“Tread Lightly as an ultimate Daysailer”
One man’s approach to getting the boat he wants

After selling the last boat I built during the fall of 2005 I began looking at plans for another project. I had discovered “Duckworks” about that time and was interested in some of the designs of John Welsford. I joined the Yahoo website for Welsford design builders using the I.D. of “onelastboat” fully intending this next project be the last one.

After building 26 boats over a span of 50 years I felt that I had a pretty good idea of the design I needed at this point in my life. It was to be a day sailor, small enough to be easily handled and trailered, have a traditional rig, enough freeboard to allow 2 people to comfortably sit in the boat, and possibly have a small cabin that would allow dry storage and possibly a “porta-pottie”, another desirable item at this time of my life.

Soon after looking at the offerings of John Welsford, I found the design that interested me the most was “Tread Lightly”. I felt that it offered the basic conditions of design and with some modification could be my next project. This decision led to my purchasing a set of plans from “Duckworks” so that I could spend some time making the modifications that I had in mind.

After sitting down with the plans it became apparent that the cabin could be reduced in size by moving the cabin bulkhead forward to the next design station thus allowing a cabin of sufficient size to accommodate my needs.

Full Cabin

Reduced

This change immediately showed that the cockpit would be approximately 6’ 6” in length giving me a space that would allow me to stretch out if I want to lie down. Even though this overall length was a pleasant surprise it was also apparent that the design layout would not allow seats of sufficient width to be comfortable for lying or sitting.

After some sketching and mockup work the answer was to move the centerboard case inboard about 4” (it was off center in the design anyway) and to increase the width cockpit overall by a few inches on either side. With the length and width where I wanted them the next challenge was to see if the seats could be lowered so that you sat down in the boat more than sitting on top of it. The limiting factor here was the centerboard case height.

It should be mentioned here that even though I feel that modifications to accommodations and interior space are up to the builders, any changes to the overall sailing design including rig, centerboard, rudder, hull shape and overall weight should be avoided to be fair to the designer and not risk safety or sailing performance. All of the modifications I accomplished were done with this thought uppermost in my mind.

Getting back to the centerboard case, I found that if I could move the lifting tackle which was enclosed in the upper part of the case I could easily lower the overall height of the case without changing the size or position of the centerboard itself. Being that the forward end of the case was now located at my new cabin bulkhead the lifting tackle could exit at the forward top of the case into the cabin and the multipart tackle would be mounted vertically on the inside of the cabin bulkhead.

At this point I was feeling good about how things were coming together, but there were still some things that I needed to address if I was going to get the features I wanted.

The next item to work out was the propulsion system. There will always be times when the need for some type of engine would be welcome. I had long thought that I would like to try to use an electric motor and was determined to make it work in this boat.

John’s plans call for 100 kilograms of ballast in the bottom of the boat near the design center. This gave me the location for my battery bank, which consisted of two deep cycle batteries. These were housed within a bridge deck that I built at the forward end of the cockpit. Access to the batteries was from the inside of the cabin.

The motor was made up from an electric trolling motor with a shortened shaft housed within a plywood box that could be slipped into a motor well cut through the bottom of the boat and constructed so that it was above the waterline.

My thought was that I could if desired remove the motor assembly and replace it with a plug of the same size ridding the boat of the drag of the motor when sailing.

I even worked out a storage location within the cabin if the motor was removed for sailing. In retrospect, I now feel that the drag is not significant and may not go with removing the motor as I intended. At the same time it sure is nice to be able to lift the motor during beaching or for service if needed.

The next significant modification was doing away with the anchor well open foredeck design feature and sealing this and the area above the tiller at the stern of the boat to create floatation chambers.

The entire areas of both locations were constructed with epoxy fillets to seal them against any leakage. Accesses to the chambers were through screw in plastic hatches with gaskets.

The last item on my list of modifications was to see if I could arrange for a means of rowing the boat and building a set of oars that could fit inside the boat under the seats. With my cockpit modifications it became apparent that I could sit on the bridge deck and row the boat, the problem was that the oars would be too high if the locks were placed on the cockpit coamings . With a little study of the problem, it looked like I could make oar ports that were located in the middle of the upper hull strake and entered the cockpit in a near perfect location for the locks.

These ports were constructed so that they were covered with inserted panels with gaskets to seal the openings during sailing conditions. The oars would have to be approximately 8 ft. long to function properly so that cutting them in half would just allow me to slide them under the seat from within the cabin. After cutting the oars, I epoxied a piece of 16” aluminum tubing 8” over one of the cut ends so that this left 8” of socket for the other end to slip into, with a small thumbscrew to hold them together I now had my stow able oars.

The rest of the boat was built according to the plans of John Welsford with the only other change being to the sail plan. Because I do not like battens in a sail I asked to have the mizzen sail changed to eliminate them. This was done by changing the leach of the sail to get rid of the roach with attended battens and lengthening the foot by 200mm to reclaim the lost area of the roach.

The boat went together quite nicely and has proven to be exactly what I had wanted. The sail area is quite generous which allows spirited sailing and yet with a couple of jiffy reefs can be subdued when the wind conditions call for it.

The electric motor produces approx. 30 lbs. of thrust and will move the boat in still water at about 4 mph.

It is wonderful to control with 5 forward speeds and 3 in reverse. It was also very easy to motor sail by adding the motor thrust to the sail when conditions call for it. The 2 deep cycle batteries give me about 180 amp hrs. This translates into 6 hrs. operation time at full speed at 30 amps.

The cockpit is immense for the size of the boat, being 6’5” in length and very deep and protected.

Although it is not self bailing the cockpit and foot well is sealed from the rest of the boat. There is a grating at the bottom of the footwell to raise it off the bottom of the boat by a few inches. Under this grating is a plastic pickup and tubing that leads to a built in hand bilge pump that directs water out the back of the boat.

The porta-pottie arrangement works well with reasonable space to serve the need.

I tell interested people that I have a fully enclosed head compartment in a 13’ boat. John Welsford, upon seeing a picture of the head remarked, “he could see a stack of old Readers Digests accumulating there”.

The construction was begun in January 06 and completed in the summer of 06 and did not allow for extensive sailing this year because of our seasons in northern Minnesota. We will try to follow up with a complete long term sailing report in the future.

Bob Trygg
5923 North Shore Drive
Duluth, Minnesota 55804