Here's a new design from our drawing boards that a few of you might find interesting.
She may look a little weird there, but read on and you'll see...
The Lorimer 445 is a base hull on which you can build a nearly unlimited variety of different boats. Built in taped-seam plywood, she's designed to be a mother/son (or father/daughter, etc.) project. You can start with a sturdy, reliable base hull, then get creative with the topsides.
Every cottage kid wants to cruise the lake in something cool. A 14-foot aluminum skiff gets the job done, but it's just not that cool. But what if you could make the rounds in a genuine, honest-to-goodness tugboat?
Or, if you really want to be the talk of the lake, how about a 14th-century galleon?
Very few off-the-shelf metal hulls are wide enough to provide the stability that galleon would need. The Lorimer 445, with a waterline beam of 1.8 m (6 ft), can handle it.
The base hull is simple to build, requiring no special tools that aren't already a part of most parents' collections. Taped-seam construction is very tolerant of mistakes- if you mess up a bevel, no-one will ever know but you.
Once the base hull is built, you can add whatever topsides suit your fancy, in whatever construction techique you'd like to try. The galleon would be a great introduction to traditional lapstrake construction- you can have the reliability and durability of a modern fibreglassed plywood hull, but with a style and character (and a sense of accomplishment) that can only come from real lumber planked the old-fashioned way.
Plans for the base hull are available now; plans for the galleon and tug topsides are coming soon.
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