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Willy Wold

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  1. HI, Funny you should mention Devlin. I currently own a modified Mud Peep, a friend built the boat without the sailing stuff, painted the boat cammo, put a sleeping bag mat in the bottom and used as a lay down duck boat.. I was pondering adding the centerboard and mast, but I at least added a thwart to raise me up a bit to row around local lakes for exercize, and drown a few worms. I put in the back of the pickup and take to the lake, however at the end of the day, the boat is about 10 pounds too heavy to put back in the pickup, so I have his 5X10 plans to build a lighter boat for that; just waiting for a 1/4" sheet of 5x10 ply. I was going to build his Polliwog, but wife wants to come out once in a while also. I looked at his NC earlier, but was holding off to see what else was out there a foot and a half or so larger and I like the "looks" of a more vertical bow, over a curved type. But how that works in the equation of performance is past my expertese where I'd forgo looks for more practicality. Looking around before committing to the purchase of plans, since I probably have over a $grand in unused boat plans; study plans I find do not give me enough info to make an informed decision. I notice Sam even has a couple used NC's on consignment at his shop. At the cost and time required to build a boat, and not getting any younger, my wife has been trying to encourage me to just go buy something ready to go and get on the water, but still, just a little bigger would be better. But there is just something of taking a pile of material and breathing life into a boat.. Don't know if it's me but seems like a boat under 16 foot goes up and down each wave instead of cutting thru some of them.. WW
  2. Decided to forgo the ICW and stay local, so I revised my thoughts of a boat and started a new thread..
  3. I'm considering building a sailboat with a small cabin. Columbia River, inland lakes, maybe Puget Sound, the lower part of the Salish Sea, if we ever get around to moving up that direction. I used to ply those waters in a tug, so I am familar to the area, though I was the engineer and spent more time down below nursing the antique engine along. Boat should be User friendly, no real odd handling quirks. Not interested in winning races, but do not want to be a slug either. Trailerable, one person can rig, launch, and sail-away in less than 25 minutes. A place to get out of the weather to rest, etc, camp overnight, short or extended weekend cruises; but not overly cramped. I've always been rather fond of a West Wight Potter, the 15. However I have also been rather fond of a New England Catboat design; where the mast is way forward and hinges down, (similar only to appearence to a Stevenson Pocket Cruiser), but definately more refined. Auxillary power by small outboard, one that has battery charging capability, either hanging on a bracket or attached right to the boat or in a well, either offset or centered, with offset rudder? Center or offset retractable keel or leeboards? Must be at least 15+ foot, however, I have to stay under 18 feet, for build space and future storing on a trailer in garage. In initial quick search there are a whole lot of plans that would at first fit the equation, but I'd like to be able to pick apart pros and cons of each and narrow them down to a couple without spending the rest of my life deciding. A simple build, not overly complicated. I have built a few boats thruout my life but it has been a while. Thanks, WW
  4. I have sort of enjoyed the past week, being warmed by the fire, of probably a 3 foot stack of boat plans because the power was out, and polluting the air with the residue of ink, and watching some history go up in smoke. Course I'm burning a lot of other stuff in anticipation of moving into a condo for wife's sake, and no longer enjoy the smell of freshly planed wood, and epoxy ( nah, forget the epoxy smell). I was going to send a couple of these back to the designer, no obligation to them since they retain the rights to the ownership and design. That way they can be assured that they don't fall into the wrong hands of someone that might seriously be inspired by them and follow thru; but they won't now because they will never know about the particular boat, because it was not referred to them by a person that was previously interested. A couple years ago I was searching for a particular boat idea to see if there was something close to what I wanted, with no luck. Google is not your friend and Bing, isn't any better with information overload. These things get caught up with one word in 2 thousand, and bring up that site. Well I had to take a trip to the East Coast of USA, and during one of the boring meetings, I goggled what I had before and wow, an entirely new group of sites came up. That's when B&B, Bluejackets, and a few others came up that just were not coming up in the search from the West Coast. Or maybe they were, just several pages in when you get tired of looking, whereas here they were on the first page. I guess some of my research phase was having to get too much info to personally make an informed decision. I just wanted to be sure, considering the age that I'm getting, that the project could actually be completed by me in my lifetime and in the space allotted, and not burdon the estate with a pile of lumber trying to impersonate a boat. WW
  5. So, A person purchasing the plans, has made a committment to find further info about a certain design, and pays for the privilage of looking at them. So a person chooses not to take the plans from "drawing" to finished product, what "should" a person do with the plans that have the designers copyright and only one boat can be built from it; burn them, send them back, or simply let them rot in a drawer?
