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I decided to add this smaller version of the Electric Moto Craft to my growing fleet of hulls after attending the first Electric Boat Show in Seattle, at the Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union. One of the attendees liked the 14ft version, but wanted a smaller 12ish foot boat to put on his small car (a mini cooper if I remember correctly) for traveling. The shorter/smaller hull would also be lighter, and easier to load on top of the car. At the time, I had other hulls in “the ways” on my computer, and didn't want to commit one way or the other as to adding this hull. But I took a few minutes one day to scale down the lines of the 14 foot hull, just to see how much work it would be. I just have to “scratch a mental itch” when they occur.
It took me two model hulls to come up with the final design of the scaled down 14ft version that I liked. I actually had the finished model on the first try, but I wanted to change the shape of the transom, so the second model was made. The two halves of this hull, like the 14 foot version, fit on one scarfed sheet of plywood cut down the middle into two equal widths. The shorter 12 foot EMC has almost the same width of the two bottom, and side panels as the 14 footer, but when the hull is wired up, comes in with a narrower beam at 32 inches. I wanted this hull to have the same amount of stability that the bigger version has, and I kept the width of the original bottom panels.
This hull also makes use of the finger joints I used on the 14ft version, instead of a traditional scarf to join the two sections of plywood. With 4mm plywood and it's very thin surface skin lamination’s, the standard scarf was just too hard to make and have a strong joint. Others may disagree, but I'm happy with the finger joints and it seems to be just as strong a method as a traditional scarf, and much easier to get that perfect joint; in my opinion. You do have to add a layer of fiberglass cloth to both sides, but I do that even with a traditional scarf joint on the thinner 4mm & 6mm plywood sheets. I will also add a drawing and an “exceptions list” for those that want to use 6” wide butt joints instead of the finger joints, or a traditional scarf.
This hull also has a transom to make it easier to mount the Electric Paddle® or any other type of electric motor to this hull. You could mount them off to the side, but I like to have the power in the back for a more direct push on the hull along it's center line. You could make two of them and have a sailing cat too. I'm sure there will be a lot of variety to the design from those of you who build this hull. Enjoy building your 12ft version of the Electric Moto Craft hull.
Download your own free PDF model - just print, cut out and build - Click Here.
Here are a couple of samples from the plans (click images to enlarge):
Each set of plans comes with a printable paper model,
40 pages of
colorful and concise drawings (samples above) and
a 53 page
instruction
manual -
perfect for the first time builder.
Thank you,
Warren D. Messer
This and all the other Warren Messer Designs are
available in the Duckworks store - CLICK HERE |
