When Harold Payson--known to associates, friends, and his wife as Dynamite--began supplementing his boatbuilding work by selling boat plans, he got feedback from a number of customers who found the boats too difficult to build. Selling plans for boats that never got built went against Dynamite's Down East grain, and it was also, he figured, "a straight road to bankruptcy in the long run." He outlined the problem to Philip Bolger, arguably the most innovative small-craft designer around, and Bolger agreed, on one condition, to design a series of that would require no lofting, no jig, and no lumber that could not be obtained at any local building supplies store. The one condition was that Dynamite would build and thoroughly test a prototype of each design to wring out every bug before offering the plans for sale. The eventual result was the original fleet of six boat described in his first book, Instant Boats. Here are eleven new Instant Boats to choose from, including three built with a new tack-and-tape method that eliminates most beveling. There are complete building instructions and plans for the Gypsy, a 15-foot, double-chine outboard speed boat; Windsprint, a 16-foot, double-ended, lug-rigged sharpie; and others. (Full-size plans are available from the author; you can build directly from the book, but the purchase of larger-scale plans will make the task of scaling off the patterns easier.)
When Harold Payson--known to associates, friends, and his wife as Dynamite--began supplementing his boatbuilding work by selling boat plans, he got feedback from a number of customers who found the boats too difficult to build. Selling plans for boats that never got built went against Dynamite's Down East grain, and it was also, he figured, "a straight road to bankruptcy in the long run." He outlined the problem to Philip Bolger, arguably the most innovative small-craft designer around, and Bolger agreed, on one condition, to design a series of that would require no lofting, no jig, and no lumber that could not be obtained at any local building supplies store. The one condition was that Dynamite would build and thoroughly test a prototype of each design to wring out every bug before offering the plans for sale. The eventual result was the original fleet of six boat described in his first book, Instant Boats. Here are eleven new Instant Boats to choose from, including three built with a new tack-and-tape method that eliminates most beveling. There are complete building instructions and plans for the Gypsy, a 15-foot, double-chine outboard speed boat; Windsprint, a 16-foot, double-ended, lug-rigged sharpie; and others. (Full-size plans are available from the author; you can build directly from the book, but the purchase of larger-scale plans will make the task of scaling off the patterns easier.)