Category Archives: Boat Building Projects

Hello Gregg Have used your Hull Designer to build several kayaks. Been a lot of…  “fun” isn’t the right word – satisfying, challenging, frustrating… You’ve been there, done that. Been meaning to put back into the Hulls community, so attached is the .hul file for the best & most recent of them. Build blog at http://www.woodworkforums.com/f32/clayton-bay-144lv-12ft-plywood-kayak-87199/ ifContinue reading “Alan Julian shares kayaks”

Order our updated plans for the Butterfly Folding Kayak at just $25 (Visa, Mastercard, or check).

The Sailing Car is a lot of fun if you can find a flat place to run it (the harder the surface the faster). The full-battened rig runs loose since the side-stays are connected to the ‘sprung’ axle arms. At Carlson Design in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Micro is a big little boat – a big cockpit and lots of interior volume in only 14 feet. Almost no draft – pull up on the beach and step of into ankle-deep water. Self-tends itself to windward over about 6 or 7 knots of breeze. Believe it or not, our racing version with retractable bowsprit has done over 10 knots with 4 nervous adults aboard – creeeaak, groooaann! Sadly, we’re thinking of offering her to a good home one of these days to make room. 1995 on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees near Tulsa.

The Brick is an exercise in pure function.

The Bolger Pirogue is obnoxiously tender except on dry land! Even under this squatty gaff, we have a death-grip on the gunwhale trying to keep from sliding downhill. 1997 on Keystone Lake on the Arkansas River near Tulsa, Oklahoma.

We built this new cool mylar sail and 31 sq. ft. reacher on a sprit for this Dolphin Senior, ghosting along under a light breeze on Grand Lake near Tiajuana, Oklahoma, August 1999.

I took some lines in 1998 for this little frameless Whitehall Wherry from a 16 footer drawn by Platt Monfort. I entered it into the Hulls program, creating a multi-chine version and shrinking to 12 feet. Built over temporary frames of 1/4″ luan and epoxy/glass both inside and out. Mahogany gunwhales and thwart seats stiffen it right up. Light enough at about 65 lbs, rows fast and tracks well with the small skeg.

I ordered my Sneakeasy plans for the older ‘square’ design from Dynamite Payson. Philip C. Bolger’s “Boats with an Open Mind” (McGraw-Hill International Marine 1994) describes both that version and the box keel version I built. Apparently, there are no expanded panels available for the latter (I assume those plans would be available from Bolger). So, I entered the box keel hull into my free Hulls program and plotted out the expansions on Tyvek on my 6′ by 32′ plotter. I didn’t end up using all my plots; for the sides it was just as easy to clamp plywood to the boat and transfer by hand.

Plans for the Bolger Light Scooner are described and reproduced at reduced scale in Dynamite Payson’s book “Build the New Instant Boats” (McGraw-Hill International Marine 1984). There are a few dimensions to be scaled, which appear to about 1 mm = 1.55 inch. If you’re not a draftsman, you might want originals, available from Payson (and I assume Phil Bolger) at true scale.

Rozinante, the horse, was Don Quixote’s mule, whom he imagined a steed. Rozinante, the canoe yawl, was Francis Herreschoff’s idealized vision of the perfect, spartant, and beautiful cruiser, as described in his book, “The Compleat Cruiser” in the 1956. Like Quixote, the sailorman notes that his life and adventures aboard are about 7/8′s imagination.