another design in the same vein...

Yann Quenet's Skrowl 900 is something of a TARDIS when it comes to the most livability and comfort in a minimal envelope (just under 30-feet) shoal draft world cruiser.

Pretty much everything I want in my next boat.
 

an almost cunning plan...

There's a J-29 up in the frozen north that I've been thinking about quite a bit. For those unacquainted with the design it looks something like this...

It, like most of it's J-Boat brethren, is a boat designed and built to be competitive so you may be wondering why the hell am I looking at it?

Well, you might say, I have a sorta/kinda cunning plan for a boat of this ilk.

For starters there's not much of an interior so it would be very easy to do a new performance cruising interior and as long as we're installing a neat little galley we might take the opportunity to do a new mast step while we're at it.

A new VolksCruiserish rig spelled junk or lug would make for a neat testbed and as there are quite a few J-29s about it owned by folks who'd enjoy sailing against a J-29 with a different (some might call it freakish) rig it would be an awesome educational endeavor and I'd enjoy it.

As the boat in question is selling for not very much I'd expect to be able to the needful mods and suchlike to keep the finished boat a kiss less than $10.5K.

The only issue that keeps me from jumping on a plane cash in hand to get is the fact that the J-29 has almost six feet of draft and that's not going to work for my cruising plans.

So it does go.

That said if draft is not a deal breaker for you the J-29 is a pretty great candidate for a performance VolksCruiser and you might want to keep an eye out for a good deal on one.

 

On the subject of shoal draft...

So, working through the checklist we come to shoal draft...

The first Loose Moose drew all of a foot when the dagger board was up and Loose Moose 2 drew just 18 inches. Both boats taught me an awful lot about why real shoal draft makes sense where a VolksCruiser is concerned.

For starters, it allows you to get into places that other boats can't which opens up a myriad number of possible anchorages that others simply can't get into. This goes a long way into being able to find a spot  to anchor in places that are either problematic or simply too crowded to anchor safely.

When we were in Lanzarote, we were anchored in an area so shallow that the harbor boat who'd come and collect anchoring fees could not reach us, so we never had to pay. Which is no bad thing as, if you anchor in places that others can't, the powers that be tend to forget you're there.

One of the things I don't like about our current boat is it draws five feet. We've had no shortage of folks anchoring on top of us and all the brouhaha that involves. We never had boats dragging down on us in the middle of the night when we were anchored in three feet of water.

Then there's the ability to beach or dry out. Which can make basic boat work a lot easier or be a real life saver. Sure I can replace a seacock while afloat but it's a lot easier and safer if you're bottom is on sand and the seacock is above the water when beached. Of course you can do the same with our current boat but that entails beaching legs and a reasonable tidal range.

Lastly, as far as I'm concerned, a well designed shoal draft sailboat is going to be less prone to capsize because there is less structure on the bottom that can catch and trip a hull which is, more often than not, a very big contributing factor in capsize situations. On the internal vs external ballast argument, I'll just point you to my clown friend as an example of the basic physics of things.

Next on the list is what "well built" actually means in a VolksCruiser...

Different strokes for different folks...

So, here's a question...

"What sort of VolksCruiser do you actually want?"

Face it, everyone's different with disparate needs and situations which means one's VolkCruiser of choice may not be what others need or want. Which I suppose brings us to other questions we have to ask ourselves...

"How are you going to use your VolksCruiser?"

Want to sail around the world? Or are your ambitions more about just sailing around the Pacific Northwest? Maybe you're interested in sailing to the back of beyond or maybe you'd be content to just hang out somewhere nice and live aboard.

Different strokes (or should I say 'Boats'?) for different folks.

Which leaves us with quite a few categories. Off the top of my head I'd say we're talking about live-aboard, area cruising, coastal cruising, transocean cruising, circumnavigating, and expedition/adventure cruising. Obviously this is not all of the possible variants but it does cover the majority in broad strokes.

Here's a VolksCruiserish design by Lyle Hess that I really like...

