"bookieb" wrote in message
om...
(Brian Vickers) wrote in message
. com...
As a novice boatbuilder, I would like to take on a somewhat different
project. I would like to build a wooden craft as an almost carbon copy
of the popular Sunfish because of it's easy of opperation and
performance for a boat of that size. To make up for the likly increase
in weight, I thought it might be beneficial to increase the draft and
thus the displacement. However, I do not know where to begin and would
like some advice from someone more knowledgeable about boatbuilding
than myself. Thank you very much, Brian Vickers.

Hi Brian,

snip I wouldn't have thought that a wood/fibreglass version would
necessarily be greatly heavier than the a roto-molded poly-whats-it or
fibreglass version.

The Stevenson Projects minicup might be there or thereabouts what
you're looking for.
Plans and building instructions are a free download from
http://www.stevensonprojects.com/FastSailrs.html
It looks fairly similar to what I understand a Sunfish to be (Sunfish
are not common in my part of the world). This design is fairly old
now, and takes a little more woodwork than some of the more modern
"stitch and glue" boats.

I know of two other builders of this design in this group (other than
myself).
Google this group and the web for Stevenson Minicup for more info, or
ask away here...

Don't be too swayed by the fact that the plans for the MiniCup are
free - generally, the cost of "standard" plans will be a relatively
small part of the overall cost of any boat you would build.


snip

I've built a MiniCup and am actually the guy who is responsible for the
plans being free. Stevenson Projects sold me one of their last copies of
the plans and then decided to discontinue them. With their permission, I
made an electronic form of the plans for another builder and of course, gave
them a copy too. They made the decision to make them freely available.
This puts these plans in a slightly different class from other "free" plans
in that this design used to be a commercial design albeit one from the
1970s.

It's still a fun boat thought and pretty easy to build. In comparison to a
Sunfish, it's a bit wider and a lot more stable. My hull weighs in at about
130lbs but it could have been less if I had had a clue about how to apply
epoxy.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask here, at the http://www.byyb.org
site, or directly to me.

--
Andrew Butchart

http://www.floatingbear.ca