Pure Purpose

This month’s design is the Camarone 40 (Spanish for “shrimp”), which is neither a full-on sailboat nor a full-on powerboat. I designed her for Spencer Duncan and Eric Letham, two biologists from British Columbia, Canada, planning a several-year journey around the world. Their plan was to conduct research, and they wanted a motorsailer as their base.

Letham had previously built two of my designs (a Dipper 17 and a Candlefish 16), and he knew the specific needs for this boat were different. This trip would involve plenty of motoring in remote fjords that rarely see consistent