I Have a New(ish) Boat

Over the weekend, I got a text from a sailing buddy of mine named Gene B. He was thinning his sizable herd of small boats and wanted to know if I'd be interested in his Jim Michalak designed Piccup Pram. I promptly replied, "Heck yeah!" and he told me he'd be down shortly to drop it off. So, I am now one 11 x 4.5 foot boat richer.

The Piccup Pram is a tubby little thing. I'll probably have to get a trailer to easily manage it, but it can cartop in a pinch, if not with ease.

The PP was also the first boat that I sailed that wasn't built by me. Back about 2010, I went to the Sail Oklahoma Messabout. Jim Michalak, the boat's designer, was there, and he walked me over to a boat on the beach, asked me if I'd sailed one, then told me to get in and pushed me off. It turned out to be a PP built by a guy named Stan, up from Texas for the event. It was fun and since I wasn't used to a boat other than the one I'd brought with me, it scared the crap out of me to sail it.

Over the coming winter, I'm going to customize the boat more to my needs/wants. I plan to add some drip edges to the cockpit area, figure out a decent sailplan, probably add a mizen mast and boomkin to make it a cat ketch. I might also figure out a boat tent plan and sew one up from polytarp or canvas. I still have a crappy set of oars that I made a decade ago, for my first little sailing dinghy. I might reshape them and use them for this boat for a while, as they are nearly the same length called for in JM's plans for the boat.

I was just planning to build a rowing skiff over the winter, but this takes me in a different direction. Should be fun to modify, though. Hopefully I can camp cruise it a bit next summer.