Thread: A Comparison of three daylailers .....which would you choose ?

Hello

I am attracted to the lines of Nordic style boats.

These three boats in particular have my attention :
All three are sail and oar day boats. Roomy , light , and
pretty.Uses shall be primarily comfortable for day sailing , when the wind stops , out come the oars. No stink pot motors allowed.

John Atkin`s Valgerda , ( 1952 )

18 ft 7 inches x 5 ft 8 inches
100 lbs ballast.

Comments by the designer :

The "working boats" were fitted with an old-fashioned standing lug and they depended for stability on a cargo of fish. Because of their lack of initial stability, I designed a new keel - the original boats had a long, shallow keel approximately 4 inches deep. When loaded, they had sufficient lateral plane to hold the little craft on the wind. With expert handling, they had little difficulty in reaching port. In many respects, the Hardangersjekte has the same basic characteristics as our Bank dory, the Maine peapod, and similar workboats. Present-day Coast Guard loading rules would not give the Hardangersjekte a very good rating, but they have tremendous reserve stability and are excellent sea boats.
I've shown the standing lug rig -- solid spruce mast, yard, and boom. Sail area is 72 square feet, which will be sufficient to reach and run as well as to work to windward after a fashion. I'm fond of the simplicity of the standing lug rig, and I feel that in a boat of this type, a low aspect ratio is more effective. I prepared the rather shoal fin keel, fitted with lead ballast of approximately 106 pounds, because of her lack of initial stability and the unlikelihood of her carrying a cargo of fish.





Wonderful example built by Rick Cardone. http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&so...PHsFpg&cad=rja



Francois Vivier`s Youkou Lili / Elorn :

18 ft 8 inches x 4 ft 11 inches

Comments by the designer :

Between Youkou-Lili and me, it is a love story. It is a boat that I have imagined, drawn, and built in my garage, and launched finally in 1985. I wanted an excellent boat both under sail and under oars. Aven, then the reference boat, did not satisfy me with its rowing performances. Youkou-Lili, is inspired both by the Norwegian "faering", and by the American "Swamscott dory" (flat bottom). Both are excellent rowing boats with good sea-keeping abilities. Originally I intended to make it with timber planks, varnished or oiled. But beside the difficulty of finding good quality large planks, I realised the boat could as well be built with plywood, without making this substitution apparent. The plywood is painted, and this is conforming to the aesthetics of a small traditional boat. Built that way, Youkou-Lili could sail several decades without aging. It met the marshes of Brière, the Erdre river near Nantes, the waters of North and South Brittany, the Iroise sea at the extreme West of France (picture), the Connemara in Ireland, Norwegian lakes and fjords....
I have tried successively the sprit-sail sloop rig and the dipping lug, and when I sold the boat, the standing lug sail. I like much the sprit-sail, unrecognized and typical of many Northern Europe boats. But after the first years, I have fitted the dipping lug sail (picture). It is a demanding rig. You have to gybe (pass the yard from one side to the other), which can be done within seconds with practice. But it is the best performing traditional rig, due to sail always well apart from the mast. Whether sailing or rowing, Youkou-Lili had always the first place in the sail and oars contests it participated.

A fine example by Clint Chase boat builder.
Building, Designing, Rowing & Sailing Small Boats on the Coast of Maine


And ....Francois Vivier again , with :

Seil 18

17 ft 8 inches x 5 ft 4 inches

Comments by the designer :

Seil is a large pram designed initially for a group of yachtsmen from Nantes area, eager to have a sail and oar boat suited to navigation on the Loire, and rivers in general. Seil is in fact the name of a backwater, now filled up, of the Loire river.
A pram is a boat of Scandinavian origin, characterized by a clinker construction and especially by a small fore transom. The fore rocking facilitates embarking on the strand.
The full fore and aft hull lines make Seil a very seaworthy and stable boat. This shape of hull obstructs a little in a choppy sea but it is ultimately a boat as well adapted to the sea as with sheltered water.
Of moderated width, Seil is easily pulled under oars and is a very good compromise between sail and oars abilities.
Seil has the capacity to take on board a numerous crew (up to 6), which makes it a boat well adapted to the family or collective uses: sailing schools, youth organisations or other associations.
It is rigged with a high aspect standing lug sail. When tacking, you just have to pass the sheet from one side to the other. The crew can lower the mast, for example to get under a bridge......

Seil was thus victorious in 2004 of the raid "Sail Caledonia" in Scotland.







Valgerda is a Norwegian Faering , and John Atkin took the lines off an original boat imported to the US in 1952..
He added a deeper keel not originally seen on Norwegian Faerings .If I decide to build Valgerda , it will be built with the original 4" keel. I am also considering a simple dagger board.The 100 lbs of ballast would be retained to float her on her lines.

Three contenders , given the same use , which would you choose ?