The Narai Mk IV is one of Wharram's earlier designs; see it on his web site under "traditional designs."
We are making some designer-blessed changes to the plans. These mostly concern the attachment of beams and rudder, the steering station, and the rig. We are making modifications based on Wharram's Tiki 38 design. (We bought the supplemental plan package to make the changes.)
Here are the basic changes:
- In the original design, beams were bolted to the hulls. Our beams will be lashed. There are also changes in beam length; the boat will be a bit wider than the original Narai design.
- In the original design, rudders were bolted on. Our rudders will be lashed.
- In the original design, steering was from a cockpit on one side, and that's what we will be building. The modification package adds a centre deck pod. We choose not to build the deck pod. It seems to us to take up too much of the centre deck.
- There have been lots of options and experiments with rigging for the Narai Mark IV. We've chosen Wharram's newest recommendation -- our boat will be a wingsail schooner. Wharram and his design partner Hanneke Boon developed the wingsail rig for the Tikis -- here is an article about it.