The Balboa 26 is a very cool trailer sailor. It's shoal draft of a kiss less than two-feet with the board up allows you to get into places other boats can't. It's seaworthy, has a comfortable albeit spartan interior, and it performs a lot better than most folk would suspect.

The going price seems to average out at around a bit over $4000 or so which puts it into the VolkCruiser price range.

Like I said, I really like this design...

Then again, it's not really a boat I'd choose for a circumnavigation, transocean, or adventure voyaging. Sure the boat could cross oceans or circumnavigate but being small with limited displacement it become all kinds of problematic to carry the essentials like water and provisions you'll need for those sort of enterprises.

On the other hand, for coastal and area based cruising it would be a great boat. Its shoal draft would allow you to get into out of the way places and, in my experience the shoal draft will also save you a lot of money in terms of mooring and marina bills.

Better yet, if you desire a change of scenery you could always leave the Pacific Northwest and have the boat towed to the east coast, then coastal cruise your way down to the Caribbean if you felt the urge.

Coming up, we'll look at a another 26-foot boat more in the voyaging category.

A guest post from Dave Zeiger on a VolksCruising TriloBoat...

A VolksCruising, Blue Water TriloBoat
By Dave Zeiger at ​triloboats.blogspot.com

Full disclosure... Anke and my blue water experience is entirely vicarious. I do not recommend a TriloBoat to venture far offshore as I lack blue-water performance data.

I can confidently say a TriloBoat hull wouldn’t be the ​worst​ choice. A good design, built robustly and competently handled, they should survive anything a similar vessel can, and do so more comfortably than many.

In a VolksCruiser, I look for:

• Tolerably small ​(small is beautiful! - ​E.F.Schumacher​)
• Simple hull shape ​(easily lofted, easily built)
• Simple construction ​(straightforward build from common materials)
• Simple interior​ (avoid complicated spaces, joinery or detail)
• Simple, durable finish​ (wipe-down, if possible; avoid varnish)
• Simple, basic systems​ (avoid unnecessary, complex, unrepairable)
• Simple, robust gear​ (good quality, fix-it-yourself)
• Simple, robust rig​ (low stress, fail-safer)

It is the ​combined ​economies of these points that keep overall costs down, and often make the difference between ​Go Now ​and ​Go Never.

Our personal approaches add:

• Flat bottom​ (easiest build, greatest volume/displacement on given dimensions)
• Square sections​ (easiest build, highest form stability / volume / displacement, reduces ballast)
• Ultra shoal draft​ (offers a hundred harbors to every deep one)
• Outboard rudder​ (external, inexpensive, easy maintenance)
• Retractable Lateral Resistance​ (lee-, center-, dagger or off-center boards (our fave)
• Free standing, junk rig​ (inexpensive, simple to use, maintainable with DIY materials, fail-safer)
• Copper plating​ (long lasting, non-toxic anti-fouling, mechanical protection... works particularly well with flat bottoms and panel designs)

And last, but not least:

• Move aboard ​(If you don’t, let’s face it; our vessel is an expensive toy)

WAYWARD

Our current TriloBoat, WAYWARD at 32 x 8 x 1-1.5 feet, represents our state-of-the-art nearshore ​VolksCruiser thinking for two. We sail and scull engine-free in Southeast Alaska.

Her layout... large cutouts in interior bulkheads... total cabin space is 20ft x 8ft... ample for two:

Adjacency is arranged for the following reasons...

• Bunk - Salon: The bunk is at the same height as salon seats, extending the social space. The dinette may be broken down and gangway planked over to form a large, flat interior platform for projects or flexi-space mode with extra storage under.
• Salon - Galley - Cockpit: The galley can service both the salon and cockpit without isolating the cook. Food and beverages can be handed either direction with less risk of spill.
• Galley - Cockpit: In addition, the galley serves as a pilot house. Remote steering is simplified by adjacency. We can sit on the counters with a 360deg view, and access the cockpit directly when necessary. The galley has standing headroom, which allows a wet-locker handy to the companionway. Anke can stand; I sit in the salon.

