Design ideas tend to build up around here faster than they can be written down. At the moment, there are seven boats on the board:

• The Starwind 860 is under construction and her detail drawings are still being finished up.
• The Bonaventure 570's construction drawings are in work.
• An up-sized Almaguin (5.8 m) is awaiting final construction drawings.
• The four Awenda planing-hull designs are on the back burner, waiting for a calm spell.

And after John Harries' post this morning on why long thin boats are cool, I couldn't resist pulling out the CAD models of the Bonaventure 1180 for a bit more detailing.

The 1180 is six tonnes of pure efficiency. She takes a 40 hp diesel, and can cruise at seven knots using only 11 of those horses. With 600 litres of fuel on board, her non-stop range is 2,000 nautical miles at six knots.

Her cabin is roomy enough for two people to live aboard for a few months, and can handle a couple of overnight guests as well. This boat likes a bit of weight and will happily carry a large stash of food, water, spare parts, foul-weather gear and whatever else her captain cares to bring along. She shares the box keel and hefty steel grounding shoe of her smaller sibling, has multiple watertight bulkheads, and can be squeezed into a 40-foot iso container.

Will plans be available? Yes, eventually- the Bonaventure series are intended to be available as stock plans, intended for professional or experienced amateur builders. Keep watching for updates, and pester me if you want the project to speed up.