Just when I thought I had made my decision......... I opened my email to find a message from John Welsford.  Bingo.....John suggested I take his 21' Sundowner design and stretch it to 24' with Junk rig, built of ply with full standing headroom and bags of storage.  He was already drawing the same boat for others :) 

Thank you Annie for the suggestion, John is on my 'wavelength' .

Peter

Annie Hill wrote:.. The 34ft dory seems to have been a winner, with junk rig (and flat sails!) and the 30ft version also seems a success; on the other hand, the 37"6", much more full in the bow sections, does not seem to have worked well. 

Interesting to see how ours turns out. I used the exact offsets from the 31'8 baby Badger, only enlarged the station spacing 10%. Now at 34'10", the bow entry is even finer. I know NA's don't like departures from their design, but its our boat. I reckon it will be a slightly better hull..

I think Jay's own interests have moved considerably away from simple boats for simple cruising; I'm not entirely surprised you haven't had a lot of feedback from him.  He did design several junk rigged boats some years ago, but they were straight H/McL and I don't think he really has a great deal of understanding of the rig.  The 34ft dory seems to have been a winner, with junk rig (and flat sails!) and the 30ft version also seems a success; on the other hand, the 37"6", much more full in the bow sections, does not seem to have worked well.  Even the best of designers have boats that turned out to be much better than anticipated, or not a success at all.  I guess that's one of the reasons that boats have some magic about them.

I think when you see a design you fall in love with, that's the one you should build.  IMHO :-)

Just a thought ... the Red Fox may be worth investigating.  David Thomas design, twin asymetric leeboards (like David Tyler's Tystie and Peter Manning's Malliemac, but pocket version) .  Smaller than you are thinking about but with a large internal volume for its length.  The production boats have been grp moulded but I understand that the prototype was built in marine ply, hence the chined hull with slab sides.  I have often thought that the design would make a high performance junk rigged cruiser.  As for size, Shane Acton went round in smaller, and the 20 foot Kingfishers have many ocean crossings to their credit. 

Annie, thank you for the link.  As you say 'Swaggie' is a little on the small side, but I have contacted John and explained my situation and plans.  I await his reply. 

The cost of plans is a consideration, of course.  But I agree that it is a fraction of the overall cost.   I think the key is to find a designer who is on the same wavelength.  John sounds like he might be.  Jay has also been helpful but seems reluctant to move away from his suggestion, to me, to use the 'baby' badger design.   It's just a bit big for my simple needs.

The Eventide is, as you say, outdated but then again...... if it ain't broke don't fix it, as the saying goes. 

The search continues.  I am fortunate I have time on my side.... but not the bank :)

Peter