  6. I'm wondering on the lighter weight of material, or heavier, ending up with a different boat, shaped the same. Some of the resistance or whatever you call it (can't think, only had one cup of coffee this morning) to ride over than plow thru. This boat was designed in 1953; there was a whole lot nicer material available then, plus the as the majority of us usually add our, if even slightly, intrepretation to the plans, even cutting on one side or the other of the line may change how far she bounces off a wave or dips the bow thru one. Now that I'm over the mach 2 with my hair on fire, I'm beginning to revisit some of the older tried and true designs, if even just to stur up some old memories. WW
  7. Thanks for all the info. I'm thinking if I have to purchase a boat, I can go a little bigger; low 20's in length. I have always loved the lapstrake design the Montgomery has; but saying that, when I was little and we lived near Cape Cod, I used to sit on the bank and watch a Catboat working, and thought that was beautiful.. My current thought is to save the $$, then make a trip to the East Coast, and purchase a boat around Virginia area, work out any issues, motor/sail to Miami. After that, maybe head back up, or sell boat somewhere, come back to the west side. I wouldn't have the added expense of a trailer and towing. Takes some getting used to what side of the USA your on. Spending early youth years; 8 years on the East coast then moving "back" to West coast in the early 60's, took some getting used to. Then later, I remember as a watercraft soldier in the Army in Ft Eustis, VA in the early 70's, being on the beach and told to face North, and I was the only one facing the wrong way, as I instintively put the ocean on my left side without thinking... (DOH!) WW
  8. So it is about 20% of the actual plans sold are actually built, and the designer gets pissed if one person builds more than one? So what does that make, 21.34% ? Geezzz, I would think the designer would be thrilled to see more of his boats out there.. More exposure would mean possibly more plans sold in the future.. Lookingh at it that way, maybe the design is too complicated for the person's experience, or too vague or actually isn't worth building after the person has had a chance to actually look at it. WW
  9. Thanks for the ideas. I've seen Thiel's design. Peddling option might be good for some exercize; (or hook up a stationary bike to a generator to recharge the batteries). I'll have to do some esearch and find out what is the smallest 4 stroke outboard that has F-N-R, and a charging system, and can be hooked up remotely. I have done on the majority of my builds, made several mods; lengths, freeboard, moved this and that here and there. This time however, I'd rather do a no brainer and build pretty much as designed, (shock) so my head can more or less do it in auto-mode rather than sitting there thinking about what I am doing; well sort of speak. I would want an easily lowered mast; I'll have to re-check but there are a few really nice detour places I've been told that you can go that have some pretty low fixed bridges and rather shallow, so I'll get the clearance and water depth. I guess at the moment I have one eye open for build ideas and the other open to find something already floating. The thing is I can build as I have funds, the other I'd probably have to borrow some funds to pay cash. Haven't had any debts for a while and that feels good, kind of reluctant to go back under; then having to come back into society and the grid to make sure the obligation was paid; not that I plan to be a total recluse. WW
  10. Not sure if this should be here or under designs. Well, I've had to lower my dreams a lot, from 30 foot, to 22.5, to 19 foot. From big power to a 9.9 and an electric trolling motor. Sailing to mostly motoring and a small sail, if only for stablizing and only if in emergency with no gas or battery left. I have owned and sailed a San Juan 24, and a 21; which at that time I worked at the manufacturer; 30+ years ago, (and 60 pounds lighter). I've owned a wood sailing boat built by someone else. I have more recently sailed with a friend on a West Wight Potter 19.. 20 years ago. I rather liked that boat for the more simplicity and shallow draft. Since way back when, I've had some fiberglass power boats up to 30 feet, a couple 20's, a ski boat, race boat and have built a couple row/sail boats with the kids. 1998 was the last time I've been in a sailboat that was underway; and got wet. I recently completed a Mud Peep/Peeper from Devlins design; actually bought the boat in the infant stages of being started and finished up; launched the day after Christmas. I'm not as physically flexable as I used to be, yada yada yada... Moving into a retirement condo for wife's sake... Ok, conclusion is after very much thought and measuring building space, absolutely the largest build, considering space to work around, is 17.5 feet. Challenge is also no tarps outside of any shape or color at any time. Easy build, room for 2 up to a week at a time, but probably only one after the first week (lol) Pretty safe in the above mentioned environment area; also possibly the mid portion of the Columbia River. I actually like a Catboat look; also I was staring at a Pocket Cruiser by CLC or Stevenson, with an easily dropped mast. Easily sailable and forgiving; would probably be mostly motored; however, don't need to break speed records in either mode, just move along at least better than the currents. 5-9 hp; big enough that has a battery charger to keep battery up; small electric trolling motor stored somewhere for backup. Possibly will eventually have to just purchase one ready to use or something, depending on timeline and health. But I'm for a challenge of at least one more build. Any ideas? Thanx, WW
