I need a project. With my 28' sailboat in the Bahamas full time and not really enjoying my 20' Tolman Standard I built as much as I thought I would, I need something to work on.
So, I want a motorsailor, below 40' and not complicated. I want the simplest and most spartan motorsailor possible with shoal draft (3') and mast in a tabernacle to be dropped for bridges.
Of course, no such boat exists.
However, there is a design for something similar, Simplicity 35. The designer actually modified the design for me to include a pilothouse. Beachable but with serious ballast. A good design for me.
BUT, there is a plethora of old boats and it turns out several very old Morgan 35's with centerboards from the late 70s. I could rebuild one, install a real engine, say 40 hp diesel. I'd have to modify the rig for the tabernacle mast with gaff rig.
Saving money is NOT the issue. NOBODY saves money building a boat. I just want what I want, a beachable, blue water capable, low height easily droppable mast motor sailor in the mid 30s range length to avoid the "big ocean small boat feeling" I get with my 28' sailboat.
Yes, I have built boats but I think this may be the last serious boat I build; at 56, I may not want to build more.
I like spartan. Less to deal with is my answer to everything. No teak to varnish, no damned marine head, no pressure water systems, no shore power, no stove/oven crap, etc.
So, build the Simplicity 35 from scratch or modify an old Morgan 35.