Plywood Sailer?

[ineed2fly]

So, someone went and bought that Sailfish on me......curses! So I need to go back to original plan of building one. I figured plywood is a good route to go, cheap, and the easiest. I figured I would base it off this, but modify it slightly to fit a sailboat a bit better.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Construction-of-Two-Portuguese-Style-Dinghies-Sma/

http://personal.eunet.fi/pp/gsahv/dinghy1/simboii.htm


It's about the same size 8'X3' on the bottom, as apposed to 7'4"X3'10" a narrower design should be a little better for a sail boat. Then I put a deck on the top, so I can have a small cargo hold below, it measures 8'X4', I will put non-slip paint on top (sprinkle sand on wet paint) I will just pretty much build a row boat for now, and then if all goes well, fit a windsurfing sail.
I am planning on a keel, but would a dagger board work? I'm not too worried about beating up a plywood keel, I can make another one in 3 hours. How big should I make the keel? What is a good size windsurfing sail?

Heres a pic of my "scale model" cuz I got bored, the inches are scale to foot but thats about it, the sides should be at more of an angle, and it should have more rocker, and the sail is just for kicks, but w/e.

 

[Joe_the_boatman]

Re: Plywood Sailer?

Looks like you're on the right track. There are plenty of free plans out there, maybe use them for ideas and then modify them to suit your purposes.

One site I keep bookmarked is http://www.bigdamfish.net/freeplans.html. I always thought it'd be neat to make my own boat, especially a sail boat. There are lots of "homebrew" sailboats out there using poly tarps as sails, etc. Just keep looking around.

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Plywood Sailer?

Look for plans for a "puddle duck"... it's a squarish, flat bottom sailboat with plans for making it out of 1-2 sheets of plywood, a tarp sail, and fence rail mast.

And people actually race them, there's a standard class for them in whatever the american sailing association is.

Erik