This blog is devoted to my John Welsford designed 15' Navigator yawl Ellie. I built her in my garage over a period of 18 months and launched her in 2011. She sports a sliding gunter main, roller furled jib and sprit-boomed mizzen. Her construction is glued-lapstrake over permanent bulkheads and stringers. This blog is a record of her construction and her voyages here in the Puget Sound area and (hopefully) a useful resource for fellow Navigator builders.

Friday, February 23, 2024

CNC files for Welsford designs

CNC files for many of John Welsford's designs are now FREE to download!

Working with John Welsford, I have been creating CNC files for many of his designs.  John has granted license of these CNC files to me, and I have decided to give them away for free.

If you're unfamiliar with CNC files, they are 2D vector (.dxf) files that you can bring to a CNC operator.  He will use these files with his CNC machine to cut your parts out of 4x8 sheets of plywood to make you a partial kit.

This will save you a tremendous amount of time, effort, material, and possibly mistakes compared to drawing the parts full size and cutting them out yourself.

CNC files or a partial kit of parts alone are not enough to build one of John's boats.  You will still need to purchase a set of plans from John Welsford, Duckworks, or one of John's other licensed distributors.

I believe these are a win-win for everyone.  Their availability will help John sell more plans so that he can design more boats.  We will get to see more of John's fabulous designs on the water.  They will help builders build their boats more quickly.  I enjoy making them.  And hopefully all of this will contribute to the home boat building community by expanding the comradery we all enjoy.

For more info, and to download the free CNC files, click the following links:

Welsford Light Dory

Welsford Longsteps

Welsford Navigator

Welsford Pathfinder

Welsford Pilgrim

Welsford Sei

Welsford Tender Behind

Welsford Walkabout

Welsford Sherpa

Welsford Scallywag (coming soon - currently in work)

Others will follow.

Full size paper templates are also available for purchase from Duckworks.  Click here for more info.

If you have any questions or need minor changes to the CNC to customize them for your build, you can e-mail me at j_bergen@yahoo.com and I may be able to help you.


Monday, February 5, 2024

How to get the best results from your jigsaw

What is the best jigsaw and blade to use when cutting your expensive marine plywood?  Galen Piehl has done the research.  See his blog post here: