Building the Sea Eagles, David Nichols

Pandion, David's prototype

the lines for the 14.5

Chapter 5, Setting up the Strongback and Bulkheads




Caapter 6 Planking the Hull




Chapter 12 The Big Turnover




Chapter 24 The Sails




Chapter 25 Odds and Ends

all material courtesy David Nichols

Back in April I had written about David Nichols new creation, a pair of Sea Eagles. The design had been featured in the Small Craft Advisor, and really caught my eye. David is not selling plans of the boat in the traditional way, but is rather offering the plans as part and parcel of a construction guide. A meticously detailed guide it is, too. I've offered a few pages from the book here to give you an idea. This work is so thorough and well photographed that I think people with only the desire, determination and some basic woodworking skills should be able to complete the project. The price of the book is a fraction of what most designers charge for plans. Published by Breakaway Books (see David's other books there as well) and is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders and many other booksellers.

From David's introduction:
...Most of us dream about sailing off into the sunset to wander the oceans of the world, but for me that just isn't practical. For that matter, it isn't practical for most of us. What I do find practical is a small, simple beach cruiser that I can in a variety of waters both big and small. A boat large enough to provide some creature comforts but not so big that her size limits where I can take the boat. The boats in this book fill that bill.
Both Sea Eagles do have some creature comforts. In the cockpits, the seats are wide for pleasant sleeping and both are easily rigged for a cozy cockpit tent or sunshade. The 16.5 has a small cuddy with comfortable quarter berth for sleeping when the weather is frosty and both boats have plenty of storage space below decks. It' possible to carry enough gear below decks for lavish beach living and still have the cockpit clean and uncluttered. And both boats carry a portable head, an important consideration for many.
Also, I want boats that are forgiving and I designed the Sea Eagles to be forgiving. You'll find both boats stable to at least 90 degree of heel and the cockpits are self bailing. The heavy bottom and generous fixed ballast in the keel help to bring them back in case of a knockdown. Her tandem centerboards keep her balanced on all points of sail and well mannered in a following sea.
Good manners and a forgiving nature are crucial, but I think that a sailboat that is easily launched from a trailer is important as well. Boat slips are expensive and becoming increasingly hard to find. A boat that lives on a trailer doesn't need a slip and has virtually unlimited cruising ground. Sea Eagle's free-standing masts and simple traditional sails mean the time spent getting ready to launch is short and their shallow draft makes them as easy to launch as a power boat.
In addition I want a boat that is relatively simple to build. And because these boats go together with a modified stitch-and-glue building technique using epoxy, they are less complex and labor intensive to build than more traditional methods.
So that is what you'll find with the boats in this book. Both Sea Eagles are boats the are simple and easily handled, boats you can take on big adventures or small adventures, and boats that you will not easily outgrow.
You will also find that this book is writtenas if you had little or no boatbuilding experience. My goal was to make the book turn-key. That is, show you not only how to build the boat but make the sails and most everything you need to get the boat out on the water.

The book is so well documented that I believe it could be used as a construction guide for other boats built with this technique. Check into it. David's business is Arrowhead Boats.

Man on the River, by fair means

Giacomo and the Ness Yawl somewhere along the Po.

Roland Poltock in the Art Waiting Room at Lago

Roland at his work table

Shaping planks

The molds set up in the Art Waiting Room

Silvio wields a Japanese saw



all photos courtesy Giacomo Stefano

Giacomo De Stefano was introduced to me by Michael Bogoger of DoryMan. Michael asked if I'd be interested in writing about Giacomo (as he has) and helping him along in his mission. My answer was an enthusiastic yes, but then other things...so, finally, here it is. My apologies to Giacomo for the delay.
Giacomo is planning a voyage from London to Istanbul via an Oughtred Ness yawl, sailing and rowing. His goal is to raise awareness on several fronts, but most notably clean water, low impact transportation and the destructive effects of global tourism. He made a similiar voyage last year, also in a Ness yawl, down the river Po. I've had a little correspondence w/Giacomo and I do believe he possesses the passion, intensity and poetry of a true visionary. In his own words:

"According to WTO data published in the report, Changes in Leisure Time: The Impact of Tourism*, since 1998 tourism has become the largest industry on the planet. Nothing produces more, consumes more, ejects more and wastes more. Mass tourism, the real monster, develops at a very fast rate. Is there a way ot traveling, experiencing, and eating without eroding environments and cultures? Is there a way to bring a sustainable, local economy to the river sides society? My name is Giacomo De Stefano, and I am a traveler, a man who is looking for
new ways of dealing with our complex reality. I live on a boat in Venice. I row and sail, with little or no money. With less I try do more. I want to row and sail, on a little boat from London to Istanbul. I am not alone. My colleagues and I are a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual group, and I believe we and you can be of service to each other. You can learn more about us on our web site
unaltropo.com. I am, with the help of some good friends, organizing this journey called By Fair
Means, North sea to Black Sea, to help us save two great rivers and demonstrate a way of intelligent tourism."

