Crazy speed difference between 8ft and 12ft version of same boat. A resizing that worked beyond all expectations and taught us something about the limitations of conventional thinking about hullforms and performance
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.
Careful documentation most construction steps in building the plywood Viola 14 Sailing Canoe Hull – a sailing canoe with sailing dinghy stability and excellent performance.
Viola 14 Canoe rudder setup photos and explanation. Also a comparison of our two rudder construction and setups and why particular ones for particular boat types.
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. :)
Centrecase Padding reduces centreboard maintenance by protecting the sliding surfaces of rudderbox or Leeboard case on sailing dinghies. We look at low cost ways for padding the centrecase to reduce foil wear and tear.
A video comparing Lug Rig Performance with conventional rigs in a real race. A Goat Island Skiff takes part in a regular club race against Fireballs and Lasers. Where will it end up? Does it actually have a “bad tack” where it can’t compete? The answer might challenge your assumptions about sailing rig performance
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
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!
More photos of Fenwick Williams Catboat built in Strip Plank by David Wilson at Duckflat, Adelaide
A collection of some of our fun projects. Often collaborations. Some turned into production designs and others gave us significant learning!
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
The finally famous Goat Island Skiff is the lightest and simplest 16ft sailing boat I could come up with. Simple to Build with Modern Performance. She will sail well and handle impeccably at all times with 4 adults and is fastest with one or two aboard. Plans are extremely detailed and there is an active community of builders on Facebook.
