Thursday 28 November 2013

Why Build a Welsford Pathfinder...

Those of you who are long term followers of my ramblings, may know that i had (or am currently trying to sell) my Jedda 22 trailersailer...

The plan is to replace it with a sail boat which can live in my garage. The main reason for this is so I can do any required maintenance, upgrades, and just general tinkering without having to waste too much time travelling back and forth to the marina.

The size of boat which can fit in my garage is limited to about 16ft or so. And with the low headroom, it only leaves daysailers as a viable option - as they don't have cabins.

The other issue is the variety of conditions in which i want to go sailing.  The waterways around home are generally open to the prevailing winds, with quite expansive fetches, thereby enabling quite choppy conditions to develop both in a short time, and in quite light winds (in the order of 15 kts).

The "keep it in the garage" criteria lends itself a daysailer quite nicely.

After my initial investigations, i really liked the look of the Islay Skiff...




However, the "choppy conditions (and try to remain relatively dry)" criteria lends itself to something with high(ish) gunwales and internal buoyancy (in case of swamping).

So after a little more searching, and the watching of a few YouTube vid's, i found the Welsford Navigator...


I love the look of the Yawl and thought that was that...

Then i saw that John Welsford also designed a slightly larger version, the Pathfinder...




and was absolutely sold!

Quick check of the dimensions showed it would fit on the garage, and now i'm the proud owner of a set of plans...

Just need to do some major landscaping works around the house (and various other things), and then it's time to build!



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