Category: Designs and designers, boat plans,books of plans

Plans for boats, sailing yachts, motor yachts, rowing boats, sailing boats, dinghies, dories, canoes, skiffs, oars, sails – may be free or paid-for

A Paradox, up close and personal

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

dca-at-bewl

The Dinghy Cruising Association’s boats assembled at Beale, with
Al Law’s Paradox Little Jim in the foreground

dca-at-bewl-3 al-law-at-beale-1 dca-at-bewl-4

dca-at-bewl-6

A highlight of the Beale Park Boat Show last year was meeting Al Law and seeing his home-built Matt Layden-designed Paradox named Little Jim close up.

Yes, this little 14-footer is the boat he sailed to the Scillies and back in company with another Paradox owner, Bill Serjeant. Some say the heavy displacement Paradox is a small sharpie, while others say it can’t be  a sharpie because it’s under 19ft. Both views are correct, of course, in the mad logic of boat nomenclature.

I say that it has an interesting n some ways it’s more like a model of a small modern ship.But whatever one calls them, they’re certainly interesting, and perhaps of particular interest to someone who has come to realise their family is unlikely to sail with them, and finds sailing a small, easily managed boat alone an agreeable alternative. See the study plans here and Al’s record of building and sailing his boat here. And if you’re wondering how a boat like this can sail, check this video and also this one of Bill’s boat Faith. Bill, I should add, had sailed his little boat right round the coast from Essex: see earlier posts.

Little Jim sailing at Beale Park

Don’t miss something good – subscribe to intheboatshed.net’s weekly bulletin

Drawings for building a model of the 14ft stitch and glue Sunny skiff

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

sunny-skiff-model-drawings-470

Drawings for making a model of the Sunny skiff

I’m pleased to say that we’ve now got a pdf file of the drawings needed to make a simple model of the Sunny skiff ready to be downloaded and printed out.

If you’re interested in her, I’d strongly suggest making a model. All you need to do to make a model is to take a printout, stick it to a piece of cereal packet, cut out the various panels and make up the model with sticky tape. Here’s one example of how this kind of model can look; here’s a second example made by the excellent Ben Crawshaw; and here’s a third example made by Woody Jones, and complete with little wire figures made to scale.

The two stern panels aren’t a mistake, by the way – there was a bit of space left and because it’s often useful to double up on stern thickness (because it’s good to have it robust) I thought the opportunity to have double-thickness stern too good to miss. In the model, as in the real thing, doubling the stern is optional unless you’re making a sailing boat or using an outboard.

If anyone out there makes a model of this little boat, I’d be very grateful to see them, and to be able to post them here at intheboatshed.net!

Plans for the full-sized boat are to come!

PS Woody made a model overnight, so good for him:

sunny-skiff-pic-1 sunny-skiff-pic-2

Don’t miss out on something good – subscribe to intheboatshed.net for a weekly newsletter!

Modern sailing canoe Sara is for sale

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

sara-for-sale

Sailing canoe Sara is for sale

I’d like to draw attention to a crop of interesting posts over at the Albert Strange Association website.

The first is a rather sad announcement but represents a great opportunity for someone. Due to poor health, ASA technical secretary Rick Powell has reluctantly decided to sell his 15ft, 4ft 6in beam sailing canoe Sara, which he designed and built a few years ago. She’s said to be a modern take on George Holmes’ Ethel concept; her construction involves ply-epoxy planking with strip-planked curved bilges, oak trim, hollow mast and boom, and built-in buoyancy. She has lots of stainless steel fittings Ronstan fittings, and comes complete with cover and road trailer.

ASA site editor Dick Wynne says she has been sailed just four times, and that her performance matches her good looks. She’s on the market at what seems to me to be a very reasonable price.  See more here.

The ASA site is always well worth a visit, but at the moment there are some corking stories about some legendary boats, including Eel,  Betty (the Strange boat that won the 1927 Fastnet Race), and Sea Harmony.

PS Dick tells me he’s very concerned about the loss of mud from the River Thames, which has led him to moor his boat away from its usual spot at the Greenwich Yacht Club’s moorings. There’s an interesting Wikipedia entry on the subject.

Do you have an interesting boat for sale? Please tell us about her: gmatkin@gmail.com .

Don’t miss something good. Subscribe for the free weekly intheboatshed email newsletter!