Escapist 24

 ESCAPIST 24 

 Far form the Madding Crowd

project Escapist 24 was born in few weeks, during spring 2020; it has been a strange and dramatic time of worldwide pandemic and lockdown; the first ideathat became the project was raised by a long-time amateur boatbuilder who lives near Venice; he was looking for a plan for a comfortable average sized cruiser that can sail nimbly between the Venice lagoon and the Adriatic sea; a boat perfectly suited to explore this fantastic environments with a family of four on board and no worries about performances. 

The distinctive features are the possibility to have a very shallow draft while sailing, and the chance to lower and raise the mast easily in few minutes, to pass under a bridge or enter an ancient harbour located in a medioeval city on a river, kind of normal situation in this exceptional lands. Pure sailing performances are not the main puporpse of the project, altough we like to sail as much as possible despite of light winds and shallow waters.  And what else can be the general aspect of a project this this if not a classic boat , with quite modern lines under water  ?  
 
 

 
Another required feature is that the boat can be build 100% , including the rig; to keep budget and weights within a reasonable size we opted from the beginning for a 10 hp ouboard engine , easy to install, easy to service, and quite powerful to cope with nasty tidal streams and total zero wind cruising conditions, quite ordinary situations in lagoons; we put the engine in a dedicated and quite roomy well in the cockpit near the transom; we discarded heavy and expensive onboard engines, trusting the reliability of modern 4 stroke outboard engines; of course an electric engine can be fitted as well, thus reducing the pollution in such delicate environments.
 

 
 

Interiors are classic and rational, two really big after berths under the cockpit seats, a double V berth on the bow, simmetric couchs in the central area with a foldable central table, a galley block and a separate toilette; the finkeel case is very low and small , and the internal height under the mast reachs 1,80 meters , a more than good value for a 24 footer.
 

 
 
Building system: we designed the hull to be assembled with the classic and easy radius chine system, like most of our projects; it is a higly validated system that produces sturdy and light hulls, suited for every Do It Yourself builder, even with zero experience on the subject; hull is made by a grid of 12mm marine plywood bulkheads, solid wood stringers, and a plywood backbone, planking of almost every surface, hull, cockpit, cabin, deck, is made by 10 mm plywood panels, all elements are bonded together with thickened epoxy resin.  

 

Rig and sailplan: mast and boom can be home build following the dedicated higly detailed drawings in plans; the mast step has the classic "tabernacle" made in ss steel welded plates, so that mast can be lowered and raised in few minutes ; the rig is quite short, keeping the the center of sailplan quite low , features duble shrouds with no spreaders and no backstays, the babystay is mostly used to rasie and lower the mast, sailpan is a calssi bermudian sloop or gaff sloop depeinding on the personal taste of the builder ; sail area is average sized , fractioned in a bermudian(auric mainsail, a msall jib and a furlable codezero on the short bowsprit , the anchor is also stored on the bowsprit; we designed a manageable sailplan that can be easily maanged by a crew weekend sailors.

 

cockpit : classical design, wide and roomy for 4 people while sailing, you can even enjoy your sunbaths on the forward part of the cabin (babystay can be easily removed with a carabiner); a bathing ladder can be fitted on the transom, and the engine simply disappear in its own well when not in use, under a covering panel that can be used as an extra seat when moored.
   
 
 

 
 

Finkeel and ballast: ballast is made by ten lead blocks, 35 kgs each, fitted in trhe fixed part of the keel under the cabin floorings, block can ber easily poured and transported on board, no lead torpedos, no complicated models and moulds, they can be encased in the fixed part of the keel with a resin cast ; if lead is not easily available you can make a cast of resin and iron scrappings until you reach the required weight ; fin keel has a NACA profiled pivoting part to have better pointing capacity windward, this part can be made by steel welded plates, it has no internal ballast and can be raised and lowered by a sturdy ss steel threaded bar handle operated from the cabin, all the system is contained in a waterproof 20 mm plywood case.

 
Deck gear: easy and simple, we are not in a racing boat, there two winches on the cabin top to operate halyards, reffing lines, lower and raise the mast, jib sheets, two smal tracks for jib control point, a padeye in the cockpit to fastend the mainsail purchase, organizer and sopteerr (or wooden cleats) to manage all the lines in the cabin top panel; pulpits lifelines and stanchions are not modeled in the rendered images but they are detailed on building plans.
  

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

 
Hull Length: 7.5m (24')
Length Over All:  8.3 m
Maximum Beam:  2.50m (trailerable)
Draft keel up/down: 0.6-1.5m
Light displ:1300 kg
Keel ballast: 400 kg total (350 in the bilge)
projet displacement: 1900 kg
Max. displ: 2000-2100 kg
Air draft: 9 m
Sail area (main+jib): 25,8 m2
Main sail: 16 m2
Olympic jib: J: 9,8 m2
codezero: 16 m2
SA/disp^0.66 = 17 at  projet displacement:  1900 kg
Engine: 10 hp outboard or electric
berth: 4