depends on where you put the decimal point...

So, since I've pointed out that the Newport 28 s a pretty good potential VolksCruiser, I've had no shortage of emails asking me why they should consider one vs some more expensive reasonable facsimile.

Over in Washington state there's a Newport 28 for $3.5K with an engine (though whether it works or not is not stated), what appears to be a reasonable sail wardrobe, and a decent dinghy. Oh yeah, it even has a wood stove!

The thing is, a 28-foot boat, whether it costs $3.5K or $35K, is going to allow you to do the same things, go about the same speed, and allow for a similar level of comfort.

And yes, Dear Reader, the $3.5K Newport 28 is going to require some money and sweat equity as it's a boat. That said a $35K boat will have it's share of issues and required work as well which is something you really need to consider.

As it happens, my morning perusal of craigslist via Search Tempest today seemed to have a plethora of very interesting boats at that $3.5k price point.

some VolksCruierish dinghy thoughts...

While I know that the overall consensus is that the best cruising dinghy is an eight or ten-foot RIB with a 9.9/15 HP engine but I'll just have to disagree.

For a long time I'll admit that I thought the best cruising dinghy was Phil Bolger's Tortoise as it did everything we needed it to do, no one wanted to steal it, and it was the most boat you could get out of two sheets of plywood.

Sure it could have been bigger and prettier but any reasonable attempt to do so would result in a boat that would not work as well and cost more.

A while back I noticed that the late and much missed Dynamite Payson had included a "Big Tortoise" in his "Instant Boat Building with Dynamite Payson" and that while a lot bigger it still only used two sheets of plywood so we built one. 

It's a great boat.

Being longer it rowed better, carried a bigger load and was even more stable than the smaller Tortoise. Plus it's homely looks meant no one ever felt compelled to steal it. The only downsides are that it's a bit heavier and takes up too much room on the deck.

I've have built a sorta/kinda nesting version of the little Tortoise so I could fit it into a space I had on the deck of LM2 but it was a crude hack and, while it worked, the kludge factor irritated me.

I've been working on a couple of ideas on a replacement dinghy for our Big Tortoise where it would nest but keeping its qualities at the same level while still only using  two sheets of plywood. Funny how tiny changes on a very simple boat seem a lot like rocket science.

More on the subject soonish...

A very nice boat...

Atom Voyages does their thing on a Cape Dory 27.

A VolksCruiser of note...

I've long wanted to build a small canal cruiser for the time that I'm past my sailing days. Philip Thiel's Joli Boat has always been at the top pf my list and a great example of getting the most livability into a 22'9" X 8' envelope.

As it happens "Small Boats Magazine" has an excellent article on the Joli Boat's little sister the Escargot design that is well worth the read. For those interested in the design the Wooden Boat Store has plans for the Joli Boat and Escargot.

a couple of thoughts on plywood...

I know everyone says that when using plywood aboard a boat that one should always use the best marine plywood you can get.

So here's where that advice does not quite add up.

Some time back I built a hard dodger with marine ply, saturated it with epoxy and glassed then painted it. I was content that it was both bombproof and would last forever.

A couple of years later I built a Bolger long Tortoise dinghy and used cheap exterior ply because it was a very temporary boat and just a quick build to use until I built a different boat. I did use epoxy but because Raka had introduced a new UV resistant epoxy I did not bother to paint it using it as a test bed to see just how long the dinghy would last in the tropical sun.

Years have gone by...

A while back I noticed some issues with the dodger. A few soft spots developed in places they really should not have. I cut away the soft wood and replaced it with new marine ply using epoxy to glue it up coated with more epoxy and glassed it. Problem solved I thought to myself.

Meanwhile the temporary dinghy still got used every day the glass and epoxy on the boat was becoming a sad sight to behold but the boat still worked but there were bare spots exposing end grain and I pretty much accepted that the boat would be toast in a few months or so.

A couple of years later...

The dodger seems to have developed some sort of fatal infestation. The soft spots are back with a vengeance and the spread is now so widespread that it makes sense to just build another one to replace it. Actually not a bad thing at all is I've always thought the proportions were not quite right and I've been wanting to do another one for ages. Still, I had expected better from the marine ply in question.

