Flicka Daphne

Daphne is Pacific Seacraft hull #1, and Darren Davis set down what is known of her origins in Flicka Friends #70 (Summer 2020). The story that came with the boat is that she was already in the mould when Pacific Seacraft bought it from Nor'Star in 1978; she carries a Pacific Seacraft hull identification number and was apparently sold as a kit. She is also one of the very few Pacific Seacraft hulls to show the grapes in the scrollwork on the bow — a detail Davis understood was ground off the mould at around hull 6 or 7.

Davis, a retired Coast Guard quartermaster who had built furniture for a living and holds a boatbuilding degree, bought her after a friend in Alameda turned one up, and began by pulling out her amateur interior joinery, much of it fastened with exterior drywall screws. Work stopped there. Writing in 2020 he described her still sitting on her trailer, fitted with the wrong rig — a sawn-off mast from a much larger boat — and set out his intention to make her a respectable sloop and keep her in the Sea of Cortez. His sailing in the meantime was being done aboard a gaff-rigged Flicka, Island Maiden.

Daphne is cutter rigged with a tapered 2x8 in. bowsprit and a boomkin with twin backstays on the stern (both of which I have not seen on any other Flicka, yet) The interior was modified by a previously owner so I don’t know what it looked like originally. There is no inner liner or built in head. There is a four drawer cabinet built-in about 14 ins. wide by 30ins. high between the starboard berth and the forward berths. There is a space of 20 ins. wide forward of the stove (port side) and the four drawer cabinet (starboard side) and the forward berth that is a mystery- the floor rises about seven inches and its an empty space from port to starboard. It is clear that material was cut away here but what? a head? full bulkheads? I would be very interested in any background or old photos of Daphne. I would love to know what the old layout of the interior looked like.