Escapist 24 is a mid sized sailboat suited for family cruising, sporting a classical look and several features specially adopted to make her the perfect choice to sail in lagoons, shallow water areas and coastal environments; she is trailerable, with her 2.5 meters of maximum beam and lifting keel; plans are perfectly suited to make this boat a good choice for amateur boatbuilders, the boat can be made entirely in your backyard, including the rig.
| TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS | DOWNLOADS | |
| Length Over All: 8,30 m | Max. displ: 2100 kg | |
| Hull Length: 7,50 m (about 24′) | Sail area (main+jib): 25.8 m2 | |
| Maximum Beam: 2,50 m (trailerable) | Main sail: 16 m2 | |
| Draft keel up/down: 0,6m – 1,5 m | Olympic jib: 9.8 m2 | |
| Keel ballast: 400 kg total (350 in the bilge) | codezero: 16 m2 | |
| Air draft: 9.0 m | Plans price: € 510,00 electronic format | |
| Light displ: 1400 kg | Plans can be purchased here: Nautikit order page | |
| Engine: 10 hp outboard or electric | berths: four | |
A classical looking boat, the ideal choice to sail and explore lagoons and coastal environments with your family, without worrying about shallow waters and low bridges.
Escapist 24 was born in few weeks, during spring 2020; it has been a strange and dramatic time of worldwide pandemic and lockdown; the first concept was suggested by a friend, a long-time amateur boatbuilder, who lives near Venice; he was looking for a plan for a comfortable average sized cruiser easy to build , a boat can sail nimbly between the Venice lagoon and the Adriatic sea; a boat perfectly suited to explore this fantastic environments with a family of four on board and no worries about performances. A boat than can slip effortlessly between shallow waters, lagoons, channels and visit small cities mooring in the very center, eventually in spite of low bridges.
Grado harbor, picture taken from www.grado.it
The distinctive features are the possibility to have a very shallow draft while sailing, and the chance to lower and raise the mast easily in few minutes, to pass under a bridge or enter an ancient harbor located in a medieval city on a river, kind of normal situation in this exceptional lands. Pure sailing performances are not the main purpose of the project, although we like to sail as much as possible despite of light winds and shallow waters.
And what else can be the general aspect of a project like this if not a classic boat , with quite modern lines under water ?
Another required feature is that the boat can be build 100% by a amateur boatbuilder , including the rig; to keep budget and weights within a reasonable size we opted from the beginning for a 10 hp outboard engine , easy to install, easy to service, and quite powerful to cope with nasty tidal streams and total zero wind cruising conditions, quite ordinary situations in lagoons; we put the engine in a dedicated and quite roomy well in the cockpit near the transom; we discarded heavy and expensive onboard engines, trusting the reliability of modern 4 stroke outboard engines; of course an electric engine can be fitted as well, thus reducing the pollution in such delicate environments.
Interiors are classic and rational, two really big after berths under the cockpit seats, a double V berth on the bow, symmetric couches in the central area with a foldable central table, a galley block with sink and a stove, and a separate toilette; the finkeel case is very low and small and it doesn’t impact on the interiors, and the internal height under the mast reaches 1,80 meters , a more than good value for a 24 footer; we have also enough room to fit a 80-100 liters freshwater tank, a 25 liters gasoline tank in an after locker, and service batteries to feed all the loads.
Building system: we designed the hull to be assembled with the classic and easy radius chine system, like most of our projects; it is a highly validated system that produces sturdy and light hulls, suited for every Do It Yourself builder, even with zero experience on the subject; hull is made by a grid of 12mm marine plywood bulkheads, solid wood stringers, and a plywood backbone, planking of almost every surface, hull, cockpit, cabin, deck, is made by 10 mm plywood panels, all elements are bonded together with thickened epoxy resin .
Rig and sailplan: mast and boom can be home built following the dedicated highly detailed drawings in plans; the mast step has the classic “tabernacle” made in ss steel welded plates, so that mast can be lowered and raised back in few minutes ; the rig is quite short, keeping the the center of sailplan low , features double shrouds with no spreaders and no backstays, the removable babystay is mostly used to raise and lower the mast, sailplan is a classic bermudian sloop or gaff sloop depending on the personal taste of the builder ; sail area is average sized , fractioned in a bermudian or auric mainsail, a small jib and a furlable codezero on the short bowsprit , the anchor is also stored on the bowsprit; we designed a rational sailplan that can be easily managed by a crew of weekend sailors.
cockpit: classical design, wide and roomy for 4 people while sailing, you can even enjoy your sunbaths on the forward part of the cabin (babystay can be easily removed with a carabiner); a bathing ladder can be fitted on the transom, and the engine simply disappear in its own well when not in use, under a covering panel that can be used as an extra seat when moored.
Finkeel and ballast: ballast is made by ten lead blocks, 35 kgs each, fitted in trhe fixed part of the keel under the cabin floorings, block can be easily poured and transported on board, no lead torpedos, no complicated models and moulds, they can be encased in the fixed part of the keel with a resin cast ; if lead is not easily available you can make a cast of resin and iron scrappings until you reach the required weight ; fin keel has a NACA profiled pivoting part to have better pointing capacity windward, this part can be made by steel welded plates, it has no internal ballast and can be raised and lowered by a sturdy ss steel threaded bar handle operated from the cabin, all the system is contained in a waterproof 20 mm plywood case.
Deck gear: easy and simple, we are not in a racing boat, there two winches on the cabin top to operate halyards, reefing lines, lower and raise the mast, jib sheets, two small tracks for jib control point, a padeye in the cockpit to fasten the mainsheet purchase, organizers and stoppers (or wooden cleats) to manage all the lines in the cabin top panel.
plans: they are as usual super-detailed , covering every aspect of the building, they are made by 22 drawings and a 20 pages booklet with the advised building sequence and tips and tricks for a good use of building materials, commercial specifications for the deck gear are included; they will be available on www.nautikit.com , at the same price of Hirundo 750 plans , that is to say 510 € in pdf format and 540€ in paper format ; CNC files will be available as an extra item for 210€
