ABOUT THE MARSH HEN (articles taken from Small Boat Journal and Cruising World)

The Marsh Hen was built in Miami, Florida by Ruben Trane in 1984.Trane designed the Hen to be as comfortable, worry free, and easy to handle as possible in warm weather and warm water, and his boat is right on the mark. Double-ended and flat bottomed, with a low double chine and widely flaring sides, Marsh Hen feels to be a much larger boat than her 17 by 6 feet would suggest. She was designed around her big sunbathing and lounging areas. Her beam is carried well out into her ends, and she is almost all cockpit-it's a good 12 feet long. She feels stable as a platform underfoot due to her wide, flat bottom, heels very little, and isn't too sensitive to people moving around her. You don't even have to bother to change sides when tacking. She's relaxing to sail and to be aboard; a boat that would give even the most inexperienced or nervous crew member great confidence. Marsh hens reassuring feel is reinforced by her 7-foot long centerboard. Its length makes holding on her course easy, yet doesn't keep her from turning a circle within her length. She sports a long balanced sharpie rudder mounted outboard on the stern stem. The helm's light, and although she won't sail herself, you don't have to pay too much attention to steering. Her flat bottom also makes her extremely shoal. She'll float in slightly more than six inches of water when unloaded and sails reasonably well in a foot. The long board helps there too; six inches of board down gives her a good bit of lateral plane that helps her up to windward. I doubt there are too many production monohulls that will go to weather with a Marsh Hen in less than a foot of water. A boat that sails so well in such thin water opens up a lot of area for exploring. You'll find yourself looking for shallow passages to sneak up into. Of course, thin water is also clear water; suddenly you're sailing with crabs, shellfish, and water plants that live on the bottom. If you want to stop for a longer look, just drop the board into the bottom for an anchor. Navigation, too, is easy in a shoal boat like the Marsh Hen. Just tack when the board hits. Lounging

Inside her high coamings, the Marsh Hen's cockpit is almost all flat deck, flush with the top of her centerboard trunk. A shallow footwell aft is the only exception. You don't sit so much as you lounge back against the coaming with your feet up. There's considerable sprawling and sunbathing room-more than seen in many larger boats. The entire forward end of the cockpit tents in under the large pram hood. The sleeping area enclosed is five feet wide by seven feet long, with plenty of area at the foot-impressive quarters for a 17 foot open cruiser. You could worry your way into a really quiet, private anchorage in a Marsh Hen, to match her luxurious accommodations. In a more exposed location, weight on the sleeping deck forward should hold her flat bottom underwater enough to keep it from splashing, if there's not too much of a harbor chop. The hood can be left up under sail to protect the crew. There is also a bimini aft to keep the sun off the helmsman. You can't see the sail too well from under it, but the Marsh Hen is not overly sensitive to sail trim, so that's not too much of a problem. You just peek out from under now and again. Back in the shade of the bimini, lounging against the cushions with one arm trailing the water close alongside, the other looped over the tiller, there is a feeling of overindulgent luxury; the sultan sails his royal barge. This is a very comfortable boat. The Marsh Hen is not an exciting sailer, nor is she intended to be, but she is a very easy and steady sailing boat. She tacks in 90 degrees but makes better progress to windward if sailed a bit fuller and footing off, which is easier for most people and requires less concentration. She'll sail in a circle without touching the sheet should the need arise. Her rig feels relatively large (though not overpowering in any sense),and it does keep her moving in even very light airs. But it isn't designed for great performance. It's designed to be easy to put up and to take as little attention as possible when exploring or just relaxing on the boat. There is a built in motor well to clamp a 4HP engine to move her in a calm or crowded harbor.

Just as the Marsh Hen is designed to be easy to handle, she's also designed to be easy to maintain. There is little wood aboard, and that only for serviceable purposes. The spars are aluminum, the rudder fiberglass, and the centerboard is galvanized steel. Ruben Trane takes considerable care in building his boats,and it shows. They are strong, fair, and well finished. The top sides are laid up of 1-ounce mat, two layers of 1 1/2-ounce mat,and 18-ounce roving. The bottom is much heavier and is cored with Airex PVC foam for stiffness and strength. It's laminated of 1-ounce mat,18-ounce roving,1 1/2-ounce mat,3/8-inch Airex,1-ounce mat, and 8-ounce cloth, and is about 1/2 inch thick. The deck liner and locker tops are also cored, with 1 1/2 ounce mat either side of 3/8-inch PVC and a 1-ounce skin layer on the face side. Under the deck liner, foam was filled inside her coamings to make her unsinkable. Marsh Hen is not a boat for roughing it. She is a comfortable, stable, and well- thought-out boat for protected waters. As an open cruiser, she's luxurious, having many of the conveniences of boats with cabins, yet retaining the advantages of her light weight, shoal draft, and easy handling. Sailing her for a day or a week would be no work at all; just pleasure and easy living. Marsh Hen is the perfect boat for a couple of good friends who want to explore the wonderful area at land's end and water's edge that is so full of sea and bird life and so empty of other cruising boats.