Several years ago the CRMC Trustees sketched out the idea of converting the 16 foot gasoline powered John Atkin skiff that was in our collection to solar electric propulsion. The thought was to use it for “eco tours” up and down Carmans River between Squassux Landing and the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge dock.

It soon became clear that it would be better to have a boat designed specifically for the intended purpose and Steve Gould came up with the idea of soliciting schools of naval architecture to see if a design could be obtained as part of a ‘student project’. We were fortunate to receive a very positive response from faculty members at Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, one of the world’s premier schools for this profession located in Glen Cove, Long Island. CRMC trustees met with Webb faculty to outline our needs and the professors in turn put the project out to members of the junior class, all of whom are required to do a design project for their senior thesis. Three students rose to the task, Hampton Dixon, Andrew Lachtman, and Lidia Mouravieff, and worked closely with the CRMC Trustees as their ‘clients’ to design and engineer a boat that specifically meets our needs. Their complete thesis presentation is available by clicking thesis.pdf and a poster overview of the project is at poster.pdf.

We turned the building of our Eco-Tour 24 into a series of courses that included mold making, set-up and continued on to planking and coating the hull with fiberglass cloth which is now complete. Ongoing work includes final fairing and painting followed by turning the hull over for interior construction, and concluding with systems in-stallation and launching. Check our current class schedules to see in which aspects of this exciting project you might wish to participate.

Click here for Solar Launch Course

John Atkin Skiff