There are hundreds of folks who would like to have a boat but cannot afford to spend more than a few hundred dollars for it. Scandal solves their problem for she can be built complete without motor for less than $75.00 and the price of an outboard ranges from $90 to $150, depending upon the h.p. and make. A boat of this kind offers a lot in the way of recreation; for the cruiser-camper it is ideal, being shallow and light, and thus easily drawn up on the beach or river bank anywhere. There is plenty of room for the stowage of dunnage which must be lugged along when camping.
Scandal is 14 feet 7 inches long, 3 feet 9 inches wide and draws 5 inches of water. Her freeboard at the bow is 1 foot 4 3/4 inches, while at the stem it is 1 foot 1/2, inch. The least freeboard 10 inches.
Those of you who build Scandal can expect a speed of nine miles an hour with a 3 h.p. twin cylinder outboard motor. This speed will not materialize if heavier materials are used than those shown on the plans, nor can satisfactory results be expected if the boat is built differently than the plans show. Slight changes may not seem important; however, they are.
Nine miles an hour seems to be about the limit of speed with a 3 h.p. outboard engine, and while this is moderate for the times, it is fast for the craft of this type and power. This latest design is not unlike a common skiff, but after some experimenting it has been shown that this is a better form for this kind of boat than any other. Without question this is the easiest sort of boat to build, and the cheapest; also about the lightest. It will be noticed that the chine is drawn in very fine forward and that there is very little rocker on the bottom. The freeboard has been kept low, and every thing as light as possible so as to save weight and windage. Boats of this kind are not generally used in rough water and this angle of the problem has purposely not been considered. However, Scandal will slosh along with the rest of them on this score, and will be a better kind of sea boat than one suspects because of the broad flare of the topsides. A boat with flare is usually a fair sea boat.
The construction is simplicity itself and she can be built without a lot of special tools and without a steam box. After all, simplicity is something worth having in a boat, or in anything else. It requires considerable experience to built any kind of boat and a lot of common sense. There are always difficulties to surmount in the building of any boat and this applies to the professional builder as well as to the amateur, and so the simpler the design the better it is.
