Design
Jersey Girl
Designed by Jim Norman
Jersey Girl is a 20 foot houseboat with an 8 foot beam, designed and built by Jim Norman in northern New Jersey. It began from Roy Schreyer's 17 foot Dianne's Rose shanty boat plans, which Jim stretched by three feet in the middle and reworked as he went, so the boat on the water is his own design.
The hull is half-inch okoume plywood (Chesapeake Light Craft finger-jointed sheets) over sawn frames and bulkheads, sealed with epoxy and glass. The cabin is framed with cedar posts and roof beams laminated from quarter-inch strips ripped from ordinary 2x4s, then sheathed in pine tongue-and-groove beadboard. The arched beadboard roof is fiberglassed, with lift-up gull wing panels over the aft deck for boarding.
She is trailerable and pushed by an outboard in a motor well at around six miles an hour, with a galley, a head, solar panels, house batteries and an electric anchor winch. Built from 2015 to 2021 and launched on the Hackensack River in May 2021.
What building a Jersey Girl actually takes
Medians from the build logs kept on this site, not the designer’s estimate.
Those medians firm up as more people log this boat.
Builds of this boat
Boats like this one
Same type, closest in length.
| Design | Plans from | LOA | Logs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caladesi Carolina Dory | Spira International | 20′ 0″ (6.1 m) | 2 |
| 20 ft Cat Joy or Tug Yacht | Benford Design Group | 20′ 0″ (6.1 m) | 0 |
| 20 ft False Creek Ferry or Friday Harbor Ferry | Benford Design Group | 20′ 0″ (6.1 m) | 0 |
| 20 ft Supply Boat Båten or Lake Union Cruiser | Benford Design Group | 20′ 0″ (6.1 m) | 0 |
| Banjo 20 Outboard | Devlin | 20′ 0″ (6.1 m) | 0 |
| Curlew 20 | Devlin | 20′ 0″ (6.1 m) | 0 |