Category: Model boats

The first Ella skiff is looking good

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ella skiff, free boat plans, plywood boat, rowing boat, gavin atkin, stitch and glue

ella skiff, free boat plans, plywood boat, rowing boat, gavin atkin, stitch and glue ella skiff, free boat plans, plywood boat, rowing boat, gavin atkin, stitch and glue

Norman’s Ella skiff takes shape

Norman Fuller up in Norwich is clearly having fun building the first Ella skiff rowing boat built to my free boatbuilding plans. Thanks for the photos Norman!

For more on the Ella plywood skiff plans including both rowing boat and sailing boat version, and a set of drawings to make a model of the little 12ft boat, click here.

PS – We’ve cruised past the milestone of our first 1,000,000 hits – but I was so busy running a music festival, I barely noticed! Now, the question is how do you celebrate racking up a number with quite so many zeros?

The First Melbourne Wooden Boat Festival

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Wooden Boat Association members of the Melbourne and East Gippsland areas out on the water – click on the image for a video of local members’ boats

The people of Melbourne are going to have fun this coming weekend – for their Victoria Harbour is to be home to the first Melbourne Wooden Boat Festival.

The event involves all of the major wooden boat and classic yacht groups in the area, and is intended to be a great event for boating enthusiasts but also connect the broader public with the spirit of wooden boats, boating and traditional boatbuilding.

It sounds like a big old do, with on-water and landside displays, model sailing and racing boats, trade displays, shanty singers, in-harbour sailing, working boats displays, boat maintenance classes, a shipwright’s conference. Naturally there will be sailing, rowing, steamships, tall ships, knot tying, boatbuilding, book stores, classic powerboats and, thankfully, the coastguard will be on hand to tell people how to do it all safely. It’s all being organised by the enterprising woodenboat.com.au.

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An Ella skiff is started in Norfolk

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The cut out components of Norman’s skiff wait to be taped and