My plans just arrived--Joel White's last design. (can you guess what it is?)

[ErikH]

Not to disagree with the W-boat promoters ("Joel White's last design!", I think I heard once) but his last design is an almost unknown pulling boat: Feb 1997; # 57-3. Even Steve White doesn't have the plans, though (with Steve's permission and paying him some $$) I was able to track down someone in possessino of the plans and pay them to copy me a set. Two sets of plans in existence now taht I managed to get a copy: it's essentially an 18' plank keel stretched Shearwater.

She's a beauty at first glance. I'll pop the plans open next to my Shearwater ones this evening and compare them after the kids have gone to sleep. Slightly higher bow than the Shearwater; not as symmetrical. Daggerboard instead of centerboard (my preference). The sheer strakes are much closer to perpendicular than the Shearwater. I have a strong suspicion that my wife and I will be able to double-row her with ease as she's much larger than out Annapolis Wherry.

Of course, I'm a relatively novice builder. THe Shearwater plans from WB are great: lots of full-size molds, drawings, etc. Silly me thought I would get them with these plans too.... nope. Oh well.

Hmm, after sitting here for 10 minutes the offsets just made sense and I suppose I could draw them after all without much trouble (hard chines are great!). But when/if I ever gat around to building this in the next year or two, I may see if some budding angineer with AutoCAD and a good printer is willing to make me up a full size scaled set to save me the time and potential for error.

Boy, an I in a good mood... :D

[htom]

smile.gif Perhaps what they meant by "last boat" is that Joel hadn't completed all of those other drawings for the set of plans to sell.

[Ben Fuller]

This boat builds real nice. Eric Dow built the prototype and its up here on the coast. Give the W people some due. This all happened when Joel was critical, and there was some confusion about what was going on. The Shearwater stretch I don't think made it to Joel's plan list. Best way to get info on it is to find Bob Stevens up at Steve White's yard. The boat was stretched as primarily a rowing boat for a couple to take a couple of kids. Sailing secondary. The reason for a db trunk of course is to cut down drag. The thinking is that there are 10's of thousands of people sailing lasers, sunfish etc. who have managed to haul up a db to keep it from getting dinged.

[ErikH]

Have you by some chance sailed or rowed her?

I'm impressed with the light construction (only 4 frames, and 1/4" ply) and hope that she'll move right along.

My joke about the w-boats was just a joke FYI... though the current owner had to call Maynard Bray to ask why the design didn't make it into the Joel White book. I think it's just little know.