I would look at Ian Oughtred's designs.  They're all classically beautiful and there are numerous styles and sizes.  He's also a contemporary and many people are currently building his boats worldwide.

   You might give Tom Hill's book 'Ultralight Boatbuilding' a once over if your interested in glued-lapstrke construction (my personal favorite method). It gives you the basics in short order without lots of side tracks on handy tools and jigs to make the job go easier or quicker (not that they are bad things). It was the recommended guide by Paul Fisher when I purchased his plans some years ago. Also another prolific designer along with Oughtred; and very accessible through his web site and builders forum.

   thanks!!  

Depending on where you're located, and how much 'free' time (you can call your own) you might find some direction from one of the Woodenboat Schools' activities. The three I know of are in Maine, Michigan, and Seattle but if you simply Googlesearch <wooden boat school> you'll see there's more than just those.

Check out the Boat Plans page on duckworksmagazine.com.

George K

Bannockburn,

I also built a NE Dory two years ago.  This was my first boat and it was an excellent learning experience for me.  I built the Sloop rig version which suited my needs since I wanted to teach myself to sail with an eye towards sailing larger boats eventually.  After two years of using the NE Dory, my wife told me that we should look at getting into a larger boat so we could take the grandkids with us, have more space for camping, and handle rougher weather if needed.

I looked at many different designs and settled on Iain Oughtred’s Caledonia Yawl.  I was also very interested in the Sooty Tern, another sweet Nordic based design.  The Caledonia Yawl is larger but can be sailed single handed and be launched by one person.  I am currently in the build stage with the Caledonia Yawl and hope to have it sailing this Spring.  I find that building from plans is not too difficult after gaining experience from building the NE Dory.

As far as books…  I purchased Iain’s book “Clinker Plywood Boatbuilding Manual”.  It is an excellent reference for any build project where you work from a set of plans.