Obviously the construction plan took months of fooling around to iron out.  The thing about boats like this is that it's easy to make them expensive and difficult to build.  My challenge was to minimize the number of separate parts that have to be fabricated and joined.  If this was a 1965 design (and most pocket cruisers out there are still built with that technology), you'd have stringers and nailers and solid stems and chine logs and sheer clamps everywhere.  The only way to make construction faster and easier was to eliminate most of the solid timber.  Thus, PocketShip is almost entirely plywood, fastened together with epoxy fillets and fiberglass.  The result is monolithically strong and resistant to rot. 

I chose the keel-centerboard because it got the centerboard mostly out of the cabin and because the shallow keel will steady the boat when being driven hard in rough conditions.  There is 120 pounds of lead ballast (melted tire balance weights) poured into the cavities in the hollow keel forward and aft of the centerboard trunk.  Space has been provided for additional internal ballast if desired.