Chesuki’s design is in “The Dory Book” by John Gardner, from which I traditionally built her of fragrant Port Orford cedar and Oregon white oak. The building of her was quite enjoyable, with just a couple of heart ache mistakes easily remedied thanks to miraculous epoxy, after 3 years the anticipation of her use made the launching a real celebration! I did mess up on the waterline another heartache but soon repainted. The rather large racing sail was adopted to a gunter rig with a curved spar and cream colored sails for beauty (well after a few corrections) and a lively feel with the fun of handling a more challenging rig. We camp cruised the San Juans and Gulf Islands regularly in the late 80’s and 90’s when people were more forgiving and shared their beaches with us, well we were prettier back then too!
