Enigma sailboatThe Enigma is a self-righting, flat bottomed and beachable mini-cruiser. Enigma is referred to as a small, long distance coastal cruiser and is propelled by a single sail, or with an oar. It has room for 2 people for daysailing, but only enough room for one person to sleep aboard (the E460 may have enough room for 2 smaller people to sleep snugly). The Enigma was designed by Matt Layden.
Info
Enigma - building photos VersionsThe original version of Enigma is 12 feet long (360 cm). This is the boat that Matt sailed around Florida in the Ultimate Florida Challenge.
Length: 12 feet, 3 inches. Matt has designed a 4.6 meter version of Enigma with a plywood deckhouse for George Van Sickle. He is documenting his building progress here. Once the prototype is proved out, Matt will offer the plans for sale.
LOA 4.6m = 15'-1"
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http://www.watertribe.com/ Charts
On-line NOAA charts Pictures are of Enigma 360
Interior space I have been trying to get my head around the interior space in the Enigma 460. The beam is 3' 9". Now in comparison to Paradox, whose beam is 4', Paradox's built in shelves on each side of the hull, must take up 3 or 4 inches per side. That effectively reduces the room for humans to a beam of 3' 6", which is 3" less than Enigma. This picture shows 2 people crammed into Paradox in a sleeping position. There should be the same amount of interior room in an Enigma 460. Now the movable sand ballast in the Enigma may take up some of the interior floor space, but I imagine they could be moved up against the forward bulkhead at night while at anchor, where they would be out of the way. Also if I went with a denser material (steel or lead), the ballast would take up less floor space. The length between the fore and aft bulkead is 7' 7". "...there is going to more interior space than I thought. I can sit upright athwartship with several inches of clearance overhead (I am 6 ft.)" GVS I just realized that there are essentially 3 watertight compartments in the Enigma. There are water tight openings in both the forward and aft bulkheads. I realize that there is a hole in the stern for Enigma's rudder, but the aft compartment is sealed off from the rest of the boat. I would also like the ability to have a removable 2 foot section of the rear of the deck house; basically a lift out rear window like on the Paradox Enuf. That way in good weather, I could sit on the aft deck with my legs inside the cockpit. Yes, I would have to duck down when tacking from this position and I would not have anything to rest my back on; I could use one of those portable Crazy Creek chairs. Enigma looks to a certain extent like a miniature Paradox and she embodies some of her characteristics such as the chine runners, flat bottom with rocker and box sides, but she is a different boat in that she is a light displacement vessel by comparison with Paradox which is a heavy displacement boat. This means that Enigma relies on her crew's weight as ballast to maintain stability and because of her light displacement she could even plane. The internal stowage arrangements between the two boats are dissimilar and Enigma 360 does not have a hardtop cabin. -- Enigma 460 has a hardtop cabin Enigma 360 Made of: 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch (hull bottom) plywood and fiberglass. Length: 12 feet, 3 inches. Beam: 3-feet, 3 inches. Draft: 6 inches. Weight (empty): 180 pounds. Payload: 420 pounds. Sail area: 56 square feet. Ideal speed: Three to four knots. Other: No keel, self-righting, tubular sand bags for ballast that are secured to the floor Bottom: 3/8 ply with 2 layers of 9-oz. tight weave fiberglass cloth. 3 more layers of glass tape: 6", 4" and 2.5" wide, will follow along the chine joints. (I plan to use 1 layer of biaxial cloth followed by 1 layer of woven cloth on bottom, and 3 layers of biaxial tape on chine joints. I'll do same on inside) Sides: 2 layers of 3.25-oz. glass to the sides and transom. The cloth laps over onto the deck to tie this joint together. (I'll probably go with 1 layer of biaxial cloth followed by 1 layer of woven cloth). Biaxial fiberglass notes Summary In 2005 Matt built his sixth micro-cruiser, Enigma. This 12 footer was also intended for coastal sailing, but it differed from his earlier works in that it was much lighter in weight. At 180 pounds, the new stitch and glue built sharpie could even be hefted onto the top of a car for easier transport to far away cruising grounds. It certainly appears that this cruiser shares some of the best features found in all of his older boats. The shape and the proportion of Enigma's hull have a striking resemblance to a scaled down version of Little Cruiser, which even includes her shapely rudder. The rig comes straight from Paradox with it's efficient roller furling along with the very distinctive low aspect ratio lug sail. The fold down dodger is a much improved version of the one now found on Swamp Thing. As for the chine runners, they are a new shorter and deeper shape especially created for this lightweight boat. Of course it didn't take long for Enigma to prove herself as a worthy successor. In March 2006 Matt sailed Enigma on her maiden voyage for 1200 miles around Florida in the Ultimate Challenge race to finish first in her class and third overall. 6mm = 1/4 inch 9mm = 3/8 inch 12mm = 1/2 inch I'm working on an article for Small Craft Advisor with a fairly detailed description of Enigma and her origins. I think they're talking about 2 or 3 issues out. I'll have construction plans out later this year with some minor mods based on experience in the prototype. - Matt - April 05, 2006 To Enigma fans and future builders of the craft, for those the following should be very good news. Recently I received a letter from Matt Layden; it was in reply to a letter I wrote to him after the Ultimate Everglades Challenge ended. Builder's plans will be available for Enigma soon. Here is a partial quote from his letter, "At the moment Enigma is in her `prototype' testing phase…I plan to make some minor changes in the model and draw up building plans later this year. Don Elliott - 20 Apr 2006 In the words of Sven Yrvind: "I am now convinced that the chinerunner concept, created by Matt in 1982, is the greatest innovation for small cruising boats in the last century." Podcast with Sven on Matts boats In Layden's latest boat, Enigma, the chine runners have evolved into higher-aspect foils, and Layden reports that they seem to be an improvement over Paradox's runners. Break down the steps to build Enigma to discrete tasks and estimate the time to do each task. Do this is in a spreadsheet and post to Enigma Group. Estimate material costs too. My Enigma posts Comparison of materials for ballast in Enigma sand = 1600 kg/cubic meter = 100 lbs/cu. ft. steel = 7850 kg/cubic meter = 490 lbs/cu. ft. lead = 11,340 kg/cubic meter = 708 lbs/cu. ft. kg/cu.m divided by 16.02 = lbs/cu.ft Weight of materials 22 Feb 2005 Biaxial fiberglass There is a difference between plywood covered with 10 oz. woven and plywood used as a core between biaxial glass. In the first one, the strength comes mostly from the plywood, in the second one, the strength comes from the fiberglass skins. It is very different. Monocoque composite construction Stitch and glue construction Biax tape Lights
Furthermore, the regulations state that "unpowered vessels," defined as
Just remember that the p/s lights must be forward, as Marine plywood source Source for bucket lids to use as bulkhead hatches Trips I plan to make on Enigma
"Never having done a scarf joint before I played it safe and purchased the West System Scarffer circular saw attachment. The decision proved to be a good one because it made nearly perfect scarf joints which were much better than I could have done by hand." from http://www.charliesweb.com/pelican/construction_page_4.html
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