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.
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 →
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.
More videos of John Goodman’s Yawl Rigged Goat Island Skiff.
He is trying out some rigging variations to see if we can simplify the building of the yawl rig version.
At the moment this is inconclusive, but wow, he got some good videos
Cameras, digicams, video cameras are fun on boats, but it is hard to get good pics of yourselves sailing the boat or the boat doing its stuff nicely.
John Goodman and Family built their Goat Island Skiff GIR and sailed it in the Texas 200 event as well as some solo river cruising.
They used a camera boom to great advantage – to move the camera away from the boat. Another alternative is a wide angle lens which can produce dramatic effects for marine photography but the toom seems much more useful. It works well with the steadying of anti-shake electronics.
The dot in the bay above is Perttu’s Microcruiser sailboat on a three day trip on the extensive Finnish waterways.
The boat is tiny – 8ft long and is based on my successful OzRacer design (formerly OZ PDRacer)
It is a brilliant concept and sails well upwind and down on inland waters.
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.
For the Goose – a first sailing report in moderate winds – and it works.
Also a free plan for a ketch/yawl version, and …
… Michael goes on a bit about the real differences between a ketch and a yawl
A video of the Quick Canoe in action.
My Agent in Hungary who sells plans in both English and Hungarian has launched the first Quick Canoe in those parts. It is designed as a very simple and easy to build boat. It is not a perfect high performance boat, but the numbers have been worked out to give good performance despite the simple shape. It won’t be as good as the best fibreglass canoe, but it will be better than many average ones. And much cheaper and lighter.
Robert Hoffman has been busy using his BETH sailing canoe that he built over a cold Polish winter.
There are now videos. I have also linked to all my videos on youtube – so you can see many storerboats sailing.
Perttu took his recently built “Quick Canoe” on a trip down a river in Finland.
We don’t have rivers like this in Australia! To see them is quite exciting.
The Quick Canoe is designed to be very cheap and easy to build, but still work OK.
This is a list of the latest posts on the Storerboats Forum.
It has information about building, discussions about design, photos of buildings and launchings and much more.
A main interest is tweaking the best possible performance out of traditional looking boats.
I was sitting in Chuck’s car as we were driving to the Lake Conroe Messabout. I knew that he had some plans for the Texas 200 event – to extend the concept and starting a new small boat festival on the Texas coast in a couple of years.
This is a podcast of that interview.
This podcast/mp3 talks about why Australian (and New Zealand) wooden boatbuilding is different from the rest of the world..
Click to listen to the talk. This is the third of three.
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.
This talk is the first hour of my exposition on boat building and design. There are two more parts to come. This covers some of the background and design issues. The second is more on the building side and the last is a bit more about why the Australian (and New Zealand) wooden boat tradition is different from the Northern Hemisphere.
You can stream the talks over your internet connection or download them as a podcast.
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.
Howdy, Jan in Denmark found something interesting. Hi everyone After reading this forum for a couple of days, I realised I needed to register, fast. Lots of fantastic advice here, both from Boatmik and the rest of you. I am impressed. A few words about me:I have dubbed myself “the world’s slowest boatbuilder”. I have read more →
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