Hutchins Co. Profile

[HenryC]

This is one of my earliest articles for GOB, written about 10 years ago, that you guys might be interested in looking over.  It is a bit out of date now, but might still provide some information you will find useful.  There are some editor's notes scattered through it, so this must have been one of the final drafts.  I wish the illustrations for this had survived, but I couldn't locate them in my files.


Com-Pac Yachts

This line of classy pocket cruisers owes much to legendary Florida builder and sometime designer, Clark Mills. Recently the company introduced three easy-to-sail catboats.

by Henry Cordova

My first encounter with a Com-Pac yacht was in the mid-1970s. A school friend of mine in Florida, Charlie, bought one of the first hulls sold by the Hutchins Company, a sweet little 16-foot sloop with salty lines and a saucy, turned-up nose. There was simply nothing like it in those days-a trailerable boat with a solid keel and shallow draft perfect for the sort of sailing we enjoyed and could afford. My own boat, a centerboard, lug-rigged catboat, was a good sailor and perfect for gunkholing in the mangroves, but the Com-Pac sported a level of luxury the rest of us could only dream about. It had a cabin with just enough cover for one to get in out of the rain and spend a night anchored on the turtle grass or the mud flats, protected from the weather and saltwater marsh mosquitoes.
   Charlie’s exploits in the Com-Pac were legendary. He loved to tell the story of when he hove to in a squall and a Coast Guard cutter, thinking the boat was abandoned, raced over only to find the little white sloop perfectly balanced and giving ground sensibly, her jib backed, main reefed, and tiller lashed to leeward. Charlie was in the cabin calmly smoking his pipe. When he popped his head out the hatch the Coastie skipper knew he wasn’t needed; he shrugged his shoulders and went back to fulfilling his primary mission, rescuing powerboats in trouble. Another time, during a winter blow, Charlie, who sailed without an outboard motor, was forced to anchor off a lee shore just outside breaking surf. The Com-Pac gave him a wild ride all night but survived intact… except that his brand-new Danforth had a fluke bent so badly it had to be replaced.
   Apparently a lot of other sailors have had similar experiences. Although not specifically designed for the Gulf Coast, word of the Com-Pac’s quality and seaworthiness quickly spread and by the end of the ‘70s over a thousand had been sold in Florida and beyond. It certainly didn't hurt that it was designed by Clark Mills, who in the late 1940s designed the one-design Optimist pram dinghy, the world’s most popular trainer for junior sailing programs. Other models followed: the Mills-designed Com-Pac 23 and, a few years later, the Bob Johnson-drawn Com-Pac 19. (Johnson is the founder and designer of Island Packet Yachts, who we’ll profile in an upcoming issue.) The line was distinguished by its traditional hull shapes, striking teak detailing, and round, metal-framed portlights set off against a gleaming white hull. Beamy, shoal-draft weekenders with high-lift NASA airfoil keels, they were not built for high speed or extreme windward performance, but they were safe, sturdy, and beautifully finished. The Com-Pac 16 sold in 1974 for $2,988, or about the price of a (then) new compact car.

