Aviateur

The launch and first sea-trials of AVIATEUR 5.70m have been a success in various conditions of winds. What a volume for cruising!

The boat is comfortable, easy to sail, and stiff. The first photos/videos are available here: https://www.hensevalyachtdesign.com/

For professional constructions, contact Mr Sébastien Le Bars - Pichavant Yachting: contact@pichavant.com For home-builders, contact the yacht designer: eric.henseval@orange.fr

Have a good flight! Best regards,

Eric H

Trimaran

Dalliance: Homeport - Tallahassee, FL

Maiden Voyage / Sea Trials - 30 JAN 2011 St. Georges Island State Park Construction began on 20 MAR 2010

LOA: 17.5' BOA: 12' Draft: 5" board up / 23" board down

Without anyone onboard, she floats well above her designed waterline. At a displacement of 650 pounds, the waterline is from the turn in her stem to the turn in her transom.

In this photo, She was not pulled ashore, but was just afloat and drifting.

She sports an 85 SF square-top main, and a cutter rig. The genoa is, with the The Genny partially unfurls, while I try to set up the Torqeedo outboard for its first test.

As evidenced by the glass like waters, it was not particularly windy on launch day.

Because she floats so high, it appears I'll be flying a hull regardless of wind conditions.

The tide was low but flooding. The line in the water behind Dalliance is an exposed oyster bar. There is about 10 inches of water here. The rudder could only be partially lowered.

The winds offshore did fill in a little and finally got a reliable 3 to 5 knots.

I've still gat a ways to go in getting the sheet leads right, and fine tuning the homemade Poly Tarp genoa. It is also obvious not only are some cleats not located properly, but some additional jam cleats are needs. But all the same, on this outing the GPS indicated a top speed of 4.8 knots, and she was able to tack through 95 degrees.

Al in all, a very pleasing first outing.

See you on the water!

Duckworks was a major enabler for this project, including: epoxy, pintles & gudgeons, deck hardware, rigging, deck hatches, nifty decal and much, much more!

Ron Falkey

Texas Sled

We needed to get Howard's Texas Sled off of it's trailer (never try to work on a trailer with a boat on it) so we launched it off my beach for a while. It's not finished yet, still need a motor but it was really impressive. Stable as a rock and seemed to float in about an inch of water. It's going to be a fantastic fishing boat some day.

Dave

Lucas Boatworks and Happy Hour Club

Bird

Technically the 35' long Bird isn't launched yet but it is out of the storage space shop ready for a safari fitout; rudder, seats, pumps, light and all the other stuff required to get paddlers down the river. The boat was designed for the Texas Water Safari by yours truly. Rob Leef wanted a four man boat to finish well though not expecting to finish first. The boat is a foam core composite with a fairly dense Corecell foam skinned with a carbon/kevlar hybrid fabric. I'm not sure of some of the details on the skins but do know that they had some difficulty in wetting out the hybrid fabric.

Cheers, Skip Johnson

Schooner

Here's the 12 foot long thirty pound schooner that Steve's been working on. A Wee Lassie. Not sure if it's really a schooner. The front mast is shorter than the back one but the sprit is taller. It actually sailed here in the river today and if you can make a boat move here it should be a winner in a real water place with real wind . He may be on to something here, a true car top sailboat.

David Lucas

Lucas Boatworks and Happy Hour Club

Rifleman

Rifleman designed by John Welsford

The launch has happened at last! The boat was actually sent off for fitting of motor and instruments 11/09, but circumstances were such that things took a little longer than planned.

What can I say John? You have designed a beautiful boat which attracts a lot of attention (as did/does my Joansa - the Slithytove)) and which is a joy to use.

The MaggieAnne was launched a week ago and has been in the water 4 times now. It is amazing how much attention it has attracted - so many people want to know about it. Most assume that it is a rebuilt old-timer and are staggered to find out it's just a backyard build. We even had the water police leave their boat and come over for a chat, telling us that they had given us a run past out on the water and wanted to see more (I must have been too busy fishing, as I didn't see their boat!).

We're still running our 30hp Tohatsu 4stroke in, and have only 6 hours on the clock. At 4000 rpm we are planing at 22kph/14mph/12 knots, and at 5000rpm we were doing 43kph/27mph/24 knots. The cruise range for this motor is 5500-6500rpm, but I'm not sure that I need to go any faster!

Why Tohatsu, and why 30hp? Cheaper than the other brands, and after all, Mercury and Nissan source this engine from Tohatsu and rebadge it after adding there own fuel and electronic bits. The 30hp is a 25hp with different fuel and ignition systems, and costing only $250 more, so why wouldn't you do it? I'll tell you why - the instrumentation for the motor cost me $2200!!!. I didn't see that coming! Nevertheless, it seems a great setup - don't see how people get by without power trim!

It took me 3 years to get get the Joansa shipshape and just the way I want things, so I expect that the MaggieAnne will be a work in progress for a while yet. I'm about to attach a transom ladder to help my old bones get into her after a beach launch, and I need to work out some sort of spray dodger or cuddy as she is quite a wet boat at slow speed in moderate chop - but all these things are just part of the experience, are they not?

I must acknowledge my gratefulness for Chuck Leinweber's photographs of his build. Even 'though I did many things differently, it was great to see the fruits of his efforts. Well done Chuck - that steering console is quite a challenge, eh? The experience of building the Joansa also proved invaluable, as I learned so much from that exercise.

Well John, thanks again for your support. Who knows, if my pension goes up (a lot) I may be able to afford to build another boat!

David

East Doncaster Victoria, Australia

******

To comment on Duckworks articles, please visit our forum