Discussion of handling light sailboats such as sailing canoes and how some hull design features promote good sailing manners at higher speeds. Taking pressure away from the sailor by making the boats light and predictable despite rough conditions.
Eureka Canoe Launching. And a nice seat method with monofilament. Family canoe by Peter McKenzie and family in Queensland Australia
Assembly of the beautiful BETH Sailing Canoe. Photos of all the major stages.
Foiling for the mainstream. Part 1 focussed on the bleeding edge, but that is a minority of sailors. This part reports on work done on foilers that are stable, easy to sail and don’t do dramatic crashes. Boats for the mainstream
How much weight can a light homebuilt boat carry? It turns out … quite a bit if designed the right way. And without becoming a slug to sail
I found myself at Foiling Week 2018 in Sydney. There are two groups involved in foiling with a large gulf between them. The out and out high expense group who see themselves as the future of sailing. The other group is much more interesting to me as it looks at the stability and handling advantages of foiling which are only just starting to be explored.
17 boats and over 40 sailors attended the Championships for the Oz Goose class was held at Taal Lake Yacht Club south of Manila late November 2017. Series sponsor was Hyde Sails International, sailors from all main regions of the Philippines attended.
Some of the best Calendar Covers for the yearly Goat Island Skiff Calendar. Put together by the builders and sailors.
The goat island Skiff calendar 2018 is out now for christmas
Help us vote for the best photos of the year! The Goat Island Skiff group on Facebook puts out a calendar and we have 160 brilliant photos. Your votes will select the shortlist for the 12 or 14 we will put in the Calendar.
Sailing and handling the steering and sail together can be confusing. But racing dinghy sailors have some techniques that will make sailing smoother and safer for more leisure oriented sailing. Your hands will be happier and probably your head too!
How do I get nice looking intervals for the inwale spacers on my boat? Photos. How many expensive clamps do I need for the job?
Dennis, in Sydney, has been blitzing around in his beautifully built Beth sailing canoe for well over a decade. He now has to reluctantly let go of this lovely looking boat. It really is for experienced dinghy sailors, but is rewarding to sail and easier on the bod than a Laser!
A particularly beautiful BETH sailing Canoe Kanangra Launched in South Australia. Also some lug sail setup information
All our lug rig information on one page. We have seen the change from the balance lug being almost forgotten to becoming the predominant rig for small self built wooden boat. This was the situation a hundred years ago. We can still use the cheapness and effectiveness of this rig to create boats with very quick and pleasant sailing characteristic.
How we discovered our box boat designs were good … and how they (or any other boat can reach its potential for very small extra effort. It is mostly in the thinking!
I’ve written about the stupid statements that get put on the net elsewhere. Here someone took the wrong advice “that you can stretch or shrink a boat a percentage” and applied it to one of my Goat Island Skiff plans. It wasn’t OK … the boat was useless after.
More photos of Fenwick Williams Catboat built in Strip Plank by David Wilson at Duckflat, Adelaide
A collection of some of our fun projects. Often collaborations. Some turned into production designs and others gave us significant learning!
The problem with design is that it is relatively cheap. Sometimes fixed price. But it is not realised what successive design iterations are doing to the boat.
In the end Chris was unable to complete the boat. Partially because the hull turned out to be in much worse condition than expected. But also despite some nice positives coming in terms of usable space below, other things just seemed to get more and more complex.