Michalak Family Skiff
Description
The Michalak Family Skiff is a 15-foot by 5.5-foot (4.57 m x 1.68 m) plywood sailing skiff designed by Jim Michalak, a prolific American amateur boat designer known for simple, affordable, and practical small craft plans. It is built using tape-and-glue (taped seam) plywood construction requiring minimal materials (two sheets of 1/2" plywood, five of 3/8", and two of 1/4", plus epoxy and lumber), resulting in an empty weight of about 350 lb (159 kg) and a displacement around 900 lb (408 kg) loaded. The design accommodates three adults or a family with two kids on two 7-foot benches, with leeboards for lateral resistance, a simple balanced lug sail rig for easy handling, and excellent stability and rowing performance in protected waters like bays, lakes, rivers, or shallow coastal areas—popular among home-builders for its quick build, low cost, and fun as a daysailer or expedition boat.
Construction Details
| Designer | Jim Michalak |
|---|---|
| Builder | Home Built |
| Length | 15.000 ft |
| LOA | 15.000 ft |
| Beam | 5.500 ft |
| Displacement | 350 lb |
| Max Draft | 3.000 ft |
| Min Draft | 0.100 ft |
The standard boat dimensions
| i | - |
|---|---|
| j | - |
| p | - |
| e | - |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Sails
Michalak Family Skiff - LEG-O-MUTTON
| Luff | 7.67 ft - (2338 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 4.42 ft - (1347 mm) |
| Leech | * 7.15 ft - (2179 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 68.69 ° |
| Diag (clew/head) | 7.33 ft - (2234 mm) |
| Head (Inches) | * 3.5 |
| Area | * 16.62 ft² |
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Michalak Family Skiff - STANDING LUGSAIL
| Luff | 6.75 ft - (2057 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 11 ft - (3353 mm) |
| Leech | 14.67 ft - (4471 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 81.26 ° |
| Diag (clew/throat) | 12 ft - (3658 mm) |
| Head | 10 ft - (3048 mm) |
| Area | * 96.26 ft² |
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Disclaimer. Boats are not all the same -- even when produced in the same factory of the same model. Sailrite does its best to publish accurate dimensions, but we often find it worthwhile to have our customers measure their boats carefully before we produce kits for them. You should take the same precautions, especially when the data is not from Sailrite. The information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Sailrite offers this content as a service to our community, but takes no responsibility for the reliability of the data provided.
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