| Al's 26 | Design Sketches | The Hull | Keel Pour & Rollover | Building The Inside | Current Status | Home Page |
Objective of the design Al's 26 is designed for cruising the coastal waters between Puget Sound and Alaska. I specifically wanted a simple rig, small enough so that the required ground tackle would not require a windlass and sails small enough to be easily handled by myself in all weather. I wanted a vee berth and one quarter berth, davits for a dinghy, a small diesel, and the ability to sail windward in any weather. The pilothouse is just large enough to allow standing room at the inside steering station, the galley and the head. Freeboard is low, so there isn't a whole lot of volume inside, and the pilothouse is narrow to provide plenty of space on deck.
The Construction
I chose to build the hull upside down and to plank over temporary molds. This makes it easier and quicker to get the planking started but results in added work later on. (About 500 hours as I found out later.) as the frames have to be fitted into the hull.
History of the design
My love for wooden boats goes back to early childhood so a wooden boat is a dream of long standing. I looked at several older wooden boats, but I couldn't find a small one that had the comfort of a pilothouse for sailing in wet weather. After several years I had reviewed hundreds of plans from every source I could find. I had spent several hundreds of dollars in books, study plans, and catalogs, and even built two small boats, just to get the feel of building in epoxy. I finally met up with Nate Smith, at ACCUMAR and explained my dream. Nate showed me a design that I fell in love with. It was a 22 foot pilothouse gaff rigged sailboat with great character designed by Scott
Sprague. I later met with Scott and explained my fantasy of building the boat in my garage and keeping it moored on the tide flat in front of our house. Scott became fascinated with the idea of a small bilge keeled pilothouse, and did sketches for Al's 24.
I was disappointed with the result as there was no standing head room in the head, which ended up under the vee berth, so Scott started over and stretched the design and it became Al's 26. By this time, it was too wide to fit through the garage doors, so he slimmed her down, which meant redrawing all the lines. By this time, my planking lumber had arrived and I had a chance to think what building a boat this size in a garage would entail. So I started designing a shop which I built on our property over the next year. Meanwhile Scott finished the plans, and I started having second thoughts about the reality of keeping a boat on our beach, and the structural aspects of building a cold molded twin keel hull. Once again, Scott got out his eraser and redrew her with a single keel. By this time I was completely satisfied.
A dose of realism Building a boat to sail to Alaska and back isn't a practical choice. For the cost of sails and the gadgets that sailing requires, you could buy enough fuel to drive a displacement power cruiser from Seattle to Skagway, Alaska and back ten times. In that amount of time, you would have had to replace the sails. The 13 horsepower diesel that I am installing will push this boat along at 6 knots. The 2760 lbs of lead ballast in the keel could have been put to much better use in a power boat increasing the comforts of being on the boat. So, the sailing part is not for economy. Call it fantasy or spiritual experience. What ever you call it, it's about challenge, feeling good and having fun, which according to designer George Buehler, is what boats are all about. Most power boaters like to go faster, however, that takes more power. Lots more power, which drives up the costs. But, that is fantasy as well. A slow aircraft is a faster than a fast boat and going by bus is more economical than either.
Motivation - How long will it take? When I first started, I was motivated by the desire to sail, and I enjoyed working alone after over thirty years of working on other people's projects in the work world. That changed over the next several years as I sailed in the ocean and worked alone. But, one thing never changes, and that is the learning that goes with building something that is different or larger than anything you have built before. There is an excitement that comes as one problem is solved and another one or two take it's place. Also, I have always enjoyed figuring out different and hopefully better ways of doing things, and this project has ample opportunity for that.
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