Design
Thing
Designed by Grandpa's Archive
The Thing is an outboard skiff painted as a shark, written up after its builder ran it around Marathon, Florida and startled people on the water. Behind the teeth is a fairly ordinary plywood hull: 11 ft 2 in overall with a 6 ft 10 in transom beam, a sharply pointed bow that rises high out of the water, and a planing run aft. The article put the cost of building it at $60.
The drawings show a laminated keel, stringers, outer and shear clamps, knees and conduit braces at the transom corners, with the keel seam nailed and covered with a fiberglass strip. The photographs show two people aboard and a small outboard. It is a short magazine piece rather than a full plan set, so a builder should expect to work out some details. Free to download from the archive.
What building a Thing actually takes
Medians from the build logs kept on this site, not the designer’s estimate. Nobody has logged this boat here yet, so they are empty until the first builder does.
Those medians firm up as more people log this boat.
Builds of this boat
Nobody has logged a Thing here yet.
If you are building one, yours becomes the reference: the page the next person building this boat finds when they search for it. One photo and one line is a valid first entry.
Start the first log of this boatBoats like this one
Same type, closest in length.
| Design | Plans from | LOA | Logs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glass Bottom | Glen-L Marine | 9′ 6″ (2.9 m) | 0 |
| 3 Piece Boat | Grandpa's Archive | 7′ 0″ (2.13 m) | 0 |
| Baby Boat Cradle | Manta Marine Design | 1.2 m (3′ 11″) | 0 |
| Bicycle Boat | Grandpa's Archive | n/a | 0 |
| Corky | Grandpa's Archive | n/a | 0 |
| Foldavan | Woodenwidget | n/a | 0 |