This is a lovely clinker sailing boat. Gunter rigged and with a cloud of sail. In fact in a blow she is quite tender but does go well! An Iain Oughtred design, typical of his style. This makes a very good ‘raid’ boat, she rows well, sails well and I have managed to build an outboard outrigger on the starboard side to take a small 2.5 hp motor. This is much easier to instal than a well and does little to spoil the lines – and no huge hole in the middle of the boat. For rowing, the boat is a little heavy when compared to others and whilst she handles well, she can be a bit of a challenge to row in a decent crosswind.
Some points for anyone contemplating building one of these. You can get a kit of ply and build frames cut out by Alec Jordan, and this will go a long way to getting you started, but more than that there is an economy of ply as Alec does take care to nest the plank sections which means that ply is not unnecessarily wasted. This saves the lofting process and gets you going quicker. Iain’s book Clinker Plywood Boatbuilding Manual is a useful read not only covering the basic techniques, but there is also a great deal of wisdom on the matter of dealing with Epoxy – which can be a subject in itself.
