A new lightweight 12ft plywood dinghy under development. This prototype by Canadian Rick Landreville. It won’t have a cloud of sail area,but will be light enough low drag enough to hit consistently high speeds relative to other boats of this length.
Dave Lafontaine built his Goat Island Skiff in New York over the last couple of years. He’s now using it for some of the things he had planned.
So how does a lug rig boat go in club racing? My designs won’t be outclassed in club racing. I’m really keen to find out how the yardstick (handicap) changes as George and crew get used to the realities of course racing making the boat sail faster. We end up with an estimate of PY – Portsmouth Yardstick for the Goat Island Skiff.
Malcolm Eggins, boat builder and designer has passed away.
A small tribute to one of the many people that has influenced me and many other sailors and designers. He was a part of the development of Moths, NS14s, VJs, VeeEsses and many other Australian racing dingies as a builder and designer along with his son Darryl. He won several State Championships.
BETH sailing canoe – The designer has lots of fine things to say about the sailing performance of BETH – but Andrew Barclay has been racing his against mixed fleets in British Columbia where she sails equal with Laser Radials in light wind and gradually outclasses them in stronger.
I provide some tips about getting a bit more from the boat.
A small collection of the many videos of the Goat Island Skiff Planing fast in different places around the world.
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.
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!
List of Kit suppliers for Storer Boat Plans. UK and Europe, USA, Australia, South Africa. Kits make building a Storer Boat even easier.
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 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
The first New Zealand Goat Island Skiff has been launched by Ian Howeth.
He has taken a year to build it as spare time became available.
It was launched during the Xmas break
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.
AlexN, who is building an Oz Racer and I drove up to Toronto at Lake Macquarie for the Classic Boatfest 2011. I think I will go again in 2012 and try to have a boat to sail around.
Shows on the water are the nicest type and this one has good access for small sailing boats and canoes.
We met up with Bruce (Woodeneye on the storerboats forum) who had is “for sale” Goat Island Skiff.
How much fibreglass is really necessary to prevent damage to a plywood boat for most users?
For a long time I’ve been suspicious that both designers and builders are in a never ending spiral of more and more heavier fibreglass.
I argue, with data from the Turner designed Jarcat, that the weights of glass are clearly excessive for most uses and users of small boats.
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
The TEXAS 200 sailing event is on again. A 200 mile sail and camping trip up the Texas coast that runs every year.
I am going to be in town, so would be crazy not to attend. This is a call for all interested storerboats to consider attending.
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.