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.

Photos and slideshow from the Goolwa Wooden Boatshow 2011.

Over 250 boats – mostly in the water. Wooden hydroplanes, “restricted 21s”, riverboats, putt putt launches, classic sailing boats, kayaks, canoes and more.

I had the quick canoe, the eureka canoe and the OzRacer on the stand that was shared with Duck Flat Wooden Boats and Boatcraft Pacific. Good time was had by all.

A rare beast, a circa 1960s 12 square metre sharpie with some of the original rig is for sale. I am not involved, but in the interests of helping preserve a little bit of Australian sailing and boat design history I would like to help find it a good home.

The 12sq metre (heavyweight) Sharpie came to Australia for the 1956 Olympics. NZ first, Oz second.

However the boat totally changed the approach to the design of Australian skiffs. Thought you might be interested to read my understanding of the design issues and influence.

How the Sharpie name went from the USA to Europe and then to Australia – and how it changed our boats.

You can pay money for dry bags to store gear in when canoeing, kayaking or sailing. Or pay even more for buoyancy bags that keep you boat afloat after capsize.

Here Ian tells us how we can make our own cheaply.

A new plan specifically for an electric trolling motor. 5 to 6mph from a 34lb thrust Minn Kota.

This is a purpose designed low power boat for daytrips and fishing. The plans are $30 and many will be able to build the boat for less than $200.

I am currently helping at the twice yearly duck flat boatbuilding school in Adelaide.

There are boats designed by me, Oughtred, CLC Kayaks, Joel White and Woodenboat.

People are from Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Perth.

John in Texas built his Goat Island Skiff from a kit made by Clinton Chase. They are experimenting with a yawl version of the Goat.

They had a launch and a capsize by the dock.

The boat is a great lime green. I used to have a lime green NS14 dinghy that I enjoyed so much some of the design input went into the goat.

Bobwes has been using his Goat Island Skiff over the last weeks.

It is brightly coloured and looks pretty great.

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.

Ralph Gersson in Holland got a very nice mail from Michael McNamara from mcNamara sails UK. He made a nice sail for Richard Harvey’s GIS “Blanche” and Ralph has decided to order.

Michael, a racing sailor with a lot of background talks about the experience of sailing the Goat Island Skiff.

I have already put extensive comments on my flickr gallery. http://www.flickr.com/photos/boatmik/sets/72157622510542194/ So let’s introduce the participants and the boats!  They gathered in the afternoon. People as far away as Texas, California and Australia (me).  Not a huge number, this cruise works well with up to around 12 to 15 boats.  A huge thanks to Jim [...]

From Al Zuger in Brooklyn, NY who is extending the envelope of operating his PDRacer. So I finally took my little ducky out in a real bay yesterday. I went down to the south shore of long island about an hour out of the big city, and man was it ever nice! Up until now [...]

The pics in this post are just a hint – many more on flickr – you can see them at the bottom of this page. So … What a Weekend! It is the highest I have ever sailed by far – about 2500 to 3000ft above sea level. A very nice bunch of folks. And [...]

Howdy, The full set is here http://www.flickr.com/photos/boatmik…7622383846430/ Well more interesting things to report. Actually so interesting I have gone out to buy an MP3 voice recorder so I won’t miss these conversations. This was the view out of the window on waking. I couldn’t get the colours right even with fiddling – much lighter and [...]

It is the first boat he has built and Alex is not necessarily taking the quickest way. But he is reporting daily about his building and his ruminations on different subjects. It is a very popular boatbuilding item on the OZ woodwork forum. There have been around 13000 views of his thread already and it [...]

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 [...]

A basic update to the Handy Punt page. A basic utility or fishing punt with good stability, very simple construction and large airtank buoyancy. Stability is so great because of the simple rectangular cross section that it is a safe and easy boat to stand up in. The flat bottom is well braced against pounding [...]

I’ve been up in Mooloolaba Queensland for around a week now doing some planning and groundwork for the PDRacer – a small cheap sailing boat that is easy to build. But that is not the focus of this blog entry. I’m staying with Peter and Jo Hyndman – Peter built the first Goat Island Skiff [...]