Videos below Extreme British Yachts of Norfolk – Punts, A-Raters and Broads Cruisers
Some of the most extreme inland yachts of Britain (or the world) together for the Three Rivers Race on the Norfolk Broads. A-raters, Norfolk Punts and Broads Yachts
Yacht
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.
How we Strip Planked a Fenwick Williams Catboat
A Fenwick Williams catboat carefully reinterpreted in Cedar Strip. Includes cleaner structure, optimised foils and a tabernacle rig that allows raising of the mast by one person. Built by David Wilson at Duck Flat Wooden Boats in Adelaide.
Achieve best Cost/Performance with Traditional Sailing Rigs – Balance, standing lugs and sprit rig sails
A guide for choosing cheaper alternative rigs. Balance Lug, Standing Lug, Sprit, Lateen and more. These rigs typically save a lot of money over conventional sailplans and set up right offer much the same performance. They respond to the same principles. Are boomless sails OK?
Wearing lifejackets and how to get kids to wear them too! Personal Flotation Devices – PFD1, PFD2, PFD3
Three times in my life I have gone sailing in small boats without a lifejacket. Two times the boat sank. One time I capsized and found that swimming and trying to get back on the boat is very difficult in FRESH water. Also a hint about how to get kids to wear their lifejackets … wear YOURS!
Which first sailing boat to choose for learning to sail? New, Build or Secondhand?
If you want to go sailing what is the best way to get a sailing dinghy? Maybe build but most will buy a sail boat secondhand. How do you pick a good used sailing boat? We show you how.
FAQ Birdsmouth masts – butt joins OK? Scarfs are recommended.
A birdsmouth mast is a nice way to make a simple tapered hollow round mast. But what is the best way to join the wood. We show you how and why.
Are old, cheaper or free boat plans good value? 100 plans on CD?
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.
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.
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?
The standard Storer boat plans “kick back” dagger rudder.
The rudderbox design I use has distinct advantages over normal swinging rudder setups. Once you try this design you will never be satisfied with a swinging blade again. But some of the details are important!
Book – “A lighter ton” – New Zealand racing yacht design in the 1970s
In the late 70s as a sailing teenager I drew boats on every available paper surface.
A new book “a lighter ton” describes the exciting development of racing yachts to create newer, lighter, faster and cheaper and FUNNER boats.
Many of the developments were from New Zealand designers such as Bruce Farr, Paul Whiting and Laurie Davidson. A new book by Richard Blakey covers this exciting experimental period in yacht design
Strong wind downwind with unstayed Masts, Cat Ketches and Cat Yawls, more safety and efficiency
John Goodman and I sailed the immaculate Goat Island Skiff he built from my plan in the Texas 200.
The boat showed itself to be one of the faster in the fleet despite loading up such a short boat with food, water and camping gear for six days with little outside support.
We played with sailing the boat by the lee – a method used by racing boats to gain both speed and control.
I document the method here including a video showing how the angle of heel can be controlled using the mainsheet.
Photos from Goolwa Wooden Boat Show 2011 – looking forward to 2013!
Photos and slideshow from the Goolwa Wooden Boatshow 2011.
Over 250 boats – mostly in the water. Wooden hydroplanes, “restricted 21s”, riverboats, putt putt launches, classic sailing boats, kayaks, canoes and more.
I had the quick canoe, the eureka canoe and the OzRacer on the stand that was shared with Duck Flat Wooden Boats and Boatcraft Pacific. Good time was had by all.
Podcast Online – Wooden Boat Design by Michael Storer – 1 of 3
This talk is the first hour of my exposition on boat building and design. There are two more parts to come. This covers some of the background and design issues. The second is more on the building side and the last is a bit more about why the Australian (and New Zealand) wooden boat tradition is different from the Northern Hemisphere.
You can stream the talks over your internet connection or download them as a podcast.
USA Day 11 – Portland to Astoria Maritime Museum
Astoria Maritime Museum – Now the really cool thing happened. Long had organised for us to see the storage sheds across the road.
Kirribilli – historic 5.5 metre yacht starts restoration.
Duckflat have started work on Kirribilli – the historic Australian 5.5 metre class yacht for a consortium of owners.
International Star Class revisited
I wrote this because the Star Class is one of my all time favourite boats. Crazy, fast, wonderful.
Would it be possible to homebuild a simplified construction boat in plywood and cedar strip and still hit a similar weight and stiffness as competitive boats, but at a much lower cost?