Media Vintage 1965 era rudderless Sailboat, not sure if homebuilt or kit, pictures attached. Hope to identify.

[Steve Watson]

My late father-in-law had this sailboat, we still have possession of it. Made of wood. Trying to determine if it was home-built from imagination, kit built. or something at a dealership. I see initials on the hull, maybe "GC or GO". They lived in Michigan in Detroit at the time, waterway near that area. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I am not a sailboat owner, but our family may rebuild this one, or create a new one from scratch. I have not examined it up closely to determine the sailcloth material or hardware, I believe the mast is wood. I have searched the internet and have never found a similiar image on this design. Thank you, new member.

 

[Steve Watson]

Update: 1-9-20 One extra picture added of the interior of the two piece hull structure. Hull is made up of two pieces of plywood, 4' x 8'. The mast is 15 foot high, either a 2 x 4 or 2 x 6. The sail is 12' high x 7' wide, with the hypotenuse 14'. The base of each sail has a wooden dowel inside of it that is 1 3/4 inch in diameter. I will create a separate post shortly to add more photos. Appears that the mast sat on top of the hull and did not extend down into it. Thank you to all who have chimed in and provided all of the interesting information!

A brick! Bolger had a similar design



Design Considerations Of The Puddle Duck Racer

Denise, Bristol PA, Oday30, Anchor Yacht Club, On tidal Delaware River. my current project; http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthre...0-Ducker-Resto

Looks a bit like an attempt to go full circle and create a sailing South Bay Shingle. I am imagining that it could be steered by fore and aft weight shift and by using the jib as an air rudder. It wouldn't surprise me if there were one or two low-aspect boards/runners underneath?

Yes, the club jib is the "rudder". Notice the bridle under the jib. This creates a line of tension from the jib's peak down to a spot part way aft on the jib. The jib then pivots on this line when sheeted in or eased out, increasing or decreasing the pressure on the jib and its relationship to the mainsail. These adjustments then change the fore and aft location of the sailplan's combined center of effort, pushing the bow either more upwind (jib eased out) or more downwind (jib trimmed in). The configuration also eliminates nearly all sail twist in the jib to prevent it from spilling wind. A similar system is used on most radio controlled model sailboats. It allows the jib to be controlled with only one sheet and servo.

As Clarkey mentioned above, you still need something (keels, fins, sharp hull edges, etc.) to create some resistance to side slipping for this to work well and to generate a place for the hull to pivot on as the fore and aft CE shifts with sail trim.

I built one of those in 1961 in Wisconsin. I saw an article about one in Life magazine and built it from the photos. I never saw any plans but it did have a pair of low aspect fins on each side. An yes, you steered with the jib.

A similar idea to this: http://earwigoagin.blogspot.com/2015...magazines.html

 

[Steve Watson]

Turns out that the designer of this boat was a retired architect named Lowell Christman. He designated it as a "GO" sailboat. He received a patent on it in 1959, it is featured in Life Magazine issue June 15th 1959 starting on page 55. I will attach the patent as a PDF file, at the end of the patent narrative are two reference to Popular Mechanics issues, one is November 1949 pages 210-213, which features an ice sailboat, the other is Popular Mechanics issue July 1958 pages 168-172 which gives instructions on a paddle board and it looks like Christman used a diagram of a sail rig/mast design which he used on his "GO" boat. If you use Google to search these back issues you can go directly to each article. The patent PDF file is too large to attach, sorry. A Google search will easily turn it up for you. I have ordered a copy of the Life 1959 issue and the Popular Mechanic July 1958 issue from EBAY. I may post those articles here when they come in. Enjoy.