Design and Construction
Norman Howard laid out the Dayboat as a light-displacement coastal craft: at roughly 675 pounds all-up with a 90-pound lead ballast slug, the boat carries a 13 percent ballast ratio and a length-to-beam ratio of 2.61, giving a narrow, easily driven hull just over 16 feet long on a 14-foot waterline built with a stub/centreboard keel. The centreboard lets the draft vary from about one foot to 2.5 feet, so the boat can be sailed close to a beach and dried out where a fixed-keel design could not. Both hull and deck are solid fibreglass, and while Smallcraft of Blockley was the primary builder, the type was also produced at other yards. One hull built by Seaborne carries a thicker lay-up than the later Smallcraft boats, a detail worth knowing because it means not every Dayboat shares identical shell thickness.
Rig and Handling
The fractional rig is simple and self-contained, and the sail-control spec is fully documented: jib and genoa sheets run 16.2 feet at 5/16-inch diameter, the mainsheet is 40.6 feet of the same diameter, and a spinnaker sheet of 35.7 feet is called for if the boat is flown with a kite. With a sail area around 104 square feet and a displacement-length ratio of 106, the design falls into the "light racers" band, and the theoretical hull speed for a displacement hull of this length is about five knots. The motion comfort ratio sits at 6.1, which is low — consistent with a lively, tender little dayboat rather than a smooth-riding cruiser. A capsize screening value of 2.84 places the boat outside the threshold used to admit vessels to ocean races, which confirms the sheltered-water intent of the design.
Power and Docking
An outboard is the standard auxiliary, used for docking and maneuvering rather than sustained propulsion. The boat typically needs only one to two horsepower, or an electric motor producing 13 to 16 pounds of thrust, which keeps the installation light and the transom uncluttered. That minimal power requirement is a direct consequence of the low displacement and the centreboard's shallow-draft range.
Ownership Notes
The wetted surface to be antifouled is about 96 square feet, a small area that keeps bottom maintenance cheap and quick. The immersion rate of roughly 307 pounds per inch means the boat sits lightly and responds visibly to load changes — a few passengers or a filled cooler will noticeably depress the waterline. With a few hundred built and production ending in 1981, the Dayboat is established enough to turn up as a used proposition, yet scarce enough that condition matters more than pedigree.
The Verdict
The Shipmate Dayboat is a purpose-built light-displacement dayboat: shallow, beachable, easy to power, and cheap to maintain, but tender and unsuited to open ocean by its own stability numbers.
Pros
- Beachable stub/centreboard hull with one- to 2.5-foot draft range
- Solid fibreglass construction with a small, inexpensive antifoul area
- Minimal outboard requirement (1–2 hp or 13–16 lb thrust electric)
Cons
- Capsize screening of 2.84 excludes it from ocean racing
- Low motion comfort ratio (6.1) means a lively, tender ride
- One Seaborne hull with thicker lay-up complicates like-for-like comparison
