When I first saw the Jimmy Skiff II (above) that I reviewed for this issue, I was pleased to see its interior equipped with an offset daggerboard trunk. In “Getting Out of Line,” I had mentioned my fondness for off-center trunks, and Bud McIntosh expressed a similar sentiment in How to Build a Wooden Boat: “The centerboard and its trunk take up room in the best part of the boat, and create an antisocial barrier in an otherwise friendly cabin.” I think he’d also agree that thwarts, as their very name suggests, create a barrier to an otherwise friendly cockpit. The Jimmy II’s removable slip thwarts, and the side benches that support them, are features I’ve found very well suited to rowing, sailing, and sleeping aboard. The gunning dory is a lovely boat to row and sail as long as I sit down and stay put. Making any sudden moves is perilous. Six-yard hurdles anyone?
Laurie Cunningham
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Christopher, are there pictures anywhere of your little cruiser?
Yes, there are lots of photos and videos in an article I did about a cruise in the boat, HESPERIA, to the San Juan Islands: A San Juan Islands Solo.
As always, well detailed and inspiring! thanks for sharing all of this. Is there more detail on which boat of yours is accommodated thus for off-season cruising?
Yes, please see my cruising article “A San Juan Island Solo.”
Some truly great ideas.
Very innovative, Chris. Any idea how much upwind performance suffers with the offset centerboard?
With both my sneakbox and my Caledonia yawl, there is no perceptible difference in performance under sail with an offset board. With the yawl, I wanted to see what would happen if I sailed hard to windward and got the boat to heel enough to have the top of the board break the surface of the water. With the Norwegian tiller I was able to do that and peer over the windward rail and see the board emerge from the water. It was slicing cleanly through the water and not drawing any air down at the trailing edge. I couldn’t detect any increase in leeway.
There is a perceptible difference in sailing to weather when the mainsail’s shape is spoiled, whether it’s the lugsail wrapped around the mast or the spritsail around the sprit. If I have a long crossing to make on one tack, I’ll set the sail downwind of the spars to get the best shape and performance. I’ve never wished I could relocate an offset board, either to the other side or to the centerline.
Great-looking boats. I owned a Bolger Dovekie for a while, and had a chance to sail my Dovekie “Harmony” with the boat designer Jim Michalak, who was in a Bolger Birdwatcher that he built. Our sprit sails and sprit booms were set on opposite sides of our masts – one to port of the mast, and the other to starboard. Sailing side by side, we tried to figure out whether our boats were slowed on the tack where the sail was pressed against the sprit boom, as opposed to being free. We couldn’t tell for sure, but it made for an interesting afternoon of sailing. The Birdwatcher is designed for the pilot to stand fully upright, and I can picture Jim standing in his birdwatcher as we sailed – we had a long, slow gam about the issue. (Confession: OK, I’ve owned two different Dovekies, and I had a lovely Bolger Shearwater in between the Dovekies. It’s a long story.)
Although not the main focus of the article, I love the way you have created a lounge, a bedroom, a kitchen, and a dining room out of the cockpit area. It’s a masterclass in thoughtful design and careful planning and measurement of components. Well done.
Out of interest, where is the galley box stored when not forming your kitchen or rowing seat?
Thanks, Chris. Cruising taught me that whether or not I sail or row on any given day, I’ll always need to sleep. So with the Caledonia yawl and my Garvey cruiser, the first thing I did was map out places to sleep. For the yawl, I made a plywood “gingerbread man” to scale and set him on the plans to see where he could sleep. Both boats can comfortably sleep four.
When the galley box is upside down, that’s how it’s stored and why I could make it big enough to hold and cook with two stoves. While it’s serving as a rowing seat, a slip thwart can get tucked out of the way under one of the side benches.
Lots of interesting design elements here to make a cruising boat truly habitable—thanks for sharing, Chris. My own approach is closer to the “adjust your mindset to make comfort less essential”—the lazy sailor’s way of dealing with life afloat (and perhaps more importantly, the lazy SOLO sailor’s way)—but reading this, I’m tempted to move toward the dark side and build in a little more comfort and convenience.
I just got to ask? Seems like you are rigged for sculling on your CY? How does she scull?