On the other hand, the dinghy is still with us. All of the interior glass and epoxy coating has gone leaving bare plywood and exposed end grain. The dinghy was also sunk in hurricane Maria, abused on various dinghy docks, dragged up on sharp rocks, and just generally abused but is still in surprisingly good shape in spite of me purposely doing everything I could to get it to fail.

Over the expanse of time I've done a lot of ad hoc testing of ply and lumber offcuts to see just what would or would not rot and how they'd hold up to various tropical insects. Almost always the best results of such tests have leaned towards the opposite of what passes for common knowledge as to what works best on boats in the tropics.

So, now that "H" season is almost passed it's time to get with the program and build a new hard dodger as well as a new dinghy for "So It Goes". Doing either project in marine pretty much doubles the price of the dinghy or dodger so I'm inclined to just go with pressure treated exterior ply for both. Once finished, glassed, and painted no one is going to know what sort of ply it is and considering the experience I've had it will last as long or longer than what passes for so-called marine ply these days.

regarding a very long voyage in a pretty small boat...

I read recently how Keith Leitzke has returned from another cruise to nowhere in particular and it got me thinking about a few things...

The first being how that Bill Lapworth's CAL 20 is still a great minimal cruising design in spite of the fact that it was never really designed to be one.

While I'm sure the Cal 20 would not be everyone's choice for a long sea voyage apparently Keith Leitzke thought it was just the thing for a four month or longer blue water voyage.

The fact that the Cal  20 has more than proven its blue water bona-fides with numerous trans-pacific voyages to its credit just goes to show that seaworthiness is not dependent on cost or size.

Of course, doing extreme blue water voyages in small boats means that one has to get creative to the Nth degree where space and loading is concerned. Seriously, just how do you store four months or more of provisions, water, and other needful gear?

Just thinking about how to store 120 gallons of water on a Cal 20, for starters, kinda makes my brain hurt! Throw in the provisions of even the most stoic menu for four+ months and you're talking about some genius creative use of space...

Well that or getting into TARDIS territory.

The important thing to keep in mind is that, obviously, it's been done so it's possible and knowing something is possible means all you have to do is figure it out because impossible is no longer an option.

Just sayin'

A channel of interest...

Plus, I've always liked the Poker design.

Some questions...

Over a long period of time I've been troubled about some "truths" a lot of folks take as gospel...

Like this one.

"Boats break. A lot."

 

A phrase found a few times over at The Retirement Project (a blog you might want to check out from time to time) which I find somewhat problematic. Not because it is incorrect (boats and boat stuff do indeed break) but because folks mostly accept this as the way things are without questioning it. What we should be saying is...

 

Why do boats (and boat stuff) break? A lot.

 

Even more importantly maybe we should be asking..

 

Why the hell are we putting up with this sorry state of affairs?

 

Think about that for a bit...

 

A project on the drawing board...

A friend and I have been discussing an idea I have for rehabbing an old small classic plastic design and turning it into a VolksCruiser...

The boat in question happens to be a Columbia 26.

As it happens I've always liked the Columbia 26...

Studying the current crop of the C26 for sale floating around, my calculator tells me that the price for a boat in good or better condition falls somewhere in the $3-6K zone and we might safely say the average is right around $4500 (+ or -).

The $2000 boat I have my eye on however is a far cry from being in good or better condition and the amount of money needed to make it right, not to mention the large amount of labor involved, actually makes it quite a lot more expensive than the various boats in that $3-6K zone. My hope is that the guy who's been selling it for a couple of years now will wake up one morning and just sell the thing for what it is currently worth (about $500 or so) in which case I'll pounce.

You might say I have a cunning plan...

So, what would I do to turn a fixer-upper Columbia 26 into a proper VolksCruiser?

Tune in for the next post and I'll get into it and yes, dear reader, there will be lists!

A great dinghy building book...

