A Mirage drive boat on Chesapeake Bay

The Hobie Mirage drive with its strange turtle fins is slowly gaining a following among human powered boat builders.
Don Polakovics has adapted Paul Gartside's propeller-driven design, Blue Skies, for the Hobie mechanism and it looks pretty good floating on Chesapeake Bay at a sustained speed of 3.5  knots and sprints of up to 6 knots .
Blue Skies was designed for cruising with an auxiliary sail, and Don sleeps and even cooks aboard, something of an achievement in a hull as slim as this.
Judging by the picture, the only thing he hasn't fitted in the cockpit is the kitchen sink. The boat still lacks a name, though, as Don explains:

Hi Chris.
No, she doesn't really have a name yet. My paddling partners voted on Patuxent Queen (we paddle mostly on the Patuxent River....war of 1812 fame....but no grudge), which was a whole lot better than the initial proposal of "Hippo". Compared to a normal sea kayak, she is quite large.
So far the boat has worked well for camping (five nights total, three full days, two nights without touching land). The "so far" part is because I've yet to spend a rainy day and night aboard. The cockpit is quite roomy for cooking, dressing, lounging etc. with the Mirage drive removed and the drive well cover in place.
At night I pull the baggage out of the sleeping compartment and put it in the cockpit and then move into the berth. The sleeping compartment is very comfortable. (Probably too comfortable. Much temptation to take a little nap, when I should be exercising.) With a 40 in beam, the boat is wide enough to sleep in most any position, including legs curled.
The open hatch provides a great view of the sky. I've never felt claustrophobic, but yes, I get the coffin comment a lot when people see the boat. The only distraction I've had from good sleep was when I anchored in a place with a little too much fetch and was kept awake by the waves slapping the hull a couple inches from my ear.....and then there was that time some critter kept scratching at the hull.
Speed? Flat water, loaded for a week, she cruises an honest 3.5 knots (quite slow by your rowing standards). Overall daily average (30 nm), including rest breaks, is 3.2. I can get bursts over 6 knots, flat water. With a down wind sail (windpaddle), she'll hold mid 5's, and poke into the 6's, but doesn't seem to be inclined to go any faster. Even at 20 ft., she's portly by kayak standards. The boat was built with a mast step and a dagger board to take the place of the Mirage drive, but I haven't built a real sail for her yet.
Regards;
Don

Thanks Don! More pictures of this interesting boat are here.

Camp Cruising on Chesapeake Bay

This long, slim boat seems to slip over the Patuxent River elegantly and without effort, like a swan.
Underwater, however, like the swan, a pair of webbed feet paddle furiously. Another triumph for the Hobie Mirage Drive.
Don Polakovics built the boat to a design of Paul Gartside's that was originally made for a pedal-driven propeller. If you compare the two, the Hobie drive removes most of the complexity (look at the way the rudder is held out behind the stern to allow the prop to be retracted) as well as allowing the drive to be removed while afloat should it need attention. Clearing weed off that prop must be a nightmare. And the case for the Hobie forms a nice base for a table when camping.
Don built the boat for cruising Chesapeake Bay, where camping grounds are hard to find. The foreshore is either private or swamp, apparently. The boat can carry three days worth of water and week's worth of food. A bimini keeps the sun and/or rain off when at anchor and provides a frame for hanging a mosquito net from, something which is mercifully unnecessary round here on the south coast of England. I just love the ventilation cowl on the cabin, bringing a touch of the old ocean liners to the boat.
Don writes:

