Tornado - composite NS14 by Malcolm Eggins - composite hull, inlaid plywood deck

Thankyou Malcolm Eggins, designer and builder of sophisticated racing dinghies

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.

Learning to sail course - hull trim

Learning to sail – building a foundation for Sail and boat trim.

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.

Philippines Dugout Canoes for rapids and rocks – Pagsanjan Falls

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.

Setting up a recovery line to right a leeboard OzRacer or OzGoose sailboat

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.