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There's a refreshing directness and practicality
about the Australian approach to life, whether it be to cricket or boat building. A good example of this was seen
at last years Greenwich Wooden Boat Show in the shape of a little day boat with the unlikely name of Scruffie.
Scruffie is the brainchild of Derek Ellard, a UK-born Aussie, and so-called because this is a boat designed to
be used and to get bashed around. To make his product accessible to as wide a cross-section of the public as possible,
he designed a boat that is light on the pocket and easy
to assemble, needing only basic DIY skills,
simple, non-specialist tools and a workshop or garage to house her, She is for sail or outboard, intended to handle
either with equal efficiency. The message has certainly caught on in Australia, where sail numbers are already
in the 100s.
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Pic 1: The Scruffie as a flat-pack.
All the parts are pre-cut for easy assembly. Colin Oakes is in the centre with Rex Lord to his Left.
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Pic 2: The plywood bulkheads,
frames and benches are fitted to the softwood keel. A loose tongue locates the stern and sternpost to the keel.
Epoxy resin was used to build the British prototype - although other glues may be equally suitable.
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The hull is l5ft 9in on deck with a 6ft 6in beam,
designed to have no centreboard and a draught of only 1ft 8in (4.8 x 2 x O.5m). The shape
is reminiscent of what boatbuilding guru and author Howard Chapelle calls a “modified sharpie”,
having a V-bottom with more dead rise at the stern and the bow. There is a single chine with small bilge runners
for protection which we felt were necessary. The stem is raked forward, the bows flaring slightly up to the cambered
foredeck which encloses a forward buoyancy tank-cum-locker. There are narrow side decks extending right back to
the transom, parallel side benches and a transom seat, leaving the interior completely clear.
As this is a boat intended for amateur as well as
professional assembly, the method of construction is straightforward. Using solid timber for the longitudinal members
and the keel, and marine ply for everything else, the whole structure is fastened with stainless steel screws and
epoxy resin. The frames and side benches, which form part of the structural strength, are 9mm ply, while the skin,
transom and front bulkhead are 6mm.
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Pic 3: View from the stern, with
sternpost in place.
Note softwood stiffening on floors.
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Pic 4: Fitting the final frames.
Note the notched-in spacers to align the aft bulkhead.
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The real saving in time and boat building know-how
comes with the way the kit
package is presented. Derek has developed
a system of slotting pre-cut parts together which obviates the need for any measuring or that elusive skill - the
shipwright's eye. The kit comes in two parts with a building manual and instruction video. The first part is a
flat pack containing everything for the hull: the timber sized joints ready for assembly and the plywood pre-cut
ready to be pressed out for use (rather lke
those balsa wood model glider kits). Glue,
mixing pots and even gloves are included in the deal with the only exception being paint. The second part comprises
the rig, rudder, cleats, rigging and sails.
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Pic 5: Fitting the “trapezoida”
keel infill, which does away with having to cut a keel rebate. The notch on the corners is to receive the chine
stringer.
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Pic 6/7: Similarly, instead of
rebating the stern to take the hood ends, shaped infills are fitted on either side.Marking off the front end of
a topside panel.
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The method of assembly is clear cut and obvious.
The back of the keel is grooved, as is the sternpost, with a tongue to locate the two together. The same procedure
is followed with the stem and, having checked with a straight edge that it's all true, everything else literally
just slots into place. The strengthening pieces for the frames are all numbered and beveled to take the angle of
the appropriate frame and the curve of the hull. To form the curve of the bottom panel, there are two 16-l8ft (4.9
- 5.5m) lengths of timber, trapezoidal in shape, which fit into notches in the frames against the keel.
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Pic 8: Fitting a topside panel,
with wooden clamps - and plenty of conventional ones - holding it in place prior to gluing and screwing.
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Pic 9: Scruffie UKI begins to
take shape in Redruth, Cornwall. Note softwood bulwark strengthener let into the tops of the frames.
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Instead of a centreboard, there is a 32 to 64 kg
of lead ingots let into the keel, well-bedded in epoxy and sealed in with a wooden batten. This brings the weight
of the finished hull to 660lb (300kg) (Scruffie 16')
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Pic 10/11: With the framework
completed and the topside panels fitted, the hull is tuned over for the bottom panels. Note recesses cut into the
keel to receive lead ballast. Lead ballast is now factory fitted before delivery.
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Pic 12/13: ...before the bottom
panel is eased into place. The chine stringer ensures a good bond between topside and bottom panels. Note tongued
joint between stem and keel.
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The rig, a standing lug sail with optional jib,
is again very simple. The solid timber mast is stepped in a tabernacle on the aft end of the king plank, a triple
laminated beam. It is secured with fore and side stays. The single-sailed version, which I sailed, was a loose-footed
standing lugsail with the tack secured by a shackle to an eye at the foot of the mast. The halyards lead from an
eye on the yard through a block at the masthead to another block further down the yard, back to the masthead and
down to a cleat at the foot. To tension the luff, there is an outhaul from midway up the mast to a pulley at the
lower end of the yard.
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Pic 14: The four boftom panels are in place,
prior to cleaning off the edges. The keel is relatively deep and is ballasted, which makes a centreboard unneccesary.
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Pic 15/16: Cleaning affilie edge
of fhe bottom panels. Screws must be suitably set bock to avoid damaging the plane. Fitting the foredeck. The sidedecks
seal off the tops of the frames and stiffen the bulwards.
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There is a stainless steel horse for the mainsheet
over the transom. The transom is cut away to accommodate an outboard - about 3hp is recommended. The rudder is
built up of three pieces of ply with two triangular infills, again requiring only a minimum of shaping.
And so to sea. There was an easy dinghy breeze blowing
out of the Penryn River when we launched the Scruffie in Falmouth. There was a little tide to contend with as we
negotiated the moorings off Customs House Quay, but the Scruffie showed no sign of letting it bother her, and reached
eagerly off to Trefusis Point. The parallel seats, which it must be said are not particularly pretty, turned out
to be highly practical in the absence of a centreboard casing against which to jam one's feet when heeling.
The absence of a centreboard means the interior
of the boat is extremely spacious and would lend itself to fishing or camping with ease. We gybed, a quiet painless
matter of hauling in the sheet as she went around and easing it out on the other tack, the boomless foot flicking
over after the yard.
To test her windward performance
we set off uptide, upriver and upwind towards the Falmouth marina, zigzagging through the boats on either side
of the channel. I was more and more impressed by her behaviour. With no centreboard or jib, I expected her to be
somewhat slow in coming about, certainly with some leeway, but she forged on with no hesitation. Even in the lee
of Flushing Quay she was able to carry her way round through the tack without any trouble. When she'd made her
point several times over, we broadened off and scooted back to the dinghy hard in a quarter of the time it had
taken to leave it behind.
There are one or two minor refinements I feel could be made. For example, if the mast were stepped on the keel
against the forward bulkhead, one could do without stays and the halyard and outhaul could be simplified. However,
I think she fulfils her brief very well. Derek Ellard believes that at her low price and with her ease of assembly
the Scruffie has worldwide appeal. Add to that her performance under sail and that comfortable cockpit, and I believe
so too.
Article by
Judy Brickhill - Classic Boat Magazine
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