Re: A june bug for the sea cadets

 

with all due respect, it pushes along just fine with a low thrust trolling motor.  No ill effects observed.
this is not plywood boat - 1 1/2' laminated pine motor mount bolted to a 1" laminated pine transom.
COnventional June Bugs made of 1/4 "may be different animals.

with all due respect, it pushes along just fine with a low thrust trolling motor.  No ill effects observed.
this is not plywood boat - 1 1/2' laminated pine motor mount bolted to a 1" laminated pine transom.
COnventional June Bugs made of 1/4 "may be different animals.

 

I have a new June bug.  It is strip built rather than plywood.  I have about 300 photos of the construction.
It was a project to make a project for young people.  There will be an article in Duckworks in a couple of months or so. Here's the first couple of paragraphs -- to give you the why.

A HOME DEPOT SAILBOAT FOR THE SEA CADETS

The Challenge: a fleet of boats to teach young people to sail.

Issues: Cost. Storage. Getting to and from sailing grounds. Safe, gentle boats. Cost. Volunteers. Suitable location. Did I mention Cost?

I had been teaching a group of Sea Cadets some basic homebuilding airplane technologies. The question came up in conversation about the issues involved in teaching them to sail. A common solution is a yacht club, marina, or camp with a fleet of small boats. These tend to be relatively rare opportunities, and not available to all organizations. Some instructors are OK with a bunch of people on a bigger boat – others not so much. There are as many opinions as there are sailors. But fleets of little boats for beginners aren’t necessarily easy to find. When teaching airplane tech, the simplest airplane is pretty complex. We teach a little & build a part. Can’t usually build a whole plane, although high school shops sometimes do so over a school year. But, just maybe, we could build a simple boat. Lots of today’s kids can build an ‘app’. With a little motivation and effort they can acquire the old fashioned handskills to build a boat, and hopefully retain them for life. Some folks believe a keyboard isn’t the only tool one should know how to use. 

Here’s the fantasy: a day camp for a couple of weeks, or a half dozen weekends, where the kids learn the basics of sailing in class, build a small boat, learn to sail in it, then take it home. Something so simple that it can be kitted up in a garage by volunteers without special boatbuilding skills, then built by kids using simple tools under a day camp picnic shelter. A $200 price point would be nice, too, in the range of a cheap molded kayak, or one of David Lucas’s foam boats.

Mulling it over, it seemed possible. But we have to start with a suitable boat. Serviceable, proven, tolerant of some funk in the construction, and cheap. We’ve all seen the neat little class boats or dinghies yacht clubs take out in groups for sail training and kid’s races. This is not that boat.

 I choose the June Bug. It’s an old design, introduced by Bolger in30 Odd Boats, and reprised by Payson inBuild the New Instant Boats. It is, by reputation, an adequate sailor. It can also use paddles, oars, or a small motor. We can teach sailing, a father and son can mount a kicker and go fishing, 4 kids can have fun together and row around a lake. It is car toppable, stackable, and rugged enough to be dragged around, and can live outdoors beside the garage. It is plausible that a 16 year old taking one home from camp today could give her toddler a ride in it a few years hence.

Can young people without shop class build it? Can adults with some hand skills kit it up? Can we do it in a non-shop setting over a few weekends, use it for sailing lessons, then have the campers car top it home as their boat? Can it happen in a $200 window? It might be the boat from La Mancha – the impossible dream. Well, we won’t know if we don’t try.

Let’s make sure any group can build it anywhere; minimum tools & no exotic parts or techniques. Rule 1: everything should come from Home Depot – or at least be available there.  



It goes on (and on) for many pages.  $244, ready to sail, and somewhat more substantial than the plywood version according to an old hand that has seen both.

This was a diversion from the strip built Sneakeasy, which is slow now as I am on the hull blend, and using narrow strips that are hard to clamp. 

Which was a diversion from my airplanes, which are now getting attention, after talking a break to remodel the kitchen so as to get permission for everything else.  Whew.  Lazy in retirement.

rri

A HOME DEPOT SAILBOAT FOR THE SEA CADETS

The Challenge: a fleet of boats to teach young people to sail.

Issues: Cost. Storage. Getting to and from sailing grounds. Safe, gentle boats. Cost. Volunteers. Suitable location. Did I mention Cost?

I had been teaching a group of Sea Cadets some basic homebuilding airplane technologies. The question came up in conversation about the issues involved in teaching them to sail. A common solution is a yacht club, marina, or camp with a fleet of small boats. These tend to be relatively rare opportunities, and not available to all organizations. Some instructors are OK with a bunch of people on a bigger boat – others not so much. There are as many opinions as there are sailors. But fleets of little boats for beginners aren’t necessarily easy to find. When teaching airplane tech, the simplest airplane is pretty complex. We teach a little & build a part. Can’t usually build a whole plane, although high school shops sometimes do so over a school year. But, just maybe, we could build a simple boat. Lots of today’s kids can build an ‘app’. With a little motivation and effort they can acquire the old fashioned handskills to build a boat, and hopefully retain them for life. Some folks believe a keyboard isn’t the only tool one should know how to use. 

Here’s the fantasy: a day camp for a couple of weeks, or a half dozen weekends, where the kids learn the basics of sailing in class, build a small boat, learn to sail in it, then take it home. Something so simple that it can be kitted up in a garage by volunteers without special boatbuilding skills, then built by kids using simple tools under a day camp picnic shelter. A $200 price point would be nice, too, in the range of a cheap molded kayak, or one of David Lucas’s foam boats.

Mulling it over, it seemed possible. But we have to start with a suitable boat. Serviceable, proven, tolerant of some funk in the construction, and cheap. We’ve all seen the neat little class boats or dinghies yacht clubs take out in groups for sail training and kid’s races. This is not that boat.

 I choose the June Bug. It’s an old design, introduced by Bolger in30 Odd Boats, and reprised by Payson inBuild the New Instant Boats. It is, by reputation, an adequate sailor. It can also use paddles, oars, or a small motor. We can teach sailing, a father and son can mount a kicker and go fishing, 4 kids can have fun together and row around a lake. It is car toppable, stackable, and rugged enough to be dragged around, and can live outdoors beside the garage. It is plausible that a 16 year old taking one home from camp today could give her toddler a ride in it a few years hence.

Can young people without shop class build it? Can adults with some hand skills kit it up? Can we do it in a non-shop setting over a few weekends, use it for sailing lessons, then have the campers car top it home as their boat? Can it happen in a $200 window? It might be the boat from La Mancha – the impossible dream. Well, we won’t know if we don’t try.