Moon River: A 48-Foot Stitch-and-Glue Down East–Style Dayboat

Sam Devlin’s newest stitch-and-glue creation, Moon River, is a 48-foot Down East–style dayboat that demonstrates how modern plywood, epoxy and fiberglass construction can be scaled to substantial yachts. While stitch-and-glue has traditionally been associated with small dinghies and kayaks, Devlin Designing Boat Builders in Tumwater, Washington, has extended the method to vessels as large as 65 feet.

At 47 feet 10 inches overall and displacing about 32,000 pounds, Moon River is a twin-screw motoryacht designed for comfortable day cruising and medium-distance passages. The boat, priced at approximately $1.4 million, features two staterooms, two heads and accommodations geared toward family use and single-handed operation. Moon River is the second-largest boat completed by Devlin Designing Boat Builders, a company that has promoted and refined stitch-and-glue techniques for decades.

Moon River’s lines evoke the classic Down East aesthetic familiar from builders such as Hunt, Sabre and Hinckley. Devlin based her design on the hull form of his lobster-style Storm Petrel, a 34-foot twin-screw diesel. “It’s a very easily driven hull design, and it loves its midspeed range — around 15 to 18 knots,” Devlin says. “It’s very happy with that. It’s not in the upper end of the power-curve range, so we’re not sucking down fuel too bad, and she moves through the water very well.”

Devlin’s shop employs nine craftsmen in a 15,000-square-foot facility. Moon River required roughly 19,000 labor hours and just under two years to complete. “One of the hallmarks of what we do is that everything is finished,” Devlin notes. “Inside, outside, underneath, upside-down — wherever you go in that boat, it is done very well.”

Stitch-and-glue construction eliminates traditional ribs and frames, using high-grade marine plywood panels stitched together with wire, then bonded and reinforced with epoxy and fiberglass or Dynel sheathing. This approach is less complex than plank-on-frame or fiberglass-mold construction, though still labor intensive. Devlin offers plans for many of his designs; he has produced 59 plan sets and shipped them to builders in 82 countries, enabling other boatbuilders and serious do-it-yourselfers to apply the same methods.

For those seeking more information on the stitch-and-glue process and Devlin’s methods, archives at SoundingsOnline.com include relevant articles and interviews under the keyword “Devlin.”

Owner Ed Shulman of Seattle took delivery of Moon River in March, and the boat was launched at Swantown Marina in Olympia, Washington. The design emphasizes single-handed capability while retaining flexibility to carry guests and extend range. “Everything was done around the idea that the boat would be a single-handed kind of boat that has the capability of carrying more and becoming a full-fledged dayboat,” Devlin explains.

Since founding his company in 1979, Devlin has completed 426 custom boats ranging from small dinghies to a 65-foot passenger ferry. His portfolio includes rowing and sailing dinghies, flat-bottom skiffs, center consoles, tug-type yachts and passages makers. Current production is dominated by powerboats, which make up roughly two-thirds of builds, and the yard completes about eight to ten vessels annually while taking on custom design projects for clients worldwide.

Devlin also maintains an active design roster, including a 54-foot Down East–style motoryacht for a Russian client, a 22-foot outboard landing craft for Alaska, and a 32-foot cutter-style sailboat for a Korean builder.

Moon River is a semidisplacement hull, fitted with twin 315-horsepower John Deere diesels for a total of 630 horsepower. That power plant pushes the boat to a top speed near 23 knots, while cruising in the midrange delivers fuel economy in the neighborhood of 3 to 4 nautical miles per gallon. The hull features a fine entry and narrow forefoot that blends into flatter aft sections; the shape balances the ability to slice through waves without burying the bow or taking excessive green water over the foredeck.

Deck and interior arrangements support dayboat and short-cruise missions. A pilothouse top extends aft to cover about two-thirds of the cockpit. The full galley occupies the starboard side of the cabin with counter space sized for two cooks; opposite the galley are an additional counter and a settee. Forward to port is a U-shaped dining settee with table. The helm sits to starboard, with a companionway separating the helm from a companion seat and console.

Moon River’s electronics package, at about $49,000, includes satellite communications, a FLIR thermal-imaging night-vision camera and forward-scanning sonar, along with integrated displays and duplicate controls at the companion console.

Privacy and comfortable accommodations are priorities. The layout provides full separation between the two staterooms and includes two heads — one dedicated to the master and the other serving the guest cabin and functioning as a day head. The master contains a single berth while the guest cabin features two single berths.

Devlin emphasizes that most work at his yard is custom: “Sometimes we get lucky and can build a few boats to the same design, but for the most part all our projects are full-on custom builds,” he says. He recently received a lifetime achievement award for yacht design and building from WoodenBoat magazine and the WoodenBoat Foundation, recognition of a long career of craftsmanship and innovation in stitch-and-glue practice.

Specifications

LOA: 47 feet, 10 inches

Beam: 13 feet, 8 inches

Draft: 3 feet, 4 inches

Hull type: Semidisplacement

Displacement: 32,000 pounds

Tankage: 400 gallons fuel (two tanks), 200 gallons fresh water, 80 gallons waste

Power: Twin 315-hp John Deere diesel engines (630 hp total)

Price: Approximately $1.4 million

Contact: Devlin Designing Boat Builders, Tumwater, Washington

Phone: (360) 866-0164

Website: www.devlinboat.com

Originally published in the August 2013 issue