I've been reading "Building the Uqbar Dinghy" and it really is a great book for those who want to build a good dinghy in a weekend... Yes, really, a weekend.

Fact is, I like the dinghies so much I'm pretty sure I'm going to build one in the very near future. The only problem being which dinghy (there are plans for a six, seven, eight, and ten-foot dinghies within the book) I'll choose. I suspect it's a toss up between the eight or ten footers but the six-footer is truly sweet and, as we've successfully cruised for years with a six-foot Bolger Tortoise, to say I'm tempted would be something of an understatement.

Lot to be said for a dinghy that does not take up a lot of space and only weighs 35 pounds.

What really struck me about the book was how well Redjeb Jordania made the building process simple. I suspect the fact that he's taught a lot of dinghy building workshops gives him an edge on making the content of the book tyroproof.

Better yet, I just noticed the price has come down for the Kindle format version and four complete boat plans with step-by-step information on how to put them together for less than $10 is some kind of serious deal...

1 to 50...

Jay Fitzgerald (whose book should be on every VolksCruisers bookshelf) has mentioned that boat size should reflect muscle power and as far he could figure that 1 to 50 was the ratio that made sense.

Offhand, I expect he's pretty close to being right on the money...

So, what does that work out to in real terms?

Let's start with someone who weighs in at 180 pounds and (giving the benefit of the doubt) is a lean and mean machine. That gives us a displacement number of 9000 pounds... A nice round number.

By today's standards, a 9000-pound displacement boat is not very big and you'd be hard pressed to find one over thirty feet in length. Just for a sense of what some popular VolksCruiserish boats displace...

• CAL 34... 9500 pounds
• CAL 28... 6000 pounds
• Pearson Vanguard... 10300 pounds
• Pearson Triton... 6930 pounds
• Columbia 34... 10500 pounds
• Coronado 32... 11800 pounds

Well, you get the idea...

Where Fitzgerald's numbers work is that they give you a  pretty good idea of what's within your physical abilities without resorting to some sort of problem prone auxiliary assistance like powered winches and suchlike.

Maybe it's just me, but I'd feel nervous about sailing a boat where such needful acts like sail handling or picking up an anchor is beyond my physical ability.

Anyway, it's something to think about.

How, apparently, I'm not alone in my feeling towards RIBs...

I recently was looking at dinghy designs and this designers blurb caught my eye because he called his boat the anti-RIB.

I like this guy!

The boat in question is called "OONAGH" and here's something from the study plans...

"In traditional boating circles, it is a long cherished tradition to rail against inflatables, and there are some good reasons.  Because rowing them to good effect is not possible, inflatables almost invariably wind up with an outboard on the transom.  Outboards produce several varieties of pollution – sound, air, water – and have a tendency to foster questionable skylarking by bored youngsters.   And recently, mankind has discovered that burning petroleum might just have another big drawback as well.

"The new generation of rigid bottom inflatables, or RIBs have some additional vices. They abandon what used to be the most powerful argument for inflatables – that they can be deflated and stored aboard for longer passages.  They feature deepish vee bottoms, which make rowing even more impossible, and only really show any advantage with the application of lots of petroleum.  When you try to use that horsepower, a RIB will first plow itself into a deep trough, then jump up onto a plane with unnerving rapidity – they have no sweet spot between the two.

"My hunch is that the rush to RIBs is driven by the fact that we baby boomers (the flower children who were going to bring us to the age of Aquarius, remember?) are losing our balance, muscle mass, joint mobility (and a bunch of other functions too embarrassing to mention), and are happy to have a dinghy that is as stable as a church, can be driven like a bumper car, and gives us an airtight excuse for not rowing.  Come on Flower Children, let's take back the high road!

"Inflatable boats have some undeniable advantages.  First and probably foremost is their tremendous stability.  They also have wonderful built in fendering – no worries about coming alongside your perfect topsides when things are a little lumpy.  And when you get alongside, you can stand up on the inflated pontoons to get a boost for climbing aboard the mother ship.  OONAGH is my attempt to combine some of the best qualities of inflatables with the advantages of a traditional dinghy, and put it into a package that is a little less hostile to the planet."

