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Project Stages

   Getting Started
   Hull Construction

   Masting and Rigging

   Into the Water

 Credits

 About the project



This website documents the progress in building The Little Leon, a boat that is approximately modeled after the Leon (below)
A life long dream

Little Leon is the fulfillment of a life long dream – to make a model of a square rigger that can actually be sailed!

Selecting Leon

Little Leon is based on the Leon, an 1880, Norwegian-built brigantine. The photo of the Leon (below) appears in "Plank-on-Frame Models" by Harold Underhill (Brown, Son and Ferguson, Glasgow, 1968)

 

Scaling the Model

Little Leon is not an accurate model – she has been simplified to make construction easy, and modified to make sailing at the smaller scale comfortable.

Visually - she'll look like Leon!

At the same time, when she is finished, Little Leon should give the right visual impression when sailing!

The Leon, built in 1880...

... and the Little Leon, 2008