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Rob Smith's 22hr build here

Daydream (A song I wrote about this boat.)

The ultimate goal was to build her in a day. (See Easy does it?)

This design evolved from the "Least Cuts Boat" or LCB.

Inspired by Lew Clayman on the boat design list. (updated June 19, 2002)

See photos of Brian Schmittling's Daydream being built in Mississippi.

And photos of my build of the prototype - in progress...

So I decided to try to upscale my Summer Breeze to a 4 sheet boat and see what it might take to build her with the fewest saw cuts. At first I used overlapping plywood to the extreme to get the fewest cuts, but the reality is it's easier to just make a couple of more cuts. But this thought experiment was fruitful. I strayed from Summer Breeze and ended up with a more plumb bow sharpie design with both the sheer and the chine being cut as straight lines. With the use of some simplified build techniques I think she could be built in a day. I'm getting very excited about this design. I intend to build the prototype soon and will document how she does.

This is the way the 4 sheets of plywood are used. The back and sides are both joined with 4" wide ply butt blocks, glue and bronze nailed. 16 foot 1x2s (3/4 x1.5") are used for the inner chines and the rub rails which are attached while the side panels are flat. The bulkhead is made from overlapping triangles from each side of the bow. Other than trimming the bottom, and an arched transom if you like, this boat is made entirely of straight cuts. No lofting! (laying out stations and connecting the dots) Yet she still has amazing eye appeal... see photos below.

The capacity calculation proved to be impressive. This shows she draws about 7 inches at 1000 lb displacement notice the stem is slightly submerged and the transom just touches the water. Some folks, like Karl Stambough of "Good Skiffs" fame, feel a slightly immersed bow prevents slapping and increases the water line length, and so the hull speed.

This could be made with 4 sheets of 1/4" like Featherwind. Might make the bottom and transom out of 3/8". Or maybe 2 sheets of 3/8" for the sides, and 2 sheets of 1/2" for the bottom & transom would make it stouter and require less framing. The added weight means more stability and more robust, but also a lot more to muscle around. Depends on whether you intend to trailer her, or car top her. A heavier boat is less reactive to the shifting weight of the crew. I intend to build the prototype of 1/4" BC pine ply.

The center bulkhead gets made in two parts from the bow bottom sheet. You'd mark the 19.5" dimension and the 52" dimension and cut them both. Stack them and cut from the 7" mark to the corner.

The resulting triangles stack on top of each other like this. They are glued and clinch nailed in the overlap. It sits on the 1x4, 3.5" wide 3/4" butt block where the bottom joins. Where it touches the sides, it is reinforced with 3/4" x 3/4" cleat stock. A 1x10 seat straddles this bulkhead. It you use inner chine logs, notches are cut in the corners. The frame attaches to the sides 12.5" aft of the side butt joint.

Greg Carlson's Hull program shows the ideal bulkhead placement is 96.5 inches from the bow. In my paper models I've found it also works where the ply joins. The test build will tell for sure.

The stem can be made of a 30" length of clear 2x4 stock. The angle is 43.5, so set your saw to half that. If you want to lay it out and hand saw it, scribe your cut lines from the middle of the short side, to 1 7/8" down your long side. If you let it run long above the rails you can add a hole or a pin for a nice mooring bit.

Here's a 3D view that might be clearer. If you plan to make more than one boat, you can get real tricky and take the waste pieces you just sawed off and glue them together sawn surfaces face to face. Now you have a different style of stem ready to have a boat glued to it!

The rub rails & chine logs are 16' 1x2s and they can be nailed to the edges on the flat. The butt block is held back to allow room for the inner chine log. The rub rails can run "wild" (long) at the transom ends, but should be flush with the bow end, so they don't interfere with each other when attaching them to the stem.

Inwales and spacers could also be of 1x2 and they might stiffen it enough to not need more than one bulkhead, particularly if we put in seat risers and screw in seats.

The keel can be 16 foot 1x2 with a laminated 1/2" skeg coming from the 8"x96" trim of the side sections. 8 foot 1x2 skid rails on either side of the keel would protect and stiffen the bottom. Two or three foot brace strips running across the bottom (athwartships) where the rower's feet fall would both facilitate rowing and further stiffen the bottom. The skeg can be omitted if your primary desire use is as a sailboat. She'll turn on a dime sailing, but will track less surely while rowing.

Laminations and scarfing (like the sides, bottom, skeg and the bulkhead) could be done with #14 3/4" bronze nails driven into cardboard first, then clinched against a bucking iron. This would eliminate any wait for glue to dry.

Another approach that I'm leaning towards is using 1x4 stock as the butt blocks. One advantage is that no clinching is required. 7/8" bronze nails would work well. This could be the base of the mid frame as well, and 3/4" square cleats could be PL glued to anchor the ply of the frame. Here's a rough sketch. Not to scale of course, and only 2 cleats are shown for clarity. Use 3/4" spacers to align the frame to the sides. Bottom can be scarffed off the boat later. Note: 12.5" aft of side butt joint.

Here are her three views. It's challenging to get the hulls rendition just right. You can't input the side dimensions and have it generate the model. You have to tweak it a lot to get it close. The paper model photos are more what the final boat will look like. I found it tricky to get the plumb bow I wanted in Hulls. I went a little over the top on photos, but I couldn't decide which ones to use.....sooooo...

