We draw one or two new designs each year, once finished these have their own design pages. However, there are a few projects that we are still working on, and brief details of these are shown below.

See the Latest News page for more as the designs develop

TRIMARANS

Three are planned, the first, the Strike 18 is finished, and plans are selling well. You can see more on the Strike design page

The Strike 18 is a pocket cruiser, something in concept similar to the Drascombe longboat or West Wight Potter, whereas the Strike 16 is a big cruising dinghy, akin to a Wayfarer. Both the Strike 16 and the Strike 18 are trailable and, with their dory hull shape, cheap and easy to build.

The Strike18 uses the hulls from the Quattro 16, Condor (Hurricane 4.9) or Nacra 5.2 as amas/outriggers, plus the rig and deck gear. The Strike 16 uses parts from the Pixie or Quattro 14. Thus usually only the mainhull needs making, a great saving in time and effort. The big open cockpit is similar to the Strike 18, while the windscreen raises the boom comfortably above head height and reduces spray and wind chill.

The Strike 14, however, is a complete design and doesn't use parts from other boats. The main hull is stitch and glue tortured ply, while the outriggers are partly ply and partly solid foam, glassed over. Although it is light enough to cartop (under 100kgs all up), trailering (disassembled beam is only 1.5m, 5ft) is a much more sensible option.

In some respects it is akin to a Stealth with "training wheels". The addition of the jib and asymmetric spinnaker will easily offset the extra weight and drag from the two outriggers. So it will be a fast boat!! It will take two people but is really intended as a singlehander.

Designed originally as a sketch to accompany an article on Performance Cruisers in the UK magazine Multihull Review it quickly became obvious that the 10m (33ft) Mustang would appeal to a large number of people interested in buying a fast cruiser.

It is being drawn for home building in foam sandwich, but will also be available as a production boat. Similar in concept to Saturn, but, like Transit, with round bilge hulls and a knuckle. The decks and cuddy are rounded to reduce windage. Mustang can be dismantled for international shipping by container.

It is expected that owners will have two rigs, the racing rig shown here and a cruising rig with smaller roach and fewer battens.

Negotiations are currently underway with two experienced multihull boat builders. We are looking at a base price of USD100,000, GBP65,000. Please contact us for more details.

POWER CATAMARANS

I am also developing a series of power catamarans. The first of these is Skoota which is a 20ft (6m) trailable boat with a small cuddy. See HERE for some brief design notes

I started building the prototype on May 1st 2006 but, as the design includes some radical ideas, plans will not be available until sea trials have been successfully completed. The photo below shows the cuddy and cockpit after 80 hours work.

I recently wrote about "Simple Boats" on the Forum pages. It has been a long time since I built a flat panel plywood boat and I had forgotten how quick it all is - apart from painting of course! The photo below shows one Skoota hull. It's about the same size as the Janus, but is more complicated to build as it has an asymmetric hull with a topside chine.

Yet just 49 hours work was needed from initial setup until it was turned over (on June 5th), and don't forget that the cuddy and cockpit are nearly complete as well! Even so, it will not now be launched until 2010 (I spent too much of 2007-9 sailing and building the Strike - sorry!)

The second power catamaran is a 34ft by 14ft coastal cruiser designed for areas like the French waterways, the Inter Coastal Waterway and the Pacific North West. The emphasis is on good fuel economy and low wake. Twin 25hp outboards will power the boat at speeds in the mid teens and at cruising speeds consumption should be over 10mpg. 6 berths are available, but it is being designed as a comfortable cruiser for a couple.

The sketches give an idea of the concept, but details may change as the design develops. A rigid cockpit bimini/wheelhouse is an option

Appealling to the same market as Mustang is the Elf 28. This is something like an updated Skua but, in common with most of my newer designs, it is fitted with a removable cuddy to increase living space and cruising comfort.

It is the maximum sized boat for sensible trailering ( as opposed to transporting by road) and will be a great choice in the USA, Australia and S Africa when I expect towing vehicle to be a pickup truck and the cuddy to fit on the back (and so it can be used to sleep in when on the road - as we have done with the cuddy on our Merlin). In countries with narrower roads and smaller cars, like the UK, the Strider/Sango size is a more sensible maximum.

Round bilge hulls, daggerboards and kickup rudders. Cuddy and decks are well rounded and the boat can only be built in foam sandwich, not wood.