Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Building a Reuel Parker Periagua 14

I was up in Fort Pierce, FL last week to see his progress on the 45' sharpie schooner Ibis, and he showed me the small craft he is planning on using as a tender for her. It was a 14' periagua that he designed based on an old Swedish work boat. The originals had no skeg and would pivot readily. Reuel added the skeg to enhance the tracking ability of the boat.

You can see the pronounced rocker in this photo and in the photo below notice the skeg and narrow beam. Reuel says that he is very pleased with both the rowing performance and the weight carrying ability of this boat.



Another attractive feature of this tender is the all up weight is about 65 lbs.

The oarlock receivers have been changed from the plans because although they made effective outriggers they were very cumbersome and inconvenient with respect to handling and storage.

This boat also has slightly different seat/thwarts than on the plans.

All in all i was very favorably impressed with this boat and decided that it would make a great tender for the Wharram Tiki 30 that we're currently building. I will keep you posted as we build this delightful little boat.






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