The mid-1990s were a mixed time for me. I had a fine house, a great job, a beautiful wife, and two lovely children—but I was boatless. My wife and I had sold our 32′ double-ender after our first child was born and we hadn’t found anything within our price range to take its place. So when yacht designer Nigel Irens was looking for guinea pigs to build a kit boat he and Ed Burnett had created, I jumped at the chance. It might not have been the oceangoing vessel I dreamed of owning, but it would at least get me back on the water. It would also mark a small personal milestone since, despite working as a journeyman shipwright for several years, I had never built a boat from scratch. June, 1997. Midway through building the skiff at the Lewes Rowing Club shed, just outside Brighton. That's my oldest son Sam, then 5 years old (now 24, and quite a bit bigger than me), who helped with the build.
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WoodenBoat has opened a can of worms with this piece as many readers will want to build this boat after seeing it. She is a gorgeous little design – perfect size and proportions. Please negotiate with Nigel Irens to publish and sell the plans!
Excellent idea, Alan. Please WoodenBoat, publish these plans and maybe offer the kit!
Great idea: I saw the boat first on the first Raid in Portugal on the river Douro. She impressed me with her speed with that small sail and also the clever construction, a combination of stitch and glue, where it protects the boat from scratches, and lapstrake above the waterline where good looks count. I think it is a great boat for a kit. Who is going to press Nigel Irens into action?
A four-week-old child in a small sail boat out on a sea…NO LIFEJACKET! The mother of this child…NO LIFEJACKET! Get real!!!
As a father and grandfather I find this totally unacceptable and why would WoodenBoat magazine publish a picture like this?
Thanks for raising the issue of safety on the water. We do take it seriously. That family photo was not intended to condone boating with a child without a lifejacket. We published the photo because it shows an important moment in the author’s life and a pivotal time for the story about his boat. The children are wearing lifejackets in the rest of the photos, afloat and ashore, and even the dog is wearing a lifejacket. The author offers this: “There’s no legal requirement in the UK for anyone to wear a lifejacket. The onus is on the skipper to ensure everyone is wearing one. In this case, we were sailing within 100ft of a beach in shallow water, so I didn’t consider it necessary. Would I do it again? Probably not.”
Thanks for reading, Kerr, and thanks for bringing safety to the fore.
Anne Bryant, Associate Editor, WoodenBoat
Nic, I think you’ll find the outboard tilt was not the cause of the boat’s poor trim under power. Even with the motor perfectly set up, the hull could not be expected to trim properly at that speed, given her buttock lines.
My choice of motor would be (2-stroke) a Yamaha 2hp weighing 9.8kg (21.6 lbs), or (4-stroke) a Honda 2.3hp at 12.5kg (27.5 lbs). My old Honda, from the days when they were rated at 2hp, has given thirteen years of steling service on many boats. On Flint (reviewed elsewhere in this issue) the old Honda requires only about half-throttle to bring the boat up to a semi-displacement speed.
I have just read your excellent article “A Man’s Best Friend.” I thought it might interest you how building a boat has led to a real family interest in boats and woodworking, where none existed before.
It began when we were living in Bermuda and my second son insisted that he and I build a boat as opposed to me simply buying him one. As a busy lawyer in an international legal firm I neither had the time nor experience to build a boat, so I was very reluctant. But my then 10-year-old persisted and eventually was successful. My wife was keen as well as it was a good opportunity for us to spend time together. How right she was. It birthed a real passion in building boats for me—I have now built two boats and currently building a Jericho Bay skiff—but also it was a fantastic experience and time together for two of my sons. It also inspired my son to do a module in his high-school exams on industrial timber and design. His skills now well exceed mine and he is very much going to be a big part of building the Jericho Bay skiff.
My eldest son—now 20 and in medical school—not wishing to be ignored, is pushing me to build with him the Pathfinder by John Welsford. He fancies sailing in Sydney Harbor. where we now live.
So what started as a nagging insistence by my middle son has spawned an interest in both me and my other sons.
I don’t know who has the plans these days; although I have yet to build the boat, I got a full set of plans for the Western Skiff from Ed Burnett shortly before his death. She’s a lovely boat, and it’s hard to choose between her and an Acorn.
I, myself, am building a 12′ Acorn skiff. Have made all the laminating jigs, patterns for the various pieces, cut and splined my mahogany for the transom, cut the wood for the keel, now I need to go buy the epoxy and plywood for the hull. I am excited! I grew up on the Hudson river in Stillwater, New York. Been to Long Island many times on my Dad’s boat, lots of great times. I have a 17′ MacGreggor sailboat I love to sail on Saratoga Lake nearby.