Woods Designs Information

Woods Designs specialise in the design of sailing catamarans for both home and professional builders. Founded in 1981 we now boast possibly the largest and most comprehensive range of catamaran designs in the world. Designs range in size from 14' to 45' and types include beach catamarans, open deck cruising catamarans, bridgedeck cabin cruisers, racing catamarans and trailable boats. Boats can be built in a range of materials of which the most popular include sheet ply, cold moulded ply, strip plank cedar and foam sandwich. Like most designers we do not offer plans for catamarans built in steel or aluminium. All our plans are drawn using metric units. I tend to own a fleet of multihulls. Sometimes I just go for a day sail, sometimes I race for the weekend, while most years I spend a long time living on board (I have spent every Christmas living on board a boat from 2001 - 2010, on five different boats and in seven different countries). I have now cruised and raced in over 40 countries. All this experience means that I have personally faced nearly every situation you can meet when sailing and I use that experience in my designs. I usually build a prototype design each year. These boats have been built in ply, strip plank and foam sandwich, always at home using basic DIY tools and even more basic boatbuilding skills. Once launched I then go out testing, trying things, changing things, reverting to my original idea. It goes on and on. That way the design can be 100% right. So that the end result is a better boat for you. Just drawing a set of plans means the boat is only 95% perfect. Nearly 2500 plans and over 200 production catamarans have now been sold. Boats are sailing all over the world. Cruisers have made many comfortable ocean crossings in complete safety while the number of trophies won is testament to the speed of the racing designs.