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.

Jani is a friend of Perttu in Finland.

Jani wanted a boat for rowing and fishing. He built a Quick Canoe and modified it with outriggers and also worked out a scheme where it can carry one or two people simply by changing the bow.

Maybe it is so clever because Jani is an Industrial Designer!

Finally after many years of selling the plan I have a photo of a boat with the outriggers from the drop-in outrigger plan.

Every part of the outrigger is very light. The first one we built had each component under 10lbs.

It can make a canoe or kayak into a killer sailing boat. Or can convert a canoe, kayak or suitable dinghy into a stable fishing or diving platform for paddle or outboard.

Fiona Harbison and friends have just launched their new Handy Punt for fishing and family outings.

Fiona is the sister of Helen (hope I have that right) who built a Nutshell pram in a number of the Duck Flat spring or autumn boatbuilding schools.

It is called Farnark, which will strike a chord with Australians and New Zealanders through the work of John Clarke. There is a picture of the boat and a clip of John Clarke reprising his farnarkling spiel.

Well a mind-boggling day today. Set is here http://www.flickr.com/photos/boatmik…7622312609441/ Some of the “Coots” boating group organised a joint trip for four of us to Astoria (named after the Astor Family who made their money in the fur industry a couple of hundred years ago. We got up early and went to meet Long 龍 at [...]

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 [...]

Walked through Chinatown again to go to the Maritime Museum with Oly an internet boatbuilding Friend from the PDRacer forum. Saw two of my boats there that were built by kids from the less advantaged part of the city. Spoke to Seth (right, Oly is left) one of the teachers/organisers. He was about to go [...]

The PDRacer international forum started discussing a longer version of the humble PDRacer – and I had some drawings on hand already for a 12ft version because of Bob Alston. He actually thought up the name, which I quite like. We really do recommend the OZ PDRacer for most people and you do need to [...]

My friend Peter Hyndman (architect, boat builder, photographer, artist – someone has to get all the short straws) has been putting an amazing set of boat and boating life photos up on flickr. He grew up on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait in the ’50s when the Pearling Industry was still in existence. Torres [...]

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 [...]

Duck Flat Wooden Boats in conjunction with Michael Storer Wooden Boat Plans will be running a 10 day boat building Autumn School. April 16 to 26th at Goolwa on the Murray River – Adelaide Australia. http://www.storerboatplans.com/Boatbuildingclass.html This image is from the class in October last year. For people who have never built anything before through [...]

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 [...]