Every so often I sit down and sketch up a design I think would be cool to build. I posted this previously with a rough idea I had if you redesigned an Australian Six Footer and made it into a very tiny singlehander.
Below is a sketch of a very simple junior boat based on a punt/barge type, the bottom being essentially three flats. You could build it out of 6mm plywood with some stringers, or some rough lumber, cross planked, as they did in days of olde. You could put all your framing/cleats on the outside of the side panels as Bolger did on some of his QD (quick and dirty) boats - or not.
I call this design "Kid Simple". I originally designed it to be a good rowing boat (there is supposed to be a thwart just aft of the daggerboard case to sit on for rowing) and then added a sailing rig based on the sprit rig of the Optimist. I started off large and then made it smaller (the original length being 10 1/2 feet and then shortened it to 9.9 feet length, by shortening the bow flat - I'll let the reader do the metric conversions). It has a healthy skeg to help in tracking when rowing and I would envision a large rudder close to the Opti in size.
Here are two JPEG's. Dimensions in feet, tenths of feet, or sometimes inches. Again you can use the pop-out icon in the top right of the drawings to open in an another tab to print.
The first sheet has the original idea with modifications noted.
The second sheet has a modified sheer and length and includes the rig.
As a "mess about boat" it has a good flat floor - should be nice and stable.
ReplyDeleteHave you taken a look at John Spencer's "Firebug". What I really like about that as a bit of design ingenuity is the way he managed to keep all the chine angles constant.
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteThe Firebug would be much better sailing dinghy. Very similar to the El Toro pram I learned in. "Kid Simple" would be something you could row or pole or paddle as well as sail. The Kid Simple would be a boat you could fool around on the water just as well with the rig out.