Schooner?

This hull, photo1 was passed on to me last year. The owner said his father carved it some 45 years ago. It has never been fully painted , however a deck has been laid on red lead at some time but is now missing.


Photo 2 shows a hole for mast with a step below ,very well forward and a second mast step just aft of it. Too close in my view. I have tried to highlight these in white paint.


Photo 3 show this second mast step reversed which brings it 19" aft of the forward step. This now looks as if it could be a schooner?

Photo 4 white area is a thicker part of the hull ,could it be for a rudder ? but photo 5 shows an extension on the keel, a bit strange. I have drawn a vertical pencil line with the idea of cutting this portion off and inserting a rudder tube and moveable rudder?

Dimensions; LOA 61" LWL 51" Beam 10 3/4" Deck to keel 11" weight 50lbs approx; Carved from a solid block of pine. Full length lead keel. Fore foot and deadwood are separate and screwed onto hull before keel was affixed.

Your comments would be appreciated and details of any schooner rig you have would be very helpful. I keep finding these strange hulls one day I might hit the jackpot with something identifiable!!!.


Roger Grace

 

vmyg comment.

It must surely be a one off. I think that your suggestion for the revised position of the mast step is right and that she was intended as a schooner. I attach some possible rigs. I fear you will have to do a lot of cutting and trying to get the rig right. The only consolation is that with that amount of displacement, there's small risk of overcanvassing her.

I think a working rudder is only worth the effort if you are going to put radio in. Otherwise leave her as she is and accept that she will only be able to sail to windward.

Rig drawings now attached. 1 is from the 'Work' handbook of 1902, but clearly dates from earlier. 2 is from 'Model Yachtsman and Canoeist' in the late 1880s Russell Potts