Plans to build the 25' Kona Hawaiian Sampan
Introducing the Kona Hawaiian Sampan. Easy to build plans are available.
About Hawaiian Sampans
The island nation of Japan has a long, rich tradition of exceptionally seaworthy boat designs. In fact, the skeleton of a Jomon (Ancient Japanese) traveler was unearthed in Washington State and carbon dated to be 7000 years old! The only possible way he could have gotten there was to cross the North Pacific by boat. When Japanese immigrants came to Hawaii in the late 1800s and early 1900s, they brought with them their knowledge of boat design and construction. From this, the Hawaiian sampan was developed and became the predominant workboat in the middle of the Pacific.
The Sampan design has more recently given way to full planing deep vee hulls because engines became plenty powerful and fuel was cheap for a long, long time. Well, those happy days of burning plentiful cheap gas are over, and are likely never to return, so it's time to revive some of the successful hulls of the past, especially those that performed very well on modest power. Welcome back the Hawaiian Sampan, a semi-planing seaworthy hull that will really scoot along with modest power. Achieving 20 knots while burning only 3 or 4 gallons per hour is entirely possible. Most deep vee planing hulls of equivalent size will burn over double that amount of fuel for the same speed. You won't have the top end speed, but who needs to go that fast in the ocean anyway?
The Kona is my first foray into Hawaiian Sampan designs. At 25 feet, it is a convenient coastal size that may be trailered or kept in an inexpensive sized slip. I took the traditional hull shape and redesigned it to be built of lighter, inexpensive modern materials covered in tough fiberglass and epoxy. An inboard gas or diesel engine of 75-150 horsepower will get it up on a plane and cover the miles quickly without you breaking into an uncontollable string of foul language every time you go to the fuel dock.
Free Study Plans for the Kona Hawaiian Sampan
Our study plans are two of the actual construction drawings. They're not enough information for you to build the boat, but they do give you the overall boat size, shape and construction methods. This is a pdf file readable with the free Adobe Acrobat pdf file reader.
Please contact me by e-mail if you wish to build a Kona. I have the construction drawings partially complete and should be able to complete the remainder in a few weeks, if you elect to purchase this design.
