Figured I would start the catch up with the boat that kinda caused me to stop posting for awhile. This was the one person cruiser I started building and was the genesis for this blog thingy. I did launch the boat but the launch was so hilariously disastrous that I was too embarrassed to continue posting. Fact was that my subconscious was sending me warning signals about my design but chose to ignore them to my detriment.

So, I dragged the failed boat home and left it sitting in the garage while I played with my Holder 20 sailboat. Eventually, I decided to try and salvage this boat. First step was to cut out a portion of the V bottom to give it a bit less flotation and a bit more stability. In other words, converted it into a multichine with V shaped entry and exit. Next, I got rid of the raised cockpit and redesigned to sail while sitting on the bottom. Thought I might sail from inside the cabin. As you can see from the pictures below, the resulting boat looked kinda strange. It did work but I wasn’t a fan of sailing from inside a cabin where you couldn’t feel the wind.

So, once again back to the drawing board. At this point I was flushing good effort after bad design but I was determined to redeem myself by making this boat work. Fortunately, the third time was the charm and I ended up with a boat that was a great sailor and comfortable (in a bivy sack sort of way) for overnighting.

I ended up using Blue Dog both in the Florida 120 challenge (120 miles without motor in the Pensacola, FL area) and for the Texas 200 where blue dog herded several yellow puddle duck racers. Here are some photos.

The performance of Blue Dog was excellent. It caught the attention of another participant of the Texas 200 who recommended his brother buy the boat. Soon after, I sold Blue Dog.