My friends Rob and Jane Hylton run sailing boat and canoe hire on some of my favourite sailing waters – the lower Murray Lakes – just an hour south of Adelaide.

The boat hire is quite cheap but linked with you overnight staying in the small town of Clayton Bay – on the edge of the Murray River. There are a number of different options. My favourite is a tent or an on site caravan on the river’s edge camping area. But there are classier (?) options as well.

Low season is quite cheap and the days down there can be very beautiful in winter with a good weather report. They also offer sailing lessons which can include a picnic and/or a tour of the fascinating Murray wetlands.

Plan info – yawl rig info, please contact me. John and Mark are pretty happy with the Goat Island Skiff Yawl. You can see some of the story here Goat Island Skiff Plywood Boat sails 200 miles up the Texas Coast. There are some more pics Nice woodworking detail in that one above! For much [...]

Exciting News, John and David Goodman finished the Texas200 event in their lime green Goat Island skiff.

Five days and 200 miles up the Texas coast dodging huge barges and commercial traffic.

They had a great time and are very happy with the performance of the Goat

Jim Post has built the hull of his PD Goose – a 12ft version of the OZ PDRacer.

He has done a nice job with a couple of nice additions. A seat in the middle and a stylishly angular splashboard on the foredeck. I am dying to hear how it sails!

OZ Racer plan information The PDRacers have a saga published at Duckworks about the Texas 200 (the 200 mile sailing event up the Texas Coast). It is not by a Ducker but by one impressed by them. Extract The Mighty Ducks clung to the port, with all manner and various sort of other craft abeam [...]

I was sitting in Chuck’s car as we were driving to the Lake Conroe Messabout. I knew that he had some plans for the Texas 200 event – to extend the concept and starting a new small boat festival on the Texas coast in a couple of years.

This is a podcast of that interview.

This talk is the first hour of my exposition on boat building and design. There are two more parts to come. This covers some of the background and design issues. The second is more on the building side and the last is a bit more about why the Australian (and New Zealand) wooden boat tradition is different from the Northern Hemisphere.

You can stream the talks over your internet connection or download them as a podcast.

Thorne (aka David Luckhardt) is well known in both wooden boating and historical recreation circles (particularly those involving gunpowder).

He normally lurks around San Francisco, but on this occasion had driven up to Timothy Lake underneath the summit of Mount Hood.

I had the chance to interview him while sailing on Lake Timothy in Oregon.

From Brian Pearson who is finishing his RAID41 in the UK, he has a rival in the USA!!! Very exciting news!! Right is the second prototype RAID41 “Platypus” which has just joined the Texas200 fleet. and what a story. Receiving the plans only 80 days before the start of the event, Bryan set out a [...]

The first RAID 41 has been on display at the BEALE PARK boating event in the UK. That is the one built beautifully by inspired amateur builder Chris Perkins and is being finished off by the owner Brian Pearson. I am not sure how it works but I believe the show is run by Watercraft [...]

Gifted Amateur Boatbuilder Chris Perkins has laboured during some of the most difficult boatbuilding weather to produce the prototype of the new RAID41 (this is the building photoset. It is designed as a one person boat for distance cruising. Once I finish the detail plans, of course. Anyway Brian Pearson, the owner of the boat [...]

There has been a fantastic discussion about some of the racing possibilities of balance lug rigs on my forum I have learned a huge amount from sailing my BETH sailing canoe and the Goat Island Skiffs over the years, but recently ran into Brian who uses a lug rig for racing traditional British boats. So [...]

One of the new launchings of the Goat Island Skiff had a problem with a slippery floor… Here is my favourite suggestion. Nice way to deal with it is the same way we did the PDRacers. I couldnt find he pics on the building thread. You varnish the cockpit floor normally. Then mask off the [...]

Gerry and Nicola launched their new Goat Island Skiff “Jack of Mudjimba”. They have finished her in gorgeous black which will show off the varnished wood of the interior beautifully. She also has a red “Tanbark” sail. These pics are a bit distant to see the detail, but at least we have some!!! I will [...]

Furled Sails – They call themselves the “World’s First Sailing Podcast” based in North America. Anyway, last week Christy and Noel called me up chatted to me for a couple of hours. So they have an interview with me on their site followed by a part 2 next week. This looks like the permanent linkhttp://www.furledsails.com/article.php3?article=760 [...]

The Spring School is underway. About 15 people, around 10 projects. A couple of days ago it was just a big empty space. Now there are boats sprouting everywhere. Storer boats, Oughtred boats, Redmond boats, Bear Mountain boats You can see my pics on Flickr – about 600 of a whole bunch of different details [...]