Riverboat restoration and new interior - storerboatplans.com

Design process from simple to complicated – Plywood Murray Riverboat

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.

Mundoo 3 large solar electric cruising boat.

Example of Solar Electric Real World Use – Liveaboard Boat and Cartop Canoe

How useful are Solar and Electric boats anyhow? The large Solar Electric Mundoo 3 was one of the more interesting projects I’ve been involved in. It was the brainchild of Robert Ayliffe, then at Duck Flat Wooden Boats and Ted Dexter. This liveaboard boat was featured on the cover of WoodenBoat magazine at the time and was a tremendous success for the owners who found it fitted their needs perfectly.

A week fast building two Quick Canoes for touring the Loire in France – Part 1

The above photo was taken on the third day of our Canoeing trip on the Loire River in France. The two black canoes didn’t even exist a week ago.

When I wrote the original article on Disposable Canoeing I had no idea at all what it would lead to me and a bunch of adventurers, wine and cheese connoisseurs. Most of us didn’t even know each other! The picture above is the result of this adventurism, but what happened to make it happen?

What technology was involved to make the boats faster to build than most stitch and glue boats and what weather conditions did we have to overcome to make it all happen.

Photos from Goolwa Wooden Boat Show 2011 – looking forward to 2013!

Photos and slideshow from the Goolwa Wooden Boatshow 2011.

Over 250 boats – mostly in the water. Wooden hydroplanes, “restricted 21s”, riverboats, putt putt launches, classic sailing boats, kayaks, canoes and more.

I had the quick canoe, the eureka canoe and the OzRacer on the stand that was shared with Duck Flat Wooden Boats and Boatcraft Pacific. Good time was had by all.

Launching after the build – Handy Punt – Stable for Fishing

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.

USA Trip Day 7, 8, 9 – Timothy Lake Messabout with the Coots

It is the highest I have ever sailed by far – about 2500 to 3000ft above sea level.

A very nice bunch of folks. And got to meet BobWes (from my forum), John Kohnen (the author of the “mother of all nautical links”), Jon Kowitz and Andrew Linn (puddle duckers that sailed in the Texas 200 so triumphantly) David Luckhardt (who I missed in S.F.) and a whole bunch of other boat people and a swag of interesting boats.