A lustrous solid black accented by the name RASCAL in chromed script made the power head an integral part of the design, further defining the boat’s character and purpose. Bassett was aware of this possibility, so he painted the cowling of the outboard on hull No.1. The outboard’s power head, like a welt on the forehead of Julianne Moore, may diminish our first impressions from exquisite to merely beautiful, but familiarity ought to heal the wound. Only when she’s parked next to a larger boat does she reveal her compact dimensions. RASCAL’s exceptional proportions mask her size when she stands alone in the slip or speeds across the water. They rise gracefully and embrace the stem about halfway up the bow, forming a line that plays with light and shadow to create visual interest forward of the cockpit. 4, which corresponds with the forward edge of the cockpit. Chine flats emerge from the waterline at station No.
#2016 WOOD RUNABOUT FULL#
2 aft to the transom provides a perfect planing surface, allowing RASCAL to make the transition from displacement speed to full plane in a single heave-absent the “hump” we associate with deep-V hulls and their slightly shallower modified-V sisters.
Her steep entry warps into a flat run and ends at the transom in a deadrise of about 7 degrees. The final result, though, is worth the wait. The finishwork will likely require as much, or more, time than the construction. Donahue knows, maybe better than anyone, that whoever builds a Rascal must let patience guide them throughout the project, especially during the varnishing. Before this project, he’d built nothing more demanding than a couple of birdhouses. In fact, Tom Donahue, an electrical engineer living in Connecticut, recently completed a Rascal. Although this method taxes the skill and patience of an amateur builder, it’s far from impossible. If they want to capture the gloss and romance of traditional mahogany runabouts, they’ll plank the topsides with 1⁄ 4″ solid mahogany, perfectly lined off and set in epoxy. They will build her of plywood-4mm for the topsides and decks, 5mm for the bottom-ripped into strips 1″ wide and laid diagonally over frames and stringers. Rascal, a 14’10” outboard runabout that you can build in the backyard, strives to capture the cachet of big mahogany speedboats-without their mechanical complications and great expense.ĭesigned and built by Kenny Bassett, Onion River Boat Works, RASCAL offers more bang for the buck than just about any other runabout a father and son could build over several hundred hours of nights and weekends. If Colin Chapman had designed and built boats instead of Lotus automobiles, a boat of RASCAL’s character surely would have been among them-the Lotus Super Seven of the waterways. Memories of my first ride in RASCAL still raise goose bumps after 15 years.Īt 15′ in length and weighing about 1,000 lbs with a full fuel tank and cockpit, RASCAL is a cheeky little boat- “pleasantly mischievous” is one of the ways Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary defines the name-powered by a 60-hp Mercury outboard. A tall person could reach over the side and touch the water as it rushed aft at better than 50 mph.
#2016 WOOD RUNABOUT DRIVER#
Driver and passenger sat low on a simple rolled leather seat, legs stretched out nearly parallel to the cockpit sole. Her mahogany foredeck glowed from the depths of its varnish, and her stainless-steel cutwater sparkled through drops of water streamlining into mist.
RASCAL sped across the riffled waters of Long Island Sound.
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