MSD Rowboat in Brisbane. Built by Tom

Plywood rowboat plan info

I Caught up with Tomtre yesterday in Brisbane – he picked me up and we dodged rain squalls while driving down to the coast.

Had a nice discussion along the way.  And the boat just looked great on the water.  I am still nursing my bung foot so I didn’t go for a row.  Got a lot of feedback from Tom and also found we knew each other in a past life – when we were in our teens we used to go to a sailing camp at Lake Munmorah on the NSW central coast.

The most important practical upshot Is that we measured up the revised skeg size – remember I drew it oversized – as it is easier to cut it down than glue more on.  Tom has trimmed it so the boat behaves nicely cross breeze rather than the nose blowing away from the wind.

I will post those dimensions shortly.

So here are some pics.

Looks rainy, right – wrong – it bucketed down on the way down to the Coast at Nudgee.

Rowboat or fishing boat in plywood.

The land dolley from a set of Hobie wheels.  They have changed over to pneumatic tyres – probably a retrograde step.

Plywood Rowboat and Dolley with wheels for moving on land

Tom in his wooden boat on the river at Nudgee.
Tom in his Rowboat on the River at Nudgee.

Looks like there is enough water to float it in the carpark

MSD Plywood Rowboat/Fishing Boat in the Car Park

And Upstream and down it has good directional stability now the skeg has been trimmed down.   Because it was too large the bow used to blow away from the wind.

The revised skeg is working to make the boat row upwind and uptide stably

Stability – in a static sense anyhow.  It would be possible to capsize if you moved quite quickly

Testing the stability of the simple rowboat. As long as you don't move too quickly it behaves quite well.

Aerial view

Tom rowing his boat on the river at at Nudgee.

I was there!

The designer proves that he is there - he must learn to smile in self portraits!

The set is here with more details of the dolley and the MSD plywood rowboat – Tom plans to use it for fishing and maybe some light camping.

Best wishes
MIK