My escape machine, the biggest
little cruiser.
I had planned on using the sports rowing boat
Seagull as my getaway boat over the Christmas period but when
out on the river with a group of the Traditional Small Craft
Society members I was bullied (he offered me money, an unfair
tactic) into selling her to a guy who had just rowed the eight
miles up and back in a little praam dinghy. This left me in
mid November with the prospect of no boat for the summer!
That
was Saturday, by Sunday I’d done a stock take of the
materials on hand, checked the space in the work shop, measured
my garden trailer, counted how many days until the two important
T.S.C.S. regattas at the end of January and designed the boat
to suit.
Other considerations were that I wanted to be
able to tent her and sleep two on board, she could not be
too big for wife Jan or 12 year old daughter Sarina to sail
single handed but she still had to accommodate two adults,
a twelve and a three in enough comfort to prevent friction
between the junior members of the crew, and still be seaworthy
enough to cope with my coastal cruising ambitions. As a cruiser
she needed plenty of storage space, she needed to be dry and
comfortable and also had to be suited to my three year old
sons need to scramble around.
So
Houdini ended up just over thirteen feet long but a buxom
5ft 1Oin wide. She has a single standing lugsail on bamboo
spars (the budget was a major consideration!) and a self draining
floor which runs from the mast step back to the stem sheets
providing a seven foot (2.1 metre) long sleeping space on
each side of the centrecase, a big locker under the foredeck
and more storage under the sternsheets (the raised seats aft)
With her wide side decks, ample freeboard and
high coamings she is a dry boat, her sharp underwater sections
make her stable and much faster than many would expect, while
the amount of room is just amazing! One could happily accommodate
six or seven adults for an afternoon sail, or four big kids”
plus a mountain of camping gear for a week away. This is a
boat that not only thinks its a twenty footer but manages
to convince most other people that she’s much bigger
than she really is as well.
Houdini
has a high power to weight ratio which makes her fast and
nimble, exiting to sail while the wide beam and high freeboard
keep her safe if some skippers enthusiasm overtakes caution.
The building started off well, she took three weeks of evenings
from when I started that Sunday afternoon to get the boat
planked up, centrecase and anchor well in, seats and self
draining floor framed and fitted. She presented no problems
in the building and I was able to correct the plans as I went.
My Father died that February, and family considerations
shelved Houdini for a while, then a job came along that I
could not turn down but which required us to move house down
to Rotorua, all of a sudden there were a lot of jobs with
urgent tags on them so once again Houdini had to wait.
The wait was worthwhile though, she got finished
in Gordon Newcombes (Plywood and Marine Supplies, the best
plywood shop around) showroom, Derek Hickman made me an excellent
sail, and she was eventually launched into the fresh water
of Lake Rotoiti.
There
is nothing unorthodox in the structure and any ordinary handyman
( handyperson feels a very clumsy word to me, so sorry ladies,
please feel included should I slip up again) could build one
of these in short order. I enjoyed the building, the many
short stints out in the workshop away from the stresses of
work and very helpful in relaxing a person who has to be an
“up and attem” salesman no matter how I feel on
the day.
In any new boat there is a little of trying
something new, Houdini has a lot of this, derived from the
American Cape Cod Catboats to a certain degree I wanted to
avoid their notoriously difficult downwind handling and tendency
to be heavy on the helm so situated the centreboard well forward
with a very large skeg and an oversize rudder aft. This had
the added benefit of freeing up much of the space in the cockpit
improving the accommodation no end and oddly enough the underwater
foils being far apart seems to contribute to the boats directional
stability which is phenomenal for such a short, fat little
boat.
With
the big locker under the foredeck sealed off behind a close
fitting hatch, and a considerable amount of air tankage under
the floor and in the sternsheets she will float very high
in the unlikely event of “canning her out”. But
I would warn that it takes a long time to bail such a large
volume boat. The dinghy bailer in the bottom would eventually
have her dry but it would take a while.
The sprit boomed standing lugsail rig is a favourite
of mine, giving a lot of area for not much money and short
spars that stow within the boat when on the trailer. These
rigs are close winded, easy to handle, have a low centre of
effort and are incredibly powerful reaching and running .
She’d look very cute as a gaff sloop,
and would, I have no doubt have a very wide appeal but my
feeling Is that the extra windage, weight aloft and cost would
not be worth the improvement in appearance. Perhaps when I
get the 5.3 m versions plans done the gaffer will be a more
practical alternative.

Note: All credit card sales
are in New Zealand Dollars. Local taxes are not included.
Economy postage is included in the prices quoted but
if priority mail or courier is preferred there will
be an additional charge. Email: jwboatdesigns@xtra.co.nz
for more information. If you pay by check, you may
use the price in your prefered currency as above. |
Note that we sell sails and are pleased
to quote a freight inclusive price to anywhere in the world,
we have tan or white, the sails come with sailbag, one reef
and are completely ready to go. Prices fluctuate slightly
so we prefer to quote each sail as the demand arises but
you can bet that we are competitive even with the freight
included.
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