Sand Dollar
A 21' 2 3/4" V-Bottom Sedan Utility
By William & John Atkin
The V-Bottom Sedan Utility Sand Dollar
The design of Sand Dollar which graces these pages shows a highly useful type of motor boat, and one in which a party of four or five people may spend many happy days afloat. I suppose the able little craft should be called a cabin-utility. At any rate she has a small shelter from which the boat is handled and while this is small there is seating room for three and room each side the engine house abaft the seat for two others to gain protection from flying spray or rain. There is comfortable sitting room beneath the house top carlins; a dry place to stow lunch baskets, dry clothes, and equipment under the forward deck; and with the addition of a light curtain stretched across the after end of the tiny cabin house a place to change clothes for bathing. Altogether this V bottom is a desirable kind of boat in many ways, and one which is unique in some of its features, not least of these is the self-bailing cockpit.
The cockpit is separated from the stern by a 2 foot length of deck because I do not know of anything more uncomfortable than sitting "jamb-up" against the stern where the spray and steam of the exhaust, one might say, is entirely too intimate especially when running down the wind; and also because the after deck gives strength to the weakest part of the structure, the joint between the side planking and the stern transom. The length of the cockpit from the stern deck to the 3 inch high coaming at the back of the seat is 10 feet 2 1/2 inches and the sitting portion of the deck house is 4 feet 1 inch long, the seat is 5 feet 2 inches long by 18 inches wide; comfortable for three. The headroom in the house is 4 feet 10 inches under the beams. The waist deck is nearly a foot wide and safe to walk on in going forward; important this. The gasoline tank is installed beneath the seat.
Sand Dollar, which, by the way, is the name of those curious little disk shaped sea-urchins which hug the sandy shallows of much of the American coast, is 21 feet 2 3/4 inches in overall length; 20 feet on the water line; 7 feet 6 inches in breadth; and draws 1 foot 8 inches of water. She is of V bottom model and was designed for speeds up to 21 miles an hour with modest power. The freeboard at the bow is 3 feet 6 1/2 inches, at the stern, 2 feet 5 1/2 inches, and at the lowest point 2 feet 3 3/4 inches. All her sections are straight, this with a view to simplifying the construction, and in connection with the straight topsides, these do not look badly in a small boat of reasonable freeboard. It is only when the topsides stand high above the water line that your straight sectioned boat looks "boxy." So, Shipmates, please do not increase the freeboard, flatten it out, or otherwise alter and spoil the boat.
I would not advise installing much less power than shown on the plans, that is a motor of 133 cubic inches cylinder displacement, or of approximately this size. On the other hand do not install a motor of much over 220 cubic inches displacement. The smaller range of motors will give the boat a speed of 16 to 17 miles an hour, the larger range a speed of 20 to 21 miles an hour. Real miles.
Plans for Sand Dollar are $100

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