One recurring problem with plywood foils, centreboards, leeboards and rudders is that over time they tend to break unexpectedly.

The post Why Plywood breaks – Real wood for Centreboards and Rudders appeared first on Storer Boat Plans in Wood and Plywood.

Make excellent and accurate foils (centreboard, leeboard, keel or rudder blade) adding way more performance for not much effort and no cost - series

The post Glassing timber sailboat foils for smoothness and accuracy appeared first on Storer Boat Plans in Wood and Plywood.

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.

The post Cheap Hack for 10 percent more upwind Sailboat Performance appeared first on Storer Boat Plans in Wood and Plywood.

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. :)

The post Why & How to Optimise a Cruising Dinghy Lug Rig? Texas 200 mile Report appeared first on Storer Boat Plans in Wood and Plywood.

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.

The post Rigging guide for Goat Island Skiff – Efficient lug sails appeared first on Storer Boat Plans in Wood and Plywood.

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.

The post Making NACA and highly accurate centreboard and rudder foils at home appeared first on Storer Boat Plans in Wood and Plywood.

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.

The post Choose between Swinging Centreboard and Daggerboard appeared first on Storer Boat Plans in Wood and Plywood.

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.

The post Q&A How to Race a Dinghy Successfully the Low Stress Way. appeared first on Storer Boat Plans in Wood and Plywood.

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?

The post Rules of thumb for boat and yacht design – are they legitimate? appeared first on Storer Boat Plans in Wood and Plywood.

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.

The post WIKI setup and tuning Lug Rigs, Spar bends and weights, Sail controls and More appeared first on Storer Boat Plans in Wood and Plywood.