Sunday, January 5, 2014

Mind Meld: Laser/Frankenboat and the GO 4.8

Call it kismet but when I wrote the previous post about a fellow who turned a Laser into a high-freeboard, double bottom singlehander, what do I come across on the Net-Toob's but an Australian production dinghy that is a high-freeboard, double bottom -- singlehander, sloop rigged -- your choice. About the same length as the Laser to boot. Enter the GO 4.8 which seems to be going down the same road as our Franken designer.

Slab sided bow with high freeboard of the GO 4.8.



Flat transom, high side decks of the GO 4.8. Interesting that he has incorporated transom sheeting for this design (and it looks like a centerboard instead of a daggerboard).



And not only that! The designer has developed a wood kit so that home builders can put together a GO 4.8.

More info on the GO 4.8 can be found here.

2 comments:

Tillerman said...

If God had intended us to sail in wooden boats he wouldn't have given us fiberglass.

Tweezerman said...

Not so fast there Tillerman (though I'm sure your statement was just to stir the pot a little). As all things in life very little can we hold up as black and white (or 100% wood and 100% fiberglass for that matter). I think all of my wood boats used fiberglass/epoxy in some capacity and many fiberglass boats use wood in high stress areas (I think the Laser may have used a plywood donut around the mast tube base at one time - though I'm probably wrong about this). This GO 4.8 kit most likely uses glass tape for the seams.