INTRODUCTION - To get a good boat, one must start with a good design. The collec­tion in this book has been carefully made to give the amateur builder a head start by supplying him with plans prepared by national ex­perts who have been commissioned to supply detailed drawings for amateur builders.

This means that nothing has been left to the imagination. A man equipped with basic woodworking tools, some experience and patience should be able to get his dream boat translated into a real life of excitement and action.

1. SWELL TIME - Here's our cover boat. It's a speedy but safe 13-foot family runabout that both mom and the kids will love, and dad will want to build.

Swell time was designed as a family runabout. With safety in mind, she was made 32 inches deep and 68 inches wide. The bottom is 60 inches wide to make her fast and capable of carrying a heavy load.

2. APACHE - We are concerned here with the family or group that uses its boat as a picnic spot, cruises with its fellow outboard club members on the lakes and rivers on a Sun­day afternoon and tows the youngsters astern on water skis. So let's look at Apache. She is big and beamy, with a good wide bottom to carry a fair passenger load without bogging down excessively. The bottom is easily veed for­ward to take the chop of confused waves on crowded lakes and restricted water­ways.

3. THE THING - If you're in or on the water near Mara­thon, Florida, and happen to spot what appears to be a sea monster bearing down, don't die of heart failure—it's probably nothing more than Al Bayles' Thing. All who see it say it's the darndest boat ever built, but they have to admit it performs. The Thing has great maneuverability and literally flies across the surface. Under full power of a 10-hp motor, little more than the prop and the keel remain in the water.  

4. BAYOU BELLE - Bayou belle provides one designer's solution to the search for an ideal river cruiser, and does so with the capabilities of the average small boat builder as a prime consideration. The structure is simple to fabricate and assemble, utilizing exterior grade fir plywood wherever pos­sible. The structural members are of oak or yellow pine although locally available woods of equal strength are entirely sat­isfactory

5. FIREFLY - THIS is a highly versatile craft. She is the ideal trailer size, light enough so that there are no handling difficulties, but able enough for a day's enjoyment in most waters. Stability is such that passengers can stand and walk about without concern and she will carry five persons. Firefly makes an adequate and handy fishing boat for anything except offshore work.

6. SHOVELLER - Here is a duck boat that is reasonably easy to build. The frames are made from the full-size sections developed after the fore and aft lines have "been laid down. The planking and decking thick­nesses, ½inch on the sides and ¼inch elsewhere, must be deducted from the sec­tions in order to have the frames of cor­rect size, because the lines for small boats are drawn to the outside of the planking. Bevels on the side and bottom frames are picked up from full-size lines and sawed or planed on the frame material edges.

7. SILVER FIN - Silver fin was designed primarily as a family day cruiser with adequate beam to insure a stable boat, a large deep cockpit for safety, high freeboard for dry-ness in rough water and generous shel­tered space for weather protection. With only a slight modification to include addi­tional lockers for stowing a small amount of additional equipment, Silver Fin be­comes a satisfactory camping cruiser for two, especially in tidewater areas where it is impractical to sleep ashore.

8. SQUALL - Squall has all the features of a modern sport runabout, but being built of waterproof plywood sheets, the construc­tion has been simplified to produce a light­weight strong hull suitable for many uses. Squall was designed to handle well at all speeds using any outboard motor from 10 to 30 horsepower. With a total crew weight of not over 225 pounds, a 10-hp motor is fully capable of driving Squall up to 18 miles per hour; 22-hp will do close to 27 miles, and a 30-hp motor is almost capable of 32 miles per hour.

9. MARY JANE - Mary Jane is a round-bottom launch 17 feet 7 inches overall, with a beam of 5 feet 8 inches and shallow draft of 14 inches. This boat is powered with a small inboard engine. The cost of fuel will be very small and the tank holding a full day's supply is a permanent part of the boat, but the owner must be content with moderate speeds of up to ten miles an hour depend­ing on the load.

10. COBIA - Cobia is a type of small power boat that is enjoying great popularity as a combination day cruiser, overnighter for two and sport fisherman. The cabin has two comfortable berths, an enclosed toilet room and small but adequate galley space with ice chest, utensil and food locker, sink and stove. There is storage space for gear under the berths and in the forepeak.

11. POD - This dory is a natural for the man who likes a bit of exercise and appreciates the simplicity and silence of a well-de­signed rowboat. A narrow bottom, tapered at both ends, enables her to slice through the water with a minimum of effort and flaring sides make her safe and dry in a chop.

12. SABOT - The plans herewith  are  those of an eight-foot,   lightweight   pram   of   the following dimensions:
Length overall   7 feet 11 inches
Beam                           4 feet   0 inches
Depth                           16 inches
Sail area                       36 square feet

A centerboard has been installed in place of the original leeboard, the sliding gunter changed to Marconi rig and a rud­der and tiller instead of the steering oar.

