The lines of a 6' 3" pram

I was looking for plans to a very small pram. Since I wasn't able to find exactly what I was looking for, I had to try something else. I found a few promising pictures and even a quite close lines drawing (although several feet too long and too narrow in the bow area) and ended up drawing it by myself. The original lines were just shown as 300 x 150 pixel image so the drawing was merely a guideline. I made a 1:10 model out of the plans and seemed to have the lines quite accurately in place.

The drawings were not too difficult although I had to improvise a few areas in the bow and transom, so the drawing is in no ways perfect what comes to draughtmanship. It was quite easy to scetch the lines with AutoCAD after I figured out how the different perspectives affected each other. Then it was almost too easy to print the drawing out with 1:10 scale and transfer the lines from the print to a building jig. I am certain that the jig (not to talk about the final model) is off by one or two millimeters here and there but the model is symmetrical and looks quite good. Only the sheerline in the model leaves a lot to be desired since I didn't have wide enough planks to get enough curve in it. It has been a problem with all of my models, 20 mm wide planks just aren't wide enough for a 1:10 or 1:15 model.

The plans...

... and the pram.

It's easy to practice with such a small project. Even building the model (with 1 mm planking) didn't take more than two afternoons.

Above you see the drawings, a building jig and the finished model.

Hopefully I find some time to build the pram. We have only a few months to the start of the boating season and I still have four wooden boats to tar, paint, varnish and fix before that. But at least I have my first design on my bookshelf...

A few other images of my sketch models

An imaginative racing gaffer built just by eye

Two very different approaches to modelmaking. At top an unfinished model built from a kit and at bottom yet another link in the long chain of finding the"real" boat for me.

A model of one of our own boats, Manta (the whole story of the real boat can be found from the link). The model was held together just by rivets and a drop of glue on each end of the plank. As you can see the sheerline has similar problems as the pram, the planks just aren't wide enough to get a sweet curve.