Her rig is a version of our preferred​ junk rig​. It’s DIY, cheap and easy for a couple to handle blow high, blow low and in the dark o’ night.

Factoring in Blue Water

I believe any vessel that ventures offshore should be prepared to be caught in worst-case weather.

In brief, I accept the sea-keeping proof-of-concepts for shoal draft provided by ​Monroe’s EGRET and ​Bolger’s ROMP​. They rise over and skitter away from seas rather than shoulder through them and absorb impact. They and others have been proven in hurricane conditions. ​Wise’s LMII​ and others do the same for flat-bottomed hulls.

My personal order for storm tactics is to ​evade, heave-to, run off, set ​Jordan Series Drogue​ from stern. I’d prefer the bow, but the US Coast Guard doesn’t recommend it (with bow-deployed drag devices, the hull risks being turned sideways and rolled by breaking seas).

Consequential parameters include...

• Self-righting
• Avoid deep, broach-prone lateral resistance
• Favor retractable lateral resistance (including rudder)
• Encourage downwind tracking (fixed aft skeg)
• Water shedding cockpit
• Poop resistant aft ​everything​ (including rudder)

A barge / scow’s generally lighter weight (less acceleration down a wave face) and immenseforward reserve buoyancy (anti-plunging) should, I believe, reduce risk of pitch-poling.

In designing a seagoing Volkscruiser, I would likely work from ​a TriloBoat toward Yann Quenet’s SKROWL concept​, preserving construction simplicity where I could. But, for the sake of discussion, let’s look at ​minimal ​changes to the full TriloBoat formula.

To take a TriloBoat offshore I’d include the following design features:

• Heavy bottom ​and ​watertight pilot-house ​(when closed up).
• Roll up the bow​ to ease plunging contact with green water.
• Aft skeg​ for aft lateral resistance in aid of downwind tracking.
• Layden chine runners ​and ​forward daggerboard​ for no-trip/broach lateral resistance.
• Full positive buoyancy​, with ​water-tight bulkheads​ isolating cabin from holds.
• Lower pilot house and rake its leading edge.
• Shutter large windows​ with track-sliding and bolt-down aluminum plate.
• Hollow, sealed, lightweight masts​ (that resist roll-over and can be raised and lowered at sea), supported by​ running shrouds.
• Reinforced mast tabernacles with splayed struts.
• Reinforced holdfasts, fairleads and winch(es) for Jordan Series Drogues.
• Increased ventilation (can’t rely on windows/hatches/doors) with immersion proof designs.
• Water tanks (vs. cannisters) and/or ​advanced solar still​.
• Lee cloths in bunk, port and s’brd, and settee..
• Windvane steering.
• Wafer dinghy​ stowed flat on the deck crown.

In the following cartoon, I’ve drawn a retractable daggerboard and balanced, kick-up rudder to augment the mid-ships ​Layden Chine Runners​. I’m guessing the daggerboard wouldn’t need to be lowered to max, as shown, in order to be effective.

It needs more thought, over all, but I present this hopeful monster for your consideration...

Thoughts on Construction

Our​ lower end, ply-foam-ply approach for WAYWARD​ cost about $10K in 2014 to finish the hull, superstructure and interior (including rent, shipping, tools, etc.). We built remote... savings from scrounging, shopping and transport could reach 25%? Copper plating doubled that to $20K.

At the higher end, glass / foam composites with vacuum bag resin infusion are not as scary as they sound. Materials are initially more expensive, but like copper, prorate well over a long period of time. Maintenance effort and costs drop. I’m guessing it might add another $5K?

If venturing offshore, I would consider a rot-proof hull to be a good investment in on-board insurance. Not like you can pull over for a pit stop.

*****

If Anke and I were to go to sea, I think a vessel with a TriloBoat foundation would be a contender. We can build it with our skills and resources. I ​believe​ we’d be at least as safe at sea as most boats of a size.

As the Pardeys sing it...​ Go Small, Go Simple, Go NOW!

