Rondane 8

This post is to let you know what we are working on design wise and in the shop, we have been seeking to expand our line of boats beyond the canoes and kayaks that we have been focusing on to this point.  Those of you who have seen us at shows over the last year will have noticed that our display has begun to show an increasing variety of boat s that we have been at work designing, some of which are well along in their development.

This past fall our kit supplier suggested that we work on developing a pram as there is always a call for a lightweight versatile boat of this style. When looking at prams there is a trend for then to be little more than floating boxes, my eye was caught by the Norwegian style of pram, and it is from there that we took our lead for the development of this boat.  Rather than using your time to build what looks like little more than a floating bathtub, why not use that time to build something that is much more pleasing to the eye.

As we have decided to use the Norwegian style of pram as our guide we have decided to call the boat the Rondane, this is a Norwegian national park and it stays in line with our usual boat naming practices of using park and river names for our boats.

 There will be two versions of the boat one that will be a sailing/rowing model the second intended to be powered by a small (2hp) outboard.  The boat is to be build as light and as easy to build as possible (that is always our goal) this will allow it to be easily car topped or hauled up onto a larger boat when it is used as a dinghy. Both models will be set up for rowing from either the mid seat or the forward seat this will allow maximum flexibility when balancing the boat under the different loadings it may experience in use.

The sailing rig will be a spider rig, which has a mast in two sections with the upper section hoisted with the sail; these types of rigs are handy in boats of this type as the rig breaks down into very manageable sections when not in use. There are renderings posted over on our facebook page which will help clarify this picture for you.

The Rondane is 7’ 8 ½” long and 49” wide this allows the hull to be cut from two sheets of plywood the additional plywood required varying depending on the model chosen, a strictly rowing version will require the least amount of additional parts and the sailing version the most with the supports needed for the mast as well as the addition of a rudder and dagger board with trunk. With all the additional parts the sailing/rowing version will still use up only about one additional sheet of wood, though it will part sheets of two different thicknesses to form the needed parts.

We will try to keep you as up to date as we can through the blog and by posting pictures of the construction on our facebook page.