This was a letter written to the Customer that commissioned this little Sailing Fishing Boat design. It’s a beguiling type for any of us lucky enough to have worked in the far north fishing or tugging in our youth, and it answers well to the “Siren call of the North” when in the early Spring my heart wants nothing more than to follow the vees of Geese winging their way North. Keep in mind that as of the writing of this, a fresh Chinook Salmon, troll caught, sells off the boat for more than $5 dollars a pound. That means a 30lb. fish would fetch the ship and crew more than $150 dollars in revenue and the prospect that a middle aged person or two might fish/adventure their way to a $50,000 dollar summer.

Sean: Enclosed are the preliminary drawings for the Sailing Fishing/boat that we have been talking about. I am really pleased with how this design has worked out so far and look forward to doing more work with this concept. I have spliced a pretty livable cabin arrangement onto the 36ft. hull as we had talked about. She has enough room to be a comfortable cruiser, carry the loads associated with cruising for extended periods, and taking care of the fishing request with this design. The cockpit area is spacious enough for her purpose but has no wasted or extra space. A raised Fish/hold placed in the middle of the cockpit being the main feature, but while this space allocation might seem to be wasteful, in truth the table top area and work space is ideal for the cruiser. A small 24″ x 24″ hatch provides access into the compartment when just checking on the fish or ice conditions and the whole top is removable for unloading fish or loading the space. A small trolling cockpit is located in the stern of the boat and needs to have steering and helm controls for single-handed work. It might even be a good idea these days to have a repeater for the GPS and an Autopilot control to help keep you on course while working at fishing back in that cockpit.

The pilothouse is entered thru a sliding door in the rear bulkhead, with galley on the portside and settee/dinette and helm on the starboard side. There is enough space to drink or eat 4 and plenty of room for the designed ship’s crew of two. A Stainless steel pipe compression post for the deck stepped mast gives a good handhold in the pilothouse when in rough weather and the seatback on the helm can be canted back and forth to function as a back in helm or in dinette mode. The table can be lowered to provide a second double berth for guests that might come along for the trip. The fo’c’sle is accessed by going down 4 steps with a large enclosed head to port with shower in the front section. To starboard are a couple of hanging lockers, the one just below the helm being the mechanicals locker with all electrical and breaker functions easily accessible and spare parts organized in shelves. Another hanging locker is located forward of the mechanicals locker and a bureau with storage below is forward of that. A double queen sized berth is to port in the cabin with the heads forward arrangement, good reading lights and a good view looking aft up thru the boat. It’s a berth arrangement that we have worked and cruised many times in the past with good success.

Now back on deck, let’s discuss how she runs and works. I’ve kept the sailing rig as small as I could and still have enough drive to function well. The total sail area is 348 and with a roller furling system on the jib, it should work well. Fishing with the sails up needs to be controlled with the trolling poles functioning best if kept fairly level and upright. With this much sail area and while trolling, the engine is barely running. It’s just keeping up with the hydraulic system demands and providing a little bit of additional steerage-way while the wind provides the rest of the propulsion when it’s blowing enough. With the jib rolled up, the main can be left standing as a working steady sail and should help keep her from lurching side to side when in confused seas. Trolling poles and all sails are set from the aft cockpit and cleat to the end of the pilothouse with turning blocks forward to keep you off the pilothouse roof. I would rig a crab and shrimp pot puller as shown for either augmenting the ship’s provisions or perhaps for a little extra cash commercially. Side decks are suitable for walking up forward to the bow and anchoring duty. By the way, a hydraulic anchor windlass is chucked up on the bow with a 300 ft. chain rode backed by an additional 150 ft. of nylon rode so there shouldn’t be any loss of sleep at night due to dragging anchor gear. I showed a bow thruster forward if for no other reason than to just stimulate conversation about it for the future. I always maintain that the more control one has over their environment, the better off the success of the venture. Avoiding sticky situations is always the best survival mode.

I think that about wraps it up; a good and stable boat, with enough room to carry some fish or stores and enough space to be comfortable for our great waters out here. Let’s hope that in time we see lots of these types of vessels start up again. — Sam Devlin

The Kokanee 36 is available as study plans, and as a custom build from Devlin Boats. Contact Sam if you would like to see this design developed.