PocketShip

Product Description

The Pocketship is a fast-sailing pocket cruiser with a dry and commodious interior. The boat can be launched and sailed single-handed and the cabin provides dry camping accommodation for two adults. The cockpit is laid out for daysailing comfort and is large enough for sleeping on warm nights.

John Harris has designed, built, owned and cruised aboard a variety of smallcraft. He designed PocketShip to be quick and easy to build using stitch-and-glue plywood construction. Examples are now sailing on four continents; as of this writing more than 60 are sailing or under construction around the world.

There is no more simple way to cruise than this design from John C. Harris. This is one dandy looking little boat. It's shapely, with lots of sheer, a pugnacious bow profile and sweet overall hull lines.

Robert H. Perry, Sailing magazine, June 2009

Interior arrangements are ample, we think bigger and more comfortable than anything else this size, without compromising Pocketship's looks and performance. Two adults may sleep below or wait out a rain shower and a portable head can be stowed beneath the cockpit, sliding forward into the cuddy for use. The enclosed area of the cabin is identical to an average four-man tent, but drier, more private and more secure.

The first boat was built and painted with the spars fitted in about 525 hours. The typical amateur builder might require about 30 weekends and occasional evenings to complete this boat. This kit is no more difficult to build than our other kits but there are many more parts: practice on a smaller vessel would speed things up but it is by no means essential.

We recommend purchasing the manual in advance of the kit; in addition to walking you through construction, the manual will answer most questions about tools, materials and your building space needs.

The manual is part of the dream, still frames of the amazing time you will have doing something meaningful with your family.

Brendan Greeley, Financial Times, June 2022

PocketShip is stiff and fast and tacks through 90 degrees. The helm is light and the boat will spin nearly in its own length in both light and heavy air and with a variety of sail combinations. We are thrilled with performance and handling – all expectations have been exceeded. The boat's speed under sail has startled many larger and more pretentious boats.

While the boat's sailing qualities are sufficient to undertake long expeditions in challenging waters without power, many sailing examples have small outboards mounted on a stern bracket for negotiating marinas, channels, or flat calms. We've seen up to five horsepower, but two horsepower is ample even for rough conditions. The excellent Honda four-stroke 2 HP is light enough not to diminish sailing qualities. Aftermarket outboard brackets are plug-and-play without modification to the transom.

The hull kit includes:

• Pre-cut hull panels, bulkheads, decks, keel, rudder, centreboard and plywood components
• Pre-drilled bulkheads and panels for assembly with wire ties
• Planed timber parts for the hull
• Wood for the spars
• The pre-cut parts for the building cradle
• Epoxy resin and activator
• Epoxy fillers
• Copper ties
• Woven glass fabric
• Plans
• Comprehensive building manual

The basic hull kit does not include:

• Sails and sailing hardware
• Hull hardware
• Lead ballast

This kit weighs a lot and requires a specialised courier. The price of delivery will vary with your address. You are, of course, very welcome to collect the kit from our Lake District workshop.

Study manual

This is for builders who want to study the building process before committing to the purchase of the kit or plans. The 280-page instruction manual walks you through construction from cutting out the plywood to rigging. With almost 800 photos and diagrams and comprehensive explanations in plain English, no pocket cruiser project has ever been documented quite so thoroughly. This manual is included in the kit.

If, later, you decide to purchase the kit the cost of this printed manual will be deducted from the kit price.

This manual does not contain the plans of the panels with the cutting instructions so it is not possible to build the boat from scratch using only this manual.

PDF study manual

The construction manual for the boat is also available as a PDF download. After credit card authorisation a download link will be sent to the email address put on the order form.

Plans (not required by kit purchasers)

PocketShip plans include 116-feet of full-sized patterns for all plywood parts in the hull (and many other parts besides), and 11 pages of traditional scaled architectural drawings including sails and spars.

These plans do not include the instruction manual. You will also need the manual to build the boat – we recommend getting the manual to study before buying the plans.

Plans and instructions are in both metric and imperial measurements.

PDF study plans

These study plans are intended to give you an overview of the construction of the boat. They are in PDF format that can be viewed using Adobe Reader. There are ten pages and they measure 432 × 279 mm (17″ × 11″). They can be printed for carrying around.

After credit card authorisation the plans will be sent to the email address put on the order form.

When you have studied the plans, your next step might be to order the printed instruction manual, which will walk you through the project step-by-step.