Peter McKenzie and his sons from Queensland Sunshine Coast built a standard Eureka paddling canoe.
Weight was the standard 44lbs. Peter’s email gives some nice tips.
They are very happy campers.
Building boats from older plans often adds a lot of labour and materials cost. Some old plans are great. But many are utter rubbish. Having a living designer or other people building the same boat is really useful for most builders.
Slightly arrogant I!
I visit the Philippines then Malaysia and also find a large community of Filipino boat builders there. I find they know much more than me about boat design and varieties. Stunning mix of different boats from curvaceous to plywood and boxy.
But Gosh … the shapes they come up with!
Jani is a friend of Perttu in Finland.
Jani wanted a boat for rowing and fishing. He built a Quick Canoe and modified it with outriggers and also worked out a scheme where it can carry one or two people simply by changing the bow.
Maybe it is so clever because Jani is an Industrial Designer!
Finally after many years of selling the plan I have a photo of a boat with the outriggers from the drop-in outrigger plan.
Every part of the outrigger is very light. The first one we built had each component under 10lbs.
It can make a canoe or kayak into a killer sailing boat. Or can convert a canoe, kayak or suitable dinghy into a stable fishing or diving platform for paddle or outboard.
Fiona Harbison and friends have just launched their new Handy Punt for fishing and family outings.
Fiona is the sister of Helen (hope I have that right) who built a Nutshell pram in a number of the Duck Flat spring or autumn boatbuilding schools.
It is called Farnark, which will strike a chord with Australians and New Zealanders through the work of John Clarke. There is a picture of the boat and a clip of John Clarke reprising his farnarkling spiel.
Astoria Maritime Museum – Now the really cool thing happened. Long had organised for us to see the storage sheds across the road.
Lon knows lots of interesting people. Also dropping in on this day were Irene Martin and her husband. They work fishing for salmon in this river (the Columbia River). Irene is also a writer (Lon got his copy signed)
Walked through Chinatown again to go to the Maritime Museum with Oly an internet boatbuilding Friend from the PDRacer forum.
Saw two of my boats there that were built by kids from the less advantaged part of the city. Spoke to Seth (right, Oly is left) one of the teachers/organisers.
Boatbuilding school report – 12 different projects and sometimes up to 30 people miilling around.
The projects were
Two different CLC (Chesapeake Light Craft) Kayaks
Four Iain Oughtred Clinker boats – Puffin, Fulmar, a pram and a Skerry Skiff.
A couple of John Welsford’s designs a dory and a Jeanette.
A Bolger Gypsy
A Murray Isles Coorong Traveller
and one of my OzRacers
