Le Cou Rouge

By Will Taylor #607 "Le Cou Rouge" (2ar)

Hi Shorty,

Its Will Taylor writing. The boat has a name:Le Cou Rouge, (that's redneck in french). So many of her systems were red-necked together. There's all types of screws in her: stainless, galvanized, sheet rock, silicon bronze and brass. The mast and yard are young trees smoothed out. The rudder is cobbled together from layers of plywood and 3 different sizes of lumber. And of course the sail is poly tarp, duct tape and tuck tape. I used both epoxy and polyester resin to hold her together. The bucket tops in the buoyancy chambers work well (another "redneck" solution to hold the buckets in the holes). It was challenging to put her together on a minimal budget.

I was amazed at how easily she rowed; zipped right along. For the sailing trial, everything worked as I had planned. The rudder blade and lee boards sank and stayed down. The rudder handled easily with just the right amount of weather helm. The sail drew well (its a dipping lug of approximately 70 square feet). The hull moves extremely easily through the water. With just a breath of wind I was able to ghost along. She has a great feeling of stability. I can't wait to get her out on some big water with a big wind.

I plan to help Helen work on her boat over the winter so we can have some companionable sailing on the Annapolis River next summer. Thanks for the website. It was a great help putting Le Cou Rouge together.

will

Here is a direct link to Will's pictures and videos: [click here]