14′ 4” sail and oar dinghy, semi-dory type, traditionally clinker built
| Hull length / waterline | 4.37 / 3.82 m | Sail area | 9.3 m² |
| Breadth / waterline | 1.60 / 1.16 m | Outboard motor | 5 hp |
| Draught | 0.20 / 0.85 m | Design category / Crew | C4 |
| Light weight (including rig) | 250 kg | Building time | 450 hours about |
The first Mesker has been built by Skol ar Mor, the most renowned wooden boat-building school in France. She was built and launched in 2016. The trainees took many pictures and I finally bought it after completion in order to be able to test it and get some good pictures at sea.
The idea was to propose a boat made in solid wood, with limited use of modern products (glue, sealant . ) but easy to build. I designed a semi-dory, about 14’ long, for the following reasons: it is a versatile sail and oar dinghy which may also be used as a small motorboat; the flat bottom and the stem profile make the boat easy to launch and recover; the lap-strake planks have a small twist and are easy to fit; there is no rabbet but only a bevel on the sole edges; the cut-out into the sole is not as deep as in a keel and easy to make; the frames may be either laminated or sawn. And, above all, such a semi-dory may be a very graceful little dinghy.
Mesker has been fully designed using a 3D software (Rhino) which means the builder benefit from several perspective views of the model, helping to understand the building process, and dimensioned drawings, including the hull planks profiles. So there is no need to loft the lines or to spil the hull planks, in order that a home builder, having just some woodworking experience, be able to build a Mesker. A few Mesker have already been built and more than 200 plans have been downloaded.
It is possible to build Mesker with the book only. However, the drawings are reduced in size. Therefore, I give the ability to download for free the drawings from my website. The building instructions, in French and illustrated with many pictures and sketches, are only in the book.
The initial choice was a boat made of solid wood, but it is also possible to have the sole, hull planking, transom, centreboard case, centreboard, rudder, made of plywood. The frames and all the interior are unchanged and actually, only some small details allow to differentiate a solid wood from a plywood completed Mesker, the last being more straightforward to assemble. Some additional instructions and drawings are also in the book and downloadable. The plywood version allows saving 50 kg on the boat weight.
Both version drawings may be freely downloaded from this page top.
Michael Nesbitt –
A very beautiful boat with an unusual contruction technique saving lofting.
I believe it would be an ideal boat for day sailing on the west of Ireland