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  • Study plans are extracts from the plans allowing the buyer to have a more precise knowledge of the plan content. If you are ordering the building plan, you do not need to order the study plan.
  • The Building plan is the basic document to build the boat. It includes a free telephone or e-mail assistance.
  • Attention: building this boat requires also a numerically cut plywood kit.
  • You may also buy the CNC cutting files allowing you sub-contracting the kit to a local company
  • The kit is to be ordered from one of my partners.
  • Postage and VAT, if applicable, are included in the shown prices.

Pocket cruiser and traditional gaffer 18′ 1/2

Hull length / waterline    5.64 / 5.05 m Sail area    23.3 m²
Breadth / waterline    2.22 / 1.82 m Outboard motor    6 ch
Draught    0.80 m Design category / Crew    C4 / D5
Light weight (including motor) / ballast    800 / 300 kg Building time    800 hours
Attention: this boat may be built only with a numerically cut plywood kit.

Koalen 18 is a small traditional gaffer, inspired from traditional fishing boats of Northern Brittany with the plumb stem and moderately raked transom. She is an enlarged version of Koalen 17, a boat initially built by Icarai boatbuilder in France. The first Koalen 18 was built by Grand-Largue boatbuilder in France.

Koalen 18 is planked over a crisscrossed plywood structure including backbone and bulkheads. A developed panel makes the bottom planking and the side planking is made of two layers of 4 mm plywood, laid vertically on stringers. Once again we got confirmation that this process gives both a sturdy hull faster to plank than strip planking. We decided to have the ballast inserted inside the plywood backbone. We used lead pigs or lead scraps and epoxy. Therefore, the keel is hydrodynamically very clean and, despite a moderate draught, and gives both an efficient lateral plane and good stability.

Two rigs are proposed, a gaff cutter rig, which gives a very traditional look, or a more simple gaff sloop rig.

To have a serviceable cabin in such a small boat and keep an elegant line is not easy. But not having any centreboard case allows a minimum of seated comfort, to have two normal size berths, a stowage for a Porta-Potti toilet under the cockpit and enough storage space for a small cruise with a camping stove. The aim of Koalen 18 is mainly to be a day-boat with a cuddy, but it is possible for two people to spend some nights onboard, allowing to discover more remote areas than a simple day boat allows. Koalen 18 is a pocket cruiser easy to trail behind a medium-sized car, but requiring some handling facilities to have it into the water.

Koalen 18 has an outboard motor well aft of the cockpit, located at helmsman reach. The designer may also draw a diesel version if required.

  • Photo album Koalen 18 at sea
  • Photo album construction of the first Koalen 18 by Grand-Largue
  • Sketches of the building process
  • Gaff cutter sail plan
  • Gaff sloop sail plan
  • General arrangement plan

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