Glenn Holland, fellow CY builder
I added an oarlock to the port side for sculling and for using an oar to steer if the rudder gets broken. For sculling I’ve just been using on of the 11′ 4″ oars that I use for rowing. That works OK for short distances—even with the long oar, it’s at a steep angle. I occasionally think about making a longer yuloh for easier sculling.
I love this Chris, all the useful configurations you get from a few multipurpose parts. Very clever.
To riff on your slip thwarts, how about a sliding thwart. This is a wheeled seat rolling on the side seats of a Welsford Walkabout. With this you get sliding seat rowing, but without a drop-in rig that takes up the center space and interferes with the sleeping area.
Some great ideas in here with the CY, thanks for the good photos.
I have to say it because my racer-in-me can’t keep his mouth shut. Side benches sometimes lure people into sitting in positions that wonk out boat trim. I tend to see many small-boat sailors sitting on their side benches attempting to go to windward but dragging their transom with the bow up in the air. It’s good to be mindful of boat trim for best performance, just because there is a place to sit doesn’t mean that’s where one should sit.
I’m with you, Christophe. I don’t race, but having been boating most of my life, I’m quite sensitive to boat trim and feel quite uncomfortable if a boat isn’t level while rowing or heeling appropriately for the sailing conditions. I’ve learned to accept the fact that not everyone I may share a boat with is going to be as attentive and may plant themselves somewhere and be perfectly content to stay put. Even my father, who taught me a lot about sailing, needed my directions to shift his weight. His sensitivity to small-boat sailing trim had been dulled by his many years aboard a 27’ sloop with a full 2,000 lbs of ballast working on his behalf.
The slip thwarts are an essential element of my side-bench layout because they provide the necessary lateral mobility. When I have company aboard my CY, I’ll usually have the passenger sit amidships and then put myself where I need to be for good fore-and-aft trim. I’ll set the length of my adjustable Norwegian tiller and place a slip thwart between the side benches. I can take care of the ongoing fine tuning of the lateral trim and ask my passenger shift only as needed.
Some great ideas here, Chris. And for me quite timely as I am just getting around to designing the bench configuration for my next build. Do you think double enders are a little more tolerant of an unbalance in fore and aft trim (not having a transom to drag along)?
I suppose double enders might be more tolerant of being out of fore-and-aft trim than a boat with a transom that can be immersed enough to cause some drag. My Caledonia yawl, a double ender, might not be bothered by being down at the head or the stern a bit, but I mind. I haven’t done any trials with a GPS to see what difference there might be as I shift weight to change the trim. I suspect there would be minor losses of speed with minor changes out of trim, but I’d feel compelled—by something bred into me—to do something to achieve proper trim regardless of whatever speed I might gain. If your boat has transom that presents a broad face to the water, immersing it might more quickly add to the drag than a double ender, so the fore-and-aft trim does become more of an issue, and the parallel side benches and adjustable slip thwarts more of an asset.
Chris,
How did you reshape the top of the centerboard and how do you control the board? I’m thinking about moving the centerboard on my Guillemot. I noticed both boat have the same center board control with the extended “ear” on the top of the board, yet your boat has a sealed case and control lines.
Jim
The forward/top end of the board is a half circle with a groove in the edge. The downhaul, anchored in a hole in the edge of the board (under and a bit forward of the pivot bolt when the board), lies in the groove and emerges from a hole in the front of the trunk. The up-haul is secured to the trailing edge of the board and emerges from the trunk aft of the downhaul. In the photo with the caption beginning “The galley box, flipped upside down” note the two red lines by the front starboard corner of the galley box/thwart. A tripping cleat forward holds each line as needed. When it’s holding he board down, the cleat will trip and release if the board hits something. The downhaul has very little mechanical advantage, so I put another hole in the trunk for a pushrod in case the board gets hung up on a bit of grit and needs coaxing. In the same photo, there is a pivoting round brass plate covering the hole and holding a rubber plug in it. A brass bar let into the trailing edge of the board provides a durable surface to push against.
Good design thinking. Inspirational! Have you conceived a way, given deeper benches and floorboard clearances, to somehow store oars more out of the way? Thanks.