Tag: construction drawings

At last – construction drawings for the sailing version of the Ella skiff


Ella skiff model drawing

The sailing version of the Ella skiff. Click on the image for a zip file including the plans to build this little boat

I’ve really had to scrabble to find time to get this together – but here is the much awaited sailing version of the 12ft Ella skiff. There’s a lot of design work in sailing boat!

If you use these plans, all I ask in return are some photos, and reports on how the building works and on how she works in the water. However I must emphasise that I’m an amateur with no qualifications and accept no liability for any loss injury or accident that occurs as a result of anyone using or building this boat.

I should add that this is not a boat for big seas, strong winds and currents or for use with an outboard of over one or two hp. It’s a small, narrow flattie with all the limitations that go with this kind of boat. That said, in the right gentle weather conditions I think it will be great fun anywhere one can find flat sheltered water.

Download Ella skiff sailing plans version 1.2

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.

PS See a model Ella sailing skiff here.



Drawings for a 16ft motor launch

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Motor launch drawings from an old book

These lines and construction drawings for a stylish motor launch come from a pre-WW II copy of the MotorBoat Manual. After all these years I trust no-one will be offended that I photographed them and made them available, and hope that others will find them as interesting as I do – the alternative, I guess, is that they become forgotten.

The forward section is fairly traditional and the central section seems conventional enough – but the aft half of the boat goes somewhere a little different, with styling that seems to me to have been borrowed from much faster boats meant to hydroplane. Yet this is a displacement hull with a small 3-4hp engine, and so I’d guess that the tumblehome in the stern is simply a matter of fashion, and that makes her a period piece.

I love the claim that this boat can be built by amateurs – I know some who could, but I fear most of us, myself included, would be well advised to steer clear of it for fear of wasting a lot of expensive timber!

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