|
|
I love my little Fantail: she sails very well, is a comfortable home and is easy to handle. However, my chosen cruising ground has a lot of shallow water for which her 5ft draught is very unsuitable. In addition, New Zealand frequently experiences side swipes from Cyclones, which are extremely unpleasant. When these are forecast, it would be nice to creep up a creek, surrounded by drying land or snuggled among mangroves. Shallow draught would mean that I could coat below the water with copper and epoxy and keep the boat clean by scrubbing, saving on the cost of hauling out and antifouling. I've been thinking about this for some time, and it occurred to me that many of you clever people enjoy doodling boat designs, so I've come up with a Challenge. Who wants to design Annie's next boat, Sib-Lim? (Small Is Beautiful, Less is More). I'm not promising that I will build her - somehow I have to acquire the wherewithal - but someone else might! On the other hand, I think it would be fun to see what people would come up with. The Editors like the idea and we would publish designs in the magazine to stimulate debate and, hopefully, to encourage members who shy away from the Internet to contribute their ideas.
The design parameters:
Hull: Essential (in no particular order) The boat has to be simple to build and inexpensive
- About 3 tons displacement.
- Hull: 26ft or less, wood of some sort.
- Offshore capable
- Genuine windward ability
- Maximum 2 ft draught
- Single-mast junk rig
- Full-width cabin
- Rudder on stern
- Outboard engine
- Wind vane self steering
- Room for 120w solar panel on deck
- Watertight chain locker
- Room for 5ft 1in dinghy
- Sufficiently robust to dry out regularly on oyster shells
- If flat-bottomed, no slapping of waves at anchor
Addenudum:
- at least 5'1" (155cm) headroom, preferably about 5'6 " (168cm) for my guests
- Good looking - at least to my eyes!
Would be nice
Accommodation: Essential (in no particular order)
- Double berth
- Screened off heads with C-head composting toilet, but a separate compartment is not necessary
- Good galley
- Spare berth for guest
- Solid fuel heater
- No sliding hatch
- No lift-out washboards
- Comfortable cockpit
- Storage for paint, spare rope, etc
- Bookshelves
- Storage in lockers
- Decent table for eating and writing
- Room for plywood sheet as half-size chart table (it can be stowed when not required)
- At least 2 galley drawers
Would be nice
- Raised saloon so that I can see out - a raised, three-sided dinette like I have at present would be perfect.
- Avoid quarter berths
- Pram hood
- Water in 4l jerricans
- Athwartships cooker
- Vegetable locker
While I would never trail the boat, designers might bear this in mind as being a useful asset for other builders :-), so putting the mast in a tabernacle would also have merits.
Alan Boswell has offered to critique the designs insofar as their sailing performance is concerned, and I will judge how closely they match my (sometime incompatible) criteria for a comfortable liveaboard, cruising boat. The more detailed the drawings are, the more interesting they will be, of course, but the idea is to stimulate debate and get people to their drawing boards/CAD programs.
It goes without saying that if anyone produces a perfect design, I would be more than happy to pay for it. I suggest that challengers post their designs in their profile galleries and/or send them to me. I'll keep Alan up to date.
|