Dinger Boat Plan

John Brooks, the designer and builder of the Somes Sound 12 1/2, in Maine

I was building a model 17th Century Longboat, and thought: "its probably easier to build a full sized one...".  Here I was fiddling round with tiny turning- blocks the size of grains of sand and halyards like spiders web. And me with fingers like sausages (the UK sort, pork, short-ish and fat).
The first-up idea of literally building a 17th Century longboat was discarded when I found that the only plans, at the National Maritime Museum in the UK, were no longer available online.
So, some research later I came across the Couta Boat from Melbourne: these are fine sailing fishing boats of the late 19th century, gaff-rigged and fast, now raced in an active one-design class.  But again, despite repeated emails to the Couta Boat Association, I couldnt get any plans.
That led me, on the byways and highways of the intertube, to the plans for a Somes Sound 12 1/2 designed by John Brooks, Brooks Boats Design, Brookline Maine.  It helped that in my research Id ordered a dozen or so books from Amazon on building wooden boats and found John and Ruths by far the best: their excellent "How to build a glued lapstrake wooden boat".
So here I am now, in the process -- or just started really.
Im going to keep a record here, photos and thoughts.  And a record of costs, if I remember.
UPDATE: Forgot to post a piccie of what shes supposed to look like when finished....

A pretty little picnic boat

From Wooden Boat, Nov-Dec 2010

Cheers for now.
Peter in Hong Kong