of Poole and east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester. In the Unit ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It remains in production.

Design

The Scaffie is a recreational sailboat, built predominantly of

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass c ...

, with hardwood trim. It is an open boat, with no cabin. It has a

lug sail The lug sail, or lugsail, is a fore-and-aft, four-cornered sail that is suspended from a spar, called a yard. When raised, the sail area overlaps the mast. For "standing lug" rigs, the sail may remain on the same side of the mast on both the port ...

rig with

Sitka spruce ''Picea sitchensis'', the Sitka spruce, is a large, coniferous, evergreen tree growing to just over tall, with a trunk diameter at breast height that can exceed 5 m (16 ft). It is by far the largest species of spruce and the fifth- ...

spars and a loose-footed,

terylene Polyethylene terephthalate (or poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P), is the most common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in fibres for clothing, containers for liquids and foods, ...

mainsail A mainsail is a sail rigged on the main mast (sailing), mast of a sailing vessel. * On a square rigged vessel, it is the lowest and largest sail on the main mast. * On a fore-and-aft rigged vessel, it is the sail rigged aft of the main mast. T ...

. A sloop rig is a factory option. The

lapstrake Clinker-built, also known as lapstrake-built, is a method of boat building in which the edges of longitudinal (lengthwise-running) hull planks overlap each other. The technique originated in Northern Europe, with the first known examples using m ...

-style hull has a spooned

raked stem The stem is the most forward part of a boat or ship's bow and is an extension of the keel itself. It is often found on wooden boats or ships, but not exclusively. Description The stem is the curved edge stretching from the keel below, up to ...

, a rounded transom, a transom-hung, wooden

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

controlled by an

ash wood ''Fraxinus'' (), commonly called ash, is a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae, and comprises 45–65 species of usually medium-to-large trees, most of which are deciduous trees, although some subtropical species are evergr ...

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn ...

and a fixed triple

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...

. It has a central long keel and two side bilge keels, allowing it to remain upright when left high and dry at low tide. It displaces and weighs when fully equipped. Foam buoyancy is fitted. It uses

flooding water ballast A trailer sailer is a type of sailboat that has been designed to be easily transported using a boat trailer towed by an automobile. They are generally larger than a sailing dinghy.Royce, Patrick M.: ''Royces Sailing Illustrated'', pages 52-57. D ...

, which is drained for road transport. The boat has a draft of with the standard triple keels. The boat is normally fitted with a small, well-mounted,

outboard motor An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom. They are the most common motorised method ...

for docking and manoeuvring. It also comes with oarlocks for

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...

Operational history

In a 1994 review Richard Sherwood wrote, "the Drascombe Scaffie is a design that has been used in coastal sailing for over 200 years. Scaffies have been built for many years in England, and they are now also built in Maine. The loose-footed lug sail is carried on an unstayed mast. Since there is no centerboard trunk the cockpit has a lot of space, and with a tent, the Scaffie is used for cruising." In a 2018 review for Watercraft Magazine, writer Alice Driscoll stated, "she's incredibly easy to sail and manage but still has the power to make for an exciting sail. And yet, if the wind dies to nothing or you realise you've only got a short time to make it to the pub for lunch, then you can quickly power her up and chug along with the outboard."

References

External links

* {{Trailer sailers and Trailer yachts worldwide Keelboats 1970s sailboat type designs Sailing yachts Trailer sailers Sailboat type designs by John L. Watkinson Sailboat types built by Honnor Marine Classics

Production

Design

Operational history

See also

References

External links