About the Downloadable Plans
We now prefer to supply customers with downloadable copies of our plans. This requires less work for us to print and ship physical sheets of paper and as a result it's cheaper for you to buy them. We hope it is also more convenient for our customers because the plans are of course now available for instant purchase.
However physical printed plans are still available. To order printed paper plans please CLICK HERE. This links to the same order form as does the link on the home page and also on individual design pages.
Download files have been compressed so you will need the free WinZip or similar to open them.
NOTE:
- Plans are only valid to build one boat.
- For security reasons each order is coded and must be downloaded within 48 hours.
- The plan prices shown on the design pages are for the printed paper plans, the download plan prices are much cheaper.
- Crayfish is now only available as a download. Downloadable plans are NOT available for Stealth, Gwahir, Scorpio, Javelin, Scylla, Nimbus, Ondina, Cirrus.
Different types of plans
Before deciding which boat to build it's worth getting as much information as possible. So apart from this web site we have produced lots more to help you.
For example, after narrowing the choice down we suggest you purchase a "Study Plan" for each boat you are interested in. These comprise two large drawing sheets (A1 size). The first will be a scale general arrangement drawing and the second a sample sheet from the building plans. In addition you also get materials lists, photo sheets, etc
If you are still not convinced and you'd like to know more about the boats without actually paying the full amount for the plans we offer a "Partial Plan" set. This costs about one third of the full plan price and comprises a full set of plans except for the lines plan. So you can't actually build a boat, but you can get a complete picture of what is involved in building one. When you decide to go ahead and build the boat simply order the "Upgrade Plans" to obtain the remaining plan sheets. The "Full Plans" are the same as purchasing both a Partial Plan and an Upgrade, but it's a little cheaper.
Free Sample Plans!
So that you can see how easy it is to download plans, and also so that you can see the high quality of our plans, we have a free sample package plan available to download. There are 3 plan sheets in this package; one sheet from the Pixie plans (sheet 2 of 3), one from the Strider plans (sheet 3 of 8) and one from the Mira plans (sheet 8 of 21). Together they show the mix of illustrations and dimensioned drawings that apply to all our plans. Some boats which we have built ourselves (Quattro 16, Wizard, Gypsy etc) also include photosheets to further illustrate the building process.
To download this free sample plan package please download this file:
Compared to paper plans
The downloaded plans are identical to the paper plans, as they are simply professionally scanned electronic copies of the original drawings. Thus the drawings are in Gif, Tiff or Jpeg file format. This means they can be read by any imaging program, for example you can use the "Image for Windows" or the "Microsoft Photo Editor" viewer available in Program Accessories. Typically a study plan file is under 1Mb and building plans are 2 to 10Mb
Although the printed plan sheets themselves are usually large, typically A1 size (approx 3ft x 2ft) you can usually read most of the information you require off the screen without printing them. Furthermore, the parts of the drawings that you do need to print will usually fit on a standard home inkjet printer. Having said that, Quattro 16, Wizard, Sango and Wizzer all have full size patterns for the hull frames or bulkheads, so you will need to get those sheets printed out. Most good print shops can print out A1 sheets from a file on a CD. Please read the accompanying word files to ensure you print the full size drawings out at the correct scale!
Although when you buy study plans we will still offer advice to help you chose the design that best suits your needs, no consultation with the designers is included with the downloaded full building plans. Furthermore, these drawings must be considered for illustrative purposes only. Having said that, all the designs sold are tried, tested and proven, and they have all been successfully built by amateur builders all over the world without problems. So basically, "What you see is what you get."
However, you are not alone in your construction! You can get support and chat to other builders by visiting our forums here:
And if you run into real problems then it is possible to engage Woods Designs on a consultancy basis to help work through your problems, and in exceptional cases we may even be able to visit you on site.
If you are looking for inspiration you might also like this site which documents one couples home build of a Gypsy:
Eclipse Diary
As you know, I cruised my Eclipse catamaran for five years. I put a basic log book on the web site to keep readers updated on my progress. But I also have a full log book available to download as a .PDF file. The log book is over 300 pages long and contains thousands of words, and hundreds of photos and maps. As a result it is a large file (approx 9MB).
An extract from this log book won the 2004 Venture Trophy, presented by MOCRA (the British Multihull Association) for the best multihull cruising story published in 2004.
Cost is GBP8
Download Notes
As the downloaded plans are "soft goods" like mp3's, software programs etc I am afraid:
Download orders are final and not refundable. There is NO REFUND if the item is received by a successful download. So please ensure that you are purchasing the file(s) you want before completing your order!!
If the customer is unable to successfully complete a delivery to a computer AND Applies within THREE (3) calendar days of the initiation of the transaction a full refund of the purchase price may be credited to the users account. However if the WINZIP file appears to be defective, we will replace it with a file of the same title once we determine that the file was in fact defective, or at our discretion, send the paper plan equivalents at no extra charge.
Each download order (in a form of a WinZip folder which contains the files ordered) can be downloaded immediately after a confirmation that charges have been approved by our credit card processing centre. Note: When making a payment the billing address where you receive your credit card bill must be entered otherwise your credit card charges will be declined.
When you choose to purchase our products you accept the Terms & Conditions of Sales. Please read our Terms & Conditions
Other Notes
If you buy paper plans then you must include your order number with all queries.
Plan Prices: Although our shopping basket only takes payments in GBP (pound sterling), the equivalent value in USD (US Dollars) and Euros is shown at the checkout. NOTE: Exchange rates are determined by the bank when you place the order, not by us!