12sq metre Sharpie (Heavyweight Sharpie) for sail in Australia.

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.

Minimal repairs to keep an old Mirror plywood sailing dinghy going

Melanie in the UK wrote to me. She has just bought an old Mirror dinghy and started sailing for the first time. Problem is that the boat leaks and she doesn’t want to stop using the boat until the end of the season. I have a philosophy of keeping older boats on the water and not pulling them off for months on end until you have the time to do the job. So the article here is useful to see what can be done with an old leaky plywood sailing dinghy to keep it going. It is perfect sailing weather at the moment in the UK and it is better she is out there learning but with the worst of the leaks gone. With a disciplined approach she should be able to get all of this done in a week or so. The general leaks fixed permanently and the rotted area reinforced so that the boat won’t break.

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 Screws and Fasteners Required in Epoxy/Wood construction?

One of the great leaps forward available to us when using epoxy is being able to eliminate fastenings (screws,nails, bolts etc) from the structure. Many builders now only use fasteners to temporarily hold things together while the glue sets up.The temporary fasteners are removed and can be re-used many times. Eliminating fastenings also speeds up 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 →