Both study plans and full construction plans for the new to our fleet Duckling 17 Sailing version are now available!  The study plans include a few photos taken by the builder, Martin Chlad from the Czech Republic. The new plans for her build feature a boat that separates into two parts for easy transport to and from the water.

LOA:  17′ 3.5″       5.27m   Beam:   3′. 5.75″   1.06m   Draft:   4″   104mm        Weight dry:    215 lbs.    97.52kg  Sail area:   51 square feet

Downloadable study and construction plans and printed plans available here.

All right, “What is this nonsense about a Black Brant III and why the new design?” In order to properly understand the way life goes out here in Devlin Boat Land, you must first of all take a long distance view of the operation with enough time factor thrown in to really view the scene in geological perspective. Over the twenty some years that I have been designing and building hunting boats, there has been a lot of time and years with which to evolve more than a couple of designs. My Dad says that I am an almost constant “tinkerer”, which is probably a nice way to say that, while I think my designs are the best available and I believe in them without reservations, that I am also aware that nothing in life is perfect and that the way to Nirvana is to continually strive to do better. All this might just be the internal conflict with a Protestant work ethic or some other type of spiritual psycho-babble but the bottom line is that many of our designs get changed, little by little, until they reach a better plateau of use.

But in some cases the new design, while it has its strengths, doesn’t in a definitive way do the job that much better than the preceding design. In the case of our Black Brant designs, I already had a boat that did its job very well. That job was to allow two to three hunters to safely and efficiently hunt. But along came the desire of some of us to travel faster under power in less draft of water, thus was born the new design – the Black Brant III. This boat is simply a shallower draft and faster speed version of the Black Brant design, and if that is what you need, then this is the boat for you. But the difficulty of replacing the Black Brant was not simple because it also did its job extremely efficiently. So if you find that most of your hunting is in open water and you really aren’t traveling more than a couple of miles from ramp to your hunting area, then the Black Brant design is the best for your purposes. She is quite a bit deeper and a reasonable amount slower than the Black Brant III.

But if you are finding that you need to operate in shallower water and are traveling quite a distance from launch-ramp to the hunting area and a couple of inches more of sitting blind height doesn’t hurt, then by all means choose the Black Brant III. In both cases, these boats are about as thoroughbred of hunting boats as you are going to find and both have undergone trial by fire for more than a few hunting seasons. I hope you can make up your mind as to which is the best for you. — Sam Devlin

The Black Brant III 15 is available in study and construction plans.  Plans have both imperial and metric dimensions! 

LOA     14′-3″     4.34m     Beam     5’6″     1.66m      Draft     7.5″   190mm     Weight dry     225lbs.    102kg.

Depth Combing to floorboards    14.75″        Depth Keel to top of Coaming    21.25″

Width of Cockpit     3′-10.5″          Length of Cockpit     7′-8″              Max HP        30 HP    short or long shaft

The Devlin Bluebill 12 is available in study and construction plans.     

LOA   12′-3/4″   3.68m     Beam   4′-11″   1.5m     Draft   7.25″    182mm     Weight dry   145lbs.    65.77kg

Depth coaming to floorboards:  12″      Depth keel to top of combing:   15.5″

Width of cockpit:   3′-1.5″     Length of cockpit:    6′-11.5″        Max HP    20hp.   short shaft

Bluebill 12 Design Notes

One of my favorite customers is a fellow from Idaho that has had one of my Broadbill sneakboxes for many years. He called up one day and said that his Broadbill had met a unfortunate fate, falling off the top of his truck going down the freeway at better than 70 miles per hour. The Broadbill did a couple of cartwheels and ended up sliding to a stop on the asphalt upside down. Ron slammed on his brakes and ran back to the suffering boat and I believe (even though he won’t admit it) that there were tears running down his cheeks while looking down at his wounded little boat. I told Ron to bring the boat as quickly as possible to my shop so we could see if she could be saved and in just a couple of days, a truck drove into our driveway with the mangled boat.

Like a coroner, I dove into the post-mortem. There was a hole in the deck where the oarlock block had punched its way through the decking, the motor bracket was pretty much scrubbed off from abrasion where it had extended up beyond the stern decking, and there was one small crack and hole in the bottom of the boat (probably from the initial impact). Other than that damage, the boat looked remarkably intact and, in fact, you could have launched it and no water would have come into the boat itself. I immediately started working on an estimate sheet for the repair and after adding it all up, I told Ron that the truth was that it would almost be cheaper to build him a new boat than to fix up this one. Ron seized on the opportunity to have us build him boat that was just a bit bigger, one that could haul and hunt two hunters (instead of the Broadbill’s single hunter capacity) and one that had the latest evolution of our outboard well configuration. The major advantage of the outboard well is that it allows a proper horsepower outboard to be carried on the boat without it sticking out away from the stern outline of the boat. My theory is that late in the hunting season when the birds have been shot at a bit and carry the wealth (and perhaps sting) of experience that an older-wiser bird might have, the ducks actually start to look at the engines hanging off of boats as indicators of pain. In other words, if there is one common trait to all good hunting boats (except for some of my boats), it’s that damn outboard which is not very concealable and certainly not as hide-able as a boat without the outboard-wart hanging off the ass end of the boat.

The other advantage of the outboard well is that the operator of the outboard is further forward in the boat and if you are using the boat alone, the boat is more even on her keel in relationship to the water. The Bluebill is the result of that designing and building process and Ron is building on a relationship with this new boat. He reminded me of something he said the other day. “Some of us end up getting married twice (or more) in our lives and just because you might love the new wife, it doesn’t take away from the good memories of the old wife. Just don’t let the new one know that you have such thoughts!” — Sam Devlin

Recently Gary Brown home built a Surf Runner 25 and modified the design by adding more headroom in the cabin and he had a beautiful result. The link to the video below is provided courtesy of  Off Center Harbor.

Watch his video of the boat here.

The Surf Runner 25 is available in study and construction plans.