What is a good boat to build while stuck in COVID virus quarantine?
COVID doesn’t need to end fun things. What simple boats could be built at home during quarantine and social distancing. Here are mine.
boat maintenance
Inexpensive Centrecase Padding Reduces Rudder Centreboard Maintenance
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.
Buy Storer Plans in Australia – Boatcraft Pacific.
Buying plans in Australia has changed. Duck Flat Wooden Boats in Adelaide are no longer my plans agents. We have alternative arrangements for buying plans as books and plans as PDFs. Duck Flat are growing the Boat Restoration and Repair side of their business.
FAQ – Crimes against boatbuilding – never put a plywood deck join on top of a deckbeam
Never join boat decks the way you join up panels in a house. Cracks and big failures will result.
FAQ – Getting a hull smooth – Torture Boards for strip planking and decks
Torture boards are used for the highest grade of smoothing for visual smoothness of the whole structure. Fairing a strip planked hull.
Fairing a join between adjacent plywood sheets in a hull or deck.
Fairing a composite structure
Fairing deck substructure. Deckframes and deck stringers ready to take plywood.
FAQ USL Code restoration of scantlings for traditional Australian Boats.
The dominant source of timber sizings or scantlings for traditionally built workboats in Australia is the USL Code. It would probably be OK for traditionally built workboats in other parts of the world. It has information for both traditionally planked or semi traditional plywood boats of larger sizes
I hate silicone sealant on boats – Silicone contamination a world of pain.
pointless, timewasting activities in boat repair and maintenance
How to remove OIL and DIESEL that has soaked into Timber or plywood. Wooden Boats
Oil or diesel fuel have soaked into some of the areas you want to work on. There are no easy solutions. But this one might work.
Repair of old and antique plywood class sailboats for Racing or Cruising
OK … I decided to keep the old racing dinghy and fix it up. How do I put my effort in the right places to get the maximum results? A grab bag of methods for joining plywood, working out sizes, making centreboards and rudders and more.
Q and A. Step 1 – Do I restore an old cheap racing boat or ditch it? International Cadet
When is it worth fixing an old racing dinghy and when is it best to ditch it?
Fixing up old Plywood Boats – Fix leaks and holes, replace bottom in 24 hours, low cost nonskid that works.
All the best material on boat repairs. From restoring old sailing dinghies for racing, fixing holes in canoe, replacing whole hull panels or the neatest and easiest way of doing a really nice texture of nonskid using sugar. And the non skid can be done in paint or varnish
Are 1 to 1 epoxy mixes a good choice?
Most epoxy mixes are 2 to one resin and hardener. Or 4 or 5 or 6 to 1. Some companies offer 1:1 and push ease of mixing. But are they a good choice?
Storer Boat Plans at the free Goolwa Wooden Boat festival – Feb 26/27
The Goolwa Wooden Boat show is on the coming weekend.
Storer Boat Plans and Duckflat are having a joint stand as per normal.
The show itself is free this year with 250 boats entered in events or on display.
The Canon – Tools for thinking about sailing and boat design – Books and Articles
One of the most important things as a designer or sailor is to keep an open mind, but also to be able to analyze things in light of real experience and prior knowledge. These are online and paper resources that force thinking in different ways.
This article, after a bit of a spiel, goes on to give some great resources that “opened my eyes” at different times in my life.
They focus on areas of structural design, sailing, sail aerodynamics and touch on a bit more.
Minimal repairs to keep an old Mirror plywood sailing dinghy going
Melanie in the UK wrote to me. She has just bought an old Mirror dinghy and started sailing for the first time.
Problem is that the boat leaks and she doesn’t want to stop using the boat until the end of the season.
I have a philosophy of keeping older boats on the water and not pulling them off for months on end until you have the time to do the job.
So the article here is useful to see what can be done with an old leaky plywood sailing dinghy to keep it going.
It is perfect sailing weather at the moment in the UK and it is better she is out there learning but with the worst of the leaks gone.
With a disciplined approach she should be able to get all of this done in a week or so. The general leaks fixed permanently and the rotted area reinforced so that the boat won’t break.
Podcast Online – Wooden Boat Construction by Michael Storer – 2 of 3
This is the second of my talks in the USA. It focuses a bit more on construction and some of the methods that can be used to keep a boat light and simple, but very strong and stiff.
It also discusses how there is a “creep” in boatbuilding and design that increases the weight of boats way over what is really needed for a strong structure.
Cheap and effective Non Skid Paint or Varnish for Boats using household items
Any paint or varnish can be turned into a non skid paint without buying anything more than some coarse grain sugar. The texture provides good footing and has no sharpness that will hurt your feet.
Q&A Epoxy gluing endgrain for timber and Plywood
The basic problem is that end grain is highly absorbent so it can steal the resin from the join leaving insufficient for good bonding.
