Goat Island Skiff Calendar 2018 is out for Christmas.
The goat island Skiff calendar 2018 is out now for christmas
Michael Storer
Vote for the year’s best Goat Island Skiff photos on FB
Help us vote for the best photos of the year! The Goat Island Skiff group on Facebook puts out a calendar and we have 160 brilliant photos. Your votes will select the shortlist for the 12 or 14 we will put in the Calendar.
Videos – GIS cruising on Lake Como with nice helming technique
Sailing and handling the steering and sail together can be confusing. But racing dinghy sailors have some techniques that will make sailing smoother and safer for more leisure oriented sailing. Your hands will be happier and probably your head too!
Tip – boat details – spacing inwale spacers right.
How do I get nice looking intervals for the inwale spacers on my boat? Photos. How many expensive clamps do I need for the job?
BETH Sailing Canoe for sale – Narrabeen Lakes, Australia
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!
Kanangra Photos – BETH Sailing Canoe in South Australia
A particularly beautiful BETH sailing Canoe Kanangra Launched in South Australia. Also some lug sail setup information
20 ways to boost Lug rig and lug sail performance! Rigging and Tuning.
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.
When box boats got our attention – Oz Racer then Goose Sailboats
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!
Honey, I shrank the boat and it don’t work no more.
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.
Strip planked Fenwick Williams Catboat at Port Vincent Boat show
More photos of Fenwick Williams Catboat built in Strip Plank by David Wilson at Duckflat, Adelaide
Some Fun Boat Stuff – our old design projects page.
A collection of some of our fun projects. Often collaborations. Some turned into production designs and others gave us significant learning!
Design process from simple to complicated – Plywood Murray Riverboat
The problem with design is that it is relatively cheap. Sometimes fixed price. But it is not realised what successive design iterations are doing to the boat.
In the end Chris was unable to complete the boat. Partially because the hull turned out to be in much worse condition than expected. But also despite some nice positives coming in terms of usable space below, other things just seemed to get more and more complex.
Foiling – Forefront vs Fakes
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 24ft steam canoe project for the Murray River Lakes
The AMAZING steam canoe project. I designed the hullshape and Roger Baker built it. Strip planked with American Oak trim. One of the most striking boats on the Lower Murray River – or anywhere!
Taiwan: Bamboo Boatbuilding methods go Mega and Industrial
Industrial grade materials but the use of traditional bamboo raft tech have resulted in a huge variety of vessels in Taiwan. All still lashed together. Ranging from two oar single person fishing boats to trawlers 60 to 80ft long. Just lashed together. The truly surprising thing is just how fast they go together.
Why I “hate” Boatbuilding.
By simplifying the design, you simplify the build. By eliminating or simplifying processes the build is further simplified. Examples that will make your boat simpler, lighter and better at what it is meant to do.
The Fallen Keel – An adventure in keel design.
“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.
A canoe that almost made a fortune – the Eureka Story
The story of how a financial success didn’t quite come off as a result of a natural disaster
From Slug into a quick Swan – The Orange Boat modded keel, rig and hull
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.
Example of Solar Electric Real World Use – Liveaboard Boat and Cartop Canoe
How useful are Solar and Electric boats anyhow? The large Solar Electric Mundoo 3 was one of the more interesting projects I’ve been involved in. It was the brainchild of Robert Ayliffe, then at Duck Flat Wooden Boats and Ted Dexter. This liveaboard boat was featured on the cover of WoodenBoat magazine at the time and was a tremendous success for the owners who found it fitted their needs perfectly.