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*Cost of study plans will be applied toward the price of full plans if ordered within one year. Study plans contain 12 full pages of color drawings, a Bill of Materials and building text. It is almost the full set of plans but lacking dimensions.
I have wanted to design
a peapod hull for a long time, and have started and stopped
working on the project several times during the past couple
of years. Each time ended in frustration with the shape
of the cutout models. Something was wrong with the way
I was approaching the design with the tools and methods
I used. I could come up with a hull by using the free
internet design programs, but none of them gave me the
flat panel printouts I needed to test the design. I don't
design boats that need frames to be built on, and when
you measure and loft one of my designs on level plywood,
they fit when constructed. It wasn't until I started the
multi-panel Laura
designs, that I was better able to work though the relationships
of the curved panels to each other and the complete hull.
I took parts of the various Laura designs and copied
them onto a new drawing, and stretched and tweaked them
around to get closer to a final concept of what I wanted.
That took about eight models to get to a workable (looked
like one anyway) double ended hull shape. Then I worked
on it only in my spare moments while building the Laura
Bay. With building the Laura Bay out of the way I had
more time and a large supply of "Red Baron"
pizza boxes to make the models from. Finding cardboard
long enough can be a challenge when I'm doing a lot of
model making. The 15.5ft Wendy Bay and 14ft Plyzar (both
require matching up printout pages) were even more of
dilemma until I found some 6ply poster board at a local
office supply store. The O&P Pod took twenty one more
printouts and models after the first eight attempts, to
arrive at a final design that I'm happy with. But the
model I'm happy with now may have slight differences later
when the prototype hull is build, and again when the plans
go on sale.
The O&P stands for the Owl and Pussy Cat from the
nursery rhyme, and the first hull may be pea green too.
It's also a play on words from the standard term of "peapod"
for a small double ended hull. It took awhile to get the
sheerlines to fall in place, and to get the volume I needed
in the stern quarter. Some of the traditional peapods
had an equal distribution of volume between the bow and
stern halves. I wanted to add more to the stern area for
extra weight carrying capacity for either a passenger
while rowing or when sitting in the aft section while
sailing. At about model number 15, I made major changes
to the volume of the hull and had to redo the fit and
lengths of all the panel sections. Visual changes to the
overall appearance of the bow and stern curvatures for
the "right look", were worked on at this time
too. From above the O&P looks like a baby Pacific
SeaCraft 37 or a Baba 30, but the stern is not as full
below the rail.
I enjoy holding the O&P Pod model on the tips of
my fingers and just looking at it. This model is the best
fitting hull I have made to date and if you follow the
instructions for assembly that come with it; you should
have something to hold up and smile about too. I did discover
that in the conversion process from program drawing file
to PDF file, that the models are smaller than designed.
I almost went back to redesigning the hull until I made
some comparison measurements between models from different
file types; then I was able to breath a sigh of relief.
I like pizza, but not every day. ;)
I am conflicted about which boat to build next; the
O&P Pod or the PUD-g. I have to wait until I expand
the barn to build either the 14ft Plyzar and the 15.5ft
Wendy Bay. But do not worry, both of the latter hulls
will have PDF models out soon to download, build, and
add to your growing fleet.
Thanks Again:
Warren Messer
Red Barn Boats
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