Zoon - modified Long Micro

We built Zoon in Port Townsend, Washington State, in 1995.  We and our dog ended up living aboard for two and a half years, and loved it!

We wanted to try out leeboards and ultra-shoal draft, so we substitued the lee-board and rudder arrangement from Wish II (another Bolger design), toed-in as per Martha Jane.  This worked out great...we were able to make good to windward in up to 45 knots.  Our leeboards were 1" thick, but we cracked two sets.  We'd recommend girder style - skins separated by blocking, as in the as-designed free-flooding keel.  The leeboards made for good windward shelter in the cockpit, and the guards made a great boarding step.

After punching a hole in the hull, just above the waterline, we added 1/2" "doubling plates" port and starboard, doubling the hull thickness to 1" to about 8" above the waterline. It gave us a bit of extra buoyancy.

We lengthened the mast two feet for visibility under.  Worked well... didn't cause noticeably greater heeling, though we ran the sail track low enough to snug the tack down in rough going.  We added a topping lift after a fifteen minutes thrash-about with the boom end hanging up in the cockpit while raising sail.  All lines were led to the cockpit, but we forgot about a down-haul and sometimes had to help the main down.

A hatch was added over the galley space.  It could have been stronger than we built it, but the extra light and ventilation paid for themselves.  A 6x2 sampson post doubled as a corner-post at the transom opposite the mizzen, and we towed a Gloucester Gull from there.

Bookshelves were added under the cockpit decl, opening into the cabin.  WOuld've been a lot simpler before decking!  The gap between settess we boarded over fro platform living, with storage and a ballast stongbox under.

We would have liked eventually to move the mast aft aft to the forward watertight bulkhead, and try either junk rig or Bolger's Chinese gaff rig.  The mast in the bow was a pain to work around while handling anchor lines.  Another thought was to lengthen the forward end of the mizzen boom, giving more leverage for 'wind-surfing'.

We never did get around to the flat-cut spinnaker, which would've helped tame the weather helm reaching and running.  We had to reed way early, and drop the main entirely after about 25 knots and run-off under the squared-off  mizzen .  A third set of reef points would have helped, too.

Overall, we loved life on Zoon and only moved up (to the AS29) because we couldn't stay out long enough on the stores she could hold.

(There're more photos including under sail on the Zeiger boat pages.)