The photos above represent the current progress toward Giacomo's goal. Shipwright Roland Poltock and his friend Silvio have set up shop in the lobby of Lago, a Venetian design firm. The lobby is synonymous with an art gallery aptly named The Art Waiting Room where the firm brings in artists to show pieces related to waiting. "Art Waiting Room is a container of stimuli to change the experience of waiting in Lago.Inside the waiting room, young artists reinterpret in ever different content to wait. This a project in collaboration with the Foundation March." Or as Nicolo Zago explains on DoryMan's blog: "Of course as you know, our reception area has now become the famous "Art Waiting Room" where we host live installations and performances, but until now we have never seen anything like this." Thus the building of the new Ness yawl becomes a sort of performance piece. In point of fact I would label the whole of Giacomo's oeuvre as performance art, a very broad work of art encompassing not only the aesthetic but also the social, the political, the environmental and the spiritual realms. Indeed, I believe it is a gesamtkunstwerk. (Please, if you don't know what this means, link to the definition!)

Giacomo seems very open, gracious and generous, he's invited Michael and I , and I'm sure many others, to participate in his voyage, and contribute by whatever means available, be it physical, logistical, media related or financial. Find out more at his website Un altro Po.

I asked Giacomo why an Iain Oughtred boat as opposed to a more local craft from his home area. His response is enlightening:

"I decided to use a Ness Yawl because is a very versatile boat. I was so lucky that Roland Poltock lent me the boat last year and I felt in love so much with it. Maybe I am a little bit close to my Norwegian origin, dating 1079, in Sicily or maybe I love too much Iain Oughtred..I miss the Venetian boats but they would not be good to sail along the Black Sea coast, and they are too heavy. Only the MAscareta could be good , and light but not seaworthy enough.
The other Italian boat are too heavy, like all the gozzi, to be rowed upstream decently, or hauled by myself in case of danger.

After all the planet is small and I am a citizen of this small planet. We decided to use names. So Norway is here too, in my crazy mind, and Scotland too.

This is part of a circle. About rivers and seas.

DON’T LEAVE THIS PLANET TO THE STUPID. PLEASE"

I dare not add anything more.

Except this: Man on the River's website is now active,

And you can watch the daily progress of the build here.

Microcruising Part 8, Bill Longyard and Lucky Town 7

Bill Longyard is the author of what appears to be an execellent book (though I've yet to read it) on epic voyages made in "improbable vessels".  The book's titled "A Speck on the Sea" and reaches back five centuries to tell these stories. 

Dissatisfied with the available production boats for what he terms mini cruising, Bill decided to design and build his own, to "show what could be done with 14 feet". And show he did, and then some. His little Lucky Town 7  has sitting headroom for two and enough enough space for a six footer to stretch out comfortably. There is a flush toilet and holding tank and provision for a shower, though the shower's not yet implemented.

The Junk rig is made from polytarp and cost about $100. and can be reefed from the cabin. Bill finds the Jung rig far more friendly than any other rig he's used, including gaff and gunter. She ha a 246 pound drop keel and an aluminum kick up rudder.

There's a 4hp diesel in the aft compartment which is used to charge two marine batteries which in turn power a 55 lb. thrust trolling motor, judiciously used. He also carries an air compressor, radio bank and a solar panel. Quite a lot in a 14' loa 6' beam cruiser.

The boat is trailed with a small car and launches quickly as the mast has a spring loaded tabernacle and can be raised or lowered on the water, instantly.

William is planning to make plans available at a nominal charge soon. Should be interesting to say the least.

Microcruising Part 7: Charles Stock and Shoal Waters

 This photo courtesy of  Willliam Stock, no relation. A chance encounter. Visit his blog here.

Charles Stock is an icon of microcruising, in a very different way than say, the Dyes. He and his 16'6" gaff cutter Shoal Waters have cruised over 70,000 miles, probably more like 80,000 by now,  primarily in his home waters, the Norfolk Broads. Estuary, rivers, creeks, and urban environs all explored and enjoyed in this little boat he rebuilt,to his own design, from the hull up in 1963. As Charles himself puts it " Over 70,000 nautical miles have been made good from Maldon between Whitby, Ostend and the Solent". But Charles has been cruising the Broads for even longer, first in another boat he bought shortly after the war. He has been content with shorter cruises, weekends and holidays, with 70 to 80 miles 'made good'. Proving that one needen't look further than their own backyard for adventure. He has in common with the Dyes a minimalist approach to cruising, keep it simple. Small boat, practical rig, no mechanical propulsion. Britain, after all, is an island, and it's middle class has been no less immune to the lure of yachting than it's elite. Postwar Britain saw a surge in the pursuit of small boat cruising, encouraged by the writings of Maurice Griffiths and Francis B. Cooke, to name two who influenced Charles.  He's an excellent writer and has published some 60 odd articles in various magazines in addition to his three books. His website is voluminous and one could spend days consuming all thats there. One has. A sample:

