The Mini-Brigantine/Galleon Project
Introduction
The purpose of the mini-brigantine/galleon project is to provide an inexpensive and feasible means of recreating naval combat. While a full-scale replica ship with black powder cannons would be ideal, it is not feasible to build such a fleet nor is it easy to transport to various event sites. It would be nice if a vessel could be transported to inland lakes. Each vessel features four carbide based cannons.
The need for something small, portable and inexpensive had to be critical in the design of a ship for this purpose. Furthermore, it should be as authentic as possible, while still providing a means of amusement and being functional.
I remembered a group that had a small fleet of "tall ships" based on a Sabot design. The ships were about 8ft in length and used to frequent the Vancouver Sea Festival. They had black powder based cannons and even a small sea-monster that would "attack" only to be repulsed by the gallant fleet. They were known as the sabot brigantines and was the creation of Les Alfred of the Jibset sailing school. In the mid-1990's the Vancouver Sea-Fest met it's demise and with it, the Brigantines disappeared. Until very recently, all attempts to make contact with this group has failed, as Les Alfred passed away some years ago,and rumours have it the small fleet of Sabot brigantines sailed out into English bay and scattered his ashes to the wind and then soon went to rot. A good article written by one of the surviving members about the Sabot Brigantines appeared in Duckworks Magazine in April, 2005: http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/05/designs/sabot/brigantine/index.cfm.
As result, the brigantine/galleon ship had to be designed from scratch, complete with sails, rigging and cannon. The following contains plans to build such a vessel. The first type ("class") of ship is the D4 brig/brigantine. The estimated construction costs are under $350 CDN / $300 U.S. per vessel and can be finished in a few weekends. Hopefully enough vessels will be built to facilitate "meets".
The initial prototype ship, the "Adventure" has been completed has been sailing the high seas, having done battle in several coastal locations and local ports. Included on this website is the "free plan", a handrawn plan-set and building instructions for building the D4 Brig. You can get a more advanced set which contains added building notes & plans, autocad files, better .pdfs, and .plt files, and you will help contribute to the building of these boats (nearly 450MB of info!) by sending a small donation ($5-$10) suggested via paypal to: bnix@primus.ca or snail-mail to:
Brian Nix
338 Glenmore Rd. North
Kelowna, B.C. V1V
2C7
The D4 Brig under sail on Okanagan Lake
Hull
Design