Why explained. My most popular design is the Goat Island Skiff a light plywood planing sailing dinghy that is devastatingly fast in most conditions – not so surprising when you realise a lot of the development was because of racing dinghy advances but intended to avoid the skyrocketing costs of sailing participation.
So had the tent pitched and was completely installed by the time the first boats started to arrive 1-1.5 hours later.
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
The C-Class Wingsail Catamarans of my youth. I walked out of the house we rented and what did I see? Helios 2 designed by Lock Crowther.
The story of how a financial success didn’t quite come off as a result of a natural disaster
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 sit on top paddleboard or in Australian a “Surfski” is one of the simplest lightest boats possible. Here is my take of something that comes out of a couple of sheets of plywood and is very light.
BETH sailing canoe is design #1. Light enough to cartop and at home in a club fleet of lasers. For mostly experienced dinghy sailors.
Sailing too fast upwind in a non trapeze dinghy means you lose a lot of pointing angle. So what is the correct compromise between high and slow and low and fast. Explanation involves the increase of drag around hullspeed.
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.
Dories are a part of the great American Maritime Tradition. From the book and film of Captain’s Courageous to all the folklore about fishermen surviving awful conditions at sea in a Dory.
But Do they really stack up to their press? It seems that every few weeks I see a new design for a rowing dory or a sailing dory.
Opinions about capsize and recovery are worthless. “Safe Boats” do no exist unless the crew practices capsize. We cover the design points.
Just for the hell of it, Stephen put a 2hp outboard on the back of his Electric Quick Canoe.
Watch the boat fly in the video. Speed with little or no fuss. Also a discussion of hullforms for different speed ranges.
So how does a lug rig boat go in club racing? My designs won’t be outclassed in club racing. I’m really keen to find out how the yardstick (handicap) changes as George and crew get used to the realities of course racing making the boat sail faster. We end up with an estimate of PY – Portsmouth Yardstick for the Goat Island Skiff.
It always bugged me about how people said that some powerboats and fast sailing dinghies would “plane” to reach high speed. But multihulls reach higher speed, but they “don’t plane”.
It’s illogical to have two different explanations.
Also how a classical “displacement hull” go much faster on an ocean wave. Theory says it has a speed limit no matter the power you throw in.
I worked out a reasonable explanation for all this but it shows “planing” does not exist.
John Goodman who recently spent 5 days semi racing a Goat Island Skiff in the Texas200 event got back to me with some observations and even some pictures of aspects of the boat and the sailing.
I have responded with suggestions to make some further improvements. Between John and me there are some useful tips about setting up a boat for more speed.
However the standard setup of the Goat is fine for most – it is still pretty quick in standard form.
There is advice for both lug and sprit traditional rigs here.
More paddling on Lake Powell, Utah, part of the Colorado River.
Remember that I am not a real Canoeist. I have paddled quite a range of different boats at some time or another, I do know basic strokes, I have used canoes to do several day tours (Noosa River, Hawkesbury River) but this trip was to much more remote areas. Closest towns 50 or so kilometres away, we were likely to be pretty well the only people on that area of water after the weekend, we had to carry everything including food as there are no shops.
Richard Harvey’s (the owner of the Norfolk Goat) son Mark has put a slide show up of the GIS being put together.
