Description
The Caravelle Skiff (also known as the Caravelle Sailing Skiff or Caravelle Rower variant) is a lightweight, cartoppable wooden sail-and-oar (or rowing-only) skiff designed by Clint Chase (a Maine-based small-boat designer, builder, kit entrepreneur, and former geologist/science teacher who founded Chase Small Craft to offer high-quality precut plywood kits for accessible, beautiful DIY boats), with roots in a 1991 design by Eric Risch (entered in WoodenBoat magazine's "The Perfect Skiff" contest; Chase refined and commercialized it over the years, evolving it into the modern Caravelle line); built primarily as stitch-and-glue plywood kits (using 6mm Okoume plywood over stem, frames, and transom with wood chine construction—no strongback needed, minimal fiberglass just for chine taping) by Chase Small Craft (Saco, Maine, USA) or through licensed builders/teachers; introduced in refined form around the early 2010s (with the sailing version building on the earlier Echo Bay Dory Skiff sibling, and a dedicated Caravelle Rower launched in 2023 as a sleeker, faster rowing-focused evolution); production is ongoing via kits/plans (no mass factory builds—focused on amateur/DIY builders worldwide, with workshops/classes by Chase himself, e.g., at WoodenBoat School or Rocking the Boat in the Bronx); quantity manufactured is not precisely tracked but likely in the dozens to low hundreds (based on kit sales, builder forums like WoodenBoat, and community projects, as it's a niche but popular design for beginners, veterans' groups, and sail-and-oar enthusiasts).
