17' Bes Lugger Yawl (2014) - LUCIA

Lucia is an open campcruiser for oar and sail.
I aimed at a simple construction, with elegant looks. The skill needed to build her is basic to intermediate.
In fact she has the same number of parts as a modern Swampscott dory.

I always liked Joel White’s Shellback dinghy, so I used her lines as inspiration. I drew her on a 1 to 10 scale. Did a few basic calculations and then a friend, Klaas Bes, naval architect, faired the lines and did the final calculations.
He provided me with fullsize templates of the stations and then I built her over a period of 2 years.

The mainmast was a used flagpole and the mizzen is a used windsurf mast. The rudder and several blocks were from a free OK Dinghy. As I am a sailmaker and wanted to compare her with Iain Oughtreds Ness Yawl she has a comparable rig; at first Lucia only had a mainsail but I found she was practically neutral on her helm so I added a mizzen and a skeg. It made her much more directionally stable and she was noticed much more on the water. We are pleased with her sailing and rowing qualities, did a few rallies, took her to France to La Semaine du Golfe, and hope to row her on the Canal Grande in Venice some day