No Frills 15

Welcome to Jon's Pocket Cruiser Page!

I've been interested in sailing for many years, and I've wanted to build a boat for as long as I can remember. When I was a little kid, my dad built a stretch canvas over plywood frames kayak, and I loved cruising around the lake at our cottage in Nova Scotia in that.

Recently, I bought a house in a small rural farming village, and for the first time I actually have space to build a small boat. My sons are all at the age where they want to spend time with "Dad" working on stuff, and I've got this barn near the back of my property that is 20 feet by 15 feet on the inside. Basically, the perfect set of ingredients to build a little sail boat.

I spent a good deal of time surfing the net, researching small sailboat designs in the 15-20 foot range. I want to have a boat small enough that I can build it in my barn, but big enough to sleep two, and day-sail four or occasionally five people (three of them kids). I finally came across a neat little design called the "No Frills 15" designed by John Pruitt.

I decided to create a CAD model of the boat. I find that for a project as complex as this one, building a CAD model first helps me gain a much better understanding of how everything goes together, and what kinds of issues I may run into while building it.

Here is a page with some pictures of a No Frills 15 that a guy is building....

I hope that I will be building this boat someday. If you want to order a set of plans, you should send a check or money order for $40 (USD) to the designer:

John Pruitt
1346 Sycamore Street
Stockbridge, GA  30281-4502

Note that the designer wrote a two-page plan study in the September/October 2006 issue of Small Craft Advisor.

Feel free to send me an email if you've got any comments or questions...