The 7'7" Nutshell Pram is a lot of fun, but suffers from some drawbacks because of its size:
- being very light, it feels skittish in a breeze
- being short, there is only room for one sailor
- and that is sitting between the middle and rear seats, in the bilge water
So a new build is called for (and building the Nutshell Pram in lapstrake ply was to be practise for a clinker build later).
Paul Gartside has a number of nice looking boats (to an amateur like me) and I've picked design #136 'Riff', a 12' sail design with inbuilt bouyancy, a centre-board, kickup rudder and nice lines. Paul was very responsive to my initial questions for building this boat in clinker rather than the designed stripbuild.
I believe this photo was also in the magazine 'Wooden Boat' Issue 189 (March/April 2006), with a Riff build in three issues 189, 190, 191. Back issues are available online from the Wooden Boat Store.
Planned materials:
The plan is to loft the design onto a number of 8' x 4' sheets (from Bunnings, undercoated white), and then build from plantation mahogany sourced via Anagote Timbers, Marrickville, Sydney.
The steamed ribs could be silver ashy, or I could try to find white oak. The copper nails and roves, and silicon bronze fittings, are available locally from DriveMarine in Beverly Hills.
The actual hull build may not start till the end of the year.
Lofting practise:
I've been working my way through the lofting designs in two excellent books by Greg Rossell...
'The Boat Builders Apprentice' and 'Building Small Boats'.
I tried to buy a parallel rule (with metal roller underneath) but it was rubbish. So instead I measure out perpendiculars (with compass and trammel) and join with a straightedge.
- The brass compass is a joy to use - throw out your school compass and buy a good one!
- Home made trammel (on the right) with a pencil, rubber band, a piece of WRC and a copper nail.
A piece of 8' x 4' with some home made 'drafting ducks', each made from a hardwood block (ex-house rafters) smoothed down with electric plane, and a copper nail.
Lathe made from 3mm silver ash cut on the venerable Australian 'Triton' workbench.
