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withered_preacher
This little boat, which I built the winter before last, has been nominated for a 'Classic Boat Award'!
She's in the spirit of tradition category, up against some of the most beautiful boats being built in the world, today. Some of the other nominees are nearly ten times her length, and she is the only boat in this class, which is not a luxury yacht.
They are undeniably all spectacular craft, but built for the super wealthy! This boat is at the other end of the spectrum, being designed to be affordable, accesible, and low maintenance, with the option of buying a complete boat, a bare hull- for DIY fit-out, or any stage in-between!
Voting is now open online, so please take 2 minutes to look through the nominees and cast your vote! You don't have to vote in every category if you don't want to, but there are lots of beautiful boats and inspiring people, so I'd recommend having a look!
https://awards.classicboat.co.uk/spirit-of-tradition/
Here's a little more about the boat:
She's called Longshore, and is the first grp hull made from a mould, which I took from 'Atlas', a barge boat built in 1949.
She was designed to maintain the elegance of a traditional clinker dinghy, but to be much lower maintenance, lightweight (making her easy to launch and recover on a slipway, and tow behind a modest car), and easy to sail.
Based on the beautiful lines of the original hull, I designed the rest from scratch, and built her on a shoestring budget.
The layout maximises the space available, and incorporates lots of built-in buoyancy, plus 4 large stowage lockers. A dagger board was chosen, so there is no centreboard case to hinder ease of movement across the boat, when tacking.
The ultra-light, glass-sheathed, hollow wooden mast is recycled from and old gaff-rigfed yacht's topmast, the yard and boom are made from carbon fibre windsurfer masts, the foils are carbon fibre. Combined with the battened, balanced lug sail which I designed in collaboration with Suffolk Sails, she has surprising turn of speed, and we've managed to squeeze 11kts out of her!
We sail her whenever we have the opportunity, and her hull form means she is comfortable sailing with 4 adults.
She has been on some big trips, carrying two of us and all our camping gear & provisions, for a week at a time; cruising 120 nautical miles along the East coast, exploring the creeks and rivers.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and thanks again if you decide to vote for Longshore!