*Cost of study plans will be applied toward the price of full plans if ordered within one year. Study plans contain 3 full size drawings, a Bill of Materials and abbreviated building sequence
Cruiser — daysailer — race trainer
Navigator has turned out
to be the surprise package of the whole bunch, 300 plus
sets of plans in today’s market is a lot! Navigator
was designed for Boat Books Auckland’s proprietor
Tim Ridge as a race trainer to serve the needs of a local
club!
Originally she had the rig
shown on the study print below, a crew of three teenagers
totaling about 150 kg was intended, with its big sloop rig
and shallow draft centerboard, to reward good sailing technique
in a fairly open and windy club venue. There have been quite
a few of these built, and I am told that they are very good
boats, much enjoyed by their owners.
But,
the surprise came with my friend Bob Jenner who came to
me wanting a long range cruising dinghy just a little bigger
than his Rogue.
We sat down for a browse
through my drawings for some inspiration and Bob was very
taken by the hull and internal layout of Navigator but wanted
a rig with very different priority.
We took the standing lugsail
that Bob had liked from Rogue, powerful but very simple
and easily handled this is a good sail for a cruiser, we
then looked at a means of balancing the boat in severe wind
conditions as well as trying to make the boat as easy to
sail as possible.
I had used the yawl rig in
other small boats and had succeeded in making the boats
self steer on the wind with little more than a piece of
shock cord on the tiller, in this case I organised the sail
proportions to have the boat balanced with either main alone,
or mizzen and jib only. This means that in a really hard
chance the main halyard can be cast off and the boat is
still able to be steered and handled when things are very
bad.
Another consequence of the
sail layout is that the mizzen can be sheeted on hard, then
the boat will lay comfortably hove to head to wind while
the crew take a break, very nice if a hot drink or meal
is to be prepared on the go.
We
looked hard at the seating, side decks and helm so she is
really comfortable, there is space for up to six but she
is still an ideal singlehanded cruiser.
Bob needed lockers, enough
space for a weeks gear stowed securely and out of the way
of the spray, a space for the little outboard and 2 a place
for a little ballast ( in his case wet sand l in bags alongside
the centrecase). So we have an anchor well keeping the muddy
“hook” and l its chain out of the main part
of the boat, a big locker under the foredeck, big lockers
under the side seats and in the sternsheets.
All of these are sealed off
with watertight screw ports or hatches so that there is
enough enclosed air space to float the boat really high
enabling her to be righted and bailed if swamped. In fact
when we tested a later boat she supported her crew comfortably
and was easily bailed to get back under way.
Bob
built his Navigator over about 4 months, the simple glued
plywood lapstrake over stringers construction proving both
fast and economical, the lightweight hull went together
surprisingly quickly in the single car garage and it wasn’t
long before we were down at the waters edge christening
her with lemonade.
We launched her on a very
windy day and had a really good time, rocketing around the
bay until the (very) second hand wooden mast gave up. It
had screw holes filled with putty and painted over right
around the deck area and putty isn’t very strong!
It wasn’t very long
though until we had her fitted with a piece of alloy tube
in place of the wooden stump and “Ddraigg “
was off on what turned out to be a very distinguished career,
we cruised her, we raced her with a lot more success than
most people thought would be the case, we daysailed her
and all in all she did more mileage than almost any open
boat I’ve seen.
Performance wise she is a
real surprise, very fast in most conditions, close winded
and easily handled, the hull, though light is seaworthy
and stable, powerful enough to drive through a big wave
and she has a surprisingly comfortable motion in the open
sea, something that is not easy to achieve in a light dinghy
hull but a real bonus in a boat which may be at sea for
a whole day on some coastal passages.
This
yawl rigged version of Navigator has been really popular,
there are Navigators as far north as Finland, Norway and
Denmark, and as far south as Invercargill ( 47° deg south,
really roaring forties territory). We have had a letter
from an owner who sailed from Torquay in England along the
coast, across the English Channel and north past France
and Holland, ending the odyssey in Sweden! A very long way
in an open boat, but as the letter said, the only long voyage
was the 32 miles of open water as they crossed to France
and from there on it was ten or twenty miles at a time.
In spite of the original
club project not going ahead, they opted for an existing
class boat, she is my most popular single design.
There are groups racing with
three clubs that I know of and we even have an informal
“owners group“ who promote dinghy cruising and
the design has been built in many variations including several
with cabins ( which I feel are just a bit too small, watch
this space for a bigger version named Pathfinder with a
cabin as an option later in the year) and has somewhat humbled
me with the enthusiasm with which she has been received,
She is my favourite, one of those happy coincidences of
fate, and perhaps one day I’ll have one of my own.
john welsford designed navigator yawl in plymouth sound march 2009 music by kevin McLeod
But,
the surprise came with my friend Bob Jenner who came to
me wanting a long range cruising dinghy just a little bigger
than his Rogue.
We
looked hard at the seating, side decks and helm so she is
really comfortable, there is space for up to six but she
is still an ideal singlehanded cruiser.
Bob
built his Navigator over about 4 months, the simple glued
plywood lapstrake over stringers construction proving both
fast and economical, the lightweight hull went together
surprisingly quickly in the single car garage and it wasn’t
long before we were down at the waters edge christening
her with lemonade.
This
yawl rigged version of Navigator has been really popular,
there are Navigators as far north as Finland, Norway and
Denmark, and as far south as Invercargill ( 47° deg south,
really roaring forties territory). We have had a letter
from an owner who sailed from Torquay in England along the
coast, across the English Channel and north past France
and Holland, ending the odyssey in Sweden! A very long way
in an open boat, but as the letter said, the only long voyage
was the 32 miles of open water as they crossed to France
and from there on it was ten or twenty miles at a time.
