Pre-cut plywood kit
Even with large-scale and full-size PDF drawings to work from, cutting the parts for a 14ft dinghy can be a daunting task. To make the boat even more accessible to the amateur builder we teamed up with Alec Jordan of Jordan Boats to produce a MkII kit – as was originally intended. Unlike the original kit – which comprised everything including the timber, epoxy, spars, sail and rigging (and was correspondingly priced) – Alec’s kit contains just the plywood elements, which has allowed him to keep the total price under £1,000, at £992, plus delivery, to be exact (there is a row-boat only version that comes without daggerboard and housing for £52 less). This nevertheless includes 6¼ sheets of ply and 2½ sheets of MDF (for the jig and various patterns) – to give a total of nearly 70 parts and patterns, as well as a 28-page building manual.
This approach means the builder can source the remaining parts and materials according to their budget and inclination. Some might like a simple, painted rowing boat, others might want a bright finished sailing version, with the corresponding difference in build time and cost.
Another area where the MkII skiff differs from the original is the sail plan. Although I’ve sailed the boat quite happily for the past 22 years with the original lug rig on wooden spars, Nigel feels that the original design was overcanvassed and top-heavy – and indeed we have both capsized our respective boats. The idea with the new design is to leave the sail plan ‘open’ within a set sail area, so builders can experiment with different rigs. This might be a carbon fibre-sparred version of the original lug rig, or a completely new approach – Nigel is currently favouring using a windsurf rig, but it will be interesting to compare sail plans.