K 20

Description

Northwest Marine Design was a now-defunct small naval architecture firm based in the United States, headed by Anthony C. Gondola, N.A. (Naval Architect). Active primarily in the 1990s–early 2000s (with references to plans sales and builds from around 2000–2010s), the company specialized in plans for amateur and professional boatbuilders, focusing on lightweight wooden (cedar strip) and composite sailboats, including small daysailers, pocket cruisers, and performance-oriented designs. It offered stock plans for cedar strip construction (similar to strip canoe techniques but scaled for sailboats), emphasizing easy home-building with glass sheathing for durability. The firm appears to have ceased operations around the 2010s (defunct status noted in builder forums), with no current website or active plan sales—plans occasionally surface in second-hand markets or forums. Notable designs include the K-19 (a 19 ft cedar strip sailboat, with documented home builds taking ~400 hours, praised for simplicity and performance but no longer widely promoted). Production was not factory-based but plans-sold (custom/amateur builds only; likely a few dozen hulls per design at most across owners, with scattered examples still sailed or under construction as of recent forum posts). Features typically included lightweight construction for trailering/easy handling, fractional or simple rigs, centerboards for shallow draft, and suitability for daysailing, club racing, or light cruising in protected waters.