Jim Michalak is a designer who took Phil Bolger’s “Instant Boats” to heart and for years has been churning out various designs in the genre. Lots have been built and those using them have been happy. He’s also written a book “Boatbuilding for Beginners” on building boats of the mainly “Instant” variety which would be …
I went shopping the other day and with just about everything I popped in my basket I felt a certain “I’m-sure-the-price-on-this-has-gone-up” twinge. It’s getting a lot more expensive these days and if canned tuna goes up you have to know that so are boats and boat related products. Seriously, have you looked at what good …
We all know that bigger boats cost more but a lot of folks just don’t get the scale of the thing. So, here’s a quick example… Our CAL 34 rig calls for a 9/32″ forestay of roughly forty feet while, on the other hand, the Morgan 41 OI we were talking about has a 3/8″ …
There’s a Morgan 41 Out Island for sale over in St Thomas for what seems like forever. I first noticed it when it was selling for around $40K and have watched, with no small amount of interest, as the price has come down (and down) till it’s reached it’s current sub-$10K asking price of $8500. …
Recently, over at the WoodenBoat forum there was some discussion of a newish George Buehler design… On the whole, I don’t like forums as they bring out a certain insecure my-dicks-bigger-than-yours mean spirited vibe that I find depressing to the max. The reason I mention this is if you want to do the VolksCruiser thing …
Obviously little boats are something of a mainstay in the VolksCruiser sailing away on a small budget world. “Little boats have little problems” and all that… The truth is a single person or a couple can live quite comfortably and voyage successfully in an incredibly small boat… But, what about a family? All of a …
TransPac CAL 20 Black Feathers I’ve always been a big fan of the Bill Lapworth CAL 20 design and since I linked to another of my favorite designs, the Muscadet, the other day it occurred to me how similar the two boats were… Muscadet LOA: 21.26′ / 6.48mLWL: 18.37′ / 5.60mBEAM: 7.41′ / 2.26mDRAFT: 2.46′ …
Here’s a great post on Philipe Harlé’s Muscadet by 1001Boats that you might want to peruse…
How long does it take to build a box? Well, to be truthful, it all depends but with any sort of work ethic not all that long which is why square boats tend to be attractive to some people… T26X7 Slacktide They’re simple, easy to get your head around, and most importantly, people feel they …
Just out of curiosity I was looking at the list of this year’s ARC Rally boats and it makes some interesting reading… I’ll sum it up this way… Lots of big expensive boats. Now, I’m on record as being a non-fan of cruising rallies. Partly because I don’t feel a lot of folks sailing towards …
