Tag: Gavin Atkin

A cool Sketchup model of my Bluestone schooner design

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Bluestone screen

ArqDirk’s model of my Bluestone schooner. As usual, clicking on the thumbnail will produce a larger image

I didn’t know whether to laugh out loud or shout in anger a couple of evenings ago. I switched on an arts programme on Radio 4 and heard a preposterous ‘artist’ explain that she’d visited somewhere and seen a large rock that didn’t belong to the local area. She learned, apparently, that it had been brought from somewhere else and deposited on the spot where she saw it by a glacier or an ice sheet, and was therefore what’s officially known as an erratic – though when I was a kid in North Lincolnshire, I remember that we called them ‘bluestones’.

So she’d seen an erratic and liked it. So far so good. But then I became positively emotional when she went on to explain how she had become ‘excited’ by the idea of rocks being deposited in places where they didn’t belong and said that with the ‘help’ of a well known arts funding body she had now moved as many as three rocks to new sites from their original homes. What a funny old world. Oh how we laughed! I hope the rocks are equally excited about their new homes.

Thinking about this incident has reminded me that someone I know only as ArqDirk deserves some credit for creating a remarkable Sketchup model of my Bluestone schooner design, which, as you may have guessed, I named some years ago after the bluestones of North Lincolnshire because it combined elements I found in both the old Humber dusters and the North American Hampton boat, which seemed to me to be almost an erratic of its own. Perhaps someone will give Arq a grant one day – creating this model will have taken a considerable amount of effort and thought. I’d give him one myself, but I’m considering a new career moving rocks and may be too busy…

The design won a Duckworks Magazine competition back in 2000, by the way.

Click here to download ArqDirk’s model, which you will be able to manipulate and view from various angles once you have imported it into Sketchup .

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The second Light Trow is launched in Wales and she’s looking good!

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The second Light Trow is launched in Cardigan, Wales

A gentleman called Jake has  built and launched the second Light Trow at Cardigan in Wales – and readers will have no difficulty guessing how pleased the designer is.

Working with the help of an experienced boatbuilder friend, Jake has deviated from the original in several ways, with good-looking sunken decks and a nicely curved line to the foredeck’s aft edge, but the hull seems to be unchanged.

Many thanks for the photos Jake!

Jake seems very happy with the result – he says she’s a fine-looking boat and floats and rows well. He says that although she is still not quite finished and remains as yet un-named she is still a lot of fun – and I think that shows in the photos.

Some of the sailing details are clearly visible and the rig is still to come – though my guess is that some boyancy bags will be useful in the local estuary.

I’m happy for people with experience to deviate from the plans so long as they know what they’re doing. However, if you’re a potential builder and  don’t have the required experience to change the plans, please contact me before making them – it’s too easy to get into bad trouble in boats.

For more on the Light Trow and the amazing adventures of the first Light Trow builder Ben Crawshaw and  click here and for more on the Fleet Trow on which she is based, click here.

I should point out that a Mark II updated stitch and glue version of the Light Trow is planned for later this year or early next, and when it comes it will be announced here at intheboatshedf.net.

I should add here that I am an amateur designer with no formal training or education and that my plans should be regarded as experimental. I accept no responsibility for any accident or loss that results from building or using my boat plans.

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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.