  11. Oh yea, I've been doing some purging or cleansing of my boat plans. I managed to stack them in a pile that is almost as tall as I am. Some were free, some I spendt a few dollars for, some I spent a lot for. Some I have that are left over dreams from my dad that didn't get built, some he did build. All of his do not have the statements of today, you can only build one and you cannot sell the plans, as they didn't do that back then. I have almost $2K in actual receipts; about fell out f my chair. I got most of them for ideas and dreaming. Some I actually built and enjoyed, some I couldn't get rid of fast enough. So now I am starting to pack; we're moving into a retirement condo. Some of the plans say that when I get the boat certified by the local authorities, that I need to incorporate the hull sequence number in the serial number. So one set of plans of a certain boat says I can build one boat that should be referenced as #56, another plan say I can build #317 of their plans, still another says I can build #610. So those just will not be made by me. The actual sequence will be out of sync and deceiving to future purchasers of plans and actual boats into thinking they were actually that popular. So should the designer that says I cannot do anything with the plans other than build one boat, or don't do anything at all (or maybe frame them and hang on the wall as a lost dream) or use for a brief moment in warming the body from the fireplace, be obligated to take them back, even at half or a quarter the original cost? Most generally, I suspect, a person is paying for an idea, it's someone elses idea. They can choose to use that idea, or not. Plain and simple.. Anyway, since the power has been out recently I have gotten a little warm feeling from some of the plans, from the fireplace, and the stack is now down to my waist; still more to go.. WW
  12. So I'm wondering how much of a change in design or method is legal. I have a several page article of a tender called Apple Pie; that was drawn up fresh, then later the person stumbled upon an exact boat plans called Rinky -Dink. These plans are now free on the internet. I see a typical thing about boat designs; most of them are inspired or modeled after someone elses design with a few mods. I noticed on Duckworks, mainly because I was interested in a Michalak AF4B. Michalak has some pretty minimalist designs, simple, meant to be made out of inexpensive materials, sells his plans cheap, in order to help get people out of the dream and into reality, on the water, of course protected waters, but what someone does after they have something that floats is out of everyones control. $32.50 for the pretty well thought out plans that a lot of people have built and are enjoying. Then there is the recent "design" of a Sandy Shoal 16 by Rob Rohde-Szudy. $60 for his plans. He explains how he took Michalak AF4B he built and did some minor mods, and "created a whole new boat". Side by side, you can hardly see the difference. So that gets me to think, though Rob openly gives verbal and written credit for "his" idea, is he obligated morally or legally or neither to send Michalak anything? I could site if enough research was done, hundreds of plans all over the world in the same way. I have plans for an original Brockway Skiff obtained from the museum. NO qualifications, no restrictions on building any, or a lot, or doing anything with the plans, they are free basicly; I'm sure someone will try to sell them somewhere. I have the Ladybug Boats Skiff by Ken Martin, he says he doesn't care how many are made, have fun. Build them out of cheap Home Depot material, get out on the water and have fun. Do what you want with the plans. I also have Walter Baron's Lumberyard Skiff. He says build with the finest quality material you can find, you cannot sell the plans nor build more than one boat. Other than a few minor measurements, these are all the same boat. I'm sure someone will argue that, but I have them all laid out in front of me so I feel confident in making that statement. So which boat is being built? Lets see, I bought some material from Home Depot, I bought some material from Crosscut Hardwoods, rather spendy. I drew out the hull in the stern from Walter's drawing so I wouldn't have much rocker, the front half from Ken's so I'd have a high bow, bent the gunnels from Brockways design. I even used a Bolger idea and used external chines. Humm, is this an entirely different boat, so I can write it up and say this is my own design and charge money for it? Or just enjoy the boat and don't sweat the small stuff? I don't "plan" on building another boat like it, but now that the isdea of the combinations is out there, I'm sure someone will probably see it and do that.. I don't believe any designer of boats under 20 feet are making a good living on boat designs, but keeps the lights on, and their love of boatbuilding keeps them going.. Just my 2.25 cents. WW
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