I'm trying to decide which boat to build. We'll be sailing mostly around
lakes here in Minnesota but we'd also like to take some trips to the
Ocean (Florida Key's, San Francisco Bay, Boston, etc.) as well as the
Great Lakes. It has to be trailerable and fun to sale.

I'm still undecided about size. I'm looking at the Weekender,
Vacationer, Winter Wren II, and Arctic Tern. We'd like enough cabin room
to sleep 2 (or more) and would like to be able to day sail with 4 or 5
people and not be too crowded.

Has anyone built an Arctic Tern. I'm curious as to how well it sails.
I've heard that Nancy's China doesn't sail well to windward and I'm
wondering if that's a trait the Arctic Tern shares as well.

The drawback for the Weekender/Vacationer is that it's a flat bottom
instead of a V so I'm concerned it won't be as comfortable in larger
unprotected bodies of water.

So does anyone have experience with the Wren or Tern? Are my concerns
about the flat-bottom Vacationer in open water unfounded? I'd love some
advice.

Thanks!

-Dave

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 22:46:02 GMT, MN wrote:

snip
So does anyone have experience with the Wren or Tern? Are my concerns
about the flat-bottom Vacationer in open water unfounded? I'd love some
advice.

Have you looked at Jacques Mertens' VG20? It's a modern S&G version
of the popular Vagabond. It's higher-performance than Devlin's boats,
and just about as easy to build. The Vacationer is not in the same
league.

For building plans www.boatplans-online.com. Perhaps the biggest
reason to choose the VG20 is www.bateau2.com, the builder's support
web site. I doubt there are any better sites for any designer's
builders. One of finest first-person online accounts of building any
boat is Justin Pipkorn's VG20 at
http://amateurboatbuilding.com/ProjectJustRight/.

If I had the room and money, I'd build one (or its bigger sister the
VG23) in a heartbeat.

- Rick Tyler

--
"Ignorant voracity -- a wingless vulture -- can soar only into the
depths of ignominy." Patrick O'Brian

Rick Tyler wrote:

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 22:46:02 GMT, MN wrote:

snip

So does anyone have experience with the Wren or Tern? Are my concerns
about the flat-bottom Vacationer in open water unfounded? I'd love some
advice.


Have you looked at Jacques Mertens' VG20? It's a modern S&G version
of the popular Vagabond. It's higher-performance than Devlin's boats,
and just about as easy to build. The Vacationer is not in the same
league.

For building plans www.boatplans-online.com. Perhaps the biggest
reason to choose the VG20 is www.bateau2.com, the builder's support
web site. I doubt there are any better sites for any designer's
builders. One of finest first-person online accounts of building any
boat is Justin Pipkorn's VG20 at
http://amateurboatbuilding.com/ProjectJustRight/.

If I had the room and money, I'd build one (or its bigger sister the
VG23) in a heartbeat.

- Rick Tyler

--
"Ignorant voracity -- a wingless vulture -- can soar only into the
depths of ignominy." Patrick O'Brian

Thanks, I'll check it out.

I've talked to some Vacationer/Weekender folks and found that that
design isn't for sailing in larger bodies of water since it isn't
self-rescuing or self-righting.

-Dave