Gorfnik Nanocruiser
Description
The Gorfnik Nanocruiser (often just called Gorfnik) is a tiny, home-built plywood micro-cruiser sailboat designed by André-François Bourbeau (a Canadian adventurer and outdoor enthusiast) around 2015–2016. It's based on a modified Puddle Duck Racer (PDR) hull—widely known for its simple, boxy, stable 8 ft x 4 ft plywood one-design racer—but heavily customized into a "nano-cruiser" with a low cabin, sail-from-inside capability, and camping features for protected waters (lakes, rivers, fjords, or calm bays). Bourbeau created it as a minimalist adventure boat for solo or short solo cruises, with a focus on portability (lightweight ~200 lb / 90 kg), easy launch (dinghy trolley or beach), and self-sufficiency (sleep aboard, cook inside, bug screens, storage). About 5–6 have been built (some documented in videos and blogs), and free plans are available on PDRacer.com (including 2016 overview PDF with construction notes). It's not a production boat—pure DIY/home-built with stitch-and-glue or taped-seam plywood (some fiberglass reinforcement possible).
Construction Details
| Designer | André-François Bourbeau |
|---|---|
| Builder | Home Built |
| Length | 8.000 ft |
| LOA | 80.000 ft |
| Beam | 4.000 ft |
The standard boat dimensions
| i | - |
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| j | - |
| p | - |
| e | - |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
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| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Documents
Sails
Gorfnik Nanocruiser - SPRIT
| Luff | 9.354 ft - (2851 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 7.885 ft - (2403 mm) |
| Leech | 11.938 ft - (3639 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 81.91 ° |
| Diag (clew/throat) | 11.354 ft - (3461 mm) |
| Head | 5.219 ft - (1591 mm) |
| Area | * 65.94 ft² |
| Edit in Calculator |
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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