Boatbuilding Classes

Build Your Own Eastport Pram - Family Week

Location: International Yacht Restoration School - Newport, Rhode Island
Dates: Jul 13, 2009 - Jul 18, 2009

Instructor:
John C. Harris

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Other Considerations:
Tools and Supplies
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Class Details:

In a program specially designed for families and parent-child teams, build your own 8-foot sailing dinghy!  One of the most popular small tenders in the world, the Eastport Pram looks great, rows great, tows great, and sails better than an Optimist, even with adults aboard.

It’s hard to pack much boat into 8 feet, but it’s still reasonable to expect decent stability, pleasing proportions, and good rowing performance.

We gave the Eastport Pram deep rocker for low wetted surface and to keep the transoms from dragging. The result is a boat that is as easy and satisfying to row as you can expect on such a short waterline. Used as a tender to a larger boat, or kept at a dock, it's possible to undertake a long afternoon row around the local waters without breaking a sweat.

The Eastport Pram’s many joys are multiplied when you add the sailing rig. Not a clumsy add-on, the large standing-lug sail and efficient rudder and daggerboard convert the pram into a proper sailboat with enough real performance, upwind and down, to keep the most seasoned sailors interested. The 48-inch beam means that the likelihood of capsize is remote as long as the sheet is never tied down. This is the perfect craft in which to learn to sail, whether the crew is age 8 or 80.

Her sailing qualities were integrated into the design from the start so it’s simple to add the rig later. In fact, the standard kit comes with the daggerboard trunk.

Small tenders should be able to withstand heavy handling alongside the mothership or in the dinghy park. Planking is 6mm okoume throughout, with three 9mm frames and seats. There’s a big, deep skeg for tracking under tow. In addition to multiple layers of fiberglass on the bottom panel, there are two cypress rubbing strips on the bottom to take the abrasion of dragging on a beach. For added safety, permanent flotation tanks are built in beneath the seats.