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!
Quick canoe is a 16ft wooden canoe plan in three panels that can be built very fast – It looks like a classic canoe. It hs good stability with excellent weight carrying. It also paddles pretty well for a plywood canoe. The first one took 4.5 hours to build – but thats a Canadian woodworker. I took two weekends.
Assembly of the beautiful BETH Sailing Canoe. Photos of all the major stages.
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 much weight can a light homebuilt boat carry? It turns out … quite a bit if designed the right way. And without becoming a slug to sail
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.
17 boats and over 40 sailors attended the Championships for the Oz Goose class was held at Taal Lake Yacht Club south of Manila late November 2017. Series sponsor was Hyde Sails International, sailors from all main regions of the Philippines attended.
Dennis, in Sydney, has been blitzing around in his beautifully built Beth sailing canoe for well over a decade. He now has to reluctantly let go of this lovely looking boat. It really is for experienced dinghy sailors, but is rewarding to sail and easier on the bod than a Laser!
A particularly beautiful BETH sailing Canoe Kanangra Launched in South Australia. Also some lug sail setup information
All our lug rig information on one page. We have seen the change from the balance lug being almost forgotten to becoming the predominant rig for small self built wooden boat. This was the situation a hundred years ago. We can still use the cheapness and effectiveness of this rig to create boats with very quick and pleasant sailing characteristic.
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!
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.
Ran into some great photos and information on sailing a real Vietnamese Junk. I’ve seen plenty of half hearted replicas in HK, but this one is the real deal from Ken Preston. A traditionally built boat that is being restored with no intention to put a motor in it. Ken has one of the best blogs about South East Asia and Boats.
The BRIO Sailing Marathon is a very competitive sail and paddle event in the Netherlands. Joost and Viola in their Goat Island Skiff went in the 2017 event. Against the specialised boats that enter the event they ended coming in 57th of 139.
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
The drop in outrigger can transform many unstable canoes, narrow dinghies and some kayaks into a stable platform for fishing or diving or convert your boat into a formidable sailing outrigger or trimaran sailing canoe.
