Kees Prins and Fetch

Kees Prins stopped by for a visit and took Doryman out for a sail on Fetch. You remember Kees. He built Sparrow, the Ed Davis surf dory on the header of this blog and also designed and built the Townsend Tern. He built the Small Craft Advisor Scamp. He's an old friend of Iain Oughtred. He's a world traveler from the Netherlands and a boatbuilder of some renown.






Kees is headed from his home in Port Townsend, Washington State across the United States and ultimately to Maine. He stopped by on his way to park his van and the exceptional 17 foot, gunter-rigged Fetch out back, in Doryman's boatyard. He seemed to feel right at home there.





While he was here, we launched Fetch in the Yaquina River one afternoon when the weather ranged from full sun to driving rain and eventually hail. Nice way to entertain a guest, don't you agree? Kees didn't seem to mind - in fact enjoyed himself.

You can follow Kees' cross-country adventure from the blog section of the on-line magazine, Small Craft Advisor.













Where will Kees Prins wet his keel next?







Right away, Kees wanted to go out the jaws to the raging Pacific Ocean, though there was a restriction on the bar for boats under twenty eight feet. And here is the video to prove it. The man's insane (and that's a good thing).



A great day on the water my friend. Thank you so very much!


Fetch is an Iain Oughtred Fulmar Dinghy built as an open boat by my good friend, Ralph Merriman. Kees added the cabin, decks and self draining cockpit.
This boat was featured in the September/October issue of the Small Craft Advisor
There is also a discussion of this boat on the WoodenBoat Forum.
The plans for the Fulmar Dinghy can be found here.

Length	Beam		Weight (kg)	Sail Area
16' 8" - 5.08m	5' 10" - 1.80m		175	160 sq ft