For more thoughts along these lines, the following are a start:

http://abargeinthemaking.blogspot.com/2013/11/baseline-design-against-which-all.html
http://abargeinthemaking.blogspot.com/2013/11/considering-curvier-dogs.html
http://triloboats.blogspot.com/2020/01/fail-safer-hull-design.html

about shallow draft...

Our CAL 34 has a draft of 4' 8" or thereabouts and a lot of folks might actually think of that as being "shoal draft"...

I don't.

Our last boat, Loose Moose 2, drew a kiss over one foot and the previous Loose Moose only drew one foot (as in 12 inches)...

So, from where I sit, I put real shoal draft as somewhere at three feet or less.

There's a lot to be said for having a real shoal draft boat... For one, providing it was designed by someone who knew what they were doing, it's as safe or safer than their non-shoal draft brethren.

Secondly, it allows you to sail in places that a lot of deeper draft boats find seriously problematic. Just for the record, I happen to find just about anything that lessens the number of problematic things in my life a goodly thing.

But the really wonderful thing for folks cruising on a budget is that it allows you to find spots to anchor or moor for free or cheap in or near places where it's problematic to find free or cheap anchorages or moorage. Throw in the fact that having a shoal draft boat (and some common sense) you can also avoid a lot of costs associated with haulouts and suchlike.

I won't even begin to get into the added bonus of regularly watching bareboats run aground as they try to anchor on top of you....

The downside of real shoal draft is very few production boats have it and, if you want it, you'll more than likely have to build it yourself.

Tad Roberts 28 foot Future Cruiser with eighteen inch draft

a possible project...

Way back when I first started talking to Phil Bolger about possibly building a Loose Moose 2 he sent me a couple of cartoons (his description of a quick sketch to illustrate a point)...

One was his breakdown schooner...

The other was a design he was playing with for the guy who'd built the first Bolger Micro...

At the time I was somewhat attracted to the Breakdown schooner but not-so-much enthralled with Phil's balance lug/leg-of-mutton ketch but I do remember clearly thinking that I quite liked the deck area and would have plenty of room to build the odd dinghy or surfboard if I felt the need. Of course, the lack of headroom was an issue but I've since learned that headroom is seldom a real positive factor in its own right and that a well designed interior with headroom only where needed makes a lot of sense.

Both designs featured water ballast and a beam of eight-feet as they were intended as maximum trailer sailers which makes all kinds of sense if you wanted a boat to pull behind a car or truck. That said, a beam of eight feet in a sharpie makes a lot of sense and since standard plywood is 4' X 8' it tends to make some sense as well where construction costs are concerned minimizing waste.

Hindsight being, as they say, 20/20, I'm pretty sure I missed just how much potential the ketch had and the last couple of weeks I seem to keep coming back to this cartoon and asking myself just what I'd change to make it a workable cruising boat.

More about that soonish...

a whole lot of bang for the buck...

I may have mentioned before how much I like Phil Bolger's Jessie Cooper design. If you are looking for a VolksCruising design that gives you maximum bang for minimum bucks that is buildable in a short time frame, you'd have a difficult time finding better...

That said, it's not exactly an easy boat for most people to understand being just that bit further out of the box design-wise, so there is a WTF or two for anyone checking it out.

For instance, both the mainmast and mizzen are off center, there's only one dagger board (off center as well), and the boat only draws a foot. To say those attributes drive some people batshit crazy is something of an understatement.

The fact is, we built our Jessie Cooper for a special short term purpose. We had no thoughts of keeping it long term so we built it as a temporary boat. I'll be the first to admit that I was as surprised as anyone when it turned out to sail incredibly well and, as a result, made me rethink everything I took as gospel where boat design is concerned.

Those off-center masts were non-problematic; never causing us to sail in circles as some opinionated dockwalkers said they would and, more to the point, they were actually advantageous in making a small boat's interior much bigger than it had any right to be. The lug rig (also something that made some people froth at the mouth) was powerful and although the sail on the mast on the bad tack distorted the sail shape, the difference in drive between the good/bad tack was not enough to actually measure a positive or negative difference in drive or tack angle to windward.