These two to the right are my latest model. The ones below are the first one, with a more plumb bow.

Doing the sailing rig very basic is an interesting challenge as well. I'm thinking a 2x4 mast a la Dave Carnel. 

Materials would be something like:

    Mast: 12 to 16 foot 2x4 (tapers to 1.5" sq at top)

    Spars: 12 ft 2x4 (ripped in two taperd at ends) for yard and sprit - 

    Boards: 1/4 sheet (2'x4') 1/2" ply for rudder & leeboard - 

    Tiller - 8 ft 1x2 . 

    Sail: 12'x15' poly tarp (ideally white)

    Mast partner: either have one of the 1x10 seats double as a mast partner or use the 8" ply strip to laminate one.

    Misc: 50ft of 1/4" line.. 2' section of 3" pvc for mast base - double stick fiberglass carpet tape -

Here's is a way of using a 2x4 mast fitted into a PVC base so it can still rotate - very useful with a sprit sail rig. This idea borrowed from Don Hodges' 12 foot Skiff. That removable bolt on mast partner isn't a bad idea either.

A removable center seat which doubles as a leeboard. 

Maybe the simplest approach to a quick sail rig is demonstrated by Fritz Funk He folds over and trims a polytarp and secures it all with duct tape.

 http://www.alaska.net/~fritzf/Boats/sailflat/jonsail.htm 

This slightly modified sketch I borrowed from Dave's Polytarp Sail site. Here's a slightly over the edge, but still doable in a simple way, sail idea. Fold over, round the mast poly tarp sail, with twin sprits bungee rigged to the aft side of the mast. Hidden inside the sail normally, exposed when running wing & wing. The easiest double sprit rigging I've come up with for this is holes in the ends of 1x2 sprits, on either side of a fair lead on the aft of the mast. A largish bungee cord runs through them and around the mast, knotted on top of the fair lead. By the way, Dave who I mentioned above has a 16' sharpie called Foolhardy he has a triangular "leg of mutton" sprit sail on. Nice looking boat - check her out.

The 87 ft sprit (leg o' mutton)  rig left would be a good choice for the simplest arrangement. Halyard, snotter, and main sheet. To have good size and "traditional" looks the mast needs to be longer than the boat. The sprit is well above heads and controls the sail well. The yawl rig to the right leaves the middle of the boat wide open, and I'm told it's possible to use the sprit of the mizzen like an "air rudder" and really maneuver her well. The standing lug main could be loose footed as shown or with a sprit boom.

(This sketch mades the Center of Effort to far forward.)

Once I ran the numbers it appears the above yawl rig wont work with a leeboard which has to be at the widest part of the boat. So far this is the closest I've been able to get, and I don't like how far back I had to move the main mast. One of the primary attractions to the yawl layout would be to open up the boat even more. I'll keep working on it.

This loose footed sprit is about 90 ft. of sail. This rig was a favorite of Pet Culler who has written pages on its virtues. Basically you can fly the most sail area on the shortest spars with the least rigging. The rig is low aspect, so imparts less heeling forces to the hull. A loose footed sail like this needs a fairly wide hull to work. Bolger says 10 degrees off the center line. Dead down wind the sail can try to close up and misbehave some. Any bad manners it has can be cured by one more stick. A sprit boom that supports the clew. This can be almost as "noggin friendly" as the loose footed sail, since the sprit is above the lower edge of the sail. Mostly just the sail brushes your head if you aren't paying attention.

Here's my latest (9th!) twin sail attempt. Using a variation on that 90' sprit sail allowed me to get the mast step farther forward. Raking the Mizzen by having it hug the transom angle actually helped slightly too. Now the middle of the boat can stay open for lounging, snacking passengers, and the loose footed sail will spare their noggins. Along with the leeboard, this may result in a small boat feeling much bigger than she is. We shall see.....

Here's a slight variation on the above. The sails have been reduced in area and the main mast has been raked 5 degrees. This will leave a little more space open between the clew of the main and the stern, even when close hauled. (pointing high into the wind)

Here's a pattern if you'd like to print her out and fold her up. The bulkhead goes on the ply joint line. I used straight lines for the sheer and the chines. This latest generation has a slightly less plumb bow. I left the old lines for comparison.

Materials:

4 sheets of 1/4" plywood.

13 - 16' 1x2s  (or all the 1x2s could be ripped from one 16' 2x12, or 2 16' 2x6s - sometimes the clearest logs are saved for the largest boards so you might find a nice knot free one.)

The 1x2s are for rails, chines, seat risers, inwales and inwale spacers,  frames, keel and bottom skid rails & foot braces

1 - 8' 1x4 for butt blocks for bottom and sides - also rip 3/4" square cleats for frame glue blocks

1 - 10' 1x4 for transom frame

1 - 3' 2x4 for the stem

1 - 3' x 1" hardwood dowel for corner braces - (replaces breast hook and quarter knees.)

1 - 10' 1x10  for seats

Glue: PL Premium glue & Tightbond II for "dry sailed" boats or above the water line. (If your boat doesn't live in the water) Epoxy for boats that will live in the water.
Jim Michalak has written up a great test on boiling plywood and glue samples...here.

Bronze ring nails 3/4", 7/8" & 1"

Gallon of exterior latex house paint and a quart of trim for rails and accents.

Tools:

Circular saw, hand saw
Hammer
Drill
Plane
Sander