WATERCRAFT UK Magazine Article on Goat Island Skiff

Some months ago I was contacted by Pete Greenfield who is editor for Watercraft magazine in the UK.

He wanted an article from me about my favourite boat. At the time I had just returned from a stay at Mooloolaba with my friends Peter and Jo Hyndman who have the Goat Island Skiff that was built from the first set of plans.

Also I have just finished a huge update to the plans as well as moving them over to PDF files so they can be delivered by email. You can order plans on paper, CD or delivered by email from the GIS page on my website.

The boat still looks fantastic after 13 years as you can see from the photos on my website – it hasn’t been repainted or revarnished in that time and has been used heaps by Peter, Jo and their three daughters and their friends. A great testimony to to the effectiveness of epoxy sealing the hull with three coats before painting and varnishing.

Anyway the magazine is out on the shelves. If you have trouble locating a copy here is a link to the Watercraft Magazine website.

That’s the GIS starting a long planing run in the pic right.

In the article I generally rave (my normal rave!) about how mainstream boating has “gone bad” :-) and is too obsessed by technical innovation of a particular type. Improvement at all costs – that’s why people are leaving boating/sailing in droves and the smaller clubs are dying out.

At least the rest of us can be involved in real innovation where boats are made significantly better without increasing the expense too much.

I have some pages about setting up cheaper traditional rigs to perform really well with only a small amount of extra expenditure. You can still build one of my boats for less than a shroud adjustment system on a 505 or Sharpie or a hull fitting pack for an NS14 or 420. And that’s the whole boat – on the water.

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