Reader Boat: Mikesboat, "Northern Gannett"

In 2008 after forty some years of cruising and racing conventional sailboats, my wife Jan and I realized we needed a roomier boat than the 15-foot West Wight Potter that had replaced our Tartan 34. Our requirements were fairly simple. We wanted a boat that could comfortably day sail four or more people and could also be a good beach cruiser. Further discussion indicated a simple robust design that could be trailered, rigged, and launched with minimum effort. Since we live eight miles from Lake Michigan and enjoy other areas of the Great Lakes, seaworthiness was also an important factor. Finding few production boats to meet our needs, we began to investigate a custom-built craft.

After reading of the success of Bill and Paul Moffitt in the Texas 200 with their 17' Jim Michalak Mikesboat yawl, we decided a similar boat would also be the right choice for us. Following some conversations with Bill Moffitt, designer Jim Michalak, and builder Tim Fox, we sealed the deal and wrote the first check in what became a very enjoyable process that yielded our 17-foot yawl, Northern Gannet named for the pelagic seabird that we had enjoyed watching during our cruising days. Her design features a multichine taped-seam hull with an eight-foot unobstructed cockpit and large watertight buoyancy and storage compartments fore and aft. The single, off-center board on the hull’s starboard side is used on either tack. We hesitate to refer to this as a leeboard since it operates when the starboard hull side is both to leeward and to windward. There is also a separate outboard well just forward of the transom that accepts a short-shaft outboard and fuel containers.