1 2 3 4 … 6 7

Places

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

A week fast building two Quick Canoes for touring the Loire in France – Part 1

The above photo was taken on the third day of our Canoeing trip on the Loire River in France. The two black canoes didn’t even exist a week ago.

When I wrote the original article on Disposable Canoeing I had no idea at all what it would lead to me and a bunch of adventurers, wine and cheese connoisseurs. Most of us didn’t even know each other! The picture above is the result of this adventurism, but what happened to make it happen?

What technology was involved to make the boats faster to build than most stitch and glue boats and what weather conditions did we have to overcome to make it all happen.

Goat Island Skiff going fast downwind with heavy load - Texas 200

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.

Slideshow of boats from the Lake Macquarie Classic Boatfest

AlexN, who is building an Oz Racer and I drove up to Toronto at Lake Macquarie for the Classic Boatfest 2011. I think I will go again in 2012 and try to have a boat to sail around.

Shows on the water are the nicest type and this one has good access for small sailing boats and canoes.

We met up with Bruce (Woodeneye on the storerboats forum) who had is “for sale” Goat Island Skiff.

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.

Goat Island Skiff in Victoria – Dete Hasse and his boys (and the value of reefing

Dete Hasse and his family built a Goat Island Skiff in Geelong, Victoria a while ago. He has just written to me about his experiences trying to sail on Port Phillip Bay and more happily on the recently refilled (the drought is over!) Lake Eppalock.

Also he makes some good comments about reefing and how it changes an overpowered boat into a much more rriendly beast in stronger winds.

12sq metre Sharpie (Heavyweight Sharpie) for sale and Restoration in Australia.

A rare beast, a circa 1960s 12 square metre sharpie with some of the original rig is for sale. I am not involved, but in the interests of helping preserve a little bit of Australian sailing and boat design history I would like to help find it a good home.

The 12sq metre (heavyweight) Sharpie came to Australia for the 1956 Olympics. NZ first, Oz second.

However the boat totally changed the approach to the design of Australian skiffs. Thought you might be interested to read my understanding of the design issues and influence.

How the Sharpie name went from the USA to Europe and then to Australia – and how it changed our boats.

Taking videos on board sailing boats using a boom camera

Cameras, digicams, video cameras are fun on boats, but it is hard to get good pics of yourselves sailing the boat or the boat doing its stuff nicely.

John Goodman and Family built their Goat Island Skiff GIR and sailed it in the Texas 200 event as well as some solo river cruising.

They used a camera boom to great advantage – to move the camera away from the boat. Another alternative is a wide angle lens which can produce dramatic effects for marine photography but the toom seems much more useful. It works well with the steadying of anti-shake electronics.