Gypsy - 28ft Cruiser

The GYPSY 28 was the Woods Designs own cruising boat for five very successful years

It was designed as an easy to build budget ocean cruiser and many are now sailing in all corners of the world.

It's central cuddy is a feature seen on several of our most recent designs, as it combines the advantages of the open deck boat's easy access forward with the central saloon and cockpit protection of a bridge deck cabin boat.

There is standing headroom and 4 berths in the hulls and a dinette and galley in the central cuddy - which also features standing headroom. Hulls can be flat panel or round bilge and GYPSY can be built in ply, foam sandwich or strip plank. It is the minimum size boat we suggest that a couple use for ocean cruising. It can be built in sections and assembled by the water.

"GYPSY is a solid, safe yet remarkably nippy and budget conscious cruiser" - Multihull International.

"Of all the multihulls I've sailed, GYPSY presents about the strongest case in favour of cruising on two hulls" - Practical Boat Owner.

A plywood Gypsy being built in Panama, photographed in March 2005

The same boat in July 2005, not bad for a home builder!

In 2007 this boat sailed from Panama to Tahiti

The web site (in German and English) is http://pacific-sailing.net/Sbau.html

Garett and Carllie Hennigan have built one of the best home built boats I've ever seen.

The photo shows them as they left British Columbia and began heading south.

After spending 2 years sailing first south from Vancouver and then cruising Mexico, Lightwave left Baja California and arrived in Hawaii 23 days later, having survived 28 hours lying to a sea anchor in a mid ocean gale.

You can see more of their boat and cruising log by visiting their excellent web site

http://www.time-for-a-catamaran-adventure.com/index.html

A UK Gypsy builder wrote from Sardegna, Italy ..."During the summer my wife and I sailed around west Europe and North Africa through a wide variety of weather conditions (good to b*****y awful) to get here.

The sail across the Bay of Biscay was enlivened by the biggest electrical storm we have ever seen (not forecasted) which was accompanied by gale force squalls. To miss the worst of it we sailed out into the Atlantic for hours.

Galicia and Portugal were an absolute delight with good sailing, good anchorages and good food, although a trifle windy at times. Ceuta and Morocco was an exciting experience. The Costa's were beautiful in the undeveloped areas and looked like shanty towns in the developed areas and the Balearics were an absolute delight.

Gaea performed superbly, it sailed well in all sea conditions and nothing structural broke, although sadly I cannot say the same of Tiller Pilots (I broke 3).

We found that living long term on Gaea was comfortable with plenty of space for the two of us"... see photos to left middle

To order Download versions please use the Shopping Cart

To order study plans or full building plans (on paper) please use this order form

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Contact
Richard Woods
Foss Quay, Millbrook, Torpoint, Cornwall, PL10 1EN, UK

GYPSY 28 Budget Offshore Cruiser

THE FACTS AND FIGURES

sheet ply or grp flat panel dory shaped hulls

strip cedar round bilge hulls, ply decks

LENGTH O.A. 8.5m
LENGTH W.L. 8.1m
BEAM OA 5.4m
DISPL (empty) 1.8T
DISPL (loaded) 2.4T
HEADROOM 1.85m
DRAFT 0.7m
SAIL AREA 38 sq m

photo shows Gaia at 15 knots off Portugal

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Please compare the two Gypsy's above. Lightwave, on the right, is much heavier than Gaia, on the left. Yet both have been successfully used as live aboard cruisers for thousands of miles.

Remember that Gypsy was designed as a "Budget Ocean Cruiser" So please build and fit it out on a budget! It is too small a boat to fill it with lots of "goodies", see below for some of them