I read half way through this free book by Sven Yrvind called “WITH FOUR SQUARE METERS OF SAIL AND ONE OAR” which is sort of a manifesto about building small boats and living simply. He’s a super interesting guy, I don’t even know how to sail and I was pretty glued to it. Not sure why I decided to latch on and go deep on the subject but you can find it here if you’re interested: https://www.yrvind.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ex_lex_eng...
Yrvind is such a legend - he has had me on a micro-cruiser kick for quite a while now. He has a youtube channel that's worth checking out - he's a character that's fun to listen to as well.
Other interesting boat designers (this is sort of my obsession):
You might check out Matt Layden's designs for similar micro-cruisers.
A totally different but equally iconoclastic designer is Dave Zeiger, of TRILOBOATs. Those are great big liveaboard boats sailed up in Alaska, but they tend to be built on the cheap and breaking all the rules of traditional boat design.
The late Phil Bolger influenced Dave Zeiger, if you want to go even deeper. Well known for his "brick boats" and pioneering the "instant boat building" techniques that leverage plywood and epoxy.
There's also James Wharram, who pioneered Polynesian-style catamaran designs and making them at home, and is pretty much single-handedly responsible for the boom in catamaran designs we've seen over the last ~50+ years of yacht design.
Thanks a lot for compiling this list. There are a lot of interesting boat styles there. They kind of look funny but seem to be fully functional and some even quite comfy.
