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.
First Photos epoxy fillet OZ Goose plywood sailing dinghy. Why choose fillets rather than timber? Explained.
There are at least two Viola 14 sailing canoes on the way, here are some update photos before the decks go on of the boat being built by Steve Schleicher – he will be going for the balance lug rig.
Sailing dinghies are the most popular sailing boats, responsive and not expensive – good for sailing basics, fast – good for the experienced, relatively easy to store and available inexpensively second hand or build from plywood from a sailing dinghy plan.
Joost’s family have been using the Viola 14 Sailing Canoe for the last two years camping, sailing (both he and his wife), paddling since building the plywood canoe from the detailed plans
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 simplicity and light weight of a sailing canoe with the hullshape and stability of a good sailing dinghy. Viola is14ft (4.3m) long and 40 inches wide. The hull is rooftopable at 34kg or 75lbs. A few pounds heavier than an RS Aero and much lighter than a Laser. Same as an Opti!
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
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.
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!
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.
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 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
Why are these plans FREE? Because I want people to know just how good correctly proportioned touring paddles can be. Most of the paddles sold commercially are based heavily on racing models, which are fine if you are in training and only want to go 500 metres.
A Fenwick Williams catboat carefully reinterpreted in Cedar Strip. Includes cleaner structure, optimised foils and a tabernacle rig that allows raising of the mast by one person. Built by David Wilson at Duck Flat Wooden Boats in Adelaide.
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.
There are two versions of the OzRacer and one Kit for family sailing, learning to sail or club racing. The Kit by J.O. Woodworks fits the PDRacer rules but carries just about all the OzRacer advantages of Performance, Lightness, Ease of building and that you can build the boat very cheaply and still get first class performance. The plans even show you how to make a proper sail from polytarp at home. All for $20!
BETH sailing canoe is design #1. Light enough to cartop and at home in a club fleet of lasers. For mostly experienced dinghy sailors.
Planing and downwind speed is a practiced skill. But the 8ft OzRacer and the 12ft OzGoose have strikingly different behavour. Goose planes easily in light wind. OzRacer needs a lot more wind and jumps up and down in speed.
