Stories, Experiences and rAticles about our Storer Boat Plans start with simple assembly and clear plans leading to Adventures in lightweight wooden and plywood boats with good handling and excellent performance.
Scroll down to see all the articles.
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Articles on sailing dinghies, river boats, kayaks, canoes, paddles, fishing boats and sailing canoes
A little bit of writing how form in boat design seldom follows function in terms of what “looks good”. It was prompted by a discussion about whether the PDR is good looking or not.
My Podcasts on design also cover this idea to a greater depth – they are in the menu at the top of each page.
Juan Carlos has been building his Goat Island Skiff for about a year.
He has just put up a photo series of his boat launching.
The rest of the words and pictures are from Juan Carlos.
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.
A nice little article by Jackie Monies who is turning into the writer in residence for the PDRacers.
It posits the idea that because of its cheapness, ease of building and the creativity in the group that it qualifies as the “All American Boat”.
Actually I think it is the perfect boat for places that are water rich and cash poor. Anyone can afford to go sailing in these cool little sailing boats. The options of material and design solutions allow the boats to be built of local material just about anywhere. Very cheaply.
I don’t have a car so how can I go canoe touring? Its something I fell in love with in the USA on Lake Powell.
This is an idea for a simple, cheap, almost throwaway (or give away) canoe. I can get the materials shipped to somewhere on a river, build the boat over a couple of days then go for a paddle.
At the end I can give the boat away or store it for the next part of the trip.
Peter Hyndman has made some PDRacer wallpapers that you can download for your iPhone and some other devices.
This podcast/mp3 talks about why Australian (and New Zealand) wooden boatbuilding is different from the rest of the world..
Click to listen to the talk. This is the third of three.
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.
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.
Ralph Gersson in Holland got a very nice mail from Michael McNamara from mcNamara sails UK. He made a nice sail for Richard Harvey’s GIS “Blanche” and Ralph has decided to order.
Michael, a racing sailor with a lot of background talks about the experience of sailing the Goat Island Skiff.
It is the highest I have ever sailed by far – about 2500 to 3000ft above sea level.
A very nice bunch of folks. And got to meet BobWes (from my forum), John Kohnen (the author of the “mother of all nautical links”), Jon Kowitz and Andrew Linn (puddle duckers that sailed in the Texas 200 so triumphantly) David Luckhardt (who I missed in S.F.) and a whole bunch of other boat people and a swag of interesting boats.
Rick LAndreville wins the Canadian PDRacer Championships in an OzRacer carefully modified to match the PDRacer rules.
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.
from Brian Pearson who is finishing his RAID41 in the UK
Gifted Amateur Boatbuilder Chris Perkins has laboured during some of the most difficult boatbuilding weather to produce the prototype of the new RAID41
First we had a computer drawing
Then pics of a mock up model
Now we have pics from American where one is being built by some young people as part of the Compass Project organisation’s Classes.
