A Drascombe with a Swallowboats difference

[Craic]

Pictured below is 'Steamy', a rare Drascombe Driver from 1976, one of the 56 ever built. (Recently, the Drascombe Driver hull has been copied and resurrected in the 'Deben Lugger'.)

Anyway, the sailing capabilities of the original Driver were notoriously poor. So I modified the boat with details learned from Swallowboats. A self-tacking jib clubboom, a boom for mainsail and mizzen. Et Voila!: The boat now sails 12 degrees closer winded, and a lot faster. This further results in the boat now going through all tacks without ever again getting stuck in irons.
A brisk and handy sailing boat now, not near a Swallow boat though, but pleasant enough.

[Tony]

Hi, Claus.
Having a good New Year?
Very interested in what you've done to the old driver, particularly the fact that it all turned out sucessfully.  At the moment we tow Four Sisters to Greece each summer but would prefer to leave a boat abroad with friends. Not wanting to tie up a lot of money in something that will only get used (by me) for 6 weeks in summer, I wonder if an old Drascombe lugger hull would respond to similar treatment? Could I use the original mast position? I will have to buy new sails so CLR and CE could be balanced quite easily.. What do you think? Worth a try?

Tony

[Craic]

Not wanting to tie up a lot of money in something that will only get used (by me) for 6 weeks in summer, I wonder if an old Drascombe lugger hull would respond to similar treatment? ...What do you think? Worth a try?

Hi Tony,
Happy New Year.
You sure can tune up an old Lugger a bit, but you must have a good exemplar first and then spend some money and time on it, rather a lot of both actually. Apart from the possible serious structural diseases of an old Drascombe (spiderweb cracks on the shroud fastenings, gunwhale rot, keelstrip rot or leaks, mast foot rot, rusted plate, worn plate holder, broken under rudder stock bearing), you will need a tabernacle, gooseneck fittings for main am mizzen mast, good timber for the booms and bits and pieces that also add up. Then the sails, if they are old and blown baggy they cannot work very well.
Mast position, you would have no problem with that, because you can control the weather helm with adjusting the mast rake.
But in the end, you'll still have a boat with majestic leeway because of the flat plate, and questionable safety, I think you should rather look further than just at an old Lugger.
Instead you could pick up one of those used french small cabin plastics, they offer good value on the second hand market.
Tough decisions, good luck.