PocketShip

Designer John C. Harris has designed, built, owned, and cruised aboard a variety of smallcraft.  His first camp-cruiser  as a teenager was an 11'6" rowing boat with a tent, in which he explored the upper Chesapeake, sleeping aboard.  Twenty years later, he wanted a fast-sailing pocket cruiser with a dry and commodious interior.  It had to be quick and easy to build or the project would never get finished, so stitch-and-glue plywood construction was a given.  The cockpit was laid out for daysailing comfort and is large enough for sleeping on warm nights.  Auxiliary propulsion is a pair of oars or a yuloh which will drive the boat at a couple of knots when the wind doesn’t suit. (PocketShip can carry an eggbeater outboard for those who simply cannot live without gasoline.) Two adults may sleep below or wait out a rain shower, and a portable head stows beneath the cockpit, sliding forward into the cuddy for use. The approximate build time is 550 hours or 30 weekends.