By pure happenstance and almost by mistake, I recently purchased a copy of Arthur Ransome’s RACUNDRA’s First Cruise. First published in 1923, this was Ransome’s account of the cruise with his wife Evgenia and friend (“the Ancient Mariner”) through the eastern Baltic aboard their custom boat, RACUNDRA.
RACUNDRA was about 30′ LOA, and was designed by Ransome’s friend, Otto Eggers, Reval (now Tallinn), Estonia.
The story is fabulous, and is reminiscent — to me — of Erskine Childers’ TheRiddle of the Sands. Except that Ransome’s tale is non-fiction.
On, now, to RACUNDRA. Here she is:
I love this boat!
She’s a little more than I want… but I can handle that. Ransome wanted to be able to handle her himself. Thus, her tiny sail area.
So, your challenge today should you choose to accept it: Redesign her with a modern rig. The winning entry will get a WoodenBoat hat and my gratitude, both paid for by me. You don’t have to do anything more than her rig, please. Please post your designs here, under “Comments.”
As it turned out, RACUNDRA’s First Cruise became a popular book, Ransome’s first such. Of course, Ransome went on to achieve great renown with his Swallows and Amazons series. I have just ordered a copy of his RACUNDRA’s Third Cruise, and am trying to track down a source for her plans.
Here’s a link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/Racundras-First-Cruise-Arthur-Ransome/dp/1898660964/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327417811&sr=1-1
and here’s more information about Arthur Ransome:
http://www.arthur-ransome.org/
And — wouldn’t you know it? — here’s a link of a reference in the Forum:
http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?111039-Recundra-sail-plan-lines-etc
Thanks in advance for your comments. Carl



(Renderings courtesy Dudley Dix Yacht Design) — Oppikat vs. Opti
We all need to build this boat with our kids.