Thomas Colvin's Final Design

Article by Roberto Goad

Thomas Colvin said he wouldn’t wish this boat on anyone, but obviously it was a personal vessel—the culmination of a long career designing a multitude of different boats for different purposes. He built Antelope in his elder years in his backyard. It was a dedicated cargo vessel and built of steel. It was engineless and had a waterline of 30 feet.

Its purpose was light cargo trading coastally, which he did for a number of years with his wife. He stated he never intended to make a solid living from it, but that it might pay for the occasional nice dinner out in various ports of call. But the vessel was a serious cargo hauler with a the ability to carry 5 tons in a center cargo hold and 5 more tons of deck cargo.

It had no self-steering gear and was setup as a junk-rigged schooner. Colvin stated that the sails themselves were the best self-steering system possible (coupled with a long straight keel with deep forefoot for tracking purposes). The sails were treated cotton, which Colvin thought held up better in strong sunlight than Dacron. Enabled by a long bowsprit, the boat had 1000 square feet of sail area for the inevitable engineless ghosting in light airs.

Colvin was a lifelong exhorter of engineless vessels, usually adding a engine to sail designs only if prompted by a client. He stated that dragging a prop eliminated one knot or so from a vessel’s average speed. To say little of the expense, smell, maintenance, noise, slavery to spare parts and fueling, and volume given up to an iron beast. On this vessel he used a small yawl boat with small outboard to get the boat down his canal to the gulf of Mexico.

As per Colvin’s bent to simplicity it had only one 12 volt battery and two small solar panels. These supplied the paltry demand from a single VHF radio, 3 cabin fans, 6 internal lights, a electric compass, and the running lights.

For cargo handling efficiency the decks were clear of hardware and cleats, which were bolted to the gunwales.

Two cabins were split from each other by the center cargo hold. Both had only sitting headroom except at the open hatches. Colvin was a believer in strolling topside if full headroom was needed. The vessel had no cockpit at all.

In summary it was a no-frills, working sail vessel meant for private seafaring with a eye to making a living by trading coastal cargo. It was designed to be dead reliable due to its simplistic rig and systems, and lack of engine. That Tom Colvin designed, self-built, and operated this vessel on the East Coast of the U.S., all in his 70s, is admirable. •SCA•