Unicorn nee Felix


I recently hiked about 270 miles of the Appalachian Trail in 31 days (long story for another time). While hiking I decided that if I was going to go home without finishing the trail I would start a similar-scale project -but one that I could do at home. I had built a few simple wooden boats in the past and that seemed like an excellent project.

The style of boat I had wanted to build many years ago had completely slipped my mind, but I stumbled across it when I was searching for wooden boat plans and had a sort-of Eureka! moment when the memory of wanting to build that style came back to me. It is called a Fantail Launch, so named because the stern of the boat is rounded, "fanned out". The hulls of fantail launches are known to be extremely efficient at low speeds, largely because of the rounded stern. They are also known to be rather tricky to build as you'll see. I purchased a set of plans for a 13' fantail launch called Felix, designed by Selway Fisher. https://duckworks.com/felix-13-strip-planked-launch-plans/

After deciding to build a fantail launch, quite by chance my brother-in-law Bob, cousin-in-law Rick, and I attended the Wooden Boat Show at Mystic Seaport. On our way out, we saw that the Watercraft Hall, across the street from the main museum, was open. We had a grand time walking thru the warehouses containing hundreds of old wooden boats. The Watercraft Hall has several fantail launches in their collection in various states of repair. from barely holding together to absolutely pristine. I had an absolute blast searching for them and taking a million pictures for reference.

13 feet is very short for a fantail launch. Felix's stern, even tho' they called it a fantail, is actually drawn as a flat stern. As soon as the plans arrived I set about altering the stern to be a true fantail. The Selway Fisher design also showed a plumb straight stem so I modified that also, adding small curve which is common on fantail launches. The final modified design is closer to 14 feet with a 5 foot beam.

Having collected several unusual pieces of wood over many years, I have decided I will incorporate them into this boat as much as possible. The inner stem is laminated Shag Bark Hickory,  the outer stem is made from a piece of scrap wood from the Amistad, (a replica slave ship build by Mystic Seaport), the keel will be Mahogany, etc. I'll try to note where each piece came from as I figure it out.

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