Like a lot of people I am in love with Scamp.  Its insanely cute.  Its the absolute minimum cruising boat.  Instead of being a shrunken big boat, its a small boat that celebrates its smallness with clever solutions. If you haven’t seen it, you can check it out here…

http://smallcraftadvisor.com/component/content/article/361

Just about everything about it is perfect, to my eye.  Except for going 3.5 knots to windward. 

Scampi is a scamp-esque 24’ proa.  It has a “veranda” type accommodating—with no hatch to speak of.  Your legs are covered when you sail, like those little blankets people use on scooters in europe.  The Veranda has 42” of headroom and its 8’ long. Its self bailing, with the floor above the waterline.  The sole of the veranda is a little more than two feet wide.  The pod could get a watertight bulkhead, or it could be a lovely place to store light stuff like tents and sleeping bags.  When sleeping aboard in the rain, a simple tarp over the cockpit makes her dry.  Throw a couple of zippers in the tarp, and you could pop your torso out, like a kayak spray skirt.

After drawing a beach cruiser and a Paradox type of accommodation, there’s something intriguing about the in-between, scamp-y approach.  Of course, Skip has been playing around with these ideas for years.

The lug schooner rig is a nod to scamp’s salty looks.  It could be a cambered junk. I gave it twice the sail area of Scamp, 200 square feet.  Scamp is a stout little vessel.  Its 450lbs rigged plus 170lb of water ballast.  Could we build Scampi to come in at 620 pounds?  We just might.

I bet we get to windward a little faster.

a few more views…

I tried it with one mast for giggles.  It might be faster, but its also likely to be harder to handle.  Keeping the mast outside the cockpit is nice.  It also feels saltier.  For a salty fantasy that counts for a lot.

The Scamp and the Paradox is my two favorite small cruisers. The Scamp is as you say, insanely cute.
I realy like your renderings of a Proa version of the Scamp. I would go with one sail in a proa this small. Its easier to handle and i think it gains up-wind performance. The lugsail is a very powerfull sail. My small models gets very overpowered by a simple one square-foot lugsail if there is some wind.

Cheers
Johannes

A few thoughts..

If someone was sleeping in the bunk, all the way outboard to the lee, would it tip the boat?

You might want to separate the masts more.  I got caught with my design, there is barely enough room to place a block on deck behind the sail.  I should have moved the forward mast forward, even a few inches would have helped. 

The “cockpit” area is not protected from spray in any way.  Do you have any ideas how to keep the pilot dry while moving fast? (other than a tarp)

When piloting this vessel, do you think the pilot would prefer to sit with his back to the outrigger, or facing forward?  Perhaps both as options?

Where would crew sit?

The Scamp and the Paradox is my two favorite small cruisers. The Scamp is as you say, insanely cute.
I realy like your renderings of a Proa version of the Scamp. I would go with one sail in a proa this small. Its easier to handle and i think it gains up-wind performance.

Thanks, Johannes.  I agree that one sail is simpler and probably has better performance. But one of the things I liked about the schooner was that it put masts right next to the bulkhead that the aka is bolted to And the cockpit is roomier too, with no obstruction in the middle.  On the schooner, the unstayed masts are inside enclosed volumes for stiffness.  Moving the mast to the middle of the cockpit means that you are putting an unstayed mast in the middle of an unenclosed volume.  That has to be weaker, right?  But in that respect, Scampi is probably going to be stiffer than the unstayed Palindrox would be, because there are no holes in the roof, just the cabin side. 

But ultimately I agree about one mast on a boat this small.  So here’s a version with what looks to me like enough support.  I also moved the mast step from the cabin floor to the sheer clamp.  There’s less supported length, but I’m trying to get the rig to windward.  The height of the “hatches” is about 23”, so its a bit of small hole to squeeze through, but inside she’s got 40” of headroom at the ends, 46” in the middle.

If someone was sleeping in the bunk, all the way outboard to the lee, would it tip the boat?

I think that on a boat this small, the pod might not make such a habitable bunk.  Its only 25” tall, maximum.  Too tight for my tastes.  I’d just use the pod for storage.  Along with water tight lockers in the floor and the bulkheads at either end of the cabin—like Scamp.

The “cockpit” area is not protected from spray in any way.  Do you have any ideas how to keep the pilot dry while moving fast? (other than a tarp)

When piloting this vessel, do you think the pilot would prefer to sit with his back to the outrigger, or facing forward?  Perhaps both as options?

Where would crew sit?

Your point about spray is well taken.  The cockpit sides were pretty low in the first version. I brought them up in this version to be as high as the house.  I also gave the windward side of the cockpit the same curvature as the pod, just to be jaunty.  But that high wall has to do a better job of sheltering the “hatches”

I think that the pilot would prefer to sit facing forward on a cushion, or in a little fabric sling chair.  But you’d always have the option of dangling your legs below.  The cockpit floor is 26” wide at the widest point so its a little deep for a seat.  Its not bad at the ends.  So you could sit either way.  The crew could sit facing leeward, or facing you, or below to get out of the sun or spray.  Mostly.

I pushed all of the chines down lower on this version, to put more of the roundishness below the waterline—inspired by the renderings of the Paul Bieker Proa on his blog.  I love everything about that boat. 