Origins
The Hutchins Company was founded in 1957 by W. L. “Les” Hutchins, Sr., an inventor and entrepreneur who provided parts and accessories for the automotive industry and the after-market trade. In the early 1970s his interest in sailing led to the development of the Com-Pac 16, an attempt, he said, “to build a small but highly efficient sailboat that would appeal to people who didn’t want to invest too heavily in a boat, yet one they could easily trailer behind a compact car.” It is said that the overall concept for the Com-Pac 16, as presented to designer Clark Mills, was to build a boat which when dismantled would fit nicely into a standard shipping crate! This final specification was never achieved but the original idea certainly was.
   The first few years for the fledgling boatyard were filled with all the melodrama of any new business. Working for almost three years from Clark Mills’ shed in Dunedin, Florida, the production bugs were worked out of the Com-Pac 16 by the elder Hutchins and Buck Thomas, a key employee in the company’s early days in both the construction and marketing operations, as well as builder of the Southern 21. They were soon joined by Les’ sons Gerry and Richard. Gerry had experience in the boatbuilding trade, having worked at Gulfstar Yachts, while Richard had run the metal stamping part of the family business. Hutchins remains a family operation; Richard’s son is now in charge of the steel fabrication facility at the Hutchins yard. As sales of the 16-footer took off, it didn’t take long before the firm moved to more permanent digs in nearby Clearwater.
   The Hutchins Company is still essentially the same business today, 30 years and 5,000 hulls later. It’s run by brothers Gerry, the president, and Richard; their father, Les, remained active in the firm until his passing a few years ago. The firm is no longer involved in the automotive market and has devoted itself entirely to building sailboats. Richard Hutchins says the secret to their success had been to build a good boat with passion, keep the company small and efficient, and to not compete with boat designs already capably delivered by other manufacturers. That also means not competing with their own boats on the used market. The philosophy works. Declining sales of the Com-Pac 16 finally led to discontinuation of that model in 2003, after 3,000 had been sold. The popular Com-Pac 19 met the same fate after a run of more than 600, but only after the tooling was damaged and it became prohibitively expensive to continue production. The Com-Pac 23 is still going strong after a history of 638 hulls (2004).
   In 1985, Hutchins leaped into the potentially lucrative coastal cruiser market with the Com-Pac 27, also a Bob Johnson design. With its 9-1/2 foot beam and more than 3 tons displacement, the Com-Pac 27 was not a trailerable vessel but she was still an evolutionary outgrowth of the proven Hutchins philosophy-a roomy, shoal draft, keel sloop built more with convenience and quality in mind than racing performance. Her lines and overall appearance also shared the traditional looks and spirit that characterized the other Com-Pac yachts.
   Eight years later, Hutchins introduced the flagship of the fleet, the Com-Pac 35, a blue-water cruiser designed to meet the criteria set out by designer Charley Morgan: “shoal draft, stable, sea kindly, and fast enough to give good results under PHRF rules.” It sports a high-tech, Henry Scheel keel to provide decent performance yet keep draft down to a modest 4 feet. Richard Hutchins makes no exaggerated claims for the Com-Pac 35’s ocean crossing abilities; he likes to say that “the boat might make it, but you won’t.” It’s not due to any lack of seaworthiness, but long-distance voyaging is not what she is designed for, lacking among other things the tankage required for extended cruising.
   Not wanting to neglect their traditional trailer sailer market, 1995 saw the Hutchins introduce a transitional model to fill the gap between the 23 and 27-the Com-Pac 25. The design was based on the Watkins 25, Hutchins having purchased the tooling from this short-lived Florida builder. Two short-production-run boats, the Com-Pac 14 and the Com-Pac 33, were produced during this period; the former retired after attracting little customer enthusiasm while the latter was a preliminary version of the Com-Pac 35. Meanwhile, the established models were evolving with modifications and improvements. In addition, Hutchins offers an impressive catalog of options and accessories for a production operation. According to Gerry Hutchins, the company does its best to “customize our boats, particularly the Com-Pac 23 and larger, to fulfill the customer’s needs.”

Construction
The Hutchins plant is located in a light industrial park and consists of several large, well-ventilated metal buildings, cluttered with tools, materials, and parts. Boat hulls are everywhere in various states of assembly and finish, from roughly shaped shells and decks still bristling with glass cloth to gleaming finished yachts on shiny new trailers, wrapped in plastic and ready for shipment.
   The challenge for many boatbuilders is to achieve a balance between quality and economy that maximizes value. Hutchins has adopted a construction philosophy that seeks to reach this balance by employing only quality polyester resins and knitted fiberglass fabrics. It also makes sense for them to subcontract the construction of hulls, liners and decks to other firms. These parts are then shipped back to Hutchins’ Clearwater facility for assembly. These subcontractors are Custom Fiberglass Products of Clearwater, Florida, and JMJ Fiberglass of Pinellas Park, Florida. Dwyer Aluminum Mast Company of N. Branford, Connecticut, provides the mast and rigging for the Com-Pac 23 and the new catboat models. U.S. Spar of Gainesville, Florida, rigs the new Eclipse model (see sidebar xx). The masts and booms for the Com-Pac 25, 27, and 35 are fabricated by Charleston Spars, of Charlotte, North Carolina. All Com-Pac yachts have deck-stepped masts with the exception of the Com-Pac 35, which has a keel-stepped mast.
   No adhesives are used to fasten interior furnishings such as cabinets and berths to the hulls. In the Com-Pac 35, an interior pan, or liner, is glassed to the hull, and the furnishings are then glassed to both hull and liner, contributing to the boat's overall strength and rigidity. In the Com-Pac 25 and Com-Pac 27, a fiberglass pan incorporates all furnishings, including cabinetry, lockers, and shelves. On the Horizon, Eclipse and Com-Pac 23, the interior is a single prefabricated unit of plywood incorporating all finished wood interior pieces which are fastened to it; the entire assembly is lowered in and fiberglassed to the hull. The Picnic Cat has a simple fiberglass interior.
   Positive-action seacocks, not gate valves, are used on all through-hulls in all models. Hulls and decks are joined together with marine adhesive sealant and mechanical fasteners, and in the 27- and 35-foot models the hull-deck joint is fiberglassed as well. There are no high-tech laminates or other space age exotics here, just good quality conventional boat building materials.
   All Com-Pac keel boats are ballasted; the Com-Pac 25, 27, and 35 use lead ingots encased in concrete. The Com-Pac 23 carries concrete ballast only. The Eclipse and the new centerboard catboats, (with the exception of the Picnic Cat) also carry supplementary concrete ballast.
   In addition to the final assembly and finishing of the boats, Hutchins does all of the stainless steel deck fittings and cabinet work. Fully equipped woodworking and steel fabrication facilities are located on site, as are the administrative offices.

