Your Cruiser

(For $1000)

When a conversation turns to cruising small craft, visions are usually conjured up of husky well-found ketches, schooners, cutters and the like. When it comes to power the same sort of idea seems to prevail. .. that of the large trawler type, with steadying sail, big diesel and tankage for a thousand miles or more.

It’s this sort of thing that puts

off many cruising enthusiasts

who aren’t too well-heeled.

Provided such a person sticks to coastal hopping in reason able weather and doesn’t expect too many frills there is no reason why he can’t go

:ruising on a workaday

budget.

The main rule is not to con

tuse economy and cheapness

vith shoddy and unsafe

naterials. Whether you use an mclosed toilet or a bucket on i lanyard isn’t going to matter i great deal. But a rudder that s unlikely to stay in one piece or more than a couple of days

is another matter entirely.

A small displacement-type hull can be driven quite effec tively with a small, slow rev ving motor and their economy borders on the smell of an oily rag. This writer’s own craft, while 5 m long with berths for two adults, can be driven to maximum hull speed by a single cylinder petrol motor of only V/i hp at 900 rpm. Fuel

consumption is something like

one pint per hour. With a 45gallon tank in the bows this gives a range never likely to be used to the full, but it’s nice to know it’s there, and besides the tank provides excellent buoy ancy.

Auxiliary sails play their part and a good secondhand rig from one of the larger racing dinghies doesn’t cost the earth.

As well as supplementing the engine it also acts to steady your boat in a swell. If your budget won’t run to a forward and reverse gearbox, a good pair of oars will never go astray.

It has been said that there is

nothing more seaworthy than a corked bottle. Folk who cruise in what may be termed ‘tab loid’ boats should get as close as possible to this model. A raised deck is probably the best

start. This configuration gives

vast deck space, is stronger than a trunk cabin and allows the entrance hatch to the cabin to be divorced from the cockpit or steering well.

For sailing performance, to

save cutting holes in the boat’s bottom to fit a centreboard case that will invariably leak, a pair of leeboards are cheaper, easier to use, and more efficient, even if they do look a little ugly.

Accommodation is best kept simple. A pair of stretched can vas hammock type bunks, with

sleeping bags where necessary,

are surprisingly comfortable. A small one or two burner kero sene stove is probably most efficient, and though slow will cope with a cruise of up to two weeks before becoming tire some. Besides stores and a locker for extra clothing, a pair

of plastic buckets will just about complete the ‘fitting out’

If self-righting ability is re quired, the amount of ballast needed is best left to an expert to calculate. Once calculated there are many economical ways of adding the required

weight. If the bilges are deep,

some concrete with iron or steel punchings mixed in, works well, or worn-out rollers from

caterpillar-tracks set in poly

ester resin are cheap, effective and easily weighed. If your boat is to be careened to scrub the bottom to save slipping fees, movable ballast such as pigs of iron or lead or even sand bags could be the answer.

There is no reason why a small ship’s boat or similar craft cannot be converted into a serviceable if stately cruiser for under $lOOO. So long as you don’t want to double the Horn or circumnavigate the Pacific she’ll give you lots of pleasure poking up creeks and seeing what’s around the next head

land.

John Collins.