Beware of Friends bringing plans.....

    There are times when you share the enthusiasm of your friends, and that is a good things, and there are times when your friends share their enthusiasm with you, and that's how this whole thing started.   Actually about 10 hours ago to be exact.

    So, the start of this began when James Maxwell had a notion to build a boat.  Now he was entirely reasonable and sought to build a modest craft, a Harley 8.  The Harley 8 is meant for construction from one sheet (and a few odds and ends) of plywood.   Well, by and large this happened and if you look elsewhere  http://inlandpacket.yolasite.com/ you can follow his adventures with his Harley 8 through construction, testing and launching in its namesake waters.    Wild with success, he wants to do it again.

James Maxwell at the helm of his Harley 8 SV Wawona (named after a full size schooner that ended its days at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle Washington).  James is sailing nearby (Center for Wood Boats is in the background) on Lake Union.

    Should know better.  Still I got a couple chances to fiddle with his Harley 8 and it certainly was a challenge to make the boat do what it could.  However I could not claim success, and that sort of bothered.me.   James was regaling me on the new boat he was building, a 14 foot (over the Harley 8's eight feet) vessel requiring a trailer (vs car topping) and capable of carrying a whole bunch of folks (over the Harley's one point something--if that)
 
   And that's where I come in.........

   It is certainly and intellectual excercise to help somebody else build a boat, and it's certainly a test of one's ability to "figure" stuff out.   So it was well and fun and more fun when everything worked out pretty well.  A truth was learned that the Harley 8 thrived on wind, something our testing on Frenchtown Pond (in Frenchtown, Montana) failed to provide.  This stymied me and before I knew it I agreed to the idea of taking another stab at a Harley eight--I mean gee, $20 in materials--where could one go wrong?   www.pdracer.com/plans/harley-8.pdf

Results from the first go around at the lumber yard.

   Well, things morph (and how).   With the quick visit to Home Depot out of the way, and having printed the entire plan set on my printer, James gets the notion that "you won't be happy with that Harley 8".  Well sadly, his argument made sense, since there were various attributes about the Harley that probably wouldn't go away, no matter how refined the build.   Well, what else is there?   Well, there is the Bolger Teal, which is an attractive little boat, equally capable under sail or rowing, though not necessarily a powerhouse performer.   Still, it might be a good starter boat, certainly a little bigger (12 feet vs 8 feet) and, as said before, a very attractive vessel.

   One other practical consideration is that the Teal can still be hauled atop a smallish (Nissan Sentra) car.  There are other designs (the Puddle Duck Racer, etc) that might have better performance, but are lacking in looks, or plain just take more lumber.  I don't know just where this messing about in boats is going to take me (I'll let you know when I find out) but if the journey (vs just buying a boat) then the Teal ought to do the job.  So----a bigger boat, and back to Home Depot.