Post Description

voor de liefhebbers van botenbouw :)

Blackfly - a lightweight camping boat

Blackfly is a 14' lapstrake/plywood sailboat, light enough to portage or cartop. Plans are available in several formats.

Author's Note:
Blackfly was designed for my own use on the lakes and rivers of Western Quebec. I wanted an open sailboat that would be light enough to portage and cartop, but capable of carrying as much cargo as an ordinary tandem canoe. The result is a burdensome but lightly built craft, suitable for sheltered waters in fair weather.

The boat is nimble and mannerly under sail. However, Blackfly, as drawn, has no enclosed bulkheads, decks or built-in flotation. If built to the very light scantlings given in the plans, she should be sailed somewhat conservatively. For a more aggressive style of sailing, it would be possible to add flotation and increase scantlings, but that would add weight and reduce stowage. There are always tradeoffs.

Blackfly is primarily a sailboat. The prototype has not been tried with a motor.

Blueprints and full-size templates are not available. I try to answer questions promptly, but builders who feel the need for more detailed plans should probably consider building one of the many fine boats from such designers as John Welsford, Iain Oughtred and Arch Davis.

Feel free to use and distribute these plans, but please understand that anyone who chooses to build a boat from the information provided on this site does so at his or her own risk. The designer takes no responsibility for injury or accident that may result from the use of this design

I'd like to thank Rolf Verheij for supplying metric lines and tables of offsets, and Stephen Berg for spotting an error in the diagonals. Thanks as well to the knowledgeable participants of the WoodenBoat Forum, who helped me to develop and refine this boat.

Thanks to Xrypto :)