The guy makes a lot of sense...

... and he draws a pretty boat as well.


Albeit the "OONAGH" is going to be too big/heavy for a VolksCruiser-size boat you might want to keep an eye on Mr Hylans work for a smaller or lighter version to show up. Or, you could just buy the plans and adapt them to a lighter stitch and glue, two-part dinghy... Stranger things have been known to happen.

It's true some people do need a bigger boat...

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 sudden that 28-foot boat starts looking a lot like a clown car.

The problem is that as boats get bigger so do the costs and associated expenses. Made worse by the fact that bigger boats, systems, and gear are mainly aimed at wealthy buyers so there is no budget sector of the market.

Very few designers these days seem to show any real interest in designing boats for home builders on a budget. In their defense, I have to admit there is not a lot of money in it or, at least, the market is simply hidden because it is underserved.

Tad Roberts with his Future Cruiser series seem to be on the right track with boats at 38 and 44-foot with super simple systems and rigs. Somewhat against the trend of doing a "budget" boat and then speccing out a silly-expensive rig, engine, and other systems whose costs will dwarf the outlay of building the actual boat.

There are also a lot of older designs that make a lot of sense but we'll be talking about a few of those later...

looking closer at a couple of boats...

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' / 6.48m
LWL: 18.37' / 5.60m
BEAM: 7.41' / 2.26m
DRAFT: 2.46' / 0.75m- 4.10' / 1.25m  
SAIL AREA: 205 ft² / 19.04 m^{2
DISPLACEMENT: 2646 lbs./ 1200 kgs}


CAL 20

LOA: 20.00' / 6.10m
LWL: 18.00' / 5.49m
BEAM: 7.00' / 2.13m
DRAFT: 3.33' / 1.01m
SAIL AREA 195 ft² / 18.12 m² 
DISPLACEMENT 1950 lbs./ 885 kgs    

The most important difference between the two boats is the displacement numbers. It's plain to see that the Muscadet is a bigger boat within the same general size envelope but 700 pounds more displacement. Add to this the fact that Harlé was a true master at shoehorning an amazing amount of sensible accommodation into a design which translates into a boat that also feels a lot bigger and is easier to live on.

The other thing to keep in mind is it's a lot harder and more expensive ($5-8K) to find a Muscadet for sale and if you do it will be five or six times more expensive than a CAL 20 and I've seen a lot of good $500-$1000 CAL 20's over the last couple of years...

Me, being cheap and all, there's a lot to be said for the CAL 20. You can always rip out the old interior and do a more Harlé-like one with the savings.

On taking rescue for granted...

The carnage of the current Salty Dawg rally has given me a lot to think about the last couple of days...

For instance, the various boating media coverage seems to think it is sorta/kinda normal for masts to fall down, rudders to fall off or break, and the fact that there are heroic Coast Guard men and women just waiting around to save yachties collective asses when needed.

Maybe it's just me but none of that is normal and it's something we should all give some serious thought to...

Sure masts do fall down from time to time and, I have some up-close-and-personal experience with such things. It's not because the wind blows too hard but because there is something wrong with the mast or any number of small fittings that can fail. In the case of my mast falling down and going BOOM, it was a single little weld that failed on a chainplate (a chainplate, I might add that I intended to replace at my earliest convenience and boy was that ever a big mistake!).

Pretty much the same goes for rudders... Rudders fail because they have something wrong with them and, as rudders take a lot of abuse over their lives, it is something that anyone going to sea further than they care to swim back from should factor into their plans and have some sort of backup system that works that you have actually tried...

I mention this because even in a world of cell phones and EPIRBs there is a very good chance that when the shit hits the fan you won't be anywhere near heroic Coasties or other means of timely rescue and you will, at least temporarily, need to take care of yourself and hopefully make port.

The problem is that most modern boats are badly designed, too complicated, and have too many systems to be easily sorted out when TSHTF scenario becomes a reality. Seriously, how are you going to sort out a problem when you cannot even access half your thru-hulls?

