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.
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. What I was busy with last week – building a Quick Canoe
Another Plywood Quick Canoe in a week – Clinton in Sydney
New plywood canoe plan builds in 4.5 hours.
The plywood “disposable” canoe (see here) has been renamed the more salubrious “Quick Canoe”. I quite liked the name of “Disposable Canoe” but I agreed with the critique that it hinted at something that was poor quality rather than simple and Easy.
It has been designed to be as easy to build as possible while keeping some of the qualities of a good paddling canoe – in particular the ability to track. Podcast online – Michael on why Australian Boats are Different – 3 of 3
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. Table of Contents for Michael Storer Wooden Boats Forum.
It is a bit hard finding information on my forum as the list is not very ordered, so I have attempted to fix this.There is a general building section then each boat is in alphabetical order.To see all the images you may need to become a member, however, they are a good bunch and will read more → Interview on Net of Designer Michael Storer at furledsails.com
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 read more → Q&A – Should I use coarse sandpaper on timber or ply to make the epoxy stick.
There was the suggestion that very coarse sandpaper was the best to use on a timber surface to ensure good bonding when gluing or fiberglassing the surface. This is not recommended – the following explains why. There was the suggestion that very coarse sandpaper was the best to use on a timber surface to ensure read more → Q&A – Are 1 to 1 (1:1) epoxy mixes OK for boatbuilding?
Most quality boatbuilding epoxy manufacturers have a structural boatbuilding product. They normally are “high solids” boatbuilding epoxies that have uneven resin to hardener ratios (2:1, 3:1, 4:1 or 5:1) which you have to add powder to make a glue or filleting mix The same companies often produce pregelled products that are mixed in a 1:1 read more → Q&A Epoxy Resin vs Polyester Resin for Wood
Should one fibreglass using epoxy or polyester resin over wood. In this case it was to join the plywood panels of a stitch and glue boat. First, Woven fabric will give a smoother finish than chopped strand matt and is much stronger for the same weight. It also requires less filling of the weave to read more → Q&A Epoxy vs Resorcinol Glues
This was in reference to a deck repair – what glue to use to apply teak planking to a plywood substrate. It makes general comparisons between the glues Epoxy is gap filling – so if there are gaps between the ply and the deck substructure the epoxy will have no problems. With a deck done read more → Big Update to the Boatbuilding and Epoxy FAQ (includes some canoe stuff – design and construction)
Yep, Just spent a good three hours whipping up another 14 pages for my website. Mostly additions to my epoxy, boatbuilding and boat design FAQ Topics covered are: Efficient Restoration an older racing boat/sailing dinghy Are 1 to 1 (1:1) Epoxys any good for boatbuilding A lightbox to keep epoxy warm so it spreads easily read more → Back from the Duck Flat Summer School
I was asked by the people at Duck Flat Wooden Boats whether I would be interested in teaching at their Spring School. It is their first one for a few years and has the purpose of “getting people excited about boatbuilding”. I must admit that was pretty well how it went. 12 different projects and read more → 


