Perhaps the safest kind of a sailing-craft next to a catamaran is a lark with a broad beam and flat at both bow and stern. There are various forms of the half-rater, but the one shown in Fig. 24 is easy to construct and requires less careful fitting and joining than the hulls with pointed bows and long, overhanging sterns.
In general construction this hull is similar to the punt, and when putting it together the description for the building of the punt must be borne in mind.
Obtain two clear cedar planks sixteen feet long and from fourteen to sixteen inches wide. Four feet from either end begin to round the lower edges of these side boards. Cut two spreaders five feet and six inches long and make them fast four feet from the ends of the sides as shown at Fig. 25. Between these spreaders attach an inner keel in the forward end of which an opening has been made. The keel is of hard-wood eight inches wide and the opening is three inches and a half in width and four feet and eight inches long.
A centre-board trunk is made and fitted into this opening as described for the sailing sharpy. Then braces are fastened between the sides and trunk as shown at Fig. 26.
Two bevelled hard-wood bow and stern pieces are cut as shown at Fig. 27. The ends of the boards are sprung in and attached to the ends of these pieces, and between them and the spreaders two more boards are fastened as indicated by the lines of nail-heads in Fig. 26. At the bow just ahead of the forward long cross-piece or spreader step the mast, and at the stern make the rudder-post trunk, taking care to use plenty of white-lead and lamp-wick so as to render the joints water-tight. Put a line of braces through the middle of the frame, then begin at the bow and plank the bottom with boards not more than three or four inches wide.
With the planking on and the braces, spreaders, and trunk in position the frame will appear as shown in Fig. 28. The deck planking is of strips seven-eighths of an inch thick and three inches wide. Begin at the middle of the boat by laying down a strip six inches wide by one inch and a quarter in thickness. Drive the deck planking close to this and smear the points with white-lead in which the lamp-wicking is embedded. Make all the fastenings with galvanized boat nails and drive the heads well into the wood with a nail-punch so they can be puttied and covered from the action of the water. An outer flat keel is laid along the bottom of the hull from the forward part of the cockpit or about under the mast. This leads aft to where the stern begins to round up and there it is stopped.