D. H. Hylan's Chesapeake Sailing Skiff

[Ken Baker]

Hi,

I'm wondering if there are any WBF members out there who have built or intend to build Doug's skiff design.

I recently purchased his plans and I'm looking forward to a good winter project. I'd like to compare notes with anyone who is interested.

Thanks,
Ken

[DavidF]

I am building Hylan's crabbing skiff and I am enjoying the process immensely. Today I am attaching the keel.
Now I have a problem with spatial relations (bad affliction for a boat builder) so what I say must be taken with a grain of salt. But Hylan's plans are not for the amateur. I am an accomplished woodworker and carpenter by trade. But Hylan's plans offer very little detail and some conundrums. And Hylan makes it clear he does not want to spend time on the phone with people who have purchased his plans. For example, I did call him once to point out that his plans place the bottom plank edges inside the side planks (making for some difficult cutting and beveling of $60 ply). His answer was, "Really? Bummer."

So I decided to take Hylan's plans as a suggestion rather than a prescription. I have had to noodle so many aspects that when I am done, this will be a boat recorded by Chapelle, drawn by Hylan and interpreted by me. I will take equal billing. Certainly there is hardly an original measurement in the hull. The boat's shape is beautiful and it promises to be an excellent sailor, rower and fishing platform (my criteria).

g'luck

[Rob Barker]

I built one a couple of years ago (maybe five years ago). I don't recall any major problems. I don't know how it finally sailed because the customer had his own wacky ideas for a chinese lug rig. Once I finished the hull I washed my hands of the whole project.
Very pretty boat, though.

[Christopher Locke]

I bought Hylan's plans last spring. I was (and am) a first time boat builder. I bought Hylan's plans b/c they were recommended by Stuart Weir in his Swallows and Amazon website as a good replication of Swallow for a beginning builder. I got the plans and quickly realized that I could not build the boat without help e.g. instructions. I had a fair amount of e-mail correspondence with Doug on selecting the boat, and he answered a number of specific questions honestly about its capacity. When I realized that I couldn't build the boat without help, he suggested buying "The Sharpie Book" by Ruel (sp?) Parker. I did and it has generalized instructions that are helpful for Doug's design. I decided, however, that I was unskilled and insecure enough to want more specific instructions. I ended up buying several additional sets of plans and am now building Headland Boat's Green Island 18 b/c it came with a 150 page instruction manual - only to discover that the instruction manual is for the 15 foot boat, not the 18 footer. Sigh. If you decide that Doug's plans, even with general guidance like Parker's book, are too minimal, then the Green Island 15 might be a decent choice. Another, although it is lapstraked plywood, is Arch Davis's Penobscot 14. You'll find a lot of postings about this boat on the forum and Arch provides a huge amount of help, both in terms of instruction (including a video tape) and e-mail/phone calls. A more simple design is Steve Redmond's Bluegill. Redmond does not give much more instruction than Hylan but his plans are so simple that I think I could build his Bluegill with more ease than my Green Island and would if I had not already bought all the wood and cut most of it by the time I found Bluegill. Hope this helps - feel free to e-mail me offline if you want to discuss more.

[Del Lansing]

DavidF, do the plans say whether the offsets are to the outside of the planking? Did you subtract for the plank thickness when you made up the molds? this would put the bottom "inside" the topsides. Just wondering.

[DavidF]

The offsets are to the inside. But that wasn't the problem (and in the end there was no problem.) The construction details drawing placed the bottom inside the sides. That's when I decided the plans were suggestions and my power planer a sculpting tool.

I rolled the boat over last weekend and despite my hamfistedness, it is a thing of beauty.

[Del Lansing]

Glad you got it sorted out in the end.