George Buehler Yacht Design was probably the starting point for my boat-building research. The Backyard Boatbuilding mailing list has a large following of extremely knowledgeable and helpful builders. It was started around a book by George Buehler named Backyard Boatbuilding. Mr. Buehler is a proponent of what I term "rough and ready" boatbuilding. read more »

I ran across Glacier Boats of Alaska long ago, but at the time they didn't have quite what I was looking for. Of course what I was looking for changed several times :-).

Brian Dixon wrote me pointing out that they now have their wood-composite "BC Trawler" design available. He knows of 6 already under construction, so it looks to be a popular plan :-) read more »

Make sure and check out the info Gerd left in his recent comment. He has some great steel origami designs that are really worth a look.

MT24 - Maia 24

Interesting little boat... I like the design and layout. Study plans with a lot more detail are available online, as are a few pictures of a craft under construction.

Length 23'7"
LWL 19'8"
Beam 8'-6"
Draft 1'11"
Disp. 4,2100 lbs
Power 10-25 hp

The Maia 24 is a true displacement hull form that will have a gentle motion in most sea conditions. Suitable for protected and semi-exposed waters, she will go a long way using little fuel.

In searching for more about the Greenhorn I (covered in PassageMaker Magazine recently) I began to search for the designer, David D. Beach. There are quite a few of his vintage plans available out there (search at Toad Hall), with the Herculette being a nice example.

The Sandy Point Boat Works people have one page with plan drawings and a nice picture, while The Press at Toad Hall also sells the plans. Their web page includes a more detailed writeup by the designer with more line drawings..

Length overall = 25 feet
Beam = 10 feet
Bare Hull weight @ 1200 lbs
Hull type = displacement
Power = inboard engine @ 40 HP

Got a note from Mr. Storer today pointing out a couple of plans (one old, one new) that he has made available.

The first, older design is his Dayboat/Launch:

Length 23ft (7m)
Beam 6ft 6ins (1.98m)
Power 10hp
Plans $250

The new release is the larger "Venezia".

"Venezia" - canal boat/river boat for the Venice Lagoon. A compact trailerable motorboat with accomodation.

Length - 26ft 10" (8.2m)
Beam - 6ft 8" (2.05m)
Hull Weight (approx)  - 850lbs (400kg) - Gaboon (Okoume) Ply
Displacement (people and some equipment approx) - 1600lbs (720kg)
Power - shortshaft high thrust 4-stroke outboard 10-15hp

Both of these are built using his interesting "bottom up" building method where he builds the bottom, props it into the required curve, adds sides, cabin, etc. to it. No strongback required, no hull turning... just build from the ground up. Both are similar hull forms to the Mundoo II/III, but without the box keel. Mr. Storer has a good discussion about the hull design of both of these boats and their capabilities. These are river/canal craft, not offshore vessels, but for that use, they apparently perform very nicely.

Materials lists are available from Mr. Storer's site. Plans are available direct or (in the case of the Venezia) from Duckworks here in the U.S.

Another installment of "interesting to me" boat designs... trailerable but "real boats".

Chesapeake Marine Design Redwing 34 Tug is a new cabin/topside design for the older "lobster boat" looking Redwing 34. Nice looking boat, with a couple of downsides. Plans are a bit higher priced. More importantly, the beam is 10', thus making problems for trailering. Lastly the hull design is pretty flat-bottomed and skiff like (?).

Devlin CZARINNA 30' - This is a smaller version of Devlin's Sockeye. It's shorter, less displacement (thus cheaper to build), has that great looking fantail stern (although that's going to cut down a bit in on-board space and add to build complexity). Beam is a nicely trailerable 8'6". I can see removing the designed internal engines and using Re-E-Power pods with the batteries where the engines were designed to be.

Chesapeake Marine Design Trailer Trawler 28

Specifications:
Length 28'-0"
Beam 8'-6"
Draft 2'-6"
Weight 11,000 lbs
Power 40 hp

Another trailerable sized craft... power requirements look like electric might be do-able, although with all of these the space to put solar cells is a bit limited. PassageMaker's recent Trailerable Trawlers article liked this design also.

Tom MacNaughton also has several tugs in his collection... some nice boats, but most are a little short or beamier than I'm looking for. He does bring up the interesting idea of having a liveaboard barge to go with your small tug... anchor the barge and explore in the tug. Interesting.

Take a look at the following links for more info:

Tugs, Barges & Freighters

Bantam 18 - Modest harbor tug and work boat

Evening Song 25 - Live aboard house boat barge for the tug to push

Bufflehead 22 - A real little cruising tug for two

Evening Hush 32 - A very large live aboard barge for tug boat living

Osprey 30 - A liveaboard tug for four

Puffin 36 - A family freighter

Merganser 40 - A very substantial steel commercial tug