Brainpicker 2 Peapod ?

[goodbasil]

Back in 85 I rode back east to New England. I went to Mystic Sea-port and drooled all over everything. Saw a peapod, only one I've
ever seen. But I wasn't too interested in them at the time. I went to
look at catboats.
The question is this; What distinquishes a peapod, and what is the
largest one ever built?
I understand that both halfs, (bow & stern half) are identical. (Like
an Old English Sheepdog.) So instead of a halfmodel, you could carve
a quarter model.
Now if one built a boat by these rules that was 30 or 40' or how-ever long, would it still be a peapod.? It would be a big honkin peapod.
What say you?

[Paul Pless]

Chapelle says they ranged in size from 15 - 20 feet; and not all peapods were symmetrical. I think George Buehler has scaled one up to about thirty feet, decked over with a cabin, rigged as a cutter - its on his website. No, I don't think they qualify as peapods anymore when you do that to them.

[StevenBauer]

For more peapod stuff order the peapod dvd from the Penobscot Maritime Museum. It's a keeper. :)


Steven

[rbgarr]

Friends had a lapstrake motor whaleboat that was about 24' long that probably would qualify as a (fore-and-aft -ymmetrical) enlarged peapod.

She was called Bosun and I often wonder what happened to her. Occasionally she'd stand in as race committee or tow boat for the Beetle cat fleet in Osterville when the ponderous, oak, ex-Navy, liberty launch Dumbo ("big, gray, steered from behind") was unavailable.

I used to have a picture of her in a storage shed but can't find it. Imagine this Matinicus peapod at double the size with an engine box, gear shift and throttle amidships, and a very long tiller: http://i10.tinypic.com/4mhclxf.jpg