Part 4: Building Our Trailerable Dreamboat

We Complete a New Sheer Plank and Squint to Visualize a Finished Hull

Brief Look Back: If you’re reading this you’ve likely been following our build of a 20-foot outboard cruiser, TATOOSH, with cabin and pilothouse added to a beefed-up Welsford 6-Meter Whaler sailboat hull. If you’re joining us for the first time, you can go back to the first three installments, searching for Shallow Draft columns posted on November 13, December 17 and January 18.

So, in this episode we’re building the first new, additional sheerstrake, helping add visual heft to the hull so that when we finish the cuddy cabin and pilothouse, the end result won’t look top-heavy. Or at least that’s the plan as we continue our design-as-you-build adventure.

Upper Left - The sketch we’re following, more or less, as we build our 20-foot double-ended outboard cruiser. Upper Right - The hull looks more substantial following addition of the new sheer plank (or bulwarks if you prefer). We ended the forward tip of the new sheer plank with a radius, so that a bow pulpit and roller can fit between the two new planks.

Three things happened since our last installment: