A summer launch from Brion Rieff Boatbuilders in Brooklin, Maine, is in the works for this John G. Alden–designed schooner that’s being built for an East Coast sailor who has already built five Alden–designed yachts. His design brief called for a clipper-bowed schooner that would be stiff and seaworthy and could be handled easily by a small crew. Living accommodations included a raised deckhouse with good all-around visibility and space below for two couples.

Alden has given the hull shape undistorted lines, and a relatively shoal-draft fin keel with bulb provides the necessary stability. The balanced rudder is carbon fiber, and a nonstructural crescent-shaped skeg has been added between the keel’s trailing edge and the bottom of the rudder to prevent lobster buoys from fouling the propeller and rudder assembly.

The original specification called for a gaff-rigged mainsail, but the owner quickly realized that it would be difficult to handle with a small crew and opted instead for a full-roach main and an in-boom Leisure Furl system. The foresail is gaff-rigged and has full-length battens and lazyjacks; it will be stored on a wide Park Avenue–style boom. All spars except for the spruce bowsprit and aluminum mainboom are carbon fiber with appropriate tapers and wall thicknesses. Swept-back spreaders eliminate the need for runners and a permanent backstay. Standing rigging is discontinuous rod.

In the deckhouse a U-shaped settee is located on one side with the navigation area and fridge directly opposite. A passageway leads below to the galley and guest cabin; the master stateroom forward has V-berths and an adjacent head and shower stall. The interior will be finished in traditional Herreshoff style with white painted bulkheads and fronts and varnished mahogany doors and trim. The cabin sole will be varnished teak and holly with teak grates placed where appropriate.

The hull is cold-molded cedar and mahogany on laminated frames, sheathed in 10-ounce fiberglass cloth. The deck is cold-molded mahogany plywood sheathed with fiberglass over laminated beams and deck carlins. Decking is 1/2-inch teak, as are the monkey rails and bulwark caps. The power plant is a 92-horsepower Yanmar with a Gori three-blade folding prop.

John G. Alden, Naval Architects, 89 Commercial Wharf, Boston, MA 02110; tel. 617-227-9480; www.aldendesigns.com