I like the 27'9" but its a big boat for it's size, I have the study plans for the Horstman 24 tri, it has a flared hull and blister deck option to provide headroom, I'm thinking stretched to 26' it may not be so bulky and would improve the b/l ratio for the better. At 24' it is 8:1 right at the minimum for good performance.
Not sure if those options will translate to the demountable version though.
I didn't know he had an option on the 24 for headroom. That's interesting. I just had a look. I'd managed to completely miss that on his site. I wonder what the empty weight of the 24 is. And he retains the doubles in the trailerable version! I'd want to take the cabin further forward and site the heads at the front. It's really only the heads where I want standing headroom. He suggests lifting the floats by hand! Good lord...
Looks like headroom over the wing bunks is only about 18" or something ?
I'm not concerned about performance, I do want the boat to sail nicely, but not necessarily fast.
From the sailing only perspective I could make do with something very small and spartan, like a farrier tramp. The smallest cats with 6' headroom are around the 7.6 - 8 meters. In tris to get headroom and privacy you pretty much need 30', or the hartley sparkle
I've just been wondering how far I could push that into a smaller boat. I'll have to take another look at the horstman 24.
I've got the study plans for the 26MT and full plans for an F82, but they are too small inside. Ian Farriers plans are the best I've ever seen but they kinda need to be. They are hard boats to build. An F32 came up abandoned project last year for $13k at townsville. Took him ages to sell it. Floats done lots of supplies and deck gear, but a LOT of work to complete. There is/was an F82 on gumtree atm for $28.
What don't you like about Fish&Chips ? Maybe talk to Ray ?
There is one being built in SA stretched to 26'
I'm pretty sure that person offered me his part completed boat. He may have run out of steam.
If I bought plans for fish and chips ahead of eagle it'd be because I'm more comfortable butchering that design. It's actually closer to what I'd design than eagle in some ways, more cruising oriented, swing boards, but the way it assembles is a mess, worse than a seawind 24, very slow and labor intensive. I'd want to re-engineer the whole bridgedeck mostly changing the mast beam so it's 8' long and attaches differently. I could live with the full width aft and bow beams (but not sliding into "pockets"), I could make it so the deck lifts up and then I remove the beams separately. That's what I'd do with eagle aswell, since everyone had told me the flange joints idea was a bad one (which I kinda knew). I assume Mr Woods has sorted out how eagle demounts, and I would expect it's a good solution, but those details are not on the web site.
I too like the Eagle with a cuddy, but not the dory hull bottoms.
Yeah I'm not bothered by that. Chined rounded it'd all good. I don't like ply and daggerboards make me nervous.
If someone had a set of cat hulls with headroom in glass for a reasonable price I'd buy them and make something, but that's a unicorn. I'm flexible, I'm open to suggestions, but I think (hope) I've laid out what I want clearly. I'm open to anything that ticks those boxes. Everything I've come across is a compromise, and that's ok, but I've had compromises in the past that did not make me happy. For the right boat I'll lose trailering and put it on a mooring. For the right boat I'll compromise somewhat on headroom, but only to a point. I'll look at a tri or cat. Foam, solid glass even strip, but a boat with lots of timber is going to be a maintenance problem soon or or later.
A mini bridgedeck in foam with the wider beam and taller cabin would suit nicely, but everyone thought it was a bad idea
