Send a picture or three
and a short description of your boat and its launch to chuck.leinweber@gmail.com
for inclusion here next month.
Mary Agnes
I have been building sailboats and sailing them for almost 60 years here in Southwest Florida. Mary Agnes is my latest, built out on Pine Island in a garage of mine. It is 20' (that is the longest I could get in that building). Beam 6' draft 8". The lug has about 150 sq. ft. The mast in the pix was too heavy, so I my step-son found me a Fiberglass light pole which I married to the bottom of the wooden one just above the tabernacle. It is
10 lbs lighter and 5 ft. longer.
I have been making sails since I started sailing and have a good old Singer I bought from a Sailmaker 50 years ago. I started when all sails were make from Vivitex. When I reached the age of 75 I sold my Cruising boat Sunshine (used the plans of SEAGOER" (Rudder Mag) to my Step-Son and bought a hull and engine of a power boat. That lasted a year. I wanted something to mess around Pine Island Sound in and drew plans for Mary Agnes. Half way in the building I had to take time out for a cancer to be removed from my colon. That caused me to miss a good launching date. But it did get in the water and is what I wanted. The 4HP Outboard gives it the hull-speed of about 6-7 K. It sails well, but has a lee helm if the boards are not all the way down. I could fix this by moving them fwd, but it's not worth the effort. I raked the mast more and it helps.
Now, all good designs need to be made better. If I were to do it again I would give it a foot more beam, more beam at the stern and make the bottom out of heaver material. I used plywood, but it is glassed on both sides with Dacron type fabric instead of Fiberglass. Using mostly Polyester resin. I just do not like to work with epoxy. I know, I know but I have worked with all of them and I still use the old stuff. One more thing about my old boat Sunshine. She is sitting at the dock out back just aft of Mary Agnes and never look better. I sailed her from Cape Ann north to the Perlos Islands in the Pacific and that was when there was no thing as GPS. Please go to - https://www.qrz.comin the upper corner type KI4FD. It's my bio. BTW, I have been know as T. Bone since I was in AUBURN.
T. Bone Whatley
Needlefish
Here's some photos of the Michalak/Culler Batto/Otter I built this summer. I say Michalak/Culler because it's built to Jim Michalak's Batto plans, but I borrowed a number aesthetic details from Capt. Pete's original Otter. It's long , narrow and fast, and pretty much named itself "Needlefish". The row rig is my own design.
This will be my solo "creek rocket" for fall rowing. I knew this was going to be a light boat but how about 52.4 lbs for an 18' boat!
Jake Millar
Trinket
Just a note to let you know that "Trinket" was launched in June. "Trinket" is a John Marples design called a Seaclipper 16. It uses a Hobie 14 sail rig that includes sails that we sewed from Sailrite kits. It has been an exciting boat to sail and at Sail Oklahoma we were timed on GPS at 13.9 mph. Our season is over now but we will continue to enjoy it as soon as we can next spring. We hope to get to a few different Messabout's next year.
Bob & Virgene Trygg Duluth, Minnesota
Drugsub
It worked as good as expected with a small problem of tracking, some work will have to be investigated on this and propeller pitch as it does as fast in idle as at top speed. The top photo shows it on the Shoalhaven river.
This is a follow-up on an August "Splash" report which featured a smart little kayak/surf ski type fun boat design now know as "Water Rat", that came out of Ross Lillistone's boatshop, and I direct readers to refer to my comments back then, rather than re-hash them here.
Since finishing my Water Rat, circumstances contrived to delay her first launching, but just this week my wife & I test-flew her in the crystal clear waters of beautiful Shoal Bay, Port Stephens, less than an hour's drive north of Newcastle on the east coast of Australia.
We were surprised at how fast she was given her relatively short length at 9', and found her wide beam made her extremely stable which will suit paddlers of all shapes & sizes & will promote confidence in first-timers. I found also that when I positioned the back rest further forward to suit my wife & tried this position myself, there was no noticeable difference in speed.
Perhaps the highlight was when a small group of passing kayakers in (plastic) craft paddled in to have a better look at that smart little bright red & white boat sitting on the sand next to us and on closer inspection announced what a good looking craft she is! The ladies, particularly, were very taken by her lines.
This is a seriously good design & goes together without any fuss.
Ross has since stretched the design, for a much bigger customer than me, to about 10'9" which the longest you can get out of two sheets of 8' plywood.
I have attached a number of pics for inclusion here & have added a a few more to the "Water Rat" album in "Photos."
Ross' busy design & building schedule has probably not allowed him to produce full plans yet of Water Rat, but I think they are in the pipeline.
Al Burke
Drifter 17
The the Drifter 17 is my latest design, which I launched in August. I wanted a small tri with a cabin and a comfortable bunk that I could anchor out on, without using a tent, or camping on the beach. I was inspired by the designs of Ray Kendrick. He has some beautiful small tris with cabins. I never really thought of putting a cabin on a boat this size. His boat use multi chine construction, but I really wanted to try strip planking the bottom, with plywood sides, for a better hull shape. I'm really happy how that part came out. Gypsy Wind is a fairly complicated boat to build as I used 1/8" luan plywood, and stringers to keep her light. A boat with a cabin is a lot more work than an open daysailer. It takes about an hour to put everything together and launch her. She sails very well, and seems quite fast. It's nice to anchor at the end of the day, and relax and have some dinner, and have a comfortable place to sleep. I'm hoping to trailer Gypsy Wind across the country, and have some sailing adventures along the way.
I'm doing a blog with all the construction photos for anyone who interested.
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