I kept the lug rig in this version, but next I’ll draw a split junk—where the battens are centered on the mast and the area ahead of the mast acts like a jib, or a slotted wing.  The panels behind the mast are cambered in the usual way.

Chris

chris

Sailing facing leeward hasn’t been a problem in my case, the more important issue is to have tiller and sheet leads reasonably configured. On P52 there were three helm positions. Light winds, standing in central hull to unload float.
Most usually sitting at aft end of cockpit facing leeward or facing more forward with windward leg tucked into a cross legged position. Wind pick up, move out to windward beam section of pod, feet down in cockpit seating area; a little uncomfortable to steer but it worked.

I’m of mixed emotions now regarding one or two masted rigs in this size craft. The una type rig has a lot of theoretical advantages but the schooner is sooo versatile, handy to maneuver at slow speed easy to trim and balance…............hard to choose.

I’d dismissed the schooner rig for a long time because the mechanics of shunting two sails seemed really intimidating. A lot of reflection and mentally going thru shunts, I’m less intimidated. Plus two proa sailors I know and really admire ended up with schooner rigs on their boats and that’s hard to ignore.

cheers,
Skip

i’m with you, Skip.  But is it worth the weight of two masts/rigs?  That and the reduced efficiency are a lot.

But smaller sails, with their lower sheet and halyard loads, plus a more flexible, and lower CE, have a lot of advantages too.  Especially as you get overpowered.

Thanks, as always for your thoughts.

Chris

These latest renderings of Scampi hit a lot of buttons for me. It’s just so cute! Maybe it’s the seafoam green…

The high ply cockpit looks nice, but I’d really work hard to figure out a canvas dodger solution - so much lighter weight. I also like the idea of flexible seating, helm positions, as Skip elaborates.

I’m torn between the twin rigs vs. single sticker as well, though I think I’d opt for the single in this size, especially if you are using Newick/Brown dagger rudders. But I’m so OCD that tomorrow I’ll be convinced the schooner is the only rig for me.

Thank you very much for these drawings and design ideas, they are excellent.

I like the two masted junk rig.  A low center of effort with squarish junk sails of at least 4 panels, and one line (per mast) reefing to move the center of effort fore and aft.  The junk rig is more complicated to set up but reefing or dropping sail is done with one line per mast. 

Regarding the cockpit: perhaps a grated self draining footwell. 

A plastic or tarp cover which is 120% of the width of the cockpit and about 70% of the length, which has pvc pipe taped on across the cockpit every 2 feet or so of the length. One tarp cover for each end of the cockpit could be fastened at one end and pulled out for use. The cover could fit in a bin behind the pilots head on each end of the cockpit, and as the proa shunts, the pilot can pull out the tarp cover and fit the pipe on the end of the cover into a slot so that the cover covers the cockpit and the aft end is raised up slightly to be a windshield, at a level just below the pilots eyes.  This is for cold water use.

For warmer weather, how would the pilot hike out toward the outrigger?  Perhaps with a door opening in the cockpit, sitting on the cockpit floor facing windward.  On a 0.5m wide board between the cockpit and outrigger float?

I like the idea of some fabric accessories for sealing it up a bit, but I also think you have to accept that fast boats are often wet.  The whole cabin is self draining—in the spirit of Scamp.  But I’ve also thought about having a little footwell in the middle, so that two could face each other at a wee table.  But I think I prefer the fully self draining option.  Its more camping than cruising.  Remember, a 24’ proa is just a tiny thing!

What are your ideas for leeboards and rudders?

Newick/Brown dagger rudders.  The tiller extension links will penetrate the cockpit front and back.  Maybe the holes where they pass through get sealed off with little flexible boots.

I like the idea of having a perch to windward.  So I drew one. 

I appreciate the feedback about multiple helm positions.  Moving crew weight around on a boat this small sounds like the right idea.  So now I have standing or sitting inside as an option, as well as the windward perch.  The high back of the cockpit provides some nice shelter for the hatches, which will get sliding tops and probably a fabric hatchboard for light weight.  The sheets and up/downhauls for the dagger rudders will all be led to consoles on either side of where the mast pierces the cabin top.

But what makes this Scampi different is the rig.  Its a split junk rig, inspired by Slieve McGalliard’s Poppy.
http://www.junkrigassociation.org/slieve

But this rig is different in a few ways.  The battens go around the mast.  I imagine a lubricious plastic ring on the inside to allow it to go up and rotate easily.  The forward panel of each section acts like a jib, blowing on the lee side of the main panel behind it.  The main panel is wrapped around the mast in front, fairing it into a wing that gives way to a single sided cambered panel.  Its a slotted wing.

If it works like Slieve says it does, it might be just the ticket for a proa this size.

I love putting the masts outside the cockpit in the schooner configuration, but it seems like a lot more spaghetti.  4 sheets!

At 24 feet long, the boat has a place for two to sit inside, facing each other at a small table, and two births in addition to the enormous cockpit and hiking ledge.  This might make a sweet little cruiser.

The sliding hatches, steering gear and some rigging lay outs will come next.

Scampi looks easier to build than Palindrox, despite her multi chine bottom.  She won’t be as airy inside, but the boat is a lot sleeker over all.

Here’s a quick comparison of Scampi and Palindrox.