A guy at the dog park mentioned he was building a “Pond Yacht” over the winter which is a 48-inch sailing model boat with servos (kind of like a remote control car). I thought maybe I should build a scaled Beach Pea to give me something to do as we are having warm/crappy winter and I have more flies than I can possibly use. Additionally, Lisa has been asking for an 8-ft kayak to hang from living room beams but I would rather have a scaled 8-ft Beach Pea. With a good set of offsets, I can build at any scale so off to the drafting table to get some measurements.
Hylans plans have full-size patterns and a table of off-sets to the lap lines. Unfortunately you need the offsets to the knuckles (top edge of inside planking. Figured I would just reverse engineer dimensions as I have excellent Mutoh Drafting machine and can easily pick off the knuckle locations from the full-size patterns and build a more traditional table of offsets.
Easy enough to get dimensions I needed and when drawn at 1 1/2 inch = 1 ft scale there looks to be some issues. The lines should be flowing together a bit smoother – they don’t have to be perfect but these just not right. Not certain if Hylans patterns completely accurate or just a scaling/error issue.
Body Sections
– Problems here –
Redrew at 3-inch = 1 ft scale but some points still look a little off. This actually creates a bit of a problem for me and now I’m not 100% confident in Hylan’s patterns – they may be fine but I will more than likely loft full size and generate new full-size patterns to build molds. We did have a issue building this same boat couple years ago at Wooden Boat School with one of the lower planks having a bit of a hook in it. Not certain if it was a mold/set-up or skills issue. My goal is to build the best boat I possibly can and while I was hoping to get done for the Wooden Boat Show this summer, not going to rush things as this is an artificial deadline. (I do need to get done by Oct 2024 but even re-lofting everything, will not be a problem)
Fig-1. Couple points look off
– may loft full scale instead of using Hylans Patterns –
Will be needing the building jig info and thought this drawing would be a nice to place to sketch it out. Again, lessons learned at WBS building this are letting me find any issues before they become a problem.
Fig.2 Running sums for positioning molds is the way to go.
This stem profile is another place where it is easy to screw things up. My stems (which I lofted to build the laminating jig) are already built so just need to accurately position – this sketch is to the outer face of inner stem.
Fig 3. These are the Knuckle locations on stems. Again, not given by Hylan
Final Table of Offset. Took about 3 days on and off to generate but are fundamental to building a really nice scratch built boat. Pretty certain Hylan is protecting his design data and making things simpler for amateur builders by providing full size patterns – but… he really should provide the more traditional data for those of us who want to loft or scale his design. A little bit of effort and you can extract it anyways.
ps- I’ve recently heard the vast majority of amateur boats are built “Stitch and Glue” style. Something we used building Swifty’s in Eastman Boat Building Programs – I’m not a fan of the technique so haven’t been building with Eastman guys last 2 years. In my opinion, stitch and glue while easier to build with produces a inferior boat. Glued lapstrake with sapele and fir is 1) much better looking 2) significantly stronger. You wouldn’t catch me in the ocean with Stitch and Glue built – but lots of people of certainly do.
Fig 4. what we have been reverse engineering last few days
Took to Staples and got a couple of prints made. You can use the lines to build at any size you want. Not certain if I am making a plug or detailed model. Check out the McInnis Bateau solid plug I made a couple years ago. Click here
Fig 5 – Lots of work to get all this
Will decide if going to build a model Beach Pea in next couple of days – storms heading here so maybe some snowshoeing soon.