"The sheer joy of a little ship wooing the winds to travel over the waves is reward enough in itself, but the small boat sailor on the restless waters of the Thames Estuary gets an almost unlimited bonus from the backcloth against which he sails.  Not for him the endless lonely days of sea and sky of the ocean traveller.  Hour by hour and enthralling panorama of fauna, flora, trade ancient and modern, relics of wars fought yesterday and a thousand years ago, maritime architecture from St Peter's on the Wall circa 675 AD, to the modern power station at the Isle of Grain and the most enduring of all, sea defenses from ancient grass banks long since breached, to today's massive Woolwich Barrier, unfolds before him."

Photos courtesy Charles and Chris Stock with the one exception noted above.

Webb Chiles and Chidiock Tichborne or Macro/microcruising (part 7)

Webb Chiles is currently undertaking his fifth circumnavigation, well, 4&3/4 if you want to get technical, but he doesn't and I won't, so fifth it is. The 3/4 one is definitely the one he is most known for, his cruise almost around the world, solo, in an 18' open Drascombe yawl named Chidiock Tichborne after the 16th century English poet. Actually two of the same boats, as he lost the first the first after being falslely imprisioned in Saudi Arabia, as a spy. A truly epic voyage, and a capable boat and sailor. This from Webb,"Chidiock Tichborne was a great boat, who did more than I had any right to expect, and was a pleasure to sail.  My best day's runs in her were around 145 miles, and I often completed long passages only three or four days slower than boats more than twice her size".Webb is not only a sailor, he's also a writer and photographer and a very good at both.   I find his writing elegant and lucid, lean and clear as glass.  He is also very generous. Four of his books, numerous articles and photographs and poetry are all available on his website, which is also clean and elegant. Today Webb responded to my email queries and let me know that he's recently arrived back in the US, leaving his latest boat in Darwin but will be returning to it in January to resume his fifth.   Circumnavigation.   You can follow his wanderings in his Journal. Here is the poetry of Tichborne, which Webb read to those seeing him off at the beginning of his journey in the Drascombe.

My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,

My feast of joy is but a dish of pain,

My crop of corn is but a field of tares,

And all my good is but vain hope of gain;

The day is past, and yet I saw no sun,

And now I live, and now my life is done.

My tale was heard and yet it was not told,

My fruit is fallen, and yet my leaves are green,

My youth is spent and yet I am not old,

I saw the world and yet I was not seen;

My thread is cut and yet it is not spun,

And now I live, and now my life is done.

I sought my death and found it in my womb,

I looked for life and saw it was a shade,

I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb,

And now I die, and now I was but made;

My glass is full, and now my glass is run,

And now I live, and now my life is done.

The photo at the top is called "Dante". The next two are of Moorea, Webbs favorite island and anchorage, eight miles from Tahiti. The third down is the drascombe leaving San Diego, the fourth...somewhere along the journey. Go to this website, read Webbs books, follow his journey.

Listen to his interview with furled sails here.

Frank and Margaret Dye, or Macro/microcruising (part 6)

Frank and Margaret are perhaps the ultimate Microcruisers. They have taken their little Wayfarer dinghy (15'10") to some places and on some cruises most folks wouldn't or couldn't do in a larger boat.  Seemingly fearless, they have not been , but have believed that adequate preparation will see you through most eventualities. And so it has been for them. The first book I ever read about sailing adventures was Ocean Crossing Wayfarer and I was electrified by it. I am currently reading Margaret's book on dinghy cruising, with an eye to prepping  the Daysailer I'm working on. I recommend it. To anyone sailing a small boat.  Frank made some amazing voyages to Iceland and Norway as well as on the Atlantic Coast of the USA and elsewhere.You can find here a great video of the voyage from northern Scotland to Aalesund, Norway. I will warn you to turn down your volume as it's very loud. Margaret has also done phenomenal cruises on her own and together with Frank. A very interesting couple who have given great inspiration to the cruising community in general and dinghy cruisers specifically. Their achievement, together and individually, is immense. The top photo is not the Dye's boat but does show the kind of boom tent Frank and Margaret designed for the Wayfarer.

