Professional BoatBuilder - April-May 2018

58 Professional BoatBuilder

YARD PROFILE: Schooner Creek

hand-finishing to create the quality

we’re looking for.”

When I ask how he minimizes costs,

Rander replies with a second question:

“What is the tool really doing for you?

We’ve built boats and parts on male

plugs where all the exterior finish was

done on the outside, which is probably

the quickest way for a one-off. Much of

what we’ve done over the years

has been with veneer or com-

posite foam core so you can do

a very quick station/stringer

mold and either core or strip-

plank or veneer over it to cre-

ate the hull you’re looking for.

Then when you’re done, just

throw away the stations. It’s

instant. With a multi hull, it is

actually cheaper to build a

one-off female mold with

strip planking and do the

detailing on the inside instead

of fairing the outside of two

identical boats. To save time

and money, instead of build-

ing a plug and then the mold

and then the part, we simply

maintain profitability. When asked for

insider tips, he first talks about tooling.

“We try to keep the build times and

costs down simply to meet the market.

One thing Schooner Creek has done

well over the years is to inexpensively

tool up new projects. We walk a fine

line between spending a lot of money

building perfect tooling or doing more

lake. Eventually moved to Hood River,

Oregon, where I worked in the wind-

surfing industry for Chinook Sailing

Products and Ezzy Sails for about 10

years. At the same time, I was teaching

snowboarding on Mt. Hood, where I

met Steve and learned about Rage,

which he was racing to Hawaii. I did a

delivery back from Hawaii in 1998 on

Rage. Since then I had several boats

built by Steve at Schooner Creek,

including Hana Mari in 1999, and Oce-

lot, launched in 2006, which I raced in

the Bay Area for eight years as well as

here. In 2011, I commissioned a fiber-

glass and foam Wylie 48 [14.6m] called

Haven, which is the boat I own now.”

Flanigan’s transition into yard owner

began as a skiing friendship—he’s a

snowboarder and Rander a telemark

skier. The relationship matured when

the City of Portland wanted to put a

light rail line through Schooner Creek’s

previous location via eminent domain.

Flanigan solved the problem by pur-

chasing the current property. “It has

worked out well,” he says. “I’ve been the

landlord since ’99 and seen all the boats

move out of here. My wife, Shauna,

and I took over operations in 2015 and

have grown the business from 25 to 40

employees. We’ve got one big boat

under way and another about to start,

both 65' Morrelli & Melvin catamarans

for commercial use. One for O’Neill

Yacht Charters in Santa Cruz for its

O’Neill Sea Odyssey on Monterey Bay.

The other one we’re starting will go to

Teralani Sailing Adventures of Lahaina,

Hawaii, for the whale-watching and

snorkeling market.”

Also in the shop is a 28' x 5' (8.5m x

1.5m) oceangoing rowboat designed

by Eric Sponberg (see Design Brief,

PBB No. 161, page 56). The all-carbon

craft was commissioned by a U.S. Air

Force fighter pilot who, on retirement,

wants to row from the West Coast of

the U.S. to Australia.

Low-Cost Tooling

Having built 70 boats over 40 years,

Rander has learned a thing or two.

Despite pleading financial ignorance,

he has managed to meet payroll and

This oceangoing rowboat, commissioned by a U.S. Air Force jet pilot for a planned

voyage across the Pacific Ocean, was built by placing foam core over stations. Then,

after fairing, carbon fiber cloth was laid over it and wetted out with epoxy resin.

Schooner Creek did not make a traditional mold for the boat. 

A curved corner section of a

seat mold for the catamaran is

shown in build.

COURTESY SCHOONER CREEK

SchoonerCreek172-ADFinal.indd 58 2/22/18 3:47 PM