Rig Cost Comparison. Freestanding Yawl vs Stayed Sloop
Cost of lug sails on unstayed masts is so much cheaper than stayed sloop rigs – and the lug sails take only a few minutes to rig and unrig.
Boat Design Articles
Boat Design Articles for boats: Sailing, Hydrofoils, Power, Canoeing, Low Resistance and predictable handling
List of Boat Design Articles Below
Articles discussing my thoughts on sources for boat design information for performance, structures or boat handling – with a bias towards repeatable information.
It could be from competitive sailing or through interpretation of careful testing by others including my design peers. It all ends up applying to my boat plans
In the end … if it doesn’t appear on the racecourse somewhere … it probably doesn’t work.
This may be an overstatement, I have a soft spot for those who work through several versions of an idea over time.
Don’t forget that the search function can help you locate information you are looking for. And don’t forget our search function – Top left on desktop. Or Mobile – tap menu on mobile and type in top line of menu.
Andrew enjoys strong winds in his BETH sailing canoe
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.
Foiling Week 2018 Pt 2 – Foiling Sail for the rest of us!
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
Foiling week 2018 Part 1 – composites and foils – Sydney
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.
When box boats got our attention – Oz Racer then Goose Sailboats
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!
Honey, I shrank the boat and it don’t work no more.
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.
Some Fun Boat Stuff – our old design projects page.
A collection of some of our fun projects. Often collaborations. Some turned into production designs and others gave us significant learning!
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.
Foiling – Forefront vs Fakes
Who is Foiling and who is Faking. Where is the real technical development? First a glimpse of history before we see who is foiling and how the Moth group solved all the problems. Yes … all of them. America’s cup just leaches off this amazing technical success. It is Trickle Up … not Trickle Down.
The 24ft steam canoe project for the Murray River Lakes
The AMAZING steam canoe project. I designed the hullshape and Roger Baker built it. Strip planked with American Oak trim. One of the most striking boats on the Lower Murray River – or anywhere!
Taiwan: Bamboo Boatbuilding methods go Mega and Industrial
Industrial grade materials but the use of traditional bamboo raft tech have resulted in a huge variety of vessels in Taiwan. All still lashed together. Ranging from two oar single person fishing boats to trawlers 60 to 80ft long. Just lashed together. The truly surprising thing is just how fast they go together.
The Fallen Keel – An adventure in keel design.
“My keel has fallen off” – Ray’s voice on the phone. So he dropped his sails and motored home. He asked me to design a new keel that he could build himself. This article goes through the process of turning a deep keeled boat into a competitive shoal shallow draft boat in a way one builder working by themselves can do.
A canoe that almost made a fortune – the Eureka Story
The story of how a financial success didn’t quite come off as a result of a natural disaster
From Slug into a quick Swan – The Orange Boat modded keel, rig and hull
The “Orange Boat” was unbelievably heavy and just about fell over if anyone stepped aboard and it is a keeboat! The vendor couldn’t sell it. So Ted bought it cheap and asked me what he could do. So we simplified and modded everything to state of the art but constrained to using “normal” materials to keep the cost down. Would it be competitive with quick trailer sailors, sports boats and the classic Restricted 22 class with their big sails. Seems small, light and simple can be very fast.
On Sailing a Vietnamese Junk and a comparison with our Lug experience.
Ran into some great photos and information on sailing a real Vietnamese Junk. I’ve seen plenty of half hearted replicas in HK, but this one is the real deal from Ken Preston. A traditionally built boat that is being restored with no intention to put a motor in it. Ken has one of the best blogs about South East Asia and Boats.
Dutch Goat Island Skiff Third in Caledonia RAID 2009 – Story
The GIS excels at a competive row and sail event. The Caledonia RAID is one of the oldest events of its type. A competitive multi day event that crosses Scotland from West to East including a crossing of Loch Lomond. It tends to attract long and efficient rowing sailing hulls. And here was one of the shortest, simplest and lightest hulls in the fleet punching well above its weight
Eureka 155 canoe – Another Launching. Plywood touring canoe
Peter McKenzie and his sons from Queensland Sunshine Coast built a standard Eureka paddling canoe.
Weight was the standard 44lbs. Peter’s email gives some nice tips.
They are very happy campers.
How to Lightweight – Balsa Canoe strip planked 12lbs (5.5Kg)
A 12lb canoe. The idea was to build a Rushton Wee Lassie in balsa strip with very light glass. The boat ended up being fairly durable despite not being interested in durability. As far as I was concerned I was going to be happy if it lasted a couple of years before being chucked into a dumpster somewhere. But five years later it was still beautiful despite good use.
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.
Lightweighting a Plywood Canoe – Eureka 15kg (36lbs)
A whole bunch of strategies for lightweighting a plywood stitch and glue canoe. In this case a Storer Boat Plans Eureka Canoe. Standard build is around 44lbs. Ten lbs were saved to bring the weight down to 34 or 15k