Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
Plans for boats, sailing yachts, motor yachts, rowing boats, sailing boats, dinghies, dories, canoes, skiffs, oars, sails – may be free or paid-for
The folks at the Boat Building Academy have kindly made the offsets available for the cute little Fleet trow some of its students built during their long course last year.
For the offsets laid out in a pdf, and more pictures of the handy, easily built little boat, click here and go to the bottom of the post.
Sad news from the Buchanan Owners Association
Alan Buchanan, one of the last great yacht designers from the era when yachts were still built the traditional way and looked absolutely gorgeous, has passed away at a great age – by my calculation he would have been 92 or possibly 93.
His glory days were during his time working as a yacht designer at Burnham; many of the successful racers of the the 1950s era were the product of his drawing board. However, he continued to draw boats well into years that for most of us would be retirement or even dotage.
The Buchanan Owners Association website has an excellent article by John Leather about Buchanan’s work – as a memorial it would be difficult to beat, so read it here. Classic Boat’s short announcement is here, and there’s a Wikipedia entry about his Hilbre One Design here.
An example of my small open canoe design intended for quick building, the Cinderella, has been made in Colombia. See the free boat plans page.
Hearing from people all around the world is one of the great pleasures of having designed some small boats, and this one has certainly been built with loving care.
Here’s what the latest Cinderella’s builder, Franklin Peñaranda has to say:
‘Mr . Atkin,
‘It is a pleasure to finally e-mail you. I live in Barranquilla, Colombia and I have built the Cinderella canoe that you designed and wrote about in your book Ultrasimple Boatbuilding.
‘The book was given to me by a good neighbor as a gift about 6 years ago, and I have been dreaming of one day building that canoe.
‘My interest in boats and boatbuilding dates to the teenage years (I will be 48 in March).
‘I am sending you a few pictures of my interpretation of your wonderfully designed Cinderella. It took me more than 11 months to construct it, mostly due to difficulties in finding fiberglass and paint help, and I made a few errors that had to be rectified, but it has been a wonderful learning experience.
‘I do not have any training or experience in boatbuilding, and nor any family, friends or neighbors. My background and profession is in truck driving.
‘The Cinderella has had such a great response from people that I am going to build small boats for a living. Imagine that!
‘Thank you for writing and publishing your work, and for inspiring and us novices.
‘Sincerely, Franklin Peñaranda’