November 2025  FanShi

By Annie Hill

FanShi was designed by David Tyler and myself, to provide me with a 26ft floating home.  David did all the clever parts of the design ensuring the boat would actually sail, while I designed the accommodation and the deck layout.  I had very specific ideas of what I wanted, but fortunately, David understood and agreed with most of them.  I’m sure he had to say no to one or two of my ideas, but I can’t think of any, now.

I built the boat myself, over a period of a little more than 5 years, from September 2015 to launching in January 2021.  David helped with the initial setup and one or two other people gave me a hand, but I would reckon I did 95% of the work alone. 

Although I had helped build a a couple of other boats, my role had been very much that of apprentice and, indeed, I very much appreciated it when the designer, John Welsford, took the time to come along and show me how to use and to sharpen, chisels and planes.

I was fairly sure that I didn’t want to go back to wandering over the oceans; on the other hand, never say never!  That being so, the boat is ocean-worthy, although perhaps not the ideal vessel to take down to Cape Horn - or even to circumnavigate New Zealand.  With that ‘insurance’ behind me, I concentrated on the things that would make the boat ideal for my chosen cruising ground of NE North Island, New Zealand.  I particularly wanted shallow draught, so that I could anchor close to the beach from where I could be close to birds - one of my particular delights. 

Another of my pleasures is cooking, so the boat had to have an excellent galley.  I debated long and hard as to whether to have an oven - a significant sacrifice of space on a small boat - and eventually decided against it and have no regrets.  I also wanted to avoid an inboard engine a choice that many find strange.  However, quite apart from the time involved, the installation of a new engine would have added another 40% to the overall cost of the boat.  It would also take up a lot of room in the stern, space that could better be used for other things, .  Considering that I spend, as I intended to, most of my time either at anchor or on a mooring, it seemed ridiculous to sacrifice so much for something that might well only be used on average about 15 minutes a fortnight.  The junk rig, of course, was a given: I wouldn’t contemplate having a boat with any other rig.

Overall, I’ve been delighted with my boat and although five years is a lot out of my life, I get constant pleasure and satisfaction from her.  While many people would have been happy with painted plywood and a little trim, I have fitted her out to have a traditional air, lavished time and money on giving her teak decks and plenty of brightwork and now that’s it’s all done, I consider the rewards more than compensate for what I put into her.

The above image is from Annie's Voyaging with Annie blog.

Also recommended is Annie's current blog Wandering and Wondering, the Art of Slow Cruising.

Our "Boat of the Month" Archive is here, and the forum discussion for comments and candidate suggestions is here