The Cocktail Class Racer

You’ll Want One

by Gary Reich

##Sundowner zips around the Rhode River on sea trials. Photo courtesy of Chesapeake Light Craft

I

f you happened to have a copy of the August 1939 issue of The Rudder magazine in your hands and turned to page 38, you’d see plans for a clever little eightfoot-long, plywoodon-frame skimmer named “SKUA” designed by Charles MacGregor. Today, the look of the boat hasn’t changed, but if John Harris of Chesapeake Light Craft (CLC) in Annapolis has his way, you’ll be lusting to buy and build

his stitch-and-glue version of MacGregor’s little raceboat—now called a Cocktail Class Racer—when the kits become available sometime in the next four months, just in time for a cocktail at happy hour. Governed by the Cocktail Class Wooden Boat Racing Association (CCWBRA), the design calls for a six- to eight-horsepower outboard depending on skipper weight—less than 200 pounds, or more than 200 pounds, respectively—and a minimum hull weight of 72 pounds. If you are in the 200-plus category, any eighthorsepower outboard will do (two or four stroke). If you’re sub-200, a pre-1969-era, six-horsepower outboard is what the rules call for. There is some debate as to the merits of two- or three-blade propellers. Earlier this year, Farr Yacht Design vice president Russell Bowler was approached about building a Cocktail Class Racer and enlisted Farr design engineer Keith Carew to help find out what it would take to build

##Kaith Carew (L) of Farr Yacht Design and John Harris (R) of Chesapeake Light Craft stand in front of four stitch-andglue Cocktail Class prototypes. Photo by Gary Reich ##The Edmonds family completed the first prototype hull for the History Channel Show “Modern Marvels.” Photo courtesy of Chesapeake Light Craft

70 November 2011 PropTalk

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