Sam Devlin doesn’t yet have the lines drawings for the Marsh Wren on his site, so I’ve posted a picture of the drawings here. The Marsh Wren was originally conceived and built as a daysailer; the original boat has no cabin at all. Sam added one for the stock plans, and that’s the boat we chose; my thinking being that it’s always nice to have at least a small cabin to lock gear up in (we will be mooring this boat), plus I like the idea of “camping” aboard her. Jake and I talked a lot about how we intended to use this boat, and that, of course, determined which boat we chose, and how we build her. We’re going to moor her at Southpark Marina, and sail her mostly in the vicinity of Seattle, primarily day sailing on Elliott Bay. Having a small cabin with a pair of settee/bunks (and a porta potty) does give us the option for the occasional over night trip to Poulsbo, Kingston, or Port Townsend. Someplace with guest moorage, facilities and restaurants close by. Southpark Marina is approximately 5 miles up the Duwamish River from Elliott Bay, behind three bridges, all of which the Marsh Wren will clear. Docking will be done in tight quarters, contending with tide, and river currents. We’ll have 5 miles of busy, industrial waterway to motor to and from our sailing grounds. We need a boat with a motor; something that can charge the batteries, power nav lights, and that will hopefully provide a good deal of maneuverability. We chose the Marsh Wren, but made some modifications.

The picture on the left is the boat the way Devlin designed her. To the right is a picture of the boat as we’ve modified her.

We’ve made three changes. (1)We made the boat 12” longer. This was done by extending the lines of the plywood panels 12” past the original transom

(2) Taken the rudder off the stern, and hung it from a skeg

(3) Moved the cabin 12” forward

The rationale for making changes (1) & (2) starts with the motor. The original boat was built with diesel engine mounted in the bridge deck, with an”S” drive through the hull, just abaft the keel. Great, it’s a wonderful way to power a small boat. Except that you’re looking at approximately $5000.00 for this. Some of us build boats on a budget, and that would be crippling, especially considering that you can get a brand new Tohatsu 6HP, 4 cycle long shaft outboard for around $1500.00. Yeah, it’s a pull start, but it has an alternator, and remote controls. So we’ll be equipping our boat with an outboard. So then the question is, how do you mount it? D’Abord had an OB on a stern hung bracket, and it was forever chewing into the rudder during tight maneuvering. Plus you’re leaning over the stern to start it, tilt it up, lower it, or turn it to increase maneuverability. That’s a pain, and somewhat dangerous if single handing. A well inside the cockpit? That’s an option, but it brings all the noise into the cockpit. And if it’s forward enough to avoid the rudder in tight maneuvering, it’s in the way. We figured that if we extended the stern 12”, we could cut a well into the outer (new) transom, and hang the OB there, and move the inner (original) transom forward a bit to give the motor room to tilt up. Put the rudder on a skeg under the boat, far enough forward to avoid the OB propeller, have a tiller bracket made that could connect to a cable steering system, and the OB would be turning with the rudder, making for a very maneuverable boat under power. We’ll want a quick disconnect, so that under sail the tiller isn’t dragging the dead weight of the OB. This sounds very Rube Goldberg, trying to explain it, but it actually laid out fairly simple.

We moved the cabin forward so that it would be possible to stand in the companionway hatch, and reach the mast. What that means is with the jib on roller furling all the sails can be handled without leaving the safety of the cockpit/cabin. No climbing onto the cabin top, or foredeck, which is especially nice while single handing. It also extends the cockpit, giving us more room for guests.