Reader Boat: The Jewell Called Umami

by John Hartmann "Eight seasons of sail and oar cruising along the Maine coast in a home-built 15-foot open sailboat had been a process of happy discovery..."

Eight seasons of sail and oar cruising along the Maine coast in a home-built 15-foot open sailboat had been a process of happy discovery. That boat, an Ilur class dinghy designed by French naval architect Francois Vivier, is an enormously capable little vessel which opened worlds of solo adventure for me. It soon became clear, however, that a boat with an actual cabin would make multi-day cruises along the coast with my wife a real possibility.

The benefits of building from a CNC-cut kit had become apparent throughout my previous build, so a kit boat seemed the obvious choice: The ease of build, superbly precise fitment, and time savings make kits an excellent choice for homebuilders and professionals alike. The next boat would need to live on a trailer, where marine plywood/epoxy construction, which is less susceptible to drying problems than traditional construction methods, would make sense. As a trailer sailer, I wanted a boat that would be modest in size, to remain easily launched and retrieved. For multi-day trips she would need to have a cabin large enough for two berths and comfortable sitting headroom…and the boat should be able to be single-handed.

I focused on the Jewell, another Vivier design which came to life as a collaboration with Vivier’s North American associate Clint Chase of Saco, Maine, who also cuts Vivier kits. She has been described by Vivier as a re-imagining of his earlier raid boat, Stir Ven, keeping that boat’s excellent performance with a larger and more comfortable cabin. Jewell is 19'8" LOD, 24' sparred length, with a beam of 7'4", weighing around 1500 pounds. The hull has a ballasted box keel, with a ballasted NACA-foiled centerboard and a foiled kick-up rudder.

She is built in the current fashion of many CNC-designed boats, with an “egg crate” of interlocking transverse bulkheads and longitudinal stringers forming the building jig and most of the vessel’s interior structure and furnishings, with a glued-lap hull. The box keel, keel plank and garboards are skinned in fiberglass and epoxy, and the cockpit sole, decks and cabin roof are also fiberglassed. The finished hull is very stiff and strong. The build took about two years, with some delay related to pandemic supply-line issues toward the end. I made several small changes to Umami during construction—in place of two strips of bronze quarter round on the bottom of the box keel, I fabricated a full bronze keel shoe for better protection when drying her out on beaching legs, and instead of the hollow wood spars specified in the plans, I chose much lighter carbon spars because I wanted the rig to be easy to set up and strike, even when sailing single-handed. The mainmast is stepped in a stainless tabernacle, and I can have the boat rigged and splashed in under an hour.

Under sail, the boat demonstrates much of the character which I’ve admired in the Ilur—communicating what she is doing and what she likes or dislikes gently and then progressively. The helm is light and well balanced, with predictable weather helm if she gets hit by a gust. When well trimmed and happy in her work, she rewards her crew with satisfying visual, aural, and tactile feedback; she is a delight to sail and a sparkling performer. Despite being fast for her size, the Jewell is a boat without an ounce of ill temper, balancing fine performance with consistent, gentle manners. She’s a boat that will take care of you.

The 235 square-foot gaff yawl rig is a pleasure to live with, and easy to manage as all control lines lead to the cockpit. I asked my sailmaker to build the 150 sq ft main with full battens, which limit noisy slatting of the sail when hove to, and also mitigates twist in upper portions of the sail, yielding a sail which is both quiet and powerful. The first reef reduces sail by about 40 sq ft, the second by another 45; the third reef is to lower the main altogether and carry on under jib and mizzen. The jib is set to the stemhead on a roller furler, while the marconi mizzen is placed on center with a drop-in step.

The cockpit is self bailing, and spacious enough to hold four adults and a dog without crowding, providing plenty of space for a tall adult to sleep under a boom tent if the cabin berths are occupied. The boat is designed with flotation chambers, accessible by inspection ports that also allow ample storage. There is storage space beneath the bridge deck sufficient for a large cooler and a porta-potty.

The cabin is spacious for a 20-foot boat. Designed with a V berth long enough for the 6'5" Chase, I added a removable filler which converts it to a full-width double.

There is comfortable sitting headroom, and the forward end of the centerboard trunk forms a step down into the cabin from the companionway, with no intrusion into the cabin space.

One cautionary note concerns placement of an outboard. Vivier designed the transom and afterdeck with removable panels allowing a small outboard to be installed for auxiliary power. The boat needs only a small motor, but many tiller-controlled engines will not tilt up enough to get the lower unit entirely out of the water due to interference between the after deck and tiller arm. My solution is a bolt-on, tilting motor bracket, which works well to get the motor out of the water, but which is not visually elegant. Deck and transom arrangements that allowed a variety of outboards to be deployed without needing the bracket would be a neat refinement, and are in the works through Chase Small Craft, but for now I advise careful attention to tiller arm and tilt arrangements.

The Jewell is a remarkable marriage of modern manufacturing and materials to a classic design aesthetic. Umami has the excellent manners and sea keeping Vivier’s boats are known for; suitable accommodation for multi-day cruises, and is efficient to windward with her high aspect foils and jib, while remaining simple to tow, rig, and launch. She has met or exceeded all my expectations, and I highly recommend her as a day boat for a family. She can do double-duty as a coastal cruiser for a crew of two or three. Fast, forgiving, comfortable and pretty, she offers tremendous capability in a small package. •SCA•