Belle Starr

Belle Starr, as you know, is a Stone Horse, built in wood, as originally designed by Sam Crocker. She spent the summer waiting patiently for Doryman to pick up where he left off last spring.

A shipwright is trained in many disciplines, in fact, must be well versed in anything involving boats of all sizes, shapes and descriptions. This includes welding metal. Doryman does not weld. But for this, he might one day become a shipwright, like his grandfather.

But today, when it comes to metal work, he must resort to his resourceful cunning. Belle Starr was delivered last winter on a flatbed trailer intended for a backhoe. If Doryman were not as resourceful as he is, a new trailer might cost more than the boat itself. So, a used tandem axle trailer was procured and upgrades engineered to make the utility fit the trade.

In the absence of welding skills, four new padded tripod stanchions were bolted to the old trailer this week. The support plates are made of 3/4" plywood with recycled rubber horse-stall pads cut to shape and screwed to the plywood. The pylons are of 2" square mild steel with 2" x 2" angle-iron braces. At some future date, this assembly might be tack-welded for added security, but that will be redundant because the design is rock solid, as-is.

The only element remaining is to investigate and update her standing rigging and Belle Starr will be ready. For what, you might ask? Please stay tuned my friends - when the winter monsoons retreat, it will be an exciting sailing season, indeed. While winter rages, the search is on for a suitable wood stove for Belle Starr. She once sported a Tiny Tot, which rusted to oblivion. For cruising in the Pacific Northwest, a stove is not a luxury.

Other planned projects include a new galley sink, forward berth cushions and a depth sounder. A shipwright must have many talents.

Last evening, Doryman made a road trip north to Port Townsend to attend a winter planning session with the Pocket Yachters. Those guys know how to party. Cold cuts, crackers, wine and beer. Now that's my kind of meeting! Despite their serious demeanor, they are a fun loving bunch.

Romilly Pocket Cruiser

In the last six months we've seen the Romilly pocket cruiser come up a couple times and it never ceases to delight...
Phil Holden, the author of the website; Roxane & Romilly, Traditional Hi-Tech wrote to me today from the UK:


"Quite a few people have contacted me recently and provided excellent photographs and descriptions [of Romilly]. I wanted to let everyone know that there is new content on the site and to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has contributed. The web site is now becoming a valuable resource for Romilly and Roxane owners."

"Some articles are very inspiring, I would never have decided to build a Romilly in cold moulded veneers but Thomas Huber's hull looks stunning. Bill Buchholz has built using lapstrake construction and has modified the rig to high peaked gaff in a very simple way. Constantinos Peraticos has built a lovely Romilly which looks very Greek simply by the choice of colour scheme."

"Other recent articles provide practical information on hauling out and cabin layout. I've found every one valuable and have delighted to see the excellent photographs which are now on the site."

"We now have contributions for Romilly and Roxane owners in Greece, Scotland, Holland, England, Ireland, Germany, Finland and the US."

"If you visit the site you will see that I have reorganized it on a subject basis rather than by date."

The photo is provided by Bill Buchholz who has built the Romilly clinker fashion, rather than strip planked and changed the lug rig to a gaff. Here we see him coming home - near midnight - in Finland.

His explanation of the changes:

"Regarding the lapstrake construction, I really felt that it would look good with this design. Romilly has some sort of work boat inspiration behind her and while I don’t know for sure, I suspect that a lot of the coastal fishing boats on both sides of the Channel were clinker."

There is a lot more on Phil's website and I heartily recommend a visit.
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Romilly Pocket Cruiser

If I was to build another boat right now, the Romilly, a yawl from the hands of Irens and Burnett would definitely make my short list. A very pretty boat and a nice rig, too.
Her big cockpit makes her an ideal boat for camp cruising. There are a lot of inland waterways within a day’s travel that need exploring!




Phil Holden visited a previous post about Romilly and writes to me to explain that he has a web site dedicated to Romilly and Roxanne her larger sister, Romilly Sailboat. He hosts a forum for owners and builders to share ideas and would love input.



He tells me:
"I own a Romilly called Riant. I'm 6'2" and have slept in the cuddy cabin very comfortably. There's room for two adults but not much else. (The sitting headroom measured from the berth surface up to the cabin top is about three feet). There is also a cockpit tent, which extends the usable space."

"I fell in love with Romilly years ago when she was on the front of Classic Boats Magazine but I never thought I would be able to one day afford her."

"Most folks don't notice her on her berth but many sail over for a closer look when we have her out for the day. She really is a stunner."

It's the sails that make her a beauty everyone can recognize! That high peaked yard is simply beautiful.

Romilly's plans call for a strip-planked hull covered in 300gsm glass, but here is a cold molded version being built in Germany.




















The plans also call for carbon spars, the main yard, the boom, the boomkin, the mizzen yard and the mizzenmast are shown in the photo.



Phil says:
"I would strongly recommend the carbon fibre mast and other spars. No one, even other boat owners will know and they make a massive difference to stability and sail handling. Please don't make the mistake of making wooden spars."


I found this a little intimidating, since I usually build the whole boat, but have never made a carbon mast. As this video shows, it’s not exactly rocket science, so I’ll have to give it a go. (Sorry, there is no "part two" that I could find).

Apparently the hard part is engineering the mast for stiffness, since there is a fine line between too bendy and too stiff.

Since Romilly uses unstayed masts, error on the side of stiffness seems a good idea. I see Phil’s point about stability, such a fine hull would be easily upset by a top-heavy mast and yard.

Beautiful, but not conceited and above all, nimble and fast. A high performance family daysailer or gunkholer with a lot of class.

Romilly is also available as a kit and a very good article on building one can be found in Luggers for Today.
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