D.F. Mclachlan Sailing skiff

[pandelume]

There's a charming looking double-ended skiff that's been posted on Gavin Atkins's intheboatshed.net :

http://intheboatshed.net/2007/08/27/...e-ended-skiff/



It looks much like a sailing version of Paul Gartside's design #105, although I'm pretty sure it predates it.


(#105 is the lower picture)

I've looked around a bit, but I can't find much information about this skiff. It appears that I could buy a book or an article from The Press at Toad Hall, but neither seems to have more information than the article at intheboatshed. The double-ended type doesn't seem all that popular for small boats, but why not? Gavin Atkin mentions adapting this design to glued lapstrake - anyone have an thoughts on how feasible this would be or if it would be a good idea?

[Steve Paskey]

The double-ended type doesn't seem all that popular for small boats, but why not?

You have to remember that a pointy end on a point reduces carrying capacity. That's why most boats under 9 or 10 feet are prams (no pointy ends), and why there are few double-enders smaller than Doug Hylan's 13-foot "Beachpea" peapod. ( See: http://www.dhylanboats.com/ ) The boat above is 10 feet long and probably has no more capacity than a 7 foot pram dinghy, maybe less.

The hull you've shown reminds me a bit of Jay Benford's "Oregon Peapod," an 11-foot double-ended sailing dinghy.
( See http://www.benford.us/index.html?scp/ ) You can order large scale plans, but Jay's book "Small Craft Plans" has all the information you'd need to build one. There's also a 9-foot version -- the "Pacific Peapod" -- but the smaller boat's total displacement is only 270 pounds. Since the boat itself weighs 90, that leaves 180 for the crew and gear. (The larger version weighs a bit more, but has a displacement of 455 lbs.)

[pandelume]

I see what you're saying, Steve. Out of curiosity, I used Carlson Design's chine hull design software to make a kind of dummy model of the hull. I could only really get it to show planking, but naturally there would be some external keel and whatnot that would add to the displacement. I fooled around with it until I got a number close to 455lbs:



Granted, this is hardly definitive, but:

The WL for this displacement is 7.3" vs 6.0" for Mr. Benford's peapod (not accounting for the keel on the skiff, which would add maybe 1.5"), with a minimum freeboard of just about 16" vs 13" for the peapod. Ok, so maybe the skiff is deeper than the peapod, but I don't know why you should (hypothetically) choose one over the other on that account.

Another hypothetical: Having done the chine hull design model, is there any reason not to take the profiles to a router shop or lasercutter and have all the planking cut to shape in one fell swoop? It's an attractive plan [note: I am not an accomplished woodworker], but it seems like there must be some reason not to do it - surely I'm overlooking something that makes this a bad idea.