If you’ve ever wondered what a superbly bouyant Colin Archer looks like when sailing in the weather for which it was designed, now’s your chance to see one on YouTube. It’s bloody marvellous!
My thanks to Jim Van Den Bos for pointing it out.
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
Christine DeMerchant builds an Apple Pie plywood and epoxy dinghy
Christine DeMerchant is having a great time building an Apple Pie plywood and epoxy dinghy from plans drawn up by Chuck Merrell. The aim is to use it as a tender to her sailing cruiser.
Follow her progress here. The plans she’s working from are here, and there’s a nice article explaining how Chuck came to draw the plans here. Merry Christmas everyone – and if you read the last link, you’ll know why I say that.
The Apple Pie is about as small as a boat can go and still be useful, and I think it makes a great quick get-afloat summer project; a couple of winters ago I suggested it would also make a good mid-winter kitchen-table kind of project.
Either way, if you haven’t yet taken the plunge and built your own boat, and don’t know if it’s an activity you would enjoy, this could be the way to go.
PS – Check Christine’s message in the Comments link below. She has completed and launched the boat, and is as pleased as punch with it. There’s a YouTube clip showing just how well it works.
Scottish Coastal Rowing St Ayles skiffs triumph in wind and waves regatta
These shots of the 2011 Anstruther Regatta taken by Ron Wallace at the end of last month show various Scottish Coastal Rowing Association St Ayles skiffs racing in the harbour – it looks like they’re having quite a time, doesn’t it?
There are more of Ron’s fabulous shots here and here.
Alec Jordan, who originally conceived the idea for Scottish Coastal Rowing, has this to say about the event:
‘It was a little wild and windy, and the St Ayles performed superbly. None of the skiffs took more than a couple of pints of water during the races.’
Perhaps that’s not so surprising as the boats are derived from traditional craft and were designed by Iain Oughtred.
The Scottish Coastal Rowing phenomenon continues to be awe-inspiring, with a very lively racing calendar and new boats being built all the time – and not all in Scotland.