Hunting for Itchen Ferry plans or similar

yourskipper

yourskipper

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Hi,

I am hunting for plans and offsets for a friend of mine who is working with some tribes in Papua New Guinea, he has a plan to build a 36' sailing cutter to enable village people to carry cargo by reaching across the Coral Sea to Cairns. AusAID are very interested in helping support this project.

He is considering blowing the plans for an Itchen Ferry up to about 36feet however he acknowledges there may be better designs around.

Ultimately he wants a fast carrier which will carry an auxiliary motor and leave plenty of cargo space, and that is fairly simple to build. (he does have boat building experience!)

Any ideas concerning where I can find these plans or perhaps more suitable ones would be very much appreciated.

Ideally we are hoping to find someone prepared to donate the plans to the charity (registered in the UK) to assist the work out there.

Many thanks in advance.

Cameron Springthorpe

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Funny, I have a friend who would like to do this for the people of St. Helena. He is looking at 80ft schooners to avoid the qualifications which would be difficult for the Islanders. Bigger would need special, international quals. 24mtrs is the cut off point. We are looking at cost effective ply, steel and other hulls.
A
 
There are several Itchen Ferry designs complete with offsets in Dixon Kemps "Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing". Was reprinted about 19 years ago. Should be something there to help.
 
From memory, the largest Itchen Ferry in Dixon Kemp is 25' and that would have been a large one. Much as I love the Itchen Ferrys, you might be better to find soething that doesn't need so much scaling up. There is an Essex Smack site somewhere which has lines but possibly not offsets.
The IFs have a very sharp turn to the bilge which I guess (not being a boatbuilder) would take some experience and skill to get right. I don't think building a smack would be for the faint hearted either! Good luck and keep us posted /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I'd recommend that you take a careful look at Bill Atkin's designs. Many of them are hard-chine, and can be be easily built in plywood or steel. I would suggest his "Island Princess" schooner, 36'7" on deck, V-bottom hard chine. Write to Atkin & Co., P.O. Box 3005, Noroton CT, 06820, USA.
Peter.
 
I have worked in that part of the globe.

I'd respectfully suggest either a Newick type trimaran or a Wharram type catamaran; an Itchen Ferry or a smack whilst indeed fast is carrying a lot of ballast which cuts down on her cargo capacity and requires more boat all round in terms of hull, spars, etc, and, far more important, she cannot be unloaded by beaching her.

She is also more likely to survive intimacy with coral heads, since she will tend to go over them.

Much easier and cheaper to build, too.
 
I saw somewhere, recently, a Warram design for just that idea. Local island trading cat.
The St Helena island trader is also having to load out of a harbour, no quays there. Can't beach either. So it may be mini containers onto small lighters.
A
 
thanks for all the advice!
Guy who would be building the boat and training locals to use, etc thinks that a cats poor performance to windward and lack of weight carrying capability would be a serious downside.
A Smack or SevenSouls design is winning at the moment!
 
Hi, I have a few more questions..
Concerning a smack:
How well / fast would they be when loaded in light weather (F2/3) they look like with the topsail they are well canvassed.
Also does anyone have experience of them under power, basically to know what size auxiliary would be needed to work her to about 6kts again laden.
Many thanks in advance
Cameron
 
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