Macro/Microcrising (part 5)

Around in Ten is a singlehanded circumnavigation race designed to challenge Serge Testa's record , stipulating that all boats must be 10' or under. Set to begin in 105 days, January 10, 2009, from Bermuda  to Bermuda, with a westward route and passing through the Panama Canal. There are six racers entered, and apparently most are still building. Three well known boat designers are represented, John Selway, Bruce Roberts and John Welsford. The other three are building to their own design. I must say, they are all interesting designs. Only three have posted construction photos on the website.  The image above is the boat Skippy, designed and being built by Gilbert Van Meel in Antwerp, Belguim. The race is the  brainchild of Nick Dwyer, who is also the organiser, and he'll be providing a support boat and be transmitting coverage of the race on a regular basis. I actually like the idea of this race, but...I have a few reservations. Most, if not all, of these boats are not yet completed, far from it. Doesn't leave much time for fitting out and sea trials. And at least three of the designs are untested (the self designs), and actually, I don't know if the designer's boats have built and tested by others. If this thing actually goes off, I'll be watching. With interest. Please take a look and give me some feedback, whats your opinion? Are these guy's nuts, or simply very courageous, or burning with a desire to enter the record books. A ten foot boat can only intensify the hardships that Serge endured on his epic voyage, and are they truly viable for circumnavigation? What do you think? Heroic  or (something else)? Nick is looking for sponsorship to help manage the effort, so...

Serge Testa and Acrohc Australis or Micro/Macrocruiing (part 4)

Serge Testa currently holds the world record for circumnavigation in the smallest boat, his Acrohc Australis, which he designed and built himself. 11' 10". He set out from Brisbane in 1984 and returned to Brisbane in 1987. He chronicled his amazing feat in a glorious little book titled 500 Days. The boat now resides in the...Museum in Brisbane ( all photo's courtesy Bill Seargent@ SmallSailboats UK.) I've written Serge to find out what he's up to these days but haven't heard back, yet. At least I know this: After his circumnavigation, Serge and his brother Silvio built a proa in the true Polynesian style in the Phillipines and attempted to cross the Pacific to prove that ancient migration to the "new" world could have been made by boat as well as by land. Plagued by underfunding, the trip was abanonded 1/2 way to it's destination in Japan. serge continued his sailing pusuits, crewing for other's and made his way to an Francisco where he met and married his wife Robin. Together they built a new boat, a 60' steel yacht  named Encanta, in which they sailed around the world between 1993 and 1997. Serge's record is set to be challenged by some folks building super/micro  cruising boats. Maybe. If they actually do it.

We'll see.

Microcruising Part Three

Dave and Mindy Bolduc are exemplars of microcruising. They have a website devoted to microcruising and do quite a bit of it themselves. Little Cruiser, a Matt Layden design, also built by him, top two photos, they own and have cruised to the Bahamas from their native NC. at least 7 times. Swamp Thing, a much smaller design, they now own and are restoring, if I've got it right. They have an update on their restoration and other interesting bits here. They also are the conduit for Matt' plans if you want to build a Paradox. Their website is the main portal to Laydens work and has great links, cruises they've done, study plans, sketches,news and forums.

You can order plans for Paradox, and probably other craft by emailing them here: mbolduc@triad.rr.com. The plans for Paradox are $40. A steal. 12 pages. From David:Though no step-by-step 

instructions are included, you can obtain an excellent building guide from 
Don Elliott,  at DonElliott@localnet.com or Don54660@Yahoo.com. This booklet 
first appeared as a 16 part series in "Messing About in Boats," and it is 
worth getting if you are at all serious about building this neat little 
boat. Payment for the Paradox plans can be by money order, bank check or 
Paypal (mbolduc@triad.rr.com) . Happy building.

Microcruising, Part One (well, actually, two)

Bill Seargent has a very informative, information rich website for small sailboats and cruising them. He's owned a lot of boats over his lifetime but seems to currently be most taken with Matt Layden's Paradox design. That's Bill with his self built "Faith", and cruising the Suffolk coast, his home cruising ground. Alastair Law, also in the UK, built and sails "Little Jim", the interior of which we see at the top. These and other Paradox can be found in a special section devoted to the boat on Bill's website. This site is full of useful info for microcruising, extensive lists of boats and other resources, building process of several builders of different boats, with photo's, and more.

Sven Yrvind

Sven is a designer, builder and writer about boats, and a freind and collaborater of Matt Layden. His website is a beaut and you can follow his current project, which incorporates much of Matt's philosophy. http://www.yrvind.com/

Matt Layden's cruising designs

When I first saw them, Matt's designs seemed a bit silly to me, but then most really good art is objectionable in some way when you first see it, because you're is not prepared to understand it. On closer inspection, these seem to be meticulously thought out and very practical boats which, Phil Bolger et. al. notwithstanding, are defining both a new aesthetic and new possibilities in design and cruising. Matt doesn't have a website but Dave and Mindy Balduc are friends and have been sailing his boats for years. Click this link to see their site about microcruising. http://www.microcrusing.com/