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For years, fishing buddy and fellow Riverswest member, Fred, has been talking about building a boat for himself. What he thought he wanted kept changing, making the design work impossible. But finally he agreed that only two things were essential: 'light-weight' and 'stable'. As the designer, I imposed a third, 'simplified construction'.
The easiest to bundle those features into a design is to frame with cedar, plank with occume, cut the bottom from a single sheet, build jigless with an external chine, Salt Bay-style, but make the boat a beamy, 8' 6" pram, rather than a fairly narrow 12' skiff. I estimate finished weight should be under 40 pounds rather than the Salt Bay's 80.
Some other differences will happen as well. The rocker will be eased, as will be the bow and stern rakes. The skeg will be doubled. There will be a scuppered gunnel, a third frame instead of just a cleat, no bow or stern thwarts, crowned transoms, a mid-plank rubbing strip, etc. In other words, a simple, single-user pram of which I've drawn and built a dozen that's meant to be rowed, not motored or sailed, whose sole purpose is to be a car-toppable, beach-launchable, protected-waters, fly-casting platform.
Once Fred gets his shop cleaned up and has bought the ply and framing lumber, we'll create a temporary lofting table, make the needed construction drawings and begin blogging our progress.
Charlie
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