You can pay money for dry bags to store gear in when canoeing, kayaking or sailing. Or pay even more for buoyancy bags that keep you boat afloat after capsize.
Here Ian tells us how we can make our own cheaply.
A nice little reverie from Clinton who built a Quick Canoe this year.
After a hectic day in the city he paddled out into the middle of the lake to watch the eclipse in his $300 canoe.
The dot in the bay above is Perttu’s Microcruiser sailboat on a three day trip on the extensive Finnish waterways.
The boat is tiny – 8ft long and is based on my successful OzRacer design (formerly OZ PDRacer)
It is a brilliant concept and sails well upwind and down on inland waters.
For the Goose – a first sailing report in moderate winds – and it works.
Also a free plan for a ketch/yawl version, and …
… Michael goes on a bit about the real differences between a ketch and a yawl
A few more pictures from the duckflat spring school.
Boats from Oughtred, Storer, CLC, White and Wooden Boat Magazine
I am currently helping at a boatbuilding school in Adelaide.
There are boats designed by me, Oughtred, CLC Kayaks, Joel White and Woodenboat.
People are from Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Perth.
First detailed sailing report of the Goose 12ft sailboat.
The Oz Goose is a 12ft sailboat derived from the smaller OzRacer/PDRacer/Brick line. It uses all the same running gear as the OzRacer.
A video of the Quick Canoe in action.
My Agent in Hungary who sells plans in both English and Hungarian has launched the first Quick Canoe in those parts. It is designed as a very simple and easy to build boat. It is not a perfect high performance boat, but the numbers have been worked out to give good performance despite the simple shape. It won’t be as good as the best fibreglass canoe, but it will be better than many average ones. And much cheaper and lighter.
The conservative viewpoint is that traditional rigs are not very efficient. However allied to efficient hulls and set up correctly, lug and sprit rigs can be very efficient indeed – not too much slower than “modern” rigs, particularly when the same lessons are applied to trad sails and way cheaper.
This is a WIKI drawn from the group on the Storerboats forum discussions on setting up lug and sprit rigs for best performance building on the information in my webpage.
John Owen Woodworks in the USA is now producing kits for the Quick Canoe 155.
This boat is designed to be a real alternative to a basic fibreglass canoe, but will be lighter and usually much cheaper.
Some have built one in very few hours.
Robert Hoffman has been busy using his BETH sailing canoe that he built over a cold Polish winter.
There are now videos. I have also linked to all my videos on youtube – so you can see many storerboats sailing.
There is a new website for the Loire trip in France 2011.
It has been a bit traumatic putting it together, but it seems to be working now.
My friends Rob and Jane Hylton run sailing boat and canoe hire on some of my favourite sailing waters – the lower Murray Lakes – just an hour south of Adelaide.
The boat hire is quite cheap but linked with you overnight staying in the small town of Clayton Bay – on the edge of the Murray River. There are a number of different options. My favourite is a tent or an on site caravan on the river’s edge camping area. But there are classier (?) options as well.
Low season is quite cheap and the days down there can be very beautiful in winter with a good weather report. They also offer sailing lessons which can include a picnic and/or a tour of the fascinating Murray wetlands.
Jim Post in the USA sent me a USB drive crammed full of building and launch pics of the OZ Goose design – the Big Brother to the OZ Racer (formerly the OZ PDRacer).
Looking forward to some sailing reports!
Reprint of an article I wrote a few years ago for Watercraft magazine in the UK.
The article points out why I think most of the discussion about boat design being a “compromise” is rubbish and taking that point of view means that the design is sure to be compromised.
What happens if we don’t accept the compromise?
I built the Quick Canoe in a day and a half. This is way slower than some of my customers.
It is the first time I have been disappointed building a complete boat this quick.
The risk of high expectations!
But a day and a half with the problems I had is pretty good.
Is it revolutionary?
The Quick Canoe uses Duct tape to hold the plywood together while the glue or glass tape sets up. This can save a huge amount of time.
The Quick Canoe is designed to take maximum advantage from the method.
Slideshow and pictures resources to show some of the methods for building the Eureka Stitch and Glue Plywood Canoe.
Sailing on Lake Eufala, Oklahoma
The wonderful Sail OK event with hosts Jackie and Michael Monies
All wooden boats welcome! Or friends!
Want to travel down the Loire River in France? A group on the Duckworks forum are planning to build a bunch of quick build boats, possibly including the Quick Canoe for a 14 day trip.
Everyone covers their own expense. Maybe September.