The community of folks who have built Mike Storer’s Goat Island Skiff design have created a splendid calendar featuring shots of the boats.
The Goat is a 15ft 6in by 5ft plywood skiff with a growing following for both fast sailing under a traditional rig, and for cruising.
The cover photo of a sunset is by Christophe Matson. A commercial pilot, who built his Goat in New Hampshire, he has been cruising it offshore (on good weather reports) and camping on the rocky shores.
The second photo shows Mark Harvey sailing a Goat on Barton Water on the Norfolk Broads – we were there and I remember the day clearly. The boat was built by Mark’s father Richard, three or four years ago, and has a carbon mast. The photo is by Chris Perkins, himself a well known prize winning boat builder.
The third photo is of John Goodman and Mike Storer sailing in the Texas 200 event. Mike says: ‘We have about 250lbs of gear and water aboard a 16ft boat and John is a big guy, but we seldom dropped below 8 knots and spent a lot of time sitting on 12 knots. Reef early, reef often… it is a strong wind event.’
The calendar is available here; plans for the boat are here.