This OzRacer mk2 has a number of changes from the original design, but Bob has pulled it off. The biggest risk is that the windsurfer mast might break because it is not meant to be supported in this way – it is meant to be held up higher by the arms of the sailor.
David Graybeal of Harbor Woodworks in Portland, Oregon built a pair of my wooden paddles from the free plans
See the link in the left column. Simple, but look way nicer than other simple paddles.
The Goat Island Skiff Calendar is out for 2013.
Goat Island Skiffs from around the world. It is put out yearly by the Goat Island Skiff group on Facebook through an open voting process using the Facebook “like” function.
Some basic questions were asked on my forum about the design of amas.
There are so many permutation of ama length, crossbeam width, ama volume with performance ranging from very poor to very good. But what are some of the basic criteria?
In general I don’t like most sailing books and most sailing lessons.
I think that a learner doesn’t need to learn many new words. Also because they don’t explain the correct principles in the beginning their explanations become really complicated.
If you understand how to use a sail to get power – when it is at maximum power and when it isn’t it all becomes very logical.
Joe sent me a question about why his self designed sailing rig for my Electric Quick Canoe design works better if he moves the leeboard forward of the theoretical point for a balanced helm.
He has stumbled upon a nice observation of a design element called “lead” (I lead you … not the metal Lead).
I explain
It always bugged me about how people said that some powerboats and fast sailing dinghies would “plane” to reach high speed. But multihulls reach higher speed, but they “don’t plane”.
It’s illogical to have two different explanations.
Also how a classical “displacement hull” go much faster on an ocean wave. Theory says it has a speed limit no matter the power you throw in.
I worked out a reasonable explanation for all this but it shows “planing” does not exist.
A correction to the OzRacer RV plans.
There was a small discrepancy in the corners of the boat which can be filled. Or if the panels are not cut yet they can be corrected so no filling is required. Apologies to all affected – I do my best but sometimes something sneaks through. Thanks Ryan for the building feedback.
I am in the Philippines at the moment.
I took five days out to go to the area where one of my Australian Filipino friends has her hometown. The general area is Laguna, I was staying at Lumban and nearby was a canoe trip to Pagsanjan falls.
I was really interested to see the local boats and to see how they might relate to the timber boats that existed previously. The boats are elegant and very well suited to their environment. Paddling and motor canoes are used on a daily basis.
A few photos and a short report from Hungary.
They held their first wooden boat messabout. 30 people, 10 boats and a big pot of homemade goulash!
Paul Haslett is putting together a live google map showing as many Goat Island Skiffs as possible.
If you want to be on the map you can contact me.
I used to work at DuckFlat many years ago.
I visited them in Adelaide. Photo and text of a fast plywood trimaran, 40ft steam liveaboard boat, kayak, rowboat and a Hartley Powerboat restoration
List of Kit suppliers for Storer Boat Plans. UK and Europe, USA, Australia, South Africa. Kits make building a Storer Boat even easier.
A problem with a single leeboard is after a capsize there is a 50% chance of it being out of reach. Here is a method of setting up a rope to help right PDRacers and OzRacers when the leeboard is out of reach. The nice thing about the OZ series is that all the boats come up with very little water inside when righted from capsize. Also the wooden mast doesn’t allow the boat to turn completely upside down.
Gyula, who built the first European OzRacer in 2008 wants to modify it for an outboard motor or an electric trolling motor – calculate output
The new OzRacer RV is a much simpler build of the original OzRacer concept. It also is a direct relative of the slightly larger and much faster OZ Goose
The Finn Dinghy has been one of the most important of the racing classes over the past six decades.
It was always in the forefront of sailing developments.
One fellow contacted asking if there were plans to build a Finn dinghy … and I was able to find a partial answer.
The Quick Canoe Electric is a simple to build cartoppable square back canoe.
It can be quickly and simply built in plywood.
Peter Caspari’s boat is shown here.
The rudderbox design I use has distinct advantages over normal swinging rudder setups. Once you try this design you will never be satisfied with a swinging blade again. But some of the details are important!
In the late 70s as a sailing teenager I drew boats on every available paper surface.
A new book “a lighter ton” describes the exciting development of racing yachts to create newer, lighter, faster and cheaper and FUNNER boats.
Many of the developments were from New Zealand designers such as Bruce Farr, Paul Whiting and Laurie Davidson. A new book by Richard Blakey covers this exciting experimental period in yacht design