BYYB Forums

... after moving here to Arizona, I have come to realize that the ideal boat for our long, narrow, winding, canyon lined lakes is a pontoon boat or even a house boat. Well I dont have enough cash to build a houseboat, but I can afford a Glen-L Huck Fin 24. Now don't worry I haven't gone over completely to the dark side of stink pot power boating. I want to have my cake and eat it too. Both a large comfortable cruiser (like a pontoon boat) and a free wind power sailboat.

No, the minicat isn't nearly big enough, the Weekender is also too cramped. I don't have the time, $, or garage space now to build a Vacationer or Pocket Cruiser although one of those will eventually replace my Skipjack (probably a PC). The Huck fin is a modular design, much simpler to build, and has the advantage that it can be stored in pieces; the pontoons and deck are bolted together. I can build the pieces for the Huck Fin in my backyard and carry them to the street individually to assemble on the trailer. Finding secure, inexpensive, storage space after the boat is completed isn't a problem. Building space in my garage is.

OK, that enough about the building issues. Now let's talk about about sailing issues. Obviously, the Huck Fin isn't designed to act like a hobbie-cat. But that kind of blistering performance is not what I'm looking for. Just something to take advantage of the wind in the large open basins and save the motor for the canyon lined passes.

I figure I would need to add removable and, or retractable dagger boards on the outside edge of each pontoon. I would also need to be able to get the outboard all the way out of the water to limit drag. Maybe mount the o/b in a well cut into the deck just forward of the rudder, instead of hanging the o/b on the back of the deck. The big question is where to place the mast. Toward the bow like a cat rigged boat, or closer to the middle like a sloop? I'm thinking that moving the mast forward would be better. What are your thoughts about this wild-ass idea of mine.

Here is a link to the specs for the Huck Fin 24:

http://www.glen-l.com/designs/house/huckfinn.html#avail

It's not as wild as you think, though as you already know, the houseboat will have considerable windage so windward ability is going to be motorsailing, at the very least.

Since this is the case, then you might as well use the most efficient down wind rig available, the square sail. Yep, the ones that hung off yards, on clipper ships of old. This sail is not difficult to handle (unless you have a bunch of them stacked up on a stick), pulls like a mule and is surprisingly close winded. I have many log accounts of square rigged ships tacking through 100 degrees, so it's not unreasonable. Dollar for dollar (yard for yard?) it's the biggest bang for the buck, in down wind sailing. You'll need a bunch of area, in the confines of a canyon.

The lanteen is another option, but this rig was invented for better windward ability. It's a more efficient sail in this regard, but not because it's triangular, but because it's got a longer and taller luff. It's really half of a square sail, canted up a bit.

You could fit leeboards to the outside of the hulls and basically set her up like the cannel barges used in Europe a hundred years ago. I'd leave the motor(s) at the stern and tilt her clear when sailing.

If I remember this design well enough, it has parallel body hulls, so leeboard placement will not be troublesome. The stick can go pretty much any where you want, but needs to be balanced with the appendages and underwater areas.

The square sail rig can be handled from deck, no going aloft to furl sails and stored vertically against the mast when not in use. Jay Benford invented a cool rig called the "Great Pyramid Rig" when he was living aboard "Sunrise". It sets 4 triangular sails from a single yard, all easily handled from the deck. This provides many setting options for various conditions, all basically beam reach or farther off the wind.

When a modern sailboat heads down wind it hoists a spinnaker, which is really a square sail. Something to think about.

David Beede over at http://www.simplicityboats.com/shantydocksails.html put a lug sail on his "shanty dock" and says that it works ok - as long as you're going down wind.

I've always thought that the Bolger "Super Brick" would be a lot of fun for the sort of environment you're talking about though.

I have looked at plans for several picnic boats which have sail options, motorsailers are VERY popular among the "next" generation here on the Bay. The "next" generation after that seems to gravitate toward trawlers.

There are several good plans out there.

Steven, having sailed and power boated on those lakes I would tend to agree with PAR. For what you are going to get out od the process the square aisl rig would be the best bet for the time, efort and $$. Plus none of us has a square rig yet.

hmmmmm... square rig huh? How about one with a big jolly roger on it?! Those pictures of the shantydock are in line with what I'm thinking. I didn't realize that upwind performance would be such a problem. Thanks guys, gonna have to do some more checking around... maybe an open deck Pocket Cruiser would be a better fit. I just measured my garage and it would just barely fit. Boy I sure do miss miss my 27x26 garage back in Ohio. These row houses here in Phoenix have tiny 16x18 garages. I already have 2 cars and a skipjack...

Thanks for the input guys.


- Steve