Shane Mason makes progress with his stitch and glue sailing Ella skiff

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plywood boat plans, boat building plans, plywood skiff, sailing skiff, ella skiff, gavin atkin, free boat plans

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Shane Mason’s sailing Ella skiff is on its way

Shane Mason in Toronto is busily building the first sailing version of the Ella skiff to a tight deadline and has sent over these shots.

I can report that he particularly enjoyed seeing the shape of the boat come together when he stitched the panels together.

He’s decided to give his deck some camber, which explains why the frames are proud of the sheerline, and has made his mast from pine laminated with carbon fibre.

For plans for this boat click here; for the rowing version click here.

Light Trow Mk 2 plans now available!

Light Trow, plans, plywood boat, Gavin Atkin, boat plan

I’ve been waiting for Water Craft magazine to publish its Grand Designs series story on the Light Trow before releasing the Mk 2 plans – they’ve also been publishing a two part article by small boat adventurer Ben Crawshaw about his adventures in the Mark 1 boat.

But now the big day is almost upon us, it’s at last time to let them loose on the public. Download them now – click here for the zip file of drawings etc. There are plans for making a model here.

For more on the Light Trow including Ben’s exploits and the origins of the design, click here, scroll down and go back through the  posts.

At last – construction drawings for the Barton skiff, previously known as the Low power skiff



Barton skiff construction drawings

I’m shattered, but it’s been worth it because I’m now ready to share the key construction details of my simple stitch and glue outboard skiff designed for use with a low-powered outboard of 5hp or so – and certainly not much more, not least because the prop won’t fit!!!

I should add that my usual caveats apply here. I have no qualifications to design boats and make no claims for the performance or safety of this craft. I accept no responsibility for any accident or loss that may be incurred during building or use of this boat. What I have drawn must be regarded as experimental.

If you’re still interested, here are my key construction drawings: Barton-skiff-plans-package (updated to v1.1 3rd Feb 2011) Expect them to add up to around a meg, as I’ve included dxf files for those who like that kind of thing. I guess they will also be useful for anyone who wants to check a particular dimension. If anyone finds an error, please let me know!

The notes are sketchy to say the least, but I have it in mind that the bottom and frames should be of 1/2in ply, while the sides can be of 3/8ths. I’d advocate using marine ply, covering it well with glass and epoxy, and using gapped inwales of 2in by 1in, with 1in blocks.

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.

See some earlier posts relating to the Barton/Low power skiff project:

Low power skiff – the nested panels
Poole canoes – the motorised flat-bottomed skiffs of Poole Harbour
A model of the Low-power skiff
New low-power skiff sketches and model drawings