“Panope”: How a blue-water schooner was transformed into a comfortable cutter
Dieter Loibner
· 16.08.2026
With a foaming bow wave and a reefed mainsail, the “Panope” races across Mystery Bay near Port Townsend in the US state of Washington. Seen from the low vantage point of the escort boat, the cutter looks huge, almost menacing – which is actually quite astonishing given its hull length of just ten metres. No crew is needed, as the vessel is designed for single-handed operation. Only the owner, Steve Goodwin, 54, is on board, lounging casually in the stern cockpit, with neither a hand on the helm nor the autopilot engaged. Nor does he need to, as ‘Panope’, with her aluminium hard-chined hull and long keel, sails entirely of her own accord. Without any pressure on the rudder, as if on rails.
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“On a beam reach, she sails like a freight train,” enthuses Goodwin about the boat he has known and sailed since childhood. “From ten knots of wind, when the leeward bulwark goes under water, that’s when the magic happens,” he continues. According to Goodwin, the cutter sails best on a broad reach in a moderate wind. He only needs to reef when the wind reaches force six. And when the wind picks up, the jib is enough, but even then the ‘Panope’ practically steers itself.
The schooner rig becomes a cutter rig
This balanced sailing performance is also due to the cutter rig, which replaced the old schooner rig and gave the ship a different appearance and improved sailing characteristics. To achieve this, Goodwin moved the mast further forward to the position of the old foremast and later installed a folding bowsprit, to which a good, second-hand jib measuring 17 square metres is attached, allowing the centre of sail pressure and the centre of lateral pressure to be better balanced.
Reduced weight, no overhangs that drive up mooring fees, ease of use and lower maintenance requirements are further advantages of this rigging. A practical and unusual feature is the diagonal shroud at the base of the solid aluminium mast, which can be conveniently installed by a single person in just a few minutes using a jib pole.
The “Panope” is a sturdy aluminium yacht
The hull design is a Saugeen Witch, drawn by Thomas E. Colvin, whose designs were popular amongst enthusiasts of heavy, sturdy and ocean-going cruising boats. These are not designed for performance, but for stability and versatility, which is why there is no standard rig. Goodwin’s father Lynn, 83, a retired marine biologist, commissioned ‘Panope’ in the 1970s as a gaff schooner from the now-closed Greenwich Shipyard in Vancouver, Canada, and had actually intended to set off on a long voyage with her.
As a fly fisherman who grew up in conservative Idaho, far from the ocean, boats were primarily a means to an end for him. He knew nothing about sailing, but a friend persuaded him to order an aluminium Saugeen Witch with a hull thickness of just under five millimetres, unfitted, for 13,000 US dollars. “He told me, ‘You don’t need an engine,’ but that was a mistake,” says Lynn, who later had a 15 PS Yanmar diesel engine fitted. He fitted the interior himself, using oak and cedar, as he enjoyed working with wood. The launch took place in 1981 – with the help of a house transporter. “We took the boat out fishing, caught crabs and prawns, sailed north to Barkley Sound on Vancouver Island and once to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico,” recalls Goodwin senior. “In Cabo, we could moor in the harbour for free, and there were chickens running around everywhere in the streets.”
It was through his work as a marine biologist that ‘Panope’ got her name. In the 1960s, Lynn Goodwin played a key role in researching the distribution of the elephant trunk or king clam in the Pacific Northwest. Its scientific name is Panopea generosa, but it is also known as the ‘penis clam’ due to its shape. These marine creatures are now farmed on a large scale for export to Asia, where they are regarded as a delicacy and a supposed aphrodisiac.
Son Steve is turning “Panope” on its head
At some point, sailing and maintaining ‘Panope’ became too much of a burden for Father Lynn, but above all, he no longer fancied the 900-mile crossing from Cabo to San Diego on the way north. At that point, he had the boat transported back to Port Townsend by lorry, and eventually the day came when it was due to be sold. However, his son Steve wanted to keep the boat in the family, so he became the new owner and gave it a major overhaul to convert it for use as a coastal cruiser.
Work began around the turn of the millennium. And it is still not complete today. Since then, winter has been the time for hard work, and summer the time for sailing, as the ‘Panope’ remained operational even during the refit.
Goodwin Junior is a multi-talented self-taught craftsman who has acquired a wide range of practical skills as a boatbuilder, yacht crew member, site foreman and metal artist. He can do welding, carpentry and electrical work in his sleep. On the side, he works as a systems specialist at the Cape George shipyard, where he is also allowed to carry out the odd job or two as part of the refit of his boat, ‘Panope’. Goodwin isn’t just a boat builder, however; he has also built two houses and an aeroplane – even though he couldn’t fly at the time.
As soon as he had his commercial pilot’s licence in the bag, he set up Goodwin Aviation, his own aviation company, through which he organised sightseeing flights in a biplane and transported particularly pressed-for-time passengers to Seattle International Airport by air taxi. To maintain flexibility with his boat project, which he was running alongside this, Goodwin welded together a single-axle trailer that is so precisely balanced that it requires only a small van to tow the seven-tonne ‘Panope’ from its winter storage near his home to the workshop and the marina.
First, he replaced the small marine diesel engine – which his father had had fitted as a retrofit – with a 40-PS model better suited to use in the tidal waters and rapids of the Inside Passage. The next project was a radical intervention, both visually and functionally: Goodwin sacrificed the ‘Panopes’ cockpit to make way for a deckhouse, which he welded together from aluminium and which extended the cabin structure aft. Inside, two longitudinal benches provide seating for up to six people, completely sheltered from the weather but with all-round views through large windows.
