Robert M. Steward plans????

[Billy Bones]

Hi all--I'm on a bit of a wild goose chase. Being curious about his 20' Triton design (30WB), I thought I would ask the folks at WB how to find them, as per instructions in the book. Mr. Steward died in the last few years, but his son took up the sales of his plans.

WB gave me his (son's) address and phone number, which now seem not to work. The phone is disconnected and the nice long letter I sent to the address came back in today's mail.

Does anyone have any more current information or has anyone had a recent contact with Wm Steward?

(as a side note, the plans for Triton, almost entirely complete and completely buildable are available from the magnificent resources of The Press at Toad Hall: www.dngoodchild.com (http://www.dngoodchild.com) )

Thanks

[WWheeler]

This one? Looks like a Lightning with a small cuddy.

http://www.dngoodchild.com/5164.jpg

[Billy Bones]

Yes, it is nearly identical to the lightning. Same arc bottom with the same radius, nearly to the inch, same cb trunk and profile, only slightly bigger. Triton is a bit wider, a bit longer, much more heavily built, has much more freeboard (drier) and has a bit less sail area, by 7sf. In short, Triton is long on the lightning's daysailer qualities and short on lightning's racing qualities. As such Triton is pretty close to my old Rhodes 19, only with centerboard and hard chines.

[Doug Hamilton]

"Boatbuilding Manual" by R. M. Steward has been a help for me. I found his treatment to be one of the most straightforward explanations of the subject.

WB # 87, MarApr 1989, page 90, presented an article "Flat-bottomed Skiffs" in which appeared brief construction and lines plans for his 1952 Sharpton barge (22' x 4'-9") and for his 1952 Susan skiff (11'-3" x 3'-10").. I see that the dngoodchild site does offer plans for Susan and forTriton but not for the barge..

I once 'phoned and learned that the telephone number is no longer valid..That little effort long ago and this bump on the subject of his plans now is all I know to do in order to find his trail..That this designer's original plans are not available is a lamentable loss to the boat-building community in my humble opinion.

[Billy Bones]

Giving this a bump because I'm still after Steward info. Thanks.

[Bruce Hooke]

Have you checked to see if there is a listing for a William Steward in a town near where he used to live?

A Yahoo people search on "William Steward" yields 108 listings, which is probably more than you want to start following up on by telephone! However, if one or two of them are near the last known address it might be worth ringing them up. Another thought would be to send a short letter to every one of the William Stewards listed, explaining what you are looking for...

Below is the URL for the search I ran. It does not work as a hyperlink on the forum so you will have to cut and paste it:

http://phone.people.yahoo.com/py/lg:us/lc:us/psPhoneSearch.py?FirstName=William&LastName=Steward&Business=&City=&State=& PostalCode=&srch=bas&total=108&index=1

[holzbt]

Check with Mystic Seaport's Ships Plans Dept. These plans were once sold by RUDDER magazine and should be in the Rudder colection.

[Billy Bones]

Thanks all...still looking.

Roger and others: I did in fact contact Mystic early on with the idea that they would have plans, but they were only able to lay hands on the sail plan, a copy of which I bought.

The Rudder article is the one DNGoodchild sells for a pittance on his site and is the most complete reference I've found to date.

Bruce: I thought of that, but I hesitate to get that invasive at this stage. I've narrowed down the list of 108 to the likely candidate but I'd rather not pay the money to one of those semisleazy search sites, preferring to tease out any info that may be offered by others.

Again, thanks all for the input.