Boat Ideas of the Year

NFB concept, version 5.0

Despite the lingering effects of the Great Recession (or maybe because of them) people are thinking about, and dreaming about, boats. Why not? To think about going where the water sparkles, the birds soar, the wind sings, and your biggest concern is the weather and, man, am I hungry (sailing does that to me, at least.) We have heard from many people with ideas about boats, boats that if things were a little better, they would build or buy to go out on.



At this time of year Maine Boats, Homes, and Harbors magazine comes out with their most interesting copy, the Boats of the Year issue, that reviews all the boats built in Maine and surrounding states and provinces during the past year.  In that vein, let’s take a look back at the ideas people are having about boats, what they are thinking and dreaming about building and sailing.



All of these design requests were solid enough to warrant sitting down and working out a concept sketch for the boat. They came from editors and publishers who have a better grasp of the big picture than we do, from groups of people expressing the same idea, or from  people that would have bought the boat or the plan if we had it. Over the coming weeks we will post design sketches and discussions of these boats.



Dragon Flyer. A 10' kit boat for kids that could be assembled in two and a half days for family boatbuilding events. Drawn when WoodenBoat put out a call for designs for the Family Boatbuilding event at the WoodenBoat show. Carl Cramer, publisher of WoodenBoat and Professional Boatbuilder magazines, said of our description, “Sounds perfect.”



Fox. Another 10' kit boat for kids, with a shape based on the Javelin model (see below). Both of these 10' designs are small enough that they can be easily car topped—even on little hybrid cars—carted down to a beach and launched. Both boats have a flexible rig that will fit those who are learning to sail as well as those who want to have fun sailing fast.

Sailing canoes. Small and light, these are like building a big model, and they are boats that will also go. Our daughter suggested a boat that kids could tow on a light trailer behind a bike, and  a sailing canoe is one of the possibilities that would work. Over the year we had requests from a number of people for this kind of boat.



High school boats. There is a movement afoot to start sailing teams in some of the many high schools that don’t have them. The cost of the boats s a big stumbling block so these designs are for boats that can be built from kits in high school shops for the teams to race. These designs include two easy to build sail trainers, a V-bottom chase boat, and four varsity racing designs that will also be the most challenging to build. The idea is to pick one design from each category so that each school can grow its builders and sailors.



Time of Wonder boat. Inspired by the drawing of two kids sailing in the Robert McCloskey book, this boat is an answer to the numbers of people that have found our Somes Sound 12-1/2 just a little beyond their means or too big a project to tackle.



Bigger Daniel outboard skiff. This summer my Modern Methods class at WoodenBoat School built the hull for a 12-foot V-bottom outboard pram we call the Daniel skiff and there were several requests from different folks for a bigger version. I drew a 17' version with a center console as a chase boat for the high school sailing teams.



Little Sjogin. The original Sjogin is a lovely 22' Swedish-inspired work boat style design built in the 60s in New Jersey and is much loved by those on the WB forum (Update on developing plans for "Sjogin" 11/15/2010), where pictures are often posted. We were asked for a design for a smaller—19'—trailerable version.



Javelin. A 20' version of the Open 60 class, minus the (very expensive) deep fin keel, that could be built from a kit. Like the high school boats, the idea is to get more people sailing. This is a boat for those that like to read Outside magazine who want to go wild places on the water, a boat that that is environmentally friendly, plus fast and fun to sail and can be rowed when the wind cuts out. The hull design has a chine with a cambered bottom made of batten-seamed plywood, and the topsides curved in section and built in glued-lapstrake construction. This is a rounded hull that is speedy, drier and easy to build.

Fish Class in glued lapstrake. WoodenBoat forumites (Falling in love) and others who like our Somes Sound 12-1/2 have also talked about the idea of doing the same thing to the bigger versions of the Herreshoff and Joel White designs.



Javelin 26. A bigger version of Javelin that could take a whole family and specifically requested for sailing in the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta. This is a boat that would be capable of keeping up with bigger boats in fleet. This is also a boat that fits the requirements of the WoodenBoat Design Challenge III, if I had time to draw it.



New folkboat. An updated version of the venerable lapstrake design with the same philosophy of simple, economical and seaworthy, for one-design racing and for short cruises. I’ve also drawn this boat at 26' so it can also race in events like the ERR.

More soon!

John