Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Pacific Pelican


Stay tuned for the Pacific Pelican from Lou Brochetti....

Lou has revived a classic design in the San Francisco Pelican tradition. Part Banks dory, with the bow of a sampan and an attractive balanced lug rig, the Pacific Pelican at 14 feet 7 inches over all length is a hybrid between the famous San Fransisco Pelican (12 ft LOA) and the camp cruising classic, the Great Pelican (16 ft. pocket cruiser).

Lou tells me he's had the Pelican up on a plane going down wind in the San Juan Islands in blustery conditions and the modified dory stayed dry and comfortable. The flat bottom, generous rocker and strong side flare are the features that provide stable, extremely seaworthy sailing.

The low aspect balanced lug rig is reefed from the cockpit, providing safety and comfort for your gunkholing experience.

I can attest from personal experience that the Pelican is an easy boat to row, so the cruising purists among you would be able to forget those gas guzzling engines entirely!

The Pelican is a versatile family boat that can explore sandy beaches, weather a weeks vacation sailing, or compete in class racing.

LOA: 14 ft. 7 in.
Extreme Beam: 6 ft. 7 in.
Draft (board up): 5 in.
Draft (board down): 5 ft.
Weight: 600 lbs.
Sail Area : 145 sq. ft.
Cockpit length: 8 ft.



Hal and his wife, Loretta take a sunny day sail in their Pacific Pelican, lovingly restored by Lou.

That's a Coot burgee on the after deck; the Oregon Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association.















The Great Pelican Toucan at 16 ft. LOA is another lengthened version of the San Francisco Pelican. They share the seaworthy characteristics of wide hull flare, sampan bow and flat bottom. The centerboard for this pocket cruiser is weighted and she draws only eight inches with the centerboard up! With the centerboard down the full draft is four feet.
The standing lug sail is fully battened and main plus jib equal a total sail area of 187 square feet.

The Pelican class boats are stable, seaworthy designs that are adaptable to many conditions, from coastal cruising to family sailing lessons. The pram bow and articulating rudder make disembarking on your favorite island beach easy, safe and dry!
Note the hinged tabernacle for the mast...

William Short has this to say about the Great Pelican:
"The Great Pelican is an enlarged version of the immensely popular one-design, The San Francisco Pelican. She is 16 ft. long with an 8-ft. beam and over 30 in. of freeboard amidships. Built with a cabin for cruising, you’ll often find this little boat out as far as the Golden Gate on a windy day and, as any West Coast sailor will tell you, this is as rough as inland sailing can get."
"We even heard from one Great Pelican owner who had sailed his modified home-built down the Pacific Coast to San Diego and then, with his wife as crew, crossed to Hawaii. I would never have recommended such a voyage, because I think of the Great Pelican as a weekender for inland or coastal waters, but I am constantly amazed at the voyages the little boat makes, and it is not limited to the West Coast. I had a call recently from an owner who had sailed his Great Pelican from New Brunswick, Canada down to Florida, and a builder in Nova Scotia claims that the boat is ideal for rough coastal waters."

LOA 16’
Beam 8’
Draft (board up) 8”
Draft (board down) 4’
Sail Area 187 sq. ft.

Toucan's spacious and inviting cuddy cabin interior is roomy and inviting and it's utilitarian dory characteristics are tried and true. The balanced lug rig is a work of art!
I may have to ask Lou to build one of these for me........

Lou Brochetti also sells plans for the Pacific Pelican. He obtained the rights for these plans from the original designers, Ed and Jim Barlow. The Barlows designed the first Pelican in the 1980's and Lou received the rights to the Pacific Pelican a couple years ago:
The plans include six detail sheets with sail and rigging plans and full sized plywood layouts - no lofting required! Full sized patterns are included for special shapes. An instruction book runs 100 pages and has plenty of pictures with the first time builder in mind. Even if you've never built a boat, you could build your own Pacific Pelican!

The information pack for the Pacific Pelican costs $5.00 (postage paid)
And plans cost $90.00 (plus $6.00 shipping)

Lou has also designed a hollow mast with tabernacle for the Great Pelican.
the plans are $35.00 (+ $2.00 shipping).

Lou can be reached at 541-504-0135
.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Harvest Day Regatta at Eugene Yacht Club Sept 12-13: http://www.eugeneyachtclub.org/racing/2009/2009_hdr_notice.pdf

Unknown said...

I'm a huge fan of the Chinese junk rig. are there sail plans for this rig for the pelican?

doryman said...

I know of a guy who's converting his Pacific Pelican to a junk rig, but to my knowledge he's designing his sail from scratch.

Heisfun said...

this boat remind me of some Asian boat .

Anonymous said...

So I ordered the plans for the Pacific Pelican at 90 dollars .. however the Pacific Pelican plans are 55 dollars..the Great Pelican plans are 90 dollars but there is no 100 page building booklet !..yikes !..you get the plans for the San Francisco pelican at 12' and to build the Great Pelican of 16' you must refer to the San Francisco pelican plans at 12'..you also get the complimentary 18' plans for the Super Pelican and like the Great Pelican must refer to the 12' plans for building instructions... Absolute nightmare and now to.get the building instructions and rigging details for the Great Pelican you must purchase the Pacific Pelican plans at 55 dollars... including the 115 dollars for the other designs which really only show you how to build the 12' San Francisco boat...this is an expensive set of plans and Duckworks are complicate in this misleading rip off..
They also include some lunacy plan for a Yangtze Pelican junk rigged and no building manual..yikes.!!. So if you want to spend 170 dollars on some plans that don't show you how to build a boat is the called the Great Pelican boat for you...

doryman said...

Sorry to hear, definitely an issue to resolve. I was under the impression the plans for all those boats were no longer available. Your story is even worse than that.

Anonymous said...

I have since been contacted by Duckworks whom have forwarded me the manual and plans for the 14' Pacific Pelican.. much appreciated and i also contact the Yangtze Pelican designer whom is most helpful and excited about sharing his work on a hybrid Pelican which he has been working on for years..This will all go well to promoting this fantastic sailing dory pram into the future and the wonderful designs and efforts of Americans as usual keeping sailors safe at sea...God Bless America...and God bless you kindly boat builders.

doryman said...

Pleased to hear of a happy ending. Best of luck!