Saturday 31 March 2012

Polly Wee

Down in East Sussex something stirred. 


That inveterate boat-builder, designer, sailor, physician, raconteur and all round Jolly Good Chap,  Cee Dubbs is busy in his shed, turning sheets of ply into gracefully proportioned craft.

This is Polly Wee, the physical embodiment of  Cee Dubbs'  Premis. 



Now this isn't a design as such, its more, well..........  a premise to be honest, which says; take the seaworthiness and load carrying of a dory, and blend it in with a huge dollop of Thames Barge, i.e. flat bottom and tucked up transom. Multiply in sizes divisible by the size of a sheet of ply, and you'll get a burdensome sea-kindly craft which will lie level when it dries out and be ideal for sleep aboard camp cruising.


This is the Premis 12. so its made from a sheet and a half of full cream plywood down each side. 



Katie Beardie is of course a not so distant cousin to the Premis.
She's actually a canoe-stern'd Premis 16 on a narrow waterline and has the same single chine curving up from a flat bottom aft to a vee in the bow. 





As Polly is only really intended to be a single hander, with the occasional crew,  she'll have plenty of locker space, built in buoyancy, room to sleep and cook, possibly at the same time, and water ballast under the floor to keep her well behaved. 

Like Katie Beardie, Polly is planning to do the Thames Raid in June.  Best crack on then!  

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