Blue Jacket

A classic style boat design that is well worth a look.

There are bits and pieces about this boat throughout the site. This is an attempt to get it all together. So if it all starts to get repetitive and ramble be patient.

Products, designs, opinions and concepts on this page have passed the first taste as being worthy of your attention. I cannot however take responsiblity for the eventual outcome of purchasing, using or incorporting any of these.

An ongoing story about BLUE JACKET
Caique sailing before the stay'sl and bowsprit
IN THE BEGINNING

Because no records exist from the construction of BlueJacket and I don't have access to the documents that would accompany any plan you might purchase from DGYD I have to make some assumptions

The big one is that the Gipsy Cutter was begat of Caique. Caique was plan 782 whereas Gipsy Cutter was 792 [being year/boat]. Denis built Caique but never built Gipsy Cutter. I assume Gipsy Cutter became of the experience of building Caique. Certainly in my mind they are so similar there should be no argument about what I am going to say. It's almost like Denis realised he was onto something and extended the Caique design to cover a multitude of variations on the theme. Look at this table, there is not much in it really.

dimension
Gipsy Cutter
Caique
LOA
7.25m
7.3
LWL
6.8m
6.1
Beam
2.4m
2.4m
Draft
.75/1.4m
.7/1.3
Disp
2 ton
1.2 ton
Sail
Gaff cutter
Gaff cutter
Construction
Ply/Sawn Frames
Ply/Sawn Frames
Gypsy Cutter came along a few months later
Putting it together

Construction was simple, being built upside-down over two permanent 12mm ply bulkheads and three temporary frames on to which the untreated pine keel, chines, gunwale and stringers were fastened. All joints would be galvanised nailed and glued. I bought 20 sheets of untreated marine bonded 12mm construction ply, some 75x25mm untreated pine for chine, keel etc, and a few lengths of 150x25mm rough-sawn pine for the temporary frames,
With the now-completed bulkheads and frames it took one day to level the earth floor and set up a rough building platform, and the following day saw the bulkheads and frames in position.
A boatbuilder friend, Bill, scarfed the keel, chines and stringers into full-length pieces and by the end of the week the framing was completed and faired off ready for the plywood bottom and sides to go on. It took four days to put the sides on and one more day to make the flat on the bottom to take the keel and to put on two coats of Epiglass 640 resin.

The work begins. Temporary frames are made and a building platform prepared.

The two permanent 12mm ply bulkheads and three untreated pine temporary frames in position with the keel scarfed full-length. Chines and stringers, were also scarfed full-length.

You can see how Caique (and GipsyCutter) look all framed up ready for the sheathing. This is straight out carpentry with the minimum of fuss. Slight difference here is that Caique has a keel attached to the bottom whereas the Gipsy Cutter has a laminated integrated keel. Caique's cabin sides are out on the gunwale line too.
So what have we got? A 24 foot boat with 5'7" headroom that is good and solid which uses a good strong economical method of construction. That economy is both in terms of time on the job and cost of materials. If you put your mind to this you could have a one winter boat I am sure.

What you also get if you put your mind to it is a nice little shoal draft motor sailer.