Does anyone know the story of gaff rigged cutter Medusa Bay please?

Medusa Bay

Medusa Bay Medusa Bay

A chap called Udo has been in touch to ask for information about a boat he has bought recently.

She’s a strip-planked 37ft gaff-rigged cutter named Medusa Bay and is currently in a marina at Hull – though he plans in the spring to sail her to Blankenberge, Belgium.

Udo was put in touch with intheboatshed.net because has been told that she was built at Faversham. We’ve since learned that she was actually built at Conyer, though her spars came from Faversham. Still, I’m sure Udo would be delighted to learn more about her story, and for any old photos readers may have to hand please!

PS Now in the autumn of 2012 Medusa Bay is for sale. Contact me at gmatkin@gmail.com, and I’ll put you in touch with the owner.

Nov-Dec Water Craft magazine preview

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Water Craft Nov-Dec 2009 320

Water Craft’s latest issue marks the beginning of the boatbuilding season, which editor Pete Greenfield says begins when the sailing season ends.

It has pretty well ended here in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere, but I’m not so sure that the boat building starts quite yet. But I do think November and the run up to Christmas is a time when many of us get into some serious boat-dreaming and boat noodling – my name for the delicious process of thinking through what kind of boat we want, what we’re capable of building and what would use it for?

As usual, the latest Water Craft is full of interesting crumbs to feed our obsession.

Designer Paul Gartside presents the first of a series of complete plans, including offsets, for boats you can build; this time it’s a shapely double-ended 12ft  rowing boat for traditional carvel (or clinker) construction.

Fancy strip planking? Read how Nick Paull built the Canadian canoe that won him Water Craft’s special prize for the most professional-loooking home-built boat at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show.

More, Patrick Curry explains how he made hollow wooden spars for his traditional Dutch yacht, Bob Lloyd shows how to make a razee.

Pete  is still working on his Phil Bolger-designed Chebacco boat in the outdoors (brrr! – rather him than me!) and Dick Phillips has been sailing a Chebacco built by Connie Mense that many of us saw on show at Beale. (For an intheboatshed.net post on this boat click here.)

Jo Moran has been sailing another boat we saw at Beale, the electric day-sailer Cirrus and Kathy Mansfield has been to Portsoy’s Traditional Boat Festival.

Subscribe to Water Craft now – the drawings for that Gartside pulling  boat alone will make your investment worthwhile!

Christer Byström offers free plans for cute small round-bottomed boats

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bridget

Christer Byström’s Bridget

Christer Byström is someone who has taken his boating dream in his own direction and made a success of it.

A big theme has been very small sharp bowed boats: beginning with building Phil Bolger’s tiny Queen Mab design, Christer has gone on to build several small boats using the strip planking technique. My favourite among these is his Bridget, which he designed for his daughter and which takes its rig from an Optimist. I should add that he has also designed andbuilt at least one larger boat.

But what everyone really needs toknow about Christer’s boats is that he makes the plans available for free. Check them out at his free plans website.