On the "round Australia trip" that many young people take as an initiation I found myself employed by a tiny business in Adelaide - Duck Flat Wooden Boats in Adelaide - which was later to become the premier plan, kit and material suppliers in Australia.
It was an eye opener - customers were highly motivated to "do something with their own hands" and it became clear to me that it was possible to build a boat for a fraction of the cost of current racing boats.
My ideas were quickly formed in this environment. Boats of high performance that were easy to build, fun to sail and reasonably cheap to put together, but retaining a strong traditional character. The main antipodean influence was to embrace our tradition of boats that are drastically lighter than Northern Hemisphere equivalents (10lbs/ft) but stronger to deal with our stronger average winds and rougher waters.
A sharp eyed customer notified me that I hadn’t included a method to right the OzRacer RV. The nice thing about the OZ series is that all the boats come up with very little water inside when righted from capsize. Also the wooden mast doesn’t allow the boat to turn completely upside down making righting read more →
Gyula, who built the first European OzRacer in 2008 wants to modify it for an outboard motor.
This modification will work for most OzRacers, Oz Goose, PDGoose and PDRacers.
More content about boats, canoes is on the way. Everything is still here when you go to the actual articles, but the summary pages might be missing thumbnails etc. But all the links should still work. Michael
Finally I finished the plan for the new OzRacer RV. It is a much simpler build of the original OzRacer concept so will be very attractive to people looking for a first boat. Plans are still the old $20 but even more detail than before. Order the plans for the simple and cheap OzRacer RV read more →
The Finn Dinghy has been one of the most important of the racing classes over the past six decades.
It was always in the forefront of sailing developments.
One fellow contacted asking if there were plans to build a Finn dinghy … and I was able to find a partial answer.
The Quick Canoe Electric is a simple to build cartoppable square back canoe.
It can be quickly and simply built in plywood.
Peter Caspari’s boat is shown here.
The OzRacer Mk3 has been rebranded as the OzRacer RV.
Detailed plan – a boatbuilding course in a book for $20 each.
So now racing sailors can use the OzRacer Mk2 and cruising sailors can use the OzRacer RV plan. The RV is no slouch though – it won the World titles in 2010.
The rudderbox design I use has distinct advantages over normal swinging rudder setups. Once you try this design you will never be satisfied with a swinging blade again. But some of the details are important!
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
From the 2012 Goat Island Skiff Calendar.
Goat Island Skiff Coffee mugs.
We have a Calendar for the Goat Island Skiff!
It was created in the last month from photos provided by owners and builders and friends of the Goat Island Skiff. Out of 60 images we voted for the best ones using facebook. And now we have a really nice Calendar!
This is an article about how bias in thinking produces weird results in terms of boat designs.
I compare a silly boat design trend of 100 years ago with modern canting keel maxi yachts.
Personally I don’t think they should be allowed to use engines to run the keels and the various systems – if they do then they should be disqualified from the event results. The conventional human powered boats should be listed as the winners of events.
The above photo was taken on the third day of our Canoeing trip on the Loire River in France. The two black canoes didn’t even exist a week ago.
When I wrote the original article on Disposable Canoeing I had no idea at all what it would lead to me and a bunch of adventurers, wine and cheese connoisseurs. Most of us didn’t even know each other! The picture above is the result of this adventurism, but what happened to make it happen?
What technology was involved to make the boats faster to build than most stitch and glue boats and what weather conditions did we have to overcome to make it all happen.
The first New Zealand Goat Island Skiff has been launched by Ian Howeth.
He has taken a year to build it as spare time became available.
It was launched during the Xmas break
Golfballs go further because of those dimples on the surface. Would it make sense to have those dimples on a boat hull?
It is not quite that simple as this little article attempts to explain.
John Goodman and I sailed the immaculate Goat Island Skiff he built from my plan in the Texas 200.
The boat showed itself to be one of the faster in the fleet despite loading up such a short boat with food, water and camping gear for six days with little outside support.
We played with sailing the boat by the lee – a method used by racing boats to gain both speed and control.
I document the method here including a video showing how the angle of heel can be controlled using the mainsheet.
AlexN, who is building an Oz Racer and I drove up to Toronto at Lake Macquarie for the Classic Boatfest 2011. I think I will go again in 2012 and try to have a boat to sail around.
Shows on the water are the nicest type and this one has good access for small sailing boats and canoes.
We met up with Bruce (Woodeneye on the storerboats forum) who had is “for sale” Goat Island Skiff.
How much fibreglass is really necessary to prevent damage to a plywood boat for most users?
For a long time I’ve been suspicious that both designers and builders are in a never ending spiral of more and more heavier fibreglass.
I argue, with data from the Turner designed Jarcat, that the weights of glass are clearly excessive for most uses and users of small boats.
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