Category: Sailing cruisers

Sailing yachts used for cruising, or as cruiser-racers.

Ben Crawshaw’s Light Trow appears in Wooden Boat magazine

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Light Trow built by Ben Crawshaw of The Invisible Boatshed

One of the best Christmas presents for me this year has been the news that Ben Crawshaw’s very nice project Onawind Blue built to my Light Trow design has made the launchings section of the superb US magazine Wooden Boat! Well done Ben – that’s quite an achievement with a first boat, and a plywood one at that.

I originally drew the Light Trow to be built on a strongback, but Ben built his using conventional stitch and glue at my suggestion, and we were both please when it worked perfectly. Some time I’ll revise the plans to eliminate the strongback, but in the meantime you can build the boat the same way using the plans Ben used. The free plans download is here.

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Phil Rhodes 45-foot centreboard yacht Undina cruising and racing on British TV

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It’s difficult to believe, but there has been even more good boating telly on our screens this week.

Although it featured three comedians well known in the UK, the star of Three Men in Another Boat is Undina, a 45ft centreboard sloop designed by Phil Rhodes, built in Germany in 1953 and owned by British comedian and TV presenter Griff Rhys Jones.

Somehow, when I recently read Jones’ story of a summer’s sailing with friends and family To the Baltic with Bob, I sadly missed the point that his boat Undina was so special. Perhaps I was put off the scent by Jones’ account of being suddenly smitten with lust for another boat he came across in some Baltic port – but having seen Undina on TV I find it difficult to imagine how he could feel that way.

The two-part reality TV show following a voyage from London to Cowes and a race against a very similar yacht, Josephine, is available from the BBC’s new iPlayer, though I’ve heard it doesn’t work if you’re outside the UK.

Here’s some further info on Undina from the British Classic Yacht Club and from Philip Rhodes Classic Sailboat Designs.

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How to build a punt by Captain RF Wykeham-Martin, with plans

 

Wykeham-Martin sailing punt sailplan

Wykeham-Martin’s sailing punt. In his description he remarks that the leeboard could have been a little bigger

I was very pleased today to find this description of how Captain R F Wykeham-Martin built a sailing Thames punt.

It comes from a splendid collection of Thames-related material provided by Where Thames Smooth Waters Glide, an informative site sponsored by the River Thames Society. By the way, if the name Wykeham-Martin is familiar, it’s because this great gentleman also devised the widely-used foresail furling gear still known by his name.

If you’re at all interested in the Thames, check out the source of this material, Where Thames Smooth Waters Glide, which has links to many fine on-line books, including the stunning Our River by George D Leslie.

For more intheboatshed.net posts on Thames-related matters, including plans for a Thames skiff and a racing punt, click here.


L illo from George D Leslie’s Our river