Sunday, July 12, 2009

Speaking of schooners...

A reader recently hipped me to the most excellent design work being done by Garry Lidgard down in OZ...

The concept in Garry's words "This design was originally for myself, basic concept was for a build of minimum cost and effort for maximum vessel!" and from the looks of the study plans it would seem that he pretty much nailed it!

When NA's design for themselves they very often do their best work... No throwing in too many berths or keeping options open for possible bareboat fleet usage and the like. Even better is that for their own projects the budgets are a bit more... shall we say... realistic.

On schooner plans, the first place I look is the rig and this boats rig is a wonderful example how you can get the most out of a modern schooner rig without being silly... A lot of bang for the buck in what really is a very affordable and powerful rig. A lot of folks should note that single spreader rigs make a LOT of sense and this rig is the best example I've seen in ages!



The interior is livable without the extra berths that so many feel they have to include, though for a voyaging/liveaboard boat I'd be remiss in not mentioning that stowage/capacity could be greater but it is doable though some hoops would be jumped through and cunning plans needed!

All in all this is one neat boat and just the sort of stock plan that makes sense!