New Catboat Line
As the 20th century drew to a close, the Hutchins Company found itself in a remarkable position. Richard Hutchins says the boats were being sold “as fast as we could pop them out.” Almost all its designs still in production were unqualified commercial successes. In an industry dominated by buyouts and corporate takeovers, with respected names bought and sold like worn-out plugs and molds, the firm was thriving, profitable, and still firmly in family hands. Choosing not to rest on its laurels, Hutchins embarked on a bold program of innovation: the introduction of an ambitious new line of trailerable sailboats.
   First, in 1998, came the Picnic Cat, a Clark Mills-designed 14-foot daysailer featuring several departures from the company’s earlier models: It is an open boat, with a centerboard and catboat rig. The Picnic Cat also carries a Hutchins innovation-the Mastendr Quick Rig Sailing System which allows the mast, boom, gaff, sail and all standing rigging to fold down around a hinged pin arrangement into a boom gallows, allowing lightning-fast, single-handed launching and recovery. The potential weak point of the small boat-the centerboard trunk-was eliminated by fabricating a heavy-duty stainless steel swing keel and frame bolted into a box, which is fiberglassed to the hull. In the Picnic Cat, this box is also of stainless steel so the boat requires no additional ballast. In the other cats, the box is fiberglass and is molded as an integral part of the hull. The entire swing keel assembly is fabricated by Hutchins and produced to machine tolerances. Each centerboard/frame unit is tight, strong and identical to those used in its sister yachts, allowing for economy of construction and consistency in quality. The centerboard pivot is not through the hull; instead the board pivots relative to the frame. Control of the board is through a lanyard rove through a tube which leads aft to the cockpit. In spite of the lack of cabin and signature portlights, the Picnic Cat is unmistakably Com-Pac in appearance and quality.
   Two years later, Clark Mills was again called on, this time to design the Sun Cat, based on the same overall concept as the Picnic Cat but with the addition of a cabin. (There is also an open, cabinless variant-the Sun Cat Daysailer-with enough seating to accommodate eight adults in an enormous cockpit.) At 17 feet 4 inches, the Sun Cat is somewhat reminiscent of the Com-Pac 16 except for the rigging innovations and centerboard technology introduced in the Picnic Cat. But down below the little catboat boasts a finish and standard equipment list that puts it into another league altogether: bilge pump, teak and holly sole, two 6-1/2-foot berths, a chain locker, and a forward hatch. The yacht’s overall look and feel above the waterline owe a lot to the 19th century Cape Cod cat, but the centerboard and aluminum kick-up spade rudder bring her right into the new millennium. Below, the Sun Cat is a very big boat for its size, beautifully finished and with a list of options for every budget. It is a serious mini-yacht.
   The third entry in the “New Breed of Cat Boat” came when Hutchins purchased the molds for the Herreshoff America, designed by Halsey Herreshoff and originally built during the 1970s by Nowak and Williams (Bristol, Rhode Island). The Hutchins brothers kept the classic shape but worked their usual magic below the waterline with some help from Bruce Bingham (designer of the 20-foot Flicka built by Pacific Seacraft), and made some rig modifications that incorporate the Mastendr technology, sail reefing points and a modest bowsprit. The result, the Horizon Cat, completes the Com-Pac triple threat of shallow draft, traditional catboats. Hull #1 hit the water in 2002. Much more than just a Sun Cat on steroids (the Horizon Cat is 20 feet overall, 8-1/3 feet on the beam, and draws 2 feet 6 inches board up, 6 feet down), this is a remarkable boat.
   The latest Com-Pac, introduced this year, is the long-awaited replacement for the discontinued Com-Pac 16 and 19. The 20-foot 10-inch Eclipse is Hutchins’ first new sloop in years, utilizing both the centerboard and Mastendr rig pioneered in the catboats. It is being offered at an introductory price of about $20,000 (March, 2004) [double-check $$ prior to publication], or about the price of a new compact car.
   Richard Hutchins says that all existing models will remain in production for the foreseeable future, and, interestingly, that introduction of the new line of catboats has seemed to rekindle customer interest in the company’s older designs. As for the future, does the Hutchins Company have anything new and exciting in the works? When I asked Gerry and Richard about this they only smiled and replied, “Wait and see.”