“Panope” can run aground at an angle of ten degrees
Goodwin fitted the original wooden steering wheel – which his father had made and which operates the cables to the rudder quadrant – on the port side of the companionway, with a recess for the spoke handles. He explains that he did not design the deckhouse “with survival in mind”, says Goodwin. Rather, the boat’s purpose is coastal sailing in higher latitudes, where it can be cold and rainy even in summer in the anchorage bays of the fjords. Comfort was therefore the priority. That said, with its long keel and the aluminium support – just under 1.7 metres long – for beaching, the ‘Panope’ would also cut a fine figure on the mudflats. When necessary, Goodwin bolts this support into one of the unused aft pitting fittings left over from the schooner rig. In this way, the boat sits on the beach at an angle of about ten degrees, which on the one hand enhances comfort on board and on the other allows maintenance work to be carried out on the underwater hull.
“Bigger on the inside than on the outside” is a cliché used to describe the interior space of compact cars, but in a figurative sense it also applies to the cosy “Panopes” cabin. From the steep companionway stairs to the composting toilet in the bow compartment – which he designed and built himself and which neatly separates urine and faeces to prevent unpleasant odours – the living space is mainly finished in red cedar and oak and features a completely open-plan layout. Only half-height bulkheads or frame bulkheads separate the galley, saloon and sleeping quarters from one another. This creates an airy and welcoming atmosphere, though there is virtually no privacy. In total, there is sleeping accommodation for up to six people, but four would be ideal for longer voyages. The saloon benches can be converted into berths in just a few simple steps; those on the starboard side feature a berth board for the off-watch crew during night-time voyages.
Another practical feature is the design of the sturdy and versatile coffee table, which, thanks to a multidimensional and robust swivel arm, can be locked into any position and thus used as a desk, dining table or even a workbench.
The tender is suspended from a single-arm davit
Since the refit, there’s also plenty of easily accessible storage space under the berths, in the bow, at the sides of the engine room and in the stern. “We take up to four watercraft with us on a trip, and nobody even notices,” laughs Goodwin. These include a stand-up paddleboard, a rubber dinghy, a tandem kayak (all inflatable and therefore compact to stow) and the Walker Bay plastic tender, which hangs from a single-arm davit that can be swivelled 180 degrees forwards in harbour, along with the tender, to reduce the overall length and save on mooring fees.
Despite all the extra weight and clutter on board, the boat’s sailing performance was also close to his heart. So, with some effort, he removed most of the old concrete ballast and a number of lead ingots from the bilge in order to distribute more weight further forward, ensuring that ‘Panope’ sits on a level keel. Without further ado, he remoulded the lead ingots using a makeshift furnace to fit them precisely into the recesses in the bilge, then sealed them with epoxy and fibreglass to prevent them from coming into contact with the aluminium plates of the hull. ‘Panope’s’ ballast is largely concrete-free, positioned further forward and lower down, much to the benefit of her sailing performance.
Goodwin even welded aluminium deck plates to channel any stray water into a drain well, from where it is automatically pumped overboard. Another fine example is the anchor locker, which – just like the anchor bracket and the manual winch on the foredeck – has been meticulously designed and crafted to ensure the chain drops neatly into its compartment. It’s practically a matter of honour, as Goodwin runs an informative YouTube channel as a hobby, on which he tests the holding power of anchors under load on various types of seabed. Initially, he used the ‘Panope’ for this purpose, until he purchased an open skiff with an outboard motor specifically for this task.
Unconventional working methods with brilliant results
As a self-confessed perfectionist, Goodwin also wanted to achieve a clean finish on the plywood surfaces in the cabin without using a spray gun at all. First, he sealed the grain with epoxy or clear varnish and then flooded the wood, which was lying flat on the workbench, with paint. To shorten the drying time, he also built a makeshift drying chamber. Like so much of this project, this process is somewhat unorthodox, but the result ultimately justifies the means.
‘Panope’ is no delicate diva, but rather a working boat, with sturdy fittings and practical features that make her safe and easy to handle.
The fact that the cutter also boasts a strikingly charming appearance is a credit to the owner, who set about the work with skill and care. “I felt that the forward-set rig took some of the visual impact away from the superstructure, and that the deck looked tidier,” explains Goodwin at the end of the day’s sailing. “I’m pleased – some things are simply nicer and more practical,” he adds, casting off the lines to chug back to his idyllic anchorage in Mystery Bay.
There, he can enjoy the peace and quiet and plan the next renovation project on the boat that his father bought almost half a century ago and named after a curious giant clam.
“Panope” – more of a workboat than a yacht
What looks like a success today is the result of a boatbuilder’s brute force and rough-and-ready approach. Videos show Goodwin using a sledgehammer to demolish the old interior fittings (which, after all, were made by his father) and tearing everything out except the insulation foam, in order to realise his vision of comfort at sea. That was by no means all. The stern was fitted with a deckhouse, and Goodwin can steer from both inside and outside using the same wheel. The self-taught sailor swapped the original schooner rig for a gaff rig without a bowsprit, to save on harbour fees and achieve a tidier deck with fewer controls. He also added a single-arm davit, a watertight bulkhead, a new engine and various fittings he welded himself from aluminium. You can see all this and more on the enterprising DIY enthusiast’s YouTube channel, which is well worth a look:
Technical Specifications for “Panope”
- Type: Saugeen Witch
- Designer: Thomas E. Colvin
- Material: Aluminium
- Fuselage length: 10.36 m
- Waterline length: 8.30 m
- Width: 3.02 m
- Draught: 1.35 m
- Weight: 6.8 t
- Wing area: 61.8 m²
- Lift-to-drag ratio: 4.1
- Engine (Yanmar): 40 PS