| Why Willow Pattern. Think of the Chinese dinner set pattern designed created for Wedgewood and look at the Junk Rig on this boat and you will see how John's mind is working. While you are in there Tread Lightly. Editor.
INTRODUCTION
Design commissions come to me in many ways, but the ones that are the most fun are those customers whose needs coincide with something that has been brewing in the muddy backwaters of my mind. I have been awfully broke at times, and am of the opinion that there are two ways to be free, and that if you are really broke you have a lot of choices as there is little to lose, and if well resourced then one has a quite different set of choices but much to safeguard.
Long range cruising in sailing boats tends not to have too many of the first type of freedoms. The sheer money involved in getting out in the really blue water in the conventional way is a real obstacle , impassable to many and a turnoff to most of us.
But when the day is over, and the mind is wandering, I reflect on the times when I’ve been broke and without much direction. Those were the times of little commitment and the times when I could have gone away sailing for a couple of years without risking the fragile social and network that I put together later on.
Is there I wonder some way that a young person with few commitments, a few dollars a week and lots of spare time could get into an ocean going cruiser , however modest?
In looking over the costs involved in a small cruiser, labour is a very large part of the equation, and our impecunious young mariner can supply that for the cost of his own upkeep. Materials , when labelled “Marine” tend to cost much more than those for normal domestic use. Marine fittings the same, sails , ropes, even stoves and toilets are a horrifying price so we need to think laterally and find other methods of doing the job.
Trying to build a conventional boat using the usual materials, systems and methods wont work but if we can work on the priorities from the very first line on the drawing board we have a chance. A real challenge and one that had been a favourite train of thought for a long time.
Michael Blackshaw came to me, an habitual peripatetic (OK an incurable wanderer) with a desire to do some coastal rowing under oar power. A year later, he has built one of my Light Dories, loaded his tent and stores aboard and, together with a trolley to help him with the portages has covered some very adventurous miles.
While he is not really wedded to the sea, the summer under canvas has given him a vision of a way of life that could carry him to many places in a home of his own building, and it was with this vision in his thoughts that he sat in my couch and asked me very tentatively if such a thing would be possible.
The answer was yes. But with some conditions attached! Michael has some metalworking skills, basic woodworking skills, ( the Dory was his first ever boat and it turned out pretty OK) and quite a lot of uncommitted time. Now there is a dictum that says, “time is money”. In this case, My client has a lot of one and very little of the other. So he will have to make most of the things that others might go to the yacht shop and fork out large lumps of money.
Mast! Deck fittings! Sail! Lifelines, stove, cleats, and on and on. I someone can make them in a factory so can a keen handyman with an hour to spare.
It is with this in mind that I start this series of articles. You are invited to follow Michael and I as we work up the concept, the initial drawings, calculations, line and construction drawings then get into building the boat. We hope after a couple of dozen issues of interesting reading to regale you with an account of the first voyage.
So, welcome readers to Michaels Odyssey
John
12 April 2001.
After a lot of discussion with my client I have established some fundamental principles, Michael is not a sailor, not concerned about having a record breaking performer but is very keen not to risk his hide any more than absolutely necessary. He needs a mobile home that will carry him in reasonable comfort and safety up and down a rugged coastline, and quite possibly 1200 + miles across the ocean to Australia or up to the South Pacific Islands.
An ability to carry adequate stores on top of personal possessions is needed.
Ease of handling in a wide variety of sea and weather conditions is essential.
The boat needs enough space to be comfortable.
Seaworthiness is paramount.
Low cost of maintenance is important.
Cost of building, cost which includes not only materials but tools, skills and building space, should be achievable.
An unconventional appearance would not be too much of a concern, but I myself am concerned about inflicting something too off the wall on a client who will invest almost everything he owns in this project.
In considering the basic materials ands methods of construction the skills, building space and tools available are to be considered. In this case we have a small one car garage available daytimes, an arrangement which will allow the storage of some materials and the prefabrication of much of the framing and interior.
I need a timber store built, but prefer to build boats rather than sheds and in return for building my timber barn I have offered the use of enough space to assemble “the Boat”
Michael is OK with plywood, his tools are basic but adequate and his experience is enough to cope with simple stringer on bulkhead construction so this is the chosen method.
We are opting for a boat of about 6.6metres x 2.8metres, steel plate bilge keeled to allow both simple construction and drying out level to do maintenance or to scrub off.
One big multi use space for a cabin rather than a tiny space for each function, standing head room under the hatch up stand in the aft end of the cabin. A space to stow a portable “caravan “ toilet ( very cheap second hand) and a place in a dedicated locker under the foredeck for a simple galley.
There needs to be lots of storage, both for sailing gear when in port, and for day to day living gear . Stores for a month or more at a time as we must allow for slow but steady passages , and a degree of self righting and stability consistent with being comfortable at sea .
The rig needs to be low cost, easily handled and effective. Not something that is consistent with stainless steel wire, alloy spars and triangular terylene sails. Any special fittings should be easily built at home, the running rigging should not need to be expensive low stretch synthetics and the whole should be able to be maintained with the resources on board.
Junk rig. No other rig has all of the attributes we need, and will perform as required.
I could go on at great length about junk rig but suffice it to say that with good advice someone with Michaels skills can build their own , set it up , maintain and repair it. It is easily reefed from the cockpit, needs few fittings and can be set up with cheap “fisherman’s” rope.
Those enthusiasts who use Junk rig consider the rig to be both effective and efficient and certainly we can expect it to fulfil the requirements of this particular design.
So, with the above in mind the pencil started to download images onto hardcopy, and the sketches below, done on 2cm sq graph paper giving a scale of 2cm = 1 metre which enables me to closely work out the proportions and spaces.
I invite comments and questions, one of the purposes of this exercise in public development of a design is to interest and involve our readers, so please, if you have a question, a criticism ( I am not infallible and can be more pig headed and blinkered than most ) or a suggestion, please get involved by sending me an email..
Yours for this month.
John Welsford.
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