SPECIAL BOATING SECTION

W E BELIEVE that Butterfly would qual-

ify as a character boat. A character boat
is a boat that meets all the standard require-
ments for being a boat but does so in an un-
usual way. For example, Butterfly is actually
three boats in one.
In designing Butterfly, we had to satisfy
Build Our several requirements of the family. Some
wanted to sail. Some wanted to canoe.
Beautiful Some wanted just to dinghy. And we
wanted to be able to haul the rig to the
Butterfly lake without having to mess with all the
paraphernalia that goes with trailering.
Thus, Butterfly can be sailed as a
A Great Project For The cat-rigged catamaran. Or you can re-
Beginning Sail Enthusiast move the mast and crossbeams and
have two one-man dinghies. Or you
By Boyd 0. Brougher bolt the two hulls together stern-to-
stern and have a two-man canoe.
Butterfly was designed first and
foremost for fun and she accom-
plishes that beautifully. She won't
sink. She won't tip over (at least
not with her own 9-ft. mast and
sail; the El Toro sail we put on her
is a different matter and we'll talk
about that in a minute). And she
doesn't take up a lot of room. You
can carry her down to the water
in the back of a station wagon.

BUTTERFLY really consists of three boats in one. She's a small basic sail boat that's
convertible to a two-man canoe or two one-man dinghies. She's uncomplicated, unfancy.
Mechanix Illustrated
Beautiful Butterfly
And you can store her in the corner of
the garage without having to sell the car.
But more, Butterfly is a beautiful
boat to build if you've never built a
sailboat before. She's not expensive and
she's not fancy or overdone. Everything
about her is designed simply, with every
function accomplished in the least-com-
plicated fashion.
Since the bottom planking at the bow
is the only curved part of the entire
boat, Butterfly can be assembled by
nearly any beginning craftsman. Use
1/4-in. plywood for deck, sides and bot-
tom planking. We used oak stock for the
remainder of the boat except the mast,
but oak is heavy and you could just as
well use any other wood—spruce, fir,
pine, cedar. Douglas fir is best for mast
and boom and is cheap.
PLYWOOD sides, deck and bottom fasten to
frame pieces with 1-1/4" galvanized nails.
BOTTOM planking goes on after the sides
are cut and in place. No steaming necessary.
Cut all the framing pieces before you
start nailing. If at all possible, cut the
two transoms and two center ribs as
pairs so they'll fit each other when
bolted together to form the canoe. If you
can't cut them together, fasten them to-
gether for sanding. Assemble the frame
with resorcinol glue and galvanized
nails, which you'll use throughout.
With the frames assembled, lay the
plywood planking along each side and
mark where the sides will be cut. Then
cut, glue and nail them to the frame
every 3 in. With the sides fitted, care-
fully plane and sand the bottom of the
frames to take the bottom planking.
Then, checking to make certain the
frame is square, lay the bottom plank-
ing in place, gluing and nailing every
3 in. Start at the bow and nail both
sides at an equal pace. Then cut off the
excess plywood, leaving a little extra
CROSSBEAM, 2x2 stock 77 in. long, bolts to
the top of the main rib with 1/2 x 3-1/2" bolts.
KEEL plate and bracket, custom-made, an-
chor two hulls together to form the canoe.
Beautiful Butterfly
for later planing and sanding down.
Lay on the decking in the same way.
If the deck is fitted tightly the inside of
the bow will form an air pocket if the
boat ever swamps, making it nearly im-
possible to sink. When all other parts
of the hull have been completed, fasten
in place the keel strip and the metal
brackets that hold the hulls in canoe
position.
We have two masts for our Butterfly.
The smaller one, shown here, is 9 ft.
long and cut from 2x2 stock. Drill a 3/8-
in. hole in the bottom end of the mast
and glue a 6-in.-long 3/8-in. rod into the
hole, leaving about 2 in. sticking out.
In putting up the mast, insert this rod
into a hole drilled in the forward cross-
beam. This permits the mast to swing.
The rod will hold the mast in place
while the stays are being attached to
the hulls. The two forward stays (fitted
with spring snaps) are hooked into eye
hooks set in the center of each bow.
The two rear stays are hooked to the
inside corners of the transoms.
Then we have this El Toro sail. It is
for moving out at gutsy speeds. We've
not tipped over with it yet, but there are
possibilities of it, so proceed with cau-
tion if you decide to get one.
For rigging, bore two holes near the
top of the mast. One is a 3/8-in. hole an
inch from the top. The other is a 1/4-in.
hole an inch lower. The top hole is used
to fasten the top ends of the two forward
stays, which anchor the mast upright.
Both stays are slipped through the hole
(from opposite directions) and knotted
close to the mast. The bottom hole is
used for anchoring the top ends of the
two rear stays. Slip them through the
hole (both from the same direction)
and knot them in the front of the mast.
The boom, of 1x2 stock, is 6 ft. long.
It fastens to the mast with side plates,
according to the plan, and has holes
drilled at each end for anchoring the
rope that holds the bottom of the sail to
it. Drill a third hole near the end of the
boom to anchor the mainsheet, which is
simply knotted in place.
Make the tiller shaft from 2x2 stock,
24 in. long, and saw a kerf in the bottom
end deep enough to take the tiller blade,
which is plywood. You can make pon-
toons for the dinghies if you think you'll
need them. Other than to make the wife
happy, we have never used the pon-
toons on our dinghies. But a happy wife
is the only kind to have along if you're
on an outing, so if you have one it might
pay to build the pontoons. Use 4x4 stock
of some low-density wood (we used
cedar) and cut it into two 18-in. sections.
Then apply sealer.
For a sail, Dacron is best but several
other cloths will work if you'd like to
make your own. We used nylon and
made it ourselves and it was no big deal.
Just cut to shape, hem and install grom-
mets along the edge about every 10 in.
You can install battens (thin strips of
wood that slip into pockets in the sail
and help hold it rigid) if you want to
but it's hardly worth it. A word of
warning: homemade sails can work well
. . . but they seldom look like much.
In finishing Butterfly, a good marine
paint probably is best. We decided to
use a Formica finish on ours because
further maintenance is practically nil.
But it costs twice as much as paint,
takes twice as long to put on and is
enormously heavy, which will hamper
the boat's performance. •
Mechanix Illustrated