Welsford Penguin Builders?

[Old Salt]

Anyone here who has built and sailed a Penguin...I would appreciate your experience.

I just purchased them plans. One builder commented that he would increase bottom thickness and stem size. Have not had direct contact with him. Any input would be gerat!

The plans are very detailed. 19 sheets of A-1 sized Drawings.

[JimD]

All I know about Penguin is that she's a real purdy boat, but you did say that any input would be gerat, so here goes...can't see where adding a little thickness to the bottom or beefing up the backbone a bit would hurt anything. Might even help if you're not using the best possible wood. Adds a few pounds but only a few as its not the whole boat you're talking about. What plank thickness do the plans call for and what were you thinking of moving up to? Thicker plywood doesn't bend as easily so you might have to double up and laminate two thinner layers. That's about it for my not very helpful advice :D

[Stiletto]

John Welsford is pretty approachable, why not ask him what he thinks. He would also probably tell you why he went the way he did with the sizings.

[Old Salt]

Bottom thickness is 12mm. Suggestion I heard was for going to 15. In the plans he gives the option of going up is size from 6mm to 9m on the planking.

Another option to increasing plywood size would be to use biaxial fiberglass cloth on the bottom.

I wonder if the reason for increasing the stem size would be to help mitigate the angle at which the stringers and planks meet the stem?

[Hwyl]

Originally posted by Old Salt:
Bottom thickness is 12mm. Suggestion I heard was for going to 15. In the plans he gives the option of going up is size from 6mm to 9m on the planking.

12MM ply can vary in thickness (if you know what I mean). The guys at Boulter, showed me various nominal 6MM plys, they seemed to be +/- 2MM depending on manufacturer. Just food for thought.

[Doug Canada]

Here is what I have seen;

http://www.woodenboat.net.nz/Boats/BoatPenguin/Penguinbuild.html

http://www.woodenboat.net.nz/Boats/BoatPenguin/tropicalpenguinfolder/PenguinAust.html

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/store/plans/jw/penguin/index.htm

This is a similar boat, called "Elver", check out the "calendar of progress". It is one of the better home builders website.
http://home.att.net/~willmarsh3/el/elver.html

All the best,
Doug

[Ross M]

Posting only to fix Today's Active Topics page

[Bruce Taylor]

Forumite Jonas Abromaitis is building a Penguin (or was...don't know how far along the project is).

His email address: jabromaitis@sympatico.ca

[Mr. Smee]

O.S.,
Take a look at yahoo's groups for "jwbuilders".
About 5k posts on his designs by active builders.
J.W. posts almost daily.

Mr. Smee - off to buy new hooks for the Captain.

[john welsford]

Penguin is designed to cope with coastal cruising, and being hammered up and down on a trailer while being towed at high speed which is much worse than any stresses that I would expect her to encounter while sailing other than banging into something hard.
Other than perhaps coating the bottom and first plank up with 10 oz glass in epoxy to minimise abrasion damage while on a drying mooring, or going up to 9mm ply on that lowest plank if the boat is to be grounded on a rough beach, I dont think that I would make her any heavier, it just adds weight and cost. This boat is designed very strongly and its only when you look at the traditional plank on frame methods which require a lot of material to hold the numerous fastenings that she looks light.

JohnW