THE LEVANT 15 – Chuck Paine Yacht Design LLC

Perhaps the single finest sailboat in the world—the LEVANT 15. If you love sailing and want, and deserve, and can afford, the finest sailboat ever designed and built anywhere in the world, read on. First a few pictures to tantalize you.

The LEVANT 15 fits neatly amid Chuck Paine’s growing fleet of elegant, hand-built in America, keel sailboats for the no-longer athletic sailor. Like his recent larger and smaller designs (the PAINE 14 and YORK 18) she is styled to honor her famous and gorgeous predecessor, the Herreshoff 12½. But with her fin keel and carbon fiber mast and separate, partially balanced rudder and anti-twistoff jib she is a bit faster and a lot more fun to sail. And far easier and cheaper to maintain. We believe Chuck Paine’s new family-sized keelboats are the finest sailboats of any size built anywhere in the world.

CHUCK PAINE’S FLEET OF ELEGANT NEW DESIGNS: THE LEVANT 15, THE PAINE 14, AND THE YORK 18

Just as Nat Herreshoff would surely have done today, she has a seamless, leakproof and unsinkable hull built of lightweight but super strong epoxy cold molded construction. She is available now from French & Webb boatbuilders of Belfast, Maine. The first six boats have been launched, and two more are under construction. The LEVANT 15 is a floating work of art built by hard-working and hard-to-find American craftsmen who value the quality of your new yacht above all else, as anyone with any intelligence can easily discern from the accompanying photos and drawings.

The LEVANT 15 is a yacht you will once again actually USE. Just as you used and loved every summer weekend the Blue Jay or Lightning or Snipe or… (insert here) … that you absolutely cherished before the boat salesmen convinced you you’d be sailing off to Tahiti in your dotage. Many of us (including Chuck Paine) have owned a succession of ever larger yachts, but have discovered over time that they required ever greater available time to make use of, crews that were impossible to find, and rapidly inflating yearly expense for marina slips, insurance, maintenance and worst of all, because nobody wants them anymore, depreciation. The LEVANT 15 is exquisitely designed, built and finished. Quite a few folks bought oceangoing yachts thinking they might owing to their size at least impress their neighbors. The reality is that nowadays you are looked at as a fool if you own a white-elephant that sits unused and fading all summer in a marina slip sucking money out of your pocket. Once you come to your senses and own your LEVANT 15 your wisdom will be rewarded every time you go sailing, when virtually every person you encounter on the water goes out of his way to come over and shout…“What a beautiful boat!”

The LEVANT 15 is in every possible way optimized for trailering behind a standard-sized automobile. Her carbon fiber mast requires no stays and weighs with its halyards a mere 23 pounds, so it is as easy to deploy as that on a Laser dinghy. Easier, actually, as the sail need not be attached before stepping the mast, and is simply swung up into its authentic bronze Herreshoff-type mast ring, Iwo-Jima style. Chuck has invented a nifty way of using Velcro straps to attach the mainsail to the mast very quickly… no tedious fitting of little slides to little tracks, so the boat can be launched and gotten going in a matter of minutes.

This boat’s construction and finish are in a word, exquisite. So it is far from cheap to build, to be honest. But it will retain its value far better than any boat you have ever owned before and will certainly rise in value owing to its rarity and waiting times for acquisition. As an intrinsically valuable hard asset whose cost of replication is rising at a rapid rate, it is a classically cogent hedge against inflation- but one that can be used to hugely enhance your quality of life no matter what the gov-mint does to trash the value of our currency.

In a single phrase, the LEVANT 15 is “A TRAILERABLE MINI-YACHT.” At 1000 pounds the yacht is light enough to be trailed behind the moderate sized automobile that you already own—no truck or SUV nor surge brakes are required. Or of course it can live on your mooring or in a marina slip. An optional custom-fitted highest quality galvanized trailer with integral tongue-extender makes launching and retrieving a snap. The carbon fiber mast requires no stays and is simply swung up into place just as is done on the original Herreshoff 12½, excepting that the rigging-less carbon fiber mast weighs only half as much! And in the off-season she fits right into your garage where you can perform the yearly maintenance yourself at near negligible expense, and proudly show her off to your dinner-guests.

The rare yachtsman who desires a daysailor of investment quality is finally blessed with a number of clear choices, all with splendid fit and finish (and commensurate pricetags, which will be soon forgotten as they inflate in value). The available fleet until the introduction of the LEVANT 15 consisted of the PAINE 14, Herreshoff and Doughdish 12 1/2, York 18 and Pisces 21. The LEVANT 15 fills the obvious gap between the Paine 14 and the H12/Doughdish. Given her modern underbody, although she falls halfway between the Paine 14 and Herreshoff 12½ in size, she is the equal and more of the H12 in performance.

Want to see why people love the way this boat sails? Have a look at the following videos of the boat under sail in a light breeze. Turn your speakers on- there is sound.

The yacht is built to order in Belfast, Maine by French & Webb. They take between 6 and 9 months to complete. Six of them have been launched so far. Two more are under construction, and hull number 9 is now available to build. More information about the boat, from its builder’s perspective, may be found by going to www.frenchwebb.com. The demonstrator yacht will come up for sale this winter, at a price 15% less than it can be reproduced for, thanks to covidflation.

A LEVANT 15 for delivery in early 2024 will cost between $90,000 and $110,000 depending upon the specification of hardwoods, fittings and options.

A sailboat for Florida. Until now there were no sailboats both shallow enough and of sufficiently high performance to be usable on the many canals in Florida. So often the wind comes right down the canal, making sailing there either a beat straight to windward or a dead run. Anything can go downwind—even a Styrofoam cup—but tacking successfully to windward in a narrow channel is beyond the capability of most existing sailboats– until now. The LEVANT 15 can be short-tacked to windward in any canal in Florida without effort—no sheet needs to be trimmed. From this day forward you will begin to see TWO boat lifts at the edge of every canal in Florida. One for your center console, and one for your LEVANT 15!

Appealing options may be easily added. A custom fitted galvanized trailer with a long tongue-extender is the first and perhaps only option most owners will want. A demonstrator exists and awaits your inspection.

This design is featured in the recent book; THE BOATS I’VE LOVED- 20 Classic Sailboat Designs by Chuck Paine. This is a beautiful, full colored, first-class book which give you lots more information on this design, and can be purchased elsewhere on this website. It’s fun reading, and will teach you a lot about small boats of very high quality which are, and have always been, Chuck Paine’s stock in trade.

For those who own or have owned a Chuck Paine design, and those who aspire to owning one someday, here is a fun Facebook Group where you can meet and greet others with similar interests.

I have (with some help) created a Facebook group where people who like the boats I’ve designed over the years can meet and discuss. Take a look and consider joining and/or sharing with your boating friends. Just click the blue text and join. https://www.facebook.com/groups/424532172574012/ “

I’ll be in the background serving as “moderator”. I’m hoping that many of the well- over- 1000 owners of a Paine design will enjoy belonging to this group.

Chuck Paine