Thread: Atkin Boat Plans - "Snow Baby"

have you looked through the Atkins site (www.atkinboatplans.com) to see if your little sailor matches up with one of the stock plans? If you could offer more details I could probably help.



Is it shaped like this?





With the sailing rig. This is "Pocahontas".

Thanks for the reply. Yes I have been on the ATkin plans site and have found Snow Baby but whilst I am happy to purchase the plans, there seems to no functionality
to purchase by credit card etc- just the old mail order system. As I am in Australia,
this is more hassle than it's worth.

The 'Snow Baby' rig is a lot simpler than the Pochahontas. SB has a gunther rig
of 70m2.

If you are an experienced boat builder, you will be able to work from the Atkins plans. If you are a novice builder, then the Atkins plans will seem lacking in many ways.

Without an exact ID on the design, using the wrong set of plans can cause huge issues. As you probably know, the "centers" need to be in the right places or things just don't work well.

With some accurate measurements and some photos, any reasonably skilled designer can get you close enough so that the boat will sail.

These are the drawings off the Atkin site. I reckon I can work off these but it
would be nice if I had some dimensions and detail on method. Although I'm a novice,
I would have no problem working off the Atkin plan. I can also use drawings of similar designs out of a 'Modern Boating' book that Dad still has.

I reckon I can work off these

This is exactly what I was talking about previously. No, you can't work from a "similar" Atkin plan. It's either the actual plan or basically useless to a novice. To someone like me who understands where and why John or Billy Atkins might have placed his "centers" a similar plan can be helpful, but not to a novice.

The "details" portion of the rig could be worked out by a skilled builder, rigger or designer. You could also take "cues" from other Atkins plans of similar size and scale. Working or the scantlings is a different matter.

Post accurate dimensions of your boat. Length, beam, location of max beam, locations of the centerboard, it's pivot, it's physical size, mast step, draft and LWL if available, rudder area, etc. and we can thumb up something quite close, with adjustment space to fine tune on launch day. Attempting to do this yourself without understanding the relationships of the various elements is foolish.

Yes I understand the importance of sticking to the right plan - that is why I wanted the Snow Baby plans from Atkin in the first place. Some of the dimensions are on the attachment but I neglected to say my boat doesn't have the centreboard casing or anything - she's just an open dinghy with three thwarts. Therefore, pivot point, mast step etc are unavailable on my boat.
Look, thanks for your guidance but I think I will just post a plan order form to Atkin Boat Plans the old fashioned way.

Drosso.