Why Plywood breaks – Real wood for Centreboards and Rudders
One recurring problem with plywood foils, centreboards, leeboards and rudders is that over time they tend to break unexpectedly.
Centreboard
Glassing timber sailboat foils for smoothness and accuracy
Make excellent and accurate foils (centreboard, leeboard, keel or rudder blade) adding way more performance for not much effort and no cost – series
Cheap Hack for 10 percent more upwind Sailboat Performance
When a boat owner considers upgrading their boat to make it safer and get more performance, often the first thought is for new sails which is expensive, but a cheap hack is to improve the foils (centreboard or leeboard) which might take little more than a couple of weekends and cost around 50 bucks.
Why & How to Optimise a Cruising Dinghy Lug Rig? Texas 200 mile Report
Owner: I am not much interested in racing, but there is no motor mount on this boat, and there never will be. I hate rowing, so the boat has to be able to take me where I want to go under sail. The foils were the first step-this sail completes the journey. :)
Rigging guide for Goat Island Skiff – Efficient lug sails
How do you rig your Goat Island Skiff or other balance lug rigged boat? This page will be useful for everyone, but specifically assist Goat owners in selection of rope, rope lengths and show all the rigging details. We have also found a number of cheaper ways of doing things from our experience in the Philippines. Halyard, downhaul, outhaul, lashings, rope fittings, rudders, centreboard.
Making NACA and highly accurate centreboard and rudder foils at home
A good centreboard or leeboard is as important as a good sail. We use a simple templates for quick and accurate shaping. Making without the templates … several were feeling that they couldn’t make them to a greater accuracy than 1/16th of an inch.
Choose between Swinging Centreboard and Daggerboard
A discussion about basic pros and cons for swinging centreboards. And dagger centreboards. Centre Board means the board is in the centre. Which is different from a Lee board which is too the side.
Q&A How to Race a Dinghy Successfully the Low Stress Way.
Racing shows that what you know is what you know. It doesn’t matter if the boat is less than perfect. So where is it best to put in the effort to improve results. Boat setup, knowing how to adjust for different wind conditions, practicing skills until they become automatic, sailing as much as possible … and teaching others.
Rules of thumb for boat and yacht design – are they legitimate?
There are lots of tips for building and designing boats on the net.
“Rules of thumb” are often quoted to help with the calculation of how much sail or how much keel or centreboard area or how big a mast is allowed to be and many other areas. Can a boat be stretched or shrunk or lengthened?
But how correct are they? Are they the best guide?
WIKI setup and tuning Lug Rigs, Spar bends and weights, Sail controls and More
The conservative viewpoint is that traditional rigs are not very efficient. However allied to efficient hulls and set up correctly, lug and sprit rigs can be very efficient indeed – not too much slower than “modern” rigs, particularly when the same lessons are applied to trad sails and way cheaper.
This is a WIKI drawn from the group on the Storerboats forum discussions on setting up lug and sprit rigs for best performance building on the information in my webpage.
Podcast online – Michael on why Australian Boats are Different – 3 of 3
This podcast/mp3 talks about why Australian (and New Zealand) wooden boatbuilding is different from the rest of the world..
Click to listen to the talk. This is the third of three.
Podcast Online – Wooden Boat Design by Michael Storer – 1 of 3
This talk is the first hour of my exposition on boat building and design. There are two more parts to come. This covers some of the background and design issues. The second is more on the building side and the last is a bit more about why the Australian (and New Zealand) wooden boat tradition is different from the Northern Hemisphere.
You can stream the talks over your internet connection or download them as a podcast.
Gyula Launches his OzRacer (formerly Oz PDRacer) in Romania
Gyula Ferencz has launched the second OZ Racer with the lug sail. He built his boat in Romania
OzGoose and OzRacer Sailboat Capsize Recovery Video
Capsize recovery for home built boats. Particularly the popular Oz Goose and Oz Racer sailboats. The tips and tricks to righting a sailboat
Fibreglassing 3, Doing bigger areas on boats and boat components
This is a basic section on the stages of fibreglassing areas on a plywood boat, canoe or SUP. Many problems can be avoided by being methodical and setting up each stage carefully rather than rushing in.