Category: Designs and designers, boat plans,books of plans

Plans for boats, sailing yachts, motor yachts, rowing boats, sailing boats, dinghies, dories, canoes, skiffs, oars, sails – may be free or paid-for

Dylan Winter films 12m Sharpies on the North Norfolk coast

Keep Turning Left sharpies in Norfolk 2

I’ve just been charmed by another of Dylan Winter’s Keep Turning Left films. This one is a 10-minute piece about 12m Sharpies on the North Norfolk Coast, where the boats are popular with racers because of their ability to sail in a few inches of water.

It’s free to watch in a small window, but those who subscribe for $4.99/quarter have a much better chance of appreciating Dylan’s dreamy photography.

For more on the 12m Sharpie class, see the class website and earlier posts at intheboatshed.net: 12 metre Sharpies at Wells, Norfolk and Temptations part IV: a small classic to build and race .

The first Oarmouse is launched

Oarmouse Pennant Oarmouse Pennant

 Oarmouse Pennant with about 300 lbs

The first example of my Oarmouse rowing skiff has been built and launched by Fred Rodger in the USA, and I’m very pleased to see that it seems to work as intended, and for that reason I hope Intheboatshed.net readers will forgive me for posting a cheapo stitch and glue plywood boat on this weblog.

There’s a short video here: Oarmouse in action

I designed the Oarmouse some ten years ago at a time when I was particularly interested in developing a series of small boats that would enable those without money (like me) to get on the water for only a small outlay in money and time. My aim in this case was to create a light and quick little skiff with a good waterline length and small waterline beam that could be built from just two sheets of ply.

The long chines are intended to provide a bit of confidence-inspiring stability for beginning rowers, by the way, though the square-headed bows say little about the boat’s underwater lines, which are nice and easy.

Fred seems very pleased with the result: ‘My first impression is that it is a good and easy rower, very fast and responsive – with someone who can row well of course.’ He also reports that it refuses to hobby-horse as he leans to-and-fro during rowing.

By the way, the paint job is intended to be like a ship’s commissioning pennant. Fred also says the hull shape seemed to him to have traditional quality that he decided emphasised with the scallop along the gunwale cap, the rope handles, and the look of the outriggers. ‘Along with that, the Stars and Stripes are quite late Baroque in design (thinking Betsy Ross),’ he says. ‘I thought that went well with the overall scheme of things. On the other hand it could all be given space age appeal with a nice early 1960’s sensiblities informed by, say the music of the Ventures.’

One thing I would say is that Oarmouse requires a skeg, and I’m pleased to report that Fred has already started work on adding it. I’m also not sure whether the oar length is right – Chris Partridge of Rowing for Pleasure will likely have views on the matter.

This little boat won’t perform like the boats the professionals use to practise, but it can certainly be made very cheaply, and will be considerably quicker and lighter than a flattie skiff of the same length. Bags of fun, I say… Click on the image below to get the free boat plans.

oarmouse plans

Boat Building Academy students Martin Nott and Alistair Munro build a 6.5m Charles Sibbick Half-Rater

Victorian Half Rater built in strip plank Victorian Half Rater built in strip plank - Martin Nott - DT

Photos by Derek Thompson and Emma Brice

Two students at the  Boat Building Academy have built and launched this remarkable skimming dish designed by Charles Sibbick.

The story began in 2006 when after a 30-year career in sports magazine publishing Isle of Wight-based Martin Nott decided he needed a new challenge and restored a 1902-built boat  Sibbick boat, Witch.

When he became the proud owner of the National Register of Historic Vessels-listed boat, he enrolled on the  Academy’s one-week boat restoration course to gain more knowledge and skills relating to the construction of traditional boats.

He then became increasingly fascinated by wooden boats and joined the Boat Building Academy in September 2010 to start the 38-week boat building course during which he was able to build another Sibbick design, Diamond, a 6.5m fin-and-bulb keel carvel-built skimming-dish half rater dating from 1897. He worked from an old set of lines and from photos.

Alistair Munro, who helped Martin build Diamond, was previously managing director of an advertising agency. The boat building course was the start of a major career change.

A mixture of traditional and modern construction methods were used in building Diamond: she has a red cedar strip-planked hull with a yellow cedar deck and mahogany coamings. She is partially decked, has a cockpit and is fitted with a traditional lug rig, and bronze fittings, many of them custom-made. See Martin’s weblog of the build here.

Diamond is now on the Isle of Wight, where Martin plans to race her, and to build a 30ft Sibbick Rater. He is currently working one day a week for Classic Boat and Yachts & Yachting, while looking for work as a shipwright or boat builder.