Hi Chris.
No, she doesn't really have a name yet. My paddling partners voted on Patuxent Queen (we paddle mostly on the Patuxent River....war of 1812 fame....but no grudge), which was a whole lot better than the initial proposal of "Hippo". Compared to a normal sea kayak, she is quite large. 
So far the boat has worked well for camping (five nights total, three full days, two nights without touching land).  The "so far" part is because I've yet to spend a rainy day and night aboard.
The cockpit is quite roomy for cooking, dressing, lounging etc with the mirage drive  removed and the drive well cover in place. At night I  pull the baggage out of the sleeping compartment and put it in the cockpit and then move into the berth. The sleeping compartment is very comfortable (probably too comfortable - much temptation to take a little nap, when I should be exercising).  With a 40 in beam, the boat is wide enough to sleep in most any position, including legs curled.  
The open hatch provides a great view of the sky. I've never felt claustrophobic, but yes, I get the coffin comment a lot when people see the boat. The only distraction I've had from good sleep was when I anchored in a place with a little too much fetch and was kept awake by the waves slapping the hull  a couple of inches from my ear.....and then there was that time some critter kept scratching at the hull.
Speed?  Flat water, loaded for a week, she cruises an honest 3.5 knots (quite slow by your rowing standards). Overall daily average (30 nm), including rest breaks, is 3.2.    I can get bursts over 6 knots, flat water.  With a down wind sail (windpaddle), she'll hold mid 5's, and poke into the 6's, but doesn't seem to be inclined to go any faster. Even at 20 ft., she's portly by kayak standards.
The boat was built with a mast step and a dagger board to take the place of the Mirage drive, but I haven't built a real sail for her yet.  
Thanks again for your interest Chris.
Regards;
Don 

More pics are here. Thanks Don, and thanks to Duckworks Magazine for the heads up.

A new rowing boat design in Water Craft magazine

Water Craft dropped through the door today, bringing with it a particular treat - a new design for a rowing boat by Paul Gartside, the Cornish-born Canadian designer who has created some highly-regarded rowing boat designs including the 'tortured ply' Flashboat (drawn from the famous Cornish racing boats) and the open water cruising skiff 'Bob'.

The sweet-looking double ender is only 12ft long so it won't be suitable for long expeditions or racing, but it would be lovely for just pottering about in.

I lust after it, but it would have to be made for me as the traditional carvel construction would be completely beyond my basic bodging skill level. Paul goes into some detail about the challenges of building a carvel hull with thin planks, which are essential in a boat as small as this to keep the weight down, and it sounds like a professional job to me.

There are a lot of builders who would be capable of doing it, however. Must start saving...

Anyone for Flashboats?

Here's an interesting proposition. Brian Pearson writes:

"Hi Chris,
Following up our interest in Cornish Flashboats. John Hesp (the designer with a cnc routing table) and his brother are needing to get on the water and their solution is to make two tortured ply Flashboats as per Paul Gartside's Flashboat article I sent. John has asked me if I would also be interested in a kit. John knows a current builder in Cornwall of Flashboats.
I have said I would be and thought I would e-mail you to see if you might be interested, and also if perhaps anyone following your excellent Rowing for Pleasure site might be.
It would be fun to have a few built at the same time. No costings yet but with it using 3mm ply and very little of it, the kit should be economic to produce.
Had a lot of fun scaring myself sailing the MacGregor canoe (left). Very narrow with 50 sq ft. The leeboard helped steady her up a great deal.
All the best.
Brian"

Paul Gartside has an excellent description of the building process for his Flashboat here, and line drawings here.
I am a bit apprehensive about the 'intermediate' skill level, and the fully rebated stem the Flashboat requires, though most of the difficulties may well be avoided by buying the kit. Torturing the plywood still presents something of a challenge, however.
It is certainly very tempting and a very, very lovely boat. Paul's picture of him on the beach with the Pacific rollers in the background shows the sort of conditions the boat is capable of handling at a pinch.
Unfortunately for me, I have just come to the conclusion that John Welsford's Walkabout must be my next boat, because it is designed for sleeping in. But if the kit was cheap enough, I could just slip the Flashboat in first, just for fun....
So is anyone else interested in a Flashboat kit? Do get in touch and we'll see if we can get a bulk order in.