Davy Jones Too -- 18ft arc deadrise double-ender from Atkin

[Dennis Marshall]

The Atkin boat plan site is getting a face lift. I ran across the Davy Jones Too which is designed to the specs of the "Suicide Class". Anyone know anything about this class? Does Suicide Class refer to the wife catching wind of my next build? [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Atkin Boat Plans

Dennis

[ 01-12-2004, 07:14 PM: Message edited by: Dennis Marshall ]

[Beowolf]

Neat looking little boat.

"Designs To Inspire" includes a Suicide class boat. The rig looks very similar but the hull is round with a transom. Here is what the Brays had to say...

"A much safer and more enjoyable craft than the class name indicates, boats suilt to this measurement rule were also known as development boats. The Idea was to get the fastest possible craft with 125 square feet of sail area. No two boats were alike, although most were low-sided ans slippery..."

Even though the hull looks much different (and to my untrained eye, the boat in Designs To Inspire looks faster.) the measurements are similar.

LOA = 18'0"
LWL = 16'10"
Beam = 4'10"
Disp = 835 lbs

[ 01-12-2004, 09:57 PM: Message edited by: Beowolf ]

[Dennis Marshall]

Thanks, Beowulf. I found this quote at the same site under the "Flying Saucer" entry just a few minutes ago:

During the late twenties the Huntington Yacht Club sponsored the Development Class of fast centerboard sailing boats. This class was popularly known as the Suicide Class, not because the boats were dangerous to sail, but because the insignia indicating the class was the old piratical device, a skull and cross-bones. Many of these boats were astonishingly fast. The boats were in the neighborhood of 18 feet over all and from 4 to 6 feet in breadth and all were of centerboard type. The principal restrictions of the Development Class are: no keels, not less than 3 feet 6 inches beam, nor more than 125 square feet sail area, a limitation of 50 pounds weight for a centerboard and a crew of two. Reaching in a strong breeze, despite the modest sail area, these boats really travelled very fast and in strong puffs, if you could keep them right side up without reefing, showed all the characteristics of planing. With more sail,a ballasted keel and a long hiking board to gain stability I have no doubt that speeds up to 12 miles an hour would be easily possible with hulls similar to those of the Development Class boats...

Dennis

[Beowolf]

Dennis

I didn't notice that you are in GR. I was at a wedding for my cousing in Grand Rapids just last weekend.

Huh.

Jeff

[Dennis Marshall]

Beowulf, there are some other Michiganders here on the forum. Perhaps we ought to round 'em up and have a MEBS -- Michigan Elbow Benders Society meeting.

Dennis

[Jack Heinlen]

What is the intended use Dennis? I like it, with the one proviso that the sheer is uninspiring to my eye, but that's a personal matter.

Since it's designed as a class boat, to be raced, it's a shame you won't likely find any others. But it looks like a good boat in its own right, fast and able with the wide decks and coamings. It should go together pretty easily too.

Atkin's output, the sheer volume, always amazes me. Month after month he(and his) came up with interesting designs for fellows just like thee and me.

I miss Michigan. On the annual family sojourn from Cleveland to Mullett Lake, Jackson was often a bathroom/breakfast stop, at the Holliday Inn IRRC. Pop always got us going around four in the morning, and Jackson put a good part of the trip in our wake, relieved our bladders, and raised our spirits with pancakes and bacon and coffee. It was a simple, silly treat, but well remembered.

So mysterious, at ten, to be headed for Mullett Lake, a child's Shangrila, in the middle of the night. The whine of the tire blab on pavement at seventy, the smell of gasoline if that hadn't been purchased the day before, the hushed talk between my mother and father in the front seat; my mother, always the biddy hen looking after her brood, warning if a truck came too close, or car cut in too quickly. Me dozing, the night's sleep still on me, if the excitement allowed, with all of that playing as music in the background.

[ 01-13-2004, 09:30 AM: Message edited by: Jack Heinlen ]

[Dennis Marshall]

Jack,

My memories of childhood trips to the Lake of the Ozarks are similar. We always stopped at certain places and these subsequently became identified with a whole range of travelling experiences both good and bad, but mostly good.

With respect to the Davy Jones Too -- I would just use it as a daysailer if I built it. I'd change the rig too, since I wouldn't be racing it I'd put a lower tech rig on it. Maybe a spritsail sloop. I think that would work well. The sheer is non-descript, but I think I was most interested in the arc-deadrise bottom and suitability for sailing in these parts. I'm gonna build another skiff some day, and it is going to be an Atkin designed one. I am already collecting plans.

Dennis

[Beowolf]

Hey Dennis

There are a couple of nice little lakes around that area. The wife and I went out to dinner at a lakeside restaurant a couple of years ago around there and watched a little Ace (Arch Davis?) sailing around the lake

I would be up for a MEBS, perhaps sometime in March?

Later

Jeff

[Keith Wilson]

Interesting boat, sort of resembles a smaller centerboard version of Joel White's Fox Island sloop, flattish sheer and all. Do you think plywood could be tortured in to that arc, or would you have to plank the bottom? And I like the rig - if you got rid of the club on the jib it'd be a lot more close-winded than a spritsail and wonderfully handy, at least once the mast was vertical. There's something to be said for having LOTS of sail area and good reefing gear.

[Dennis Marshall]

Keith,

I think that the ply could be tortured to fit the curve of the bottom, even if one had to laminate it out of thinner ply. R. Parker's "The Sharpie Book" says something about this, not a lot, but enough to give one the impression that it could be done.

Beowulf,

I'd be up for an MEBS in March. Perhaps we ought to set up the invite over at People/Places and see if we can't get a consensus on day/time/place.

Dennis

[WFK]

Damn,.....I miss Michigan too,.....grew up in Northport, just North of Travese City. We'd boat out to Beaver Island or over to Charlevoix.
Hey Dennis don't forget,...you owe me pictures of your finished "Marisol"

Bill