Category: Boating, boats, ships and the sea

Complete free plans package for the intheboatshed.net flat-bottomed 15ft 6in skiff



STOP PRESS – THE FIRST JULIE SKIFF HAS BEEN BUILT AND LAUNCHED BY BILL GAY- CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES

STOP PRESS AGAIN – INITIAL SKETCHES FOR A SAILING VERSION OF THIS BOAT CAN BE FOUND HERE.

ALSO – IF YOU BUILD THIS BOAT OR A MODEL OF IT, PLEASE CONTACT ME AT GMATKIN@GMAIL.COM . I’M HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE, AND VERY MUCH WANT TO KNOW HOW THE PROJECT GOES!

After gardening for much of the day, this evening I’ve spent a couple of happy hours tidying up and sorting out the plans for the intheboatshed.net Julie skiff. (NB – See the bottom of this post if you need plans for a similar but smaller boat.)

So tan-tara! With an imaginary fanfare, tonight for the first time I offer you – a download of the finalised plans for the rowing-only version of the Julie 15ft 7in flat bottomed skiff for plywood stitch and glue construction, including my explanatory essay on her design and purpose, and notes on her construction.

She swallows up five sheets of ply, and for those those who like to think about these things, at her design displacement and trimmed so that the water just kisses the transom, her wetted area is about 38sqft, with a prismatic coefficient of 0.55. Neither figure would be outstanding for a round-bottomed boat, but the wetted area in particular is not at all bad for a simple rowing boat like this. With a flat-bottomed skiff there’s no easy way to improve on either without making the boat much narrower on the bottom, with all that would entail.

Like this boat? Send your comments to gmatkin@gmail.com.

I think she’s a sweet little boat and I’m very much looking forward to seeing some examples afloat. I still plan to develop a sailing rig, plans for a more traditional chine-log style construction, and I’m thinking also of both longer and shorter versions – the shorter will be aimed at creating a small easy to build skiff capable of being built in a British-style garage.

If you do build the Julie skiff, please send me photos and reports at gmatkin@gmail.com, and also please let me know how the project goes. At least while the numbers being built are small, if you hit problems I will be very happy to provide advice to make sure your boat is a success.

Download: intheboatshed.net Julie skiff plans

See all posts so far on this boat:

Complete free plans package for the intheboatshed.net flat-bottomed 15ft 6in skiff
intheboatshed.net skiff – drawings and coordinates for stitch and glue
intheboatshed.net skiff – photos of our model, and maybe yours too?
Intheboatshed.net skiff – now we can make a model
Intheboatshed.net skiff progress
Early drawings for a 15ft 5in lightweight flat-bottomed American-style skiff

PS – It’s become clear that depending on your build, some folks will find the thwart a little high – if that could be you, it will be a very simple job to make the seat lower if you do so at an early stage.

More free boat plans at intheboatshed.net

If you’d prefer a smaller project of this kind, check the 12ft Ella skiff and the 14ft Sunny skiff.

This boat is designed to be built using the stitch and glue technique – if you haven’t done this before you might be interested in my book Ultrasimple Boat Building: 17 Plywood Boats Anyone Can Build or one of the other books on this topic available from Amazon.

Some inspiring reading for Sunday morning: weblog 70.8% on Blondie Hasler

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Single-handed yachting hero Blondie Hasler

Weblog 70.8% has an interesting piece this morning on single-handed sailing pioneer, self-steering inventor and junk rig specialist Blondie Hasler this morning.

See the weblog post at 70.8% and the Wikipedia entry for Hasler – they’re especially worth reading if you don’t already know about the man.

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

Boatbuilder Nick Smith makes progress on the 17ft clinker motor launch Lisa

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17ft launch Lisa, built by Nick Smith

Christchurch, Hampshire traditional boatbuilder Nick Smith is currently working on a 17ft motor launch, Lisa, and has been sending us photos from time to time.  If you’d like to see all our posts about Nick Smith’s work, click here and scroll down the page.

Nick, who comes from Devon, specialises in new builds in clinker and carvel for  sail, motor and rowing power from 8ft to 28ft with a special emphasis on West Country style and design, and also takes on repairs and refits from 25ft to 50ft. He can be contacted by email at nick_smith_boatbuilder@yahoo.com and by phone on 07786 693370.

Here’s what he says about the latest photos:

‘Hi Gavin

‘As promised some more photos of 17-footer Lisa.

‘The 15hp Yanmar is now bolted down and coupled up to the propshaft. The decks and coamings are fitted, as are the middle thwart and thwart knees, and the boat is stiffening up the boat nicely.

‘The forward bulkhead is made from two 3/8in layers of khaya; and the decks are made up of a khaya sub-deck  with iroko planking laid on top, and sikaflex caulking compound paid in the seams. There’s no plywood anywhere in the construction of this boat.

‘Next week I will fit the stainless steel fuel tank the four side benches and the skeg, which will allow me to get started on the rudder.

‘The jobs after that include all pipeage to the motor, and the gear and throttle lever and cables, floorboards and engine box and lots and lots of varnishing. At this stage, the list of jobs actually seems to be getting bigger not smaller!

‘That’s it for now.’ ‘Nick’

Thanks Nick – it’s good to be able to show the process in action.

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