The Coot is a handy little yacht tender with a lot of capacity. The "pram" style design has transoms at boat ends, this provides a lot of capacity in a short length and has the added benefit for the first-time wooden boat builder that most of the strips run straight off the transoms and do not require the careful fitting of strips involved in a sharp ended boat.
A "T" shaped plywood bench seat allows the rower to easily slide forward or back to adjust the balance as more people climb in or baggage is added. The seat supports create buoyancy for added safety. The boat is designed to be rowed out to your mooring, but it may be equipped with a small outboard. Although I have not done it yet, for those who would like to do some sailing the boat could be rigged with a small sail. The boat has a lot of stability and should scoot along quite well for a boat of its size.
This a good first boat building project that is accessible for anyone who has the desire to build a beautiful wooden boat. The construction is relatively easy because there is a minimum of fitting of the strip ends.
Note: The automated "Bare Boat Weight" of 25 pounds calculated below does not include the seating and gunwales and does not accurately include the 1/2" plywood transoms. A more realistic weight is closer to 60 lbs. I'm sorry if I got you all excited. That's the problem of trying to make a formula for kayaks work for a pram. If you used 3/16" thick strips, 4 ounce cloth, and 1/4" plywood for all the seats and transom, you can probably get the weight down near 40 pounds, but the boat wouldn't win any brawls at the dinghy dock.
Included in the Plans:
- Twelve 24" x 36" [61cm x 91cm] Drawing Pages including: An overall drawing, a full size "stacked" form drawing showing all the forms and then all the forms drawn individually and at full size. Also included are templates for seats, transoms and bulkheads.
- Kayak Building Notes: These notes provide supplemental information such as bill of materials for each design.
Recommended Manual:
- Building Strip Planked Boats - The Coot is one of the designs discussed in this book and it details the whole process.
- $129.00