   Com-Pac Yachts, Hutchins Company, Inc., 1195 Kapp Dr., Clearwater, FL 33765, 727-443-4408, fax 727-443-1088, www.Com-PacYachts.com.


Sidebar

[Karen: Remind me to have Henry or me update these prices prior to publication! They’ll probably go up January 1, 2005, or thereabouts.]

Updated pricing information, specifications, and optional and standard equipment listings for the Com-Pac line should be obtained directly from the manufacturer, but for purposes of comparison, data for current production models are listed below.

Trailerable Boats

   Picnic Cat   Sun Cat   Horizon Cat   Eclipse SL   Com-Pac 23/3

LOA   14'   17'4"   20'   20' 10"   23' 11"
Beam   6' 6"   7' 3"   8' 4"   7' 4"   7' 10"
Displacement   500 lbs   1500 lbs   2500 lbs   2200 lbs   3000 lbs
Draft (board up)   6"   14"   26"   18"   27"
  (board down)   38"   54"   60"   62"   N/A
Sail Area    109 sq ft   150 sq ft   205 sq ft   200 sq ft   250 sq ft
Base Price    $8,895   $14,995   $27,265   $19,995

Cruising Boats

   Com-Pac 25   Com-Pac 27/2   Com-Pac 35

LOA   28' 2"   29' 7"   36' 9"
Beam   8' 6"   9' 6"   11' 10"
Displacement   4800 lbs   6500 lbs   12500 lbs
Draft    30î   42î   48î
Sail Area    308 sq ft    380 sq ft   579 sq ft
Base Price   $44,495   $82,495   $154,000




The following table summarizes production runs for all Hutchins yachts, by years and hull number.


Boat   Production Run   No. Hulls

Com-Pac 14   1988-1989   31
Com-Pac 16   1974-2003   3,000
Picnic Cat   1998-Present   169
Sun Cat   2000-Present   146
Com-Pac 19   1982-2002   624
Horizon Cat   2002-Present   25
Eclipse   2004   [check before pub]
Com-Pac 23   1979-Present   638
Com-Pac 25   1995-Present   40
Com-Pac 27   1985-Present   181
Com-Pac 33   1990-1993   10
Com-Pac 35   1993-Present   19

Author's Bio:

Henry Cordova trained as an astronomer but now works as a professional geographer and cartographer for county government in South Florida. After a tour of duty in the U.S. Navy as a navigation technician aboard a guided missile frigate, he learned to sail and has owned two boats: a San Francisco Pelican and a MacGregor 22. He has sailed extensively along the Gulf and Pacific Coasts, on both his own boat and those of others. Besides sailing, he enjoys amateur astronomy, celestial navigation, and writing.

[Citroen/Dave]

Thanks, Henry. 

A well written article that fills in a lot of gaps about the history of our boats.  To be treasured . . .

Dave

[skip1930]

Thank you Henry ... another Masterpiece.

skip.