Welcome to 

Campion Sail and Design

These are simply a few pages about some of the small craft - dayboats, racing or sailing dinghies, beach cruisers and canoe yawls, whether balanced lug, gaff or bermudian rigged - that I build - or have built - or have designed - or that are some combination of the three. Based on these are a number of boat and sailing dinghy plans for the home builder to build, from small day-sailers to 'raid' style sail and oar craft suitable for dinghy cruising and a water or sand-ballasted lugger or half-decked gaff cutter. All the sailing dinghies or day sailers are very able performers, and several of the designs - including some of the balanced lug ones - have been club raced successfully over many years against conventional class dinghies - and that is without the help of a favourable handicap or yardstick rating. Although the boats are very diverse, they share one element in common: they are, I believe, among the very best of their type, as I trust the photos below and on the following pages will help make clear. Construction covers glued clinker both with and without ribs, single, double chine and multi-chine stitch and glue, conventional ply construction, and tortured ply, with rigs from fully battened bermudian sails to balanced lugs, hulls from snub-ended praams to double-ended yawls, from development class dinghies to simple traditional style dayboats. There is also a short section on George Holmes and his small canoe yawls from the late nineteenth century. If you are interested in plans for a particular type of craft that is similar to the ones featured on these pages, either for home boatbuilding or to have built, or are interested in Holmes and his original designs, please use the contact details below or on the final page. If you do not see what you are looking for, please ask.

For further information about the plans for the 'Apple 16' dinghy cruiser, dayboat or gaff cutter and its larger variations, as well as some of the other designs such as the 'Iceni 12' and '14' sailing dinghy designs, the glued lapstrake dinghy 'IO 11-12', the canoe yawl 'Imp', 'Campion', the 'Apple_13' daysailer and the rowing praams, together with photos or details and plan prices, follow the relevant links in the table below.

All plans are sent by first class post to addresses in the UK or by airmail world-wide.

Oh, and as for the name of the site, a question that sometimes is asked, it's named after sea campion, a white flower of the foreshore, shingle and sea cliff that flowers in this country throughout the sailing season: not delicate, overly retiring nor particularly pretty, but distinctive, rugged and appealing in a salt-water environment - a bit like my boats, I hope.

The 'Iceni 12' stitched seam 4 plank aside multi-chine sailing dinghy with a balanced lug mainsail. This version, the 'Megan', has the top two strakes lapped clinker style.

'Apple' reaching - a balanced lug yawl or gaff dayboat, a plywood four or five plank aside, light-weight, inexpensive, stitch and glue open dinghy or half decked dayboat, with or without internal ballast, exceptionally well balanced upright or heeled to the gunwale, with good planing performance.