Offcut

November 26, 2017

A sweet little boat — the Micro-Petrel

After years of admiring his designs, buying plans and getting to know him through the WoodenBoat School, I am at long last building a Sam Devlin design.

I need a dinghy for Tardis, and given the size of the mother-boat, the daughter-boat has to be versatile, light and simple. That’s a perfect description of Sam’s Micro-Petrel.

But what really appeals to me is the build economy — two sheets of 1/4 inch ply and a dash of half-inch and you have a boat. I knew I had something like that laying about the shop left over from Tardis and other projects, so I ordered the plans and began building.

Sam’s plans are very complete, so it has been as easy build so far. I have had to make a few compromises to maximize the use of my scrap pile:

— The transoms (it’s a pram, hence two of them) are 3/4 inch ply since that’s what I had, and given my tendency to run into things, is probably a good choice.

— I had to join two pieces of half-inch together with a gusset to make the central frame, but that, too, probably adds strength in an important place.

— I only had half sheets of quarter-inch, so they had to be butt-joined and beefed up with biaxial glass tape. Looks very strong so far.

— I cut the bottom panels from left-over Cappie Canoe panels, which were already very curvy. So I had to make a full-size template out of some door skins that Ray had lying around. Thanks, Ray.

So far I have only had to buy one piece of pine for the central seat. Everything else I had, hence the dinghy’s name: Offcut.