Pretty much the same could be said for the off-center daggerboard... While I'm sure there was a tiny difference to windward and, just possibly a kiss more leeward drift on one tack, I  never actually found it problematic enough to be able to measure said difference. I've come to believe that a dozen or so square inches of lateral resistance is well within the mind's subconscious ability to self-correct as you trim sails and steer your course to the point that it really is a no-brainer.

As far as the one foot draft goes, once you've experienced the varied joys of real shoal draft cruising you'll never want to go back to anything else.

Some more on what I'd change if I were to build a Jessie Cooper with the addition of some hindsight soonish...

Something to ponder...

Here's a couple of designs worth thinking about...

When we were living in France, I seriously considered building a Maurice Griffiths Waterwitch but balked at the idea because, at 30 feet, it seemed too big.

Obviously, a mistake on my part...

But not a bad design for those looking for a VolksCruiserish shoal draft boat.

So here's a wrong boat that could take you far...

There's a beat up fixer-upper for sale down here that I've had my eye on for a while... a Kenner Skipjack to be precise. As boats go, it is something of an odd duck...

Of course, half the reason for my interest is the word "skipjack" which is a hull form that makes all kinds of sense if you happen to be an aficionado of shoal draft design. But, like I said, the Kenner is still something of an oddball...

... with a poorly thought out rig, a confused use of interior space, an LOA of 49 feet, and the sort of pseudo-salty styling that is just a hair's breadth from screaming "theme park", it's at best sorta/kinda problematic. Still, it does have a hull that whispers something to me...

Yeah, I could see myself in some out of the way thin water location building a surfboard on its bridgedeck with a smile on my face... Though, I should add, it would more than likely be sporting a different rig, less bowsprit, and a completely different interior.

Obviously the wrong boat but...

A simple scow design...

Jim Michalak is a designer who took Phil Bolger's "Instant Boats" to heart and for years has been churning out various designs in the genre. Lots have been built and those using them have been happy.

He's also written a book "Boatbuilding for Beginners" on building boats of the mainly "Instant" variety which would be right at home with your copies of Payson's "Instant Boats",  "Build the New Instant Boats", and "Instant Boatbuilding with Dynamite Payson".

As it happens, he's also designed a scow called Boxtop that sorta/kinda falls into the VolksCruiser range...

Designed as a comfortable liveaboard for one, it has certain similarities to the Bolger designed Jessie Cooper (our first Loose Moose) which we built and lived on for four years quite comfortably and liked so much we commissioned Phil Bolger to stretch it out to 38-feet to become our Loose Moose 2...

At 30-feet with an 8-foot beam and only drawing a foot, it makes VolksCruiserish sense and its balanced lug main with leg-of-mutton mizzen is as about as cheap a rig as can be found for the power it provides. In short, the design makes some sense.

From the information I have the design is being offered at a discount until one has been built and tested. For more information you can write to Jim at

Jim Michalak
118 East Randle Street
Lebanon, IL,  62254
USA

A boat worth considering...

A good deal on a Bolger AS-29 sharpie...

A good sharpie link...

For those of us on VolksCruiser budgets, it's hard to argue with the fact that the best bang for the buck is going to be a sharpie...

So here's a great link to one in progress.

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.

Well, will you look at this...

Tad Roberts kicking some serious ass...

You can read more about it here!

VolksCruiser musings...

While it makes all kinds of sense to find a used boat and rehab it, for some of us it also makes a lot of sense to build a boat from the keel up... In my case, the most important factor revolves around draft because there are simply bugger all used boats with real shoal draft in the for sale category.

Our first Loose Moose drew a foot, our second Loose Moose drew around 14" so you may understand why I don't think a boat with four-foot+ draft is really a shoal draft boat.

Plus there is shoal, as in "we can motor into places that are shallow if we are very, very careful" and shoal as in "we-can-sail-pretty-much-any-damn-where-we-please" variety and if you want the latter you're simply going to have to build it yourself.

Which in my mind is a pretty good reason to build a boat...

Speaking of boatbuilding, a friend of mine I mentioned some time ago is starting to make some real progress on his Wharram Tiki 38 project...