Lucky for us the VolksCruiser by its very nature has minimal systems and the ones it has are simple...

But, more about that later.

About that need/want thang...

What do you actually need from a cruising boat?

It's a hard question. Mostly because it varies greatly from person to person and further complicated by the fact that most folks these days never really learned the difference between need and want...

Personally, where I'm concerned, comfort is a big part of the equation and I'm not going to put a lot of effort into a lifestyle that is uncomfortable... Would you?

Take Lin and Larry Pardey's boat "Seraffyn" reading "Cruising in Seraffyn" does not paint a picture of a couple sailing around the world being uncomfortable or unhappy. At just a kiss less than 25-feet, Seraffyn seems to have been a comfortable cruising boat and home.

Of course, a 25-foot boat is not for everyone but it does make an excellent case that with the right mindset and some better-than-average organizational skills it's a doable option.

Just a bit of advice, I'd work on the needful organizational skills set if comfort is important to you.

A boat you should be aware of...

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the Westerly Centaur...

For one, it has that sort of clunky everyman thing going for it which is kind of refreshing. It's not sleek, has zero pretensions, and looks just like you'd expect a budget sailboat for the masses to look.

Which is some kind of beautiful in it's own particular way.

Designed for sailing in and around the UK where drying harbors and big tides are common it has bilge keels and they make all kinds of sense. Frankly, I still don't understand why more designers don't do bilge keels as their advantages in most situations outweigh their disadvantages in most of the places folks want to cruise. So, hardly surprising that it is the most popular production sailboat from the UK.

I know Centaurs have crossed the Atlantic and Pacific so they do have some serious street cred which might, along with their bombproof scantlings and high demand, account for their rather steep resale prices. It is not uncommon to find a 1969 Centaur going for $16-18K or so...

As a VolksCruiser it makes all kinds of sense and in a lot of ways really is one of the prototypical examples of what a production boat for most of us should be.

On money keeping you safe or keeping the riff raff out...

Over at Estrellita 5.10B (always a good read) they have a great post concerning fear and it got me thinking...

As it happens, I was also trying to digest just why a thread about the possibility of a $15,000 bluewater cruiser over at Cruisers Forum irritated me so much.

I've gone on record that I don't think the moniker "Blue Water" should ever be used in conjunction with the words design, sailboat, or gear. I feel boats should be seaworthy whether you sail a couple of miles or a couple of thousand and the idea that it's alright to go somewhere in an unsafe or unseaworthy boat as long as it's "coastal" is somewhat flawed logic.

Also, it goes without saying that sticking the words "Blue Water" and a large price tag on a boat's description does not make it a safe or seaworthy boat...

Looking at the Cruisers Forum thread again with the word fear freshly imprinted on my mind all of a sudden it all makes some kind of perverted sense.

Fear is an interesting emotion and one that will, more than likely, destroy what was once a great experiment in democracy and, if fear can bring a great empire to its knees, just imagine what it can do to people who simply want to go sailing...

Of course, there are many seaworthy boats and a lot of them can be bought for $15,000 or less. For an example take a look at the CAL34 but there are any number of boats in the 26 through 38-foot range with small price tags that will take you safely anywhere you care to go.

if it was simple everybody would be doing it...

Here's a simple boat. It's a scow and it makes quite a bit of sense...

Designed by Reuel Parker it's a lot of bang for the buck and a very comfortable floating home... What's not to like?

Everything is simple, it's easily put together, and as boats go, is not going to break the bank doing it. Parker has spec'd out mostly cheap lumberyard materials (form-ply and construction grade lumber), a simple affordable rig, and auxiliary power is provided by a simple outboard motor.

Someone with enough budget to buy the materials in one lump and two or three months to build full time would have a very nice boat when the dust settled..

Simple.

For more info on how you'd actually build such a beast Reuel Parker's "The New Cold-Molded Boatbuilding" will tell you everything you need to know...

SCOW just may be the new black...

Speaking of scows...

Dave Z has some thoughts on the subject and a friend in France seems to have a cunning plan!