Some good news...

Did you know you can now buy plans for the Skrowl and other neat designs from the Yann Quenet stable?

You still here?

So, what about that Tad Robert's scow cat schooner?

Here's a glimpse of the interior accommodation...

What Tad has to say about it...

From the transom, four feet of cockpit with outboard well in the sole. Storage lockers port and starboard under the seats, each one is 24 cubic feet. A large locker under the forward cockpit sole, for gas cans, spare outboard, crab trap, other messy crap.

Through the hatch, down three steps, first section is 4' fore and aft. Head to starboard, navigation table/office over huge ice box to port. Next section is 3.33', galley counter port and starboard, storage under. Heater set into/under the counter on starboard side. Next section 6.67', seat/berth port and starboard, table between, shelves behind. Next forward, 5' fore and aft, full width of the boat, double berth. Watertight bulkhead with 120 cubic feet of storage in the bow.

Daggerboards will be vertical outboard of the settees. Centerboards can be a larger one forward of the mainmast under the table and a small trim board in the cockpit sole. Or a larger board aft the mainmast (in the way) with a small one forward under the berth.

Hopefully more on this boat sooner rather than later.

Some more thoughts of the Columbia 26 sort...

So, back to the Columbia 26.

As the previously mentioned list shows, there is really not a lot I'd change but a couple of things do come to mind. Mainly the rudder, propulsion system, and rig. Today, because they are somewhat related projects, we'll focus a little on propulsion and the rudder.

Having looked at a lot of old Columbia 26 MK 2's for sale, a great many of them all seem to come with either inboard engines with dire issues or outboards on a transom mount. Truth is, I'm not a huge fan of outboards on a transom mount and I'm not sure that an inboard engine is the best use of space and payload capacity on a 26-foot full time cruising boat.

If I were going to VolksCruiserize a Columbia 26 my first thought would be to remove an inboard with issues (gaining valuable stowage space). If it had a transom mounted outboard (even one that worked) I'd lose it and take it to the nearest consignment store and go engineless (more or less) using sweeps for the most part and a 4hp outboard on the dinghy as a yawl boat when needful.

Of course, a lot of people feel the need for a dedicated engine and, for them, I'd suggest a small 4HP outboard in a well in the rear of the cockpit. Which is just that little bit problematic because you'd have to build a well and a pair of rudders to replace the one in the way

Kind of makes engineless a bit more attractive does it not?

That said, a well is not such a big or expensive project and, more than likely, whatever you do you'll most likely want to rebuild the existing rudder anyway because a rudder built in the late sixties/early seventies is long past its sell by date so a new rudder (or rudders) would be a very good thing.

More about rudders later but, in the meantime, you might want to check out Atom Voyages which has an artful plethora of great information on making excellent outboard wells for small cruising sailboats like this one.

I'm guessing some folks think we're just plain...

STUPID!

The other day I bought a pair of industrial shears designed for cutting hard to cut stuff like Kevlar and Dux for just shy of twenty bucks ($16.47 to be precise).

This morning I happened to see the very same shears for sale at an online purveyor of boat stuff being sold for nearly $50. Being curious (and bored) I spent some time looking for the shears at other places and found, in the marine sphere, the going rate seemed to be in the $40-$50 dollar range.

I expect you can do the math...

Really, you need to go read this...

Comet Camper making a whole lot of sense.

A quick thought on needful things...

The big problem on my boat is guitar stowage...

I mention this because everybody I know has a stowage problem with some non-marine stuff whether it be guitars, books, art supplies, stuffed animals, or other non-boat specific stuff that you really need around to make your boat...  

Home

Of course, a lot of folks will tell you to just leave stuff "at home" or put it into storage but for us full-time-living-on-boat-folks, leaving stuff at "home" is simply not going to happen (I don't think I need to explain the logic of that statement) and, as for leaving stuff in storage what good is that?

I'm pretty sure that I've gone on record a time or few about how I hate the word "camping" when used in conversations regarding boat design, living aboard, and suchlike. In my personal view of things, the difference between camping and living aboard is not the number of heads, headroom, or having a genset big enough to light a small city but the simple equation of having the needful stuff you enjoy around you... Needless to say, I'll take a couple of surfboards, a big well-stocked bookshelf, and a quiver of guitars over full standing headroom any day.

That said, I have to admit that I don't always make it real easy on myself as my chosen axes are both large and oddly shaped (Firebirds and Thunderbirds) and my life would be a whole lot easier if I were to lose the birds and start using what seems like a very sensible and nearly perfect (in a stowage sense) guitar like the old La Baye 2X4 (which is really just a Firebird without the "wings")...

...which takes up about a third of the stowage space as my Firebird. For those interested Eastwood gutars is currently building a small batch and I'd be lying to say I was not seriously tempted (not that I'd ever consider giving up my Firebird or Thunderbird).

So if anybody has any cunning plans for stowing a half dozen or so guitars I'd love to see them... Comments, as they say, are open.

Something of interest...

Over at Proa File they're talking crab claw rig and you might want to check it out.

Lists are a wonderful thing...

So, after giving the Columbia 26 a lot of thought, I've come up with a short list of things I'd do to make it just that little bit more VolksCruiserish...

Interior

1. DIY composting toilet
2. Rebuild/replace the dinette with a Buehler inspired one
3. Figure out a cunning plan to make the galley bettter (spelled add worktop space)
4. Add more water stowage

Exterior

1. Rig... If the rig is in good shape I'd simply roll with it (if it works no need to fix it mantra) but, if the rig needs substantial work or financial outlay, I'd just build a new rig of the junk or balanced lug sort.
2. I'd seriously consider replacing the rudder with a transom hung one with an integrated self-steering (trimtab) system.

Propulsion

1. Depending on what's already installed, I'd have to roll with the flow so, more about that in a later post...

Now, of course, there's all of the usual bringing a tired boat back to life in the cosmetic sense, sorting out the wiring, and other various tasks that you'd need to do but this list represents the needful tasks I'd need to sort out to make me a happy camper.

All in all, it's not a very long or expensive list...

Next we'll do the math on what it should actually cost.

John Vigor getting it right...

...and hitting a home run.

How the evolution of the Raison scow continues...

This is seriously cool...

But wait till you see the interior...

Not too shabby for 29-feet...

Looking at the rig...

So...

The Columbia 26 MK2's rig works. Not a lot of ways you could actually improve it and if I came across one with a rig in good shape I'd leave it just like it is.

Really. It does not need bigger more expensive winches, have it's lines led aft to the cockpit, or a new furling system... The design as drawn (if it's in good shape) works great and throwing money at it will not do anything needful but will make somebody else richer and you a lot poorer.

That said, any boat this old is, more than likely, ready for a new rig... The rule of thumb is standing rigging and related stress points (toggles, chainplates, tangs, and suchlike) should get replaced every 7-10 years or so, as well as some serious attention paid to the mast while you're doing it. What can I say but metal fatigues. Sadly, I'm pretty sure that about half of the boats in this age bracket have their original rigs or at least parts of their original rigs in critical places... Needless to say, this can be problematic.

Sails can also be a problematic point as the other day I came across an ad for a C26 which boasted that the boat came with the original sails in "like new" condition.While old (seldom used) sails may look great the thread they were using in 1969 probably has quietly expired what strength it had back when Jimmy Carter was President.

Replacing big chunks of the standing rigging and buying new sails could cost a whole lot more than the boat is ever going to be worth... So it's really something you should be looking at closely.

Later we'll talk about how to redo a stock rig in a frugal fashion or, even better, how to replace it entirely with an even better more VolksCruiserish rig for less.

Next up we'll talk about engines and rudders...