AF3 Plans PDF

AF3 plans come with two sailplans: the original sharpie spritsail (as seen in the photo below) and a balanced lugsail option. AF3, CUDDY SHARPIE, 16' X 5', 250 POUNDS EMPTY The AF3 (the original...

AF4 BREVE Plans PDF

"Dear Jim, I've got to tell you - that little AF4b of yours is a marvel.I've logged close to a thousand miles on her so far, through streams,rivers, canals, bays, sounds, and even one unplanned foray...

AF4 Casa Plans PDF

This was supposed to be a cut down AF4, without cabin, but with a large open cockpit for sightseeing, and maybe a canopy over all of those seats. Chuck Leinweber called it a "picnic boat"...

AF4 GRANDE Plans PDF

Af4 Grande is a 20% scaleup of the original AF4. Scaling a design can be interesting. If the design is scaled up by a factor of1.2 as it was here then the areas of all the panels are increased by a...

AF4 Plans - PDF

AF4 is a simple low powered cuddy cruiser intended for protected waters. Kilburn Adams of St. Louis brought a boat similar in spirit to AF4 to our Midwest Messabouts and it was easy to see what a...

Batto Plans PDF

Batto is sort of a "retro" boat. Every now and then I go over another designer's older design and try to update it to the way I do boats. I always learn a bit. Batto is a close copy of the Pete...

Blobster Plans PDF

Blobster has a lot of features I like in a boat. Lots of volume for its size, sort of like Micro or Scram Pram. The multichine shape is almost exactly like Scram's but this one does not have a...

Boatbuilding For Beginners (and Beyond)

Jim Michalak's long awaited second book is here. Garth Battista, of Breakaway Books, convinced Jim to put down everything he knows about boat building in a professionally printed and bound book. Much...

Brucesboat Plans PDF

BRUCESBOAT, POWER SKIFF, 19' X 5', 250 POUNDS EMPTY Bruce was looking for a large powered canoe but couldn't find one for sale. He said they still make them by hand in Maine but he was in...

Campjon Plans PDF

Campjon is based on my Jonsboat design. I increased the hull depth to 24" from 18" and again to 30" in the region of the 6' long cuddy cabin. The cabin decks slope upward towards the center so the...

Caprice Plans PDF

BACKGROUND...About 15 years ago I built a Payson Canoe and used it for several years before selling it. I replaced it about 10 years ago with my Toto double paddle canoe. Toto has the same multichine...

Caroline Plans PDF

SAILBOAT, 18' X 6', 750 POUNDS EMPTY Caroline started as a blend of Philsboat and Frolic2. The idea was for a little more cabin room than Philsboat and hopefully with the same...

Catbox Plans

Note: You can purchase Catbox plans by using the "Add to Cart" button above, or you can download a free PDF file containing the plans by clicking HEREIn recent years I've seen several PDR...

Cormorant Plans PDF

CORMORANT, CABIN SAILBOAT, 32' X 8', 2500 POUNDS EMPTY Cormorant is the largest boat I've ever designed. I always warn folks to think twice and three times before building a big boat because you can...

Dani Jay Plans

Dani Jay is the chosen name of the project I called Bobsboat in last year's essays. The idea behind it was to have an easily driven seaworthy launch that would take a bunch of adults around in a laid...

Dockbox Plans PDF

Go ahead and laugh. Sleeps two. 5 hp max. Very protected water only. Nail and glue construction from two sheets of 1/4" plywood and four sheets of 3/8" plywood. Plans include two pages of drawings...

Electron Plans PDF

Electron was an interesting project done for a man who had done his homework on electric boats. In particular he had studied Doug Little's great book ELECTRIC BOATS. He wanted a cuddy cabin boat...

Fatcat 2 Plans PDF

Fatcat2 is still really a prototype boat even though I can show photos of a completed boat. What happened is that the builder, who is in his mid 80's, was taking the prototype to the lake to test...

Folderol 2 Plans

I tried drawing a folding canoe a few years ago but thought twice about it, thinking little canoes are easy to stow even when they don't fold. But I mentioned it to Dave Carnell who has been boating...

Frolic2 Plans PDF

The photo shows the prototype Frolic2 built by Larry Martin of Coos Bay, Oregon. Larry built the boat quite quickly this past winter including sewing the sail to the instructions given in the plans...

Hapscut Plans PDF

SAILING PRAM, 18' X 6.5', 450 POUNDS EMPTY Hapscut, Sailboat, 18' X 6.5', 450 POUNDS EMPTY In 2010 I was lucky enough to sail the TX200 with Chuck Leinweber in his Caprice. Chuck had me design...

Harmonica Plans PDF

Harmonica is a tiny shanty boat that sleeps two in its cabin. There is a porch up front suitable for lounging and a small room in the stern for the kitchen and the water closet. I think it is...

IMB Plans PDF

IMB features a "Birdwatcher" cabin, full length with panoramic windows and a center walkway slot in the roof. Everyone rides inside. This style of boat was invented by Phil Bolger in the early 1980's...

Imresboat plans PDF

Imresboat is a slimmed up version of Larsboat which was designed for Lars Hasselgren to replace a Folboat that had finally met its end. Lars wanted capacity for two, plus decking, as with his old...

Jewelbox Jr. Plans PDF

This is Jewelbox Junior, a 15' version of the original 19' Jewelbox built a while back by Karl James in Texas. That Jewelbox went all over the US and parts of Canada and I understand was sold a few...

Jewelbox Plans PDF

Here is a boat that is supposed to be self righting to a great degree without ballast! Jewelbox has the combination proven by Bolger's Birdwatcher of high sides with a thick bottom and low down crew...

Jon Jr. Plans PDF

Jon Jr. is a small jonboat, sort of a personal sized boat that will take two normal sized adults. It would be a perfect "back of the pickup truck" boat. It could be cartopped. (To me the idea of...

Jon20 Plans PDF

Poor Jon20, he's just a big dumb jonboat. 20 feet long and 6' wide on the bottom, 7.5' wide on the top. It takes a ton to set it 4" down in the water, and I expect the empty hull might weigh 600...

Jonsboat Plans Instant Download

Jonsboat is just a jonboat. But where I live that says a lot because most of the boats around here are jonboats and for a good reason. These things will float on dew if the motor is up. This one...

Ladybug Plans PDF

Ladybug is a lot like Woobo which was one of my first designs. There was a Woobo near here for a while. I never got to sail it but was told it would really fly. (That boat was made of Lauan plywood...

Laguna Plans PDF

DOWN IN TEXAS....They started a "cruise", not really a race, 200 miles up the protected waters of the intercoastal waterway. They say the wind blows strong and from such a direction that you reach or...

Larsboat Plans PDF

buy Trilars plans to make Larsboat into a trimaran Larsboat was built by Lars Hasselgren to replace a Folboat that had finally met its end. Lars wanted capacity for two, plus...

LFH17 Plans PDF

Don't remember where I read this but 100 years ago rowing was all the rage, the sort of thing you did on for fun. They said its popularity dropped and died after the invention of the modern...

Marksbark Plans PDF

This long narrow boat was designed a long time ago for Mark Bustemonte who thought it might be possible to have a boat for fast sliding seat rowing, for slower fixed seat rowing with a passenger, and...

Mayfly 14 Plans PDF

Mayfly14 is a straight forward flat bottomed plywood skiff for sailing and rowing. She's easy to build because her planks have no twists. That means that the chine log and wale bevels are constant...

Mayfly 16 Plans PDF

Mayfly16 is large enough to swallow up three men or maybe a family with two kids. She has two benches that are 7' long and there should be plenty of room for all. I would say that her fully loaded...

Mikesboat Plans PDF

Mikesboat is a big Piccup Pram. It is slightly narrower in proportion. The idea was to have something like Piccup that was large enough to take the family so she has two bench seats 8' long. It...

Mixer Plans PDF

Mixer is a stab at mixing some features of my prams with the features of the original Roar rowboat. The prototype Mixer was built to perfection by David Boston of Factoryville, Pa. That's him sailing...

Mixer2 Plans PDF

Eventually I tweaked Mixer to have a "through the water" bow. It's the same change that Roar went through to become Roar2. I called the new boat Mixer2 and here are some lines of it.The rest of the...

Moby Dink Plans PDF

Moby Dink was one of my first projects. I built and used the prototype for a few years before selling it to a man who uses it to tend his farm pond. If I were to do this one again I wouldn't change...

Musicbox3 Plans PDF

CABIN SAILBOAT, 15' X 6-1/2', 800 POUNDS EMPTY Musicbox3 is about the same size as the Bolger Micro and is clearly derived from it. I've sailed on a couple of Micros. Amazing boat in a lot of ways,...

Normsboat Plans PDF

CABIN SAILBOAT, 18' X 5-1/2", 600 POUNDS EMPTY Normsboat was designed for Norm Wolf of Washington D.C. to join a group of trailer traveling shallow water sailors. He wanted the ability to...

OliveOyl Plans PDF

OliveOyl was designed for someone who liked AF3 but wanted more cabin room and comfort, but not more length. So I actually had some AF4breve drawings handy when I drew the lines for the new boat...

Oracle Plans PDF

Oracle might have been called Roar3. It is a bit longer and lower than Roar2 so it looks sleeker. It is actually closer in shape to my Toto canoe. I'm pretty sure it is a visual improvement over...

Ozarkian Plans PDF

I do a "retro" design every now and then, an old design redone with modern techniques. Max Wawrzyniak sent me a wonderful copy of the article "Ozark John Boat" by Townsend Godsby, printed in the...

Paddleplank Plans

Can you walk this plank? Actually the request was for a stand up paddle board, sort of like a surf board that is paddled while you stand up like on a real surf board shooting the big waves in Hawaii...

Philsboat Plans PDF

Philsboat is essentially an IMB with the nose extended to a pointy bow. The width and multichine configuration are the same as IMB's. The cabin is 3" deeper because Phil is at least 3" taller than...

Picara Plans PDF

CABIN SAILBOAT, 18' X 6", 1300 POUNDS EMPTY A while back I presented a design called Fatcat2 which was a 15' x 6' unballasted sailing cuddy catboat. It is still in the prototype catalog,...

Piccup Pram Plans PDF

Piccup Pram was the first boat of my design to get built, back in 1990, I think. I still have the prototype and use it regularly. I designed it to be the best sail/row boat I could put in the back of...

Piccup Squared Plans PDF

Piccup Pram was my first design to get built. Here is a photo of Chris Feller's up Chicago way. She is shown with the original 55 square foot rig. I still have the boat. The sail rig has been...