Minuet Yachts: a 2m fun boat-can the design be improved?

Thanks! Here is the almost completed daggerboard.

 

rcnesneg,
looking your gaff drawings, I fear that your boat will be dramatically griping, weather-helm

 

It doesn't look too bad.. What do you all think? I drew in about where the daggerboard is. The main is not sheeted in all the way, it's about 30 degrees off on the starboard quarter. Notice also the rather large rudder(From a Hobie 16) so that should help deal with whatever helm I do have.

 

WIth that rudder, NOOOOO PROBLEM! I have the same rudder on my Jet -14ft ~500 to 700 lb displacement (at least 4X the boat) and the tail goes wherever that rudder points. Just keep some speed

So how much does your keel weigh?

 

50 lbs of lead. Yep, I figured the rudder would take care of it.

 

Very cool. Storm sails? You plan to make some longer journeys in open seas? I'd imagine that a boat like this would be restricted to sheltered bays and lakes in light breezes. So will you have some bilge system, or kayak-styled sprayskirt to handle waves breaking over the cockpit?

 

A man's got to be prepared.

He needs 100 fathoms of chain rode, radar and a plotter, too.

Which means he needs a thousand hour house bank.

 

I don't know if you noticed, the storm sails are rather over-sized. The intent is more for them to be used as a severe reef, intended to be used in winds from about 15-30 mph. I'm sailing entirely inland on large lakes. The lake I usually sail on is Utah Lake. it's about 20 miles long and 7 miles wide. I'll have a hand bilge pump, and a small bailer.

 

Maiden voyage may be tomorrow, or if not, the 14th.

 

Good Luck!!

 

Shot of some last minute work showing the keel fully deployed. Note the blue line- it's the lift for the keel.

 

Maiden Voyage!

The boat sails wonderfully! It has weather helm, but it is completely controllable. I even sailed it around for a little while on just the main and topsail! Handling is incredible and it handles chop very well! I've never seen something turn so fast! Top speed is a wall at 4.5 mph. 50 lbs of lead is perfect! I can push it as hard as I possibly can and try to get it to go over and it simply will not. It won't even bury the lee rail! It points a lot higher than I expected. A solid 30 degrees on either side.


Cartopped on a honda civic. The blue boat is a Catalina 27.









On the downside, the belly of the boat ended up getting some water in it, so I am going to replace the belly with wood/glass layup, keeping the cardboard away from the bottom. Here it is currently:

 

Congratulations on the first sail! Glad it handled so well-good job.

 

Did you say cardboard?

You need a serious rethink on materials. Cardboard is suitable for boxes not boats. I would strongly advise not going beyond your comfortable swimming distance from shore until all cardboard is removed and replaced with an actual boat building material.

 

Haha yes I did. The issue is a lack of sufficient sealing on the inside where I sit, and an inadequate fiberglass job. It will be back up and running in a month. If I build another one it will be skin on frame.