Pi - my first boat
The boat that occupies most of this web is my present boat. Here is a
short description of my first boat. It was a 22 foot cat designed by
James Wharram. He called his design Hina.
I bought a set of plans in the mid 1970s and built the boat during a few summer vacations using high quality marine plywood and the wood traditionally used in this part of the world: Oak and fir. In 1979 she was finally launched. Later that year I learned about wood + epoxy for boatbuilding...
Pi was never a spectacular performer. She was just a little longer than a Tornado but was twice as heavy and carried a smaller sail area. At first she was exactly as designed by James Wharram but after some time I added a pair of dagger boards - a huge improvement. Down-wind joy was boosted by a small asymmetric spinnaker. The power to weight ratio was still poor so she needed a lot of wind to fire on all cylinders.
This is not to say Pi was a bad boat. She was definitely good enough to get me hooked on multihulls. On a windy day we left much bigger monohulls in our wake - even to windward. We also cruised up and down the coast some, camping on the platform using back packer gear.
I sold Pi while building my present boat. The new owner called me later that summer to tell me how happy he was with the boat. And that is the last I heard of her.
| LOA: | 6.6 m | Main: | 10 sqm |
| LWL: | ? m | Jib: | 6 sqm |
| BOA: | 3.14 m | Asym. Spi: | 10+ sqm |
| Race weight: | 350 kg | Mast height above water: | 5+ m |
| Draught: | 0.3/0.9 m |