13. NEREIA PRAM - The Nereia Pram is quite wide on the bottom with seats low so she may be stiff enough for general usefulness.' She will undoubtedly tow well, should be easy to stow on board, and should not need lashing down excepting in the heaviest weather.

The little boat is of quite heavy con­struction so as to withstand hard use, but if one should prefer to plank her with lam­inated wood these thicknesses can be ma­terially reduced

14. SEAL - Here are the building plans for a kayak based on the general lines of the canoes used by the Eskimos. Seal is essen­tially a one-man boat but she may be made longer and the cockpit lengthened out a little so that two persons may be accom­modated. This may be accomplished by re-spacing the frames about three or four inches farther apart than shown.

15. BONNIE II - Back in 1940, the boating editor of Mechanix Illustrated undertook to design and build a boat to meet the re­quirements of a majority of readers. It seems that practically everybody wanted a boat with an engine and a vast majority liked sailing, so it was quickly settled that the boat should have both sail and power.

16. TRITON - "Thereare darn few popular smallboats," said Editor Leonardi, "with enough room to take Aunt Agatha out sailing." And so we have Triton, designed as a safe wholesome day sailer with a moderate sail plan, suitable either for family use or as a one-design racing class. It is inevitable, of course, that hardy youth will cruise overnight in a boat 19 feet 6 inches long, and for this reason a cuddy has been incorporated in the design for protection from the weather.

17. KING KAT - King Kat is a classy little catamaran that's easy to build and easy on the pocketbook. What's more, it sports a rig which makes it perform like a dream.

The triangular sail, stretched between a sloping yard and a boom, has been slung from a short mast for almost as long as men have sailed. Apart from being beau­tiful in silhouette, it's an efficient airfoil. A disadvantage has been that conventional (if stubby) mast. Of necessity, the yard and boom are slung to one side.

18. CARINITA - Carinita was designed for the ama­teur builder who desires something more than a typical day sailer, not a full cruising boat but a fast sailboat that has limited accommodations sufficient for an occasional overnight cruise yet without the higher building costs associated with keel boats of this size. While two fixed berths with lockers and shelves for food, dishes and stove are provided, there is also ample stowage space for a portable icebox, a watercloset of the bucket type for econ­omy's sake, sails, water bottles and all the other equipment one usually requires for an overnight cruise.

19. CARINITA #2 - This is done by attaching the frame heads to the floor with the molded line of each frame located as shown in the drawings. (In general, the molded frame line is the wider side of the frame after the bevels are cut). Each frame is then secured in position at the proper rake by adding tem­porary battens and bracing.
Bend the inner keel in the notches pro­vided for it and fasten to each frame with a countersunk ¼-inch diameter carriage bolt on the centerline.

20. THE H28 - H28 was designed for the man who has only a limited time to sail, but would like to go somewhere and back in that time. It was designed to be a boat that could be quickly gotten under way for a sail on a summer evening, a boat that could ghost along in light breezes as well as stand up to anything she might get caught out in along our Atlantic coast in the summer time.

21. THE H28 #2 - The propeller is set off center for the six following good reasons:

1. The propeller shaft does not interfere with the normal keel bolts which are very important in this region.
2. The yacht is faster  and more  economical under power.
3. The yacht is faster under sail.
4. The yacht steers better under power.
5. The yacht steers better under sail.
6. If it is decided to remove the motor to make a straight sailer, or to set up a different shaft line for a different mo­tor, the matter is much simplified with the off center screw.

22. OSTKUST - Ostkust was designed to be an ideal day sailer, with a large cockpit that is almost 6 ft. 6 in. long, but yet has a com­fortable snug cabin that would be perfect for two people for short cruises or for much longer cruises for two young people who don't mind roughing it a bit. However, as most of the sailing time is in reality day sailing where ease of handling is desirable, greater emphasis has been placed on de­signing a roomy cockpit so that a few con­genial souls can find ample room for their utmost comfort while enjoying the sun­shine and air of a day on the water.

23. OSTKUST #2 - In general the sizes and arrangements are to be as shown on the Cabin-Construc­tion Plan, Dwg. No. S-635-1.

In general all fastenings are to be bronze wood screws or bolts and are to be of ap­proved sizes or as shown where required.

The keel, sternpost, stem and deadwood fore and aft are to be of white oak, sided as required, to provide proper back rabbet for the planking and molded as shown on Lines and Offsets, Dwg. No. S-610-1. All faying surfaces are to be painted with thick white lead and oil paint immediately be­fore bolting together.

THE END

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