I became interested in wooden boats as a child, building small toy boats from blocks of wood to later a fully framed and sheeted balsa cruiser of about 12 inches. My dad was an aeronautical engineer with NASA however so I always seemed to spend more time on aeronautical designs than boats.... now operating TMRC (Tom Martin Radio Control) at http://www.tmrcsailplanes.com where I offer the largest selection of laser cut scale wooden sailplane kits available anywhere in the world.
But I always keep coming back to boats. Now with a ten year old son and 13 year old daughter, I'd like to build a boat that is 1). from my own design; 2). purpose-built to where I live and boat; 3). innexpensive, 4). simple and fast to build, and finally 5). durable, lightweight and possibly able to be carried on cartop.
The design is also, as all are, a compromise offering the ability for primarily rowing, secondarily small outboard power (I have a 1949 Mercury Super 5 from my wife's grandfather's garage in Minnesota) and thirdly will have an option for mounting a sailing rig. The rocker has been modified from other designs to more flat-bottomed aft of midships and yet incorporates some rocker near the transom to allow use on midwestern rivers without standing waves or current pushing on the transom. It will be rowed in traditional fashion with the helmsman facing the transom, so in river use will be opposite the configuration of a traditional Rogue or McKenzie dory in this application although will share the flared sides, and higher freeboard at the bow used in those designs which should not compromise its rowing or sailing ability.
It will use only a stem, center mold and transom for construction with chine logs, sawn oak frames and classic inwale-outwale gunwales. In addition, I would like to include in the drawings and design an option to use plywood sheet or lapstrake construction and am leaning toward the latter for the prototype build which I hope to begin in just a few weeks. I would also like to offer plans and patterns for this boat commercially as I have with a traditional Newfoundland Dory and McKenzie Dory plan that I offer on ebay.
Mine will be bright finished on the inside and painted outside and my oars will be hand-made with handtools from blanks of 2x white ash. All of the building materials will be sourced from Schutte lumber here in Kansas City and the cost estimated at present to build the boat is between $400 and $500.
I have already built a 1:12 scale model to better visuallize the lines for my boat and will post picutures of it and a preview of my working drawings shortly. Hopefully others may be interested in this design or building method and will follow along and coach me with my first full-sized boat building project,
