Need opinion about old design for a small Russian sailboat

There are a lot of Tom Colvin's designs out there sailing and many of them were built with junk rigs. Some have been sailed by their original owners for many, many years and covered over 100,000 sea miles including long blue water passages.

Most people have your attitude. That's fine but you're ignoring a proven rig that's easy to reef in a hurry and cheap to build.

PDW

 

Same old designs

Those proven designs are totally out of date...

The one boat model which really attracted my atention is the following:

http://hensevalyd-english.jimdo.com/works-and-creations/souriceau-4-75m-micro-cruiser/

There are the following few problems with this boat, although the concept seems to be very interesting:

- the plans are quite expensive (700 USD)

- the construction is also expensive, I would change some items.

- I am also very aprehensive of the stitch and glue construction... (maybe another prejudice).

Is it possible to convert the panels to round shape? From the rough drawings available I was able to calculate all the points with a precison of +- 1 cm and recreate in free!ship. Obviously, one can create rounded outlines, but the question is whether this would modify significantle the characteristics of the boat? In no way would I like to mess with the basic design.

 

The boat TS is referencing is called KALAN and is designed to be built in FPR over gypsum plug. Not really best technology for DIY. Personally I have never seen any of them built, but the designer is well known in Russia and also known to publish only proven designs.

 

Yes, I know that it is Kalan, and there is some information in Russian (I know Russian, as you might have guessed), but I had no clue whether this was a sound design or not, thanks for this information. I have seen a couple of photos showing the boat.

Why male gypsum plug is not good for DIY? I do not like too much the idea of stitch and glue, but may be this is just my personal opinion. I have searched the internet, but there seems to be no sound articles on the subject...

 

Go to the Bateau forum and ask the many sticth and glue builders about it,s pro,s and con,s. Rick

 

They (bateau.com users) are probably biased towards stitch and glue, I need a neutral opinion.

 

We widely use following technology: honeycomb panels pre-assembled and glassed. This provides easy assembling and continuous laminate. I don't see any problems with multi-chine shapes.

Have You seen our Pilgrim590 design?

 

Pilgrim590

Yes, I have seen the design, and I liked the shapes.

But, it is a centerboard design with a light weight centerboard. I need a keelboat.

Also, the low pivoting point for the centerboard looks somewhat suspicios, as there would be very little lateral contact area between the centerboard and and the well in the down position, this maybe a problem, especially if one would modify the centerboard to bear more weight.

Also, for me, the boat is somewhat too big. My max. size is 5.5 m, preferribly in the range 4.5-5.2 m. for sailing single handed.

 

Aren't we about 20 years past worrying about S&G as a building technique? Here is a picture of a S&G boat that I think will still be around years from now:



It is a Devlin-built Sockeye 42.

Or how about a Mertens-designed VG20 -- another sS&G boat, if you like something smaller with sails:

 

You might find the Selway Fisher micro 8 and micro 10 of intrest, but both are stich and glue I think. Another option if you find a stich and glue design you like is to convert it to a method you are comfortable with. Rick

 

Stitch and glue is the most radical advancement in boat building since steel ships. Proper reinforcement of the joints makes an incredibly strong and light structure when using the right plywood.
Get some experience before choosing a boat design.