5.5kg or 12lb balsa canoe. storerboatplans.com

How to Lightweight – Balsa Canoe strip planked 12lbs (5.5Kg)

A 12lb canoe. The idea was to build a Rushton Wee Lassie in balsa strip with very light glass. The boat ended up being fairly durable despite not being interested in durability. As far as I was concerned I was going to be happy if it lasted a couple of years before being chucked into a dumpster somewhere. But five years later it was still beautiful despite good use.

Paulownia framed Goat Island Skiff for massive weight savings. Hull around 100lbs. storerboatplans.com

FAQ – Paulownia or Kirri – the “newest” lightweight timber for Boatbuilding.

We first started to see Paulownia becoming available from Plantations in Australia around 2004. Well before the current boom in its use for framing and hulls of dinghies, yachts and other boats. Paulownia is a very lightweight timber from China that provides one way of building lightweight boards and boats. How to overcome its weaknesses and make use of its strengths.

Book – “A lighter ton” – New Zealand racing yacht design in the 1970s

In the late 70s as a sailing teenager I drew boats on every available paper surface.

A new book “a lighter ton” describes the exciting development of racing yachts to create newer, lighter, faster and cheaper and FUNNER boats.

Many of the developments were from New Zealand designers such as Bruce Farr, Paul Whiting and Laurie Davidson. A new book by Richard Blakey covers this exciting experimental period in yacht design

The Canon – Tools for thinking about sailing and boat design – Books and Articles

One of the most important things as a designer or sailor is to keep an open mind, but also to be able to analyze things in light of real experience and prior knowledge. These are online and paper resources that force thinking in different ways.

This article, after a bit of a spiel, goes on to give some great resources that “opened my eyes” at different times in my life.

They focus on areas of structural design, sailing, sail aerodynamics and touch on a bit more.

“Disposable” Canoeing – building a canoe in a few hours.

I don’t have a car so how can I go canoe touring? Its something I fell in love with in the USA on Lake Powell.

This is an idea for a simple, cheap, almost throwaway (or give away) canoe. I can get the materials shipped to somewhere on a river, build the boat over a couple of days then go for a paddle.

At the end I can give the boat away or store it for the next part of the trip.

Podcast Online – Wooden Boat Construction by Michael Storer – 2 of 3

This is the second of my talks in the USA. It focuses a bit more on construction and some of the methods that can be used to keep a boat light and simple, but very strong and stiff.

It also discusses how there is a “creep” in boatbuilding and design that increases the weight of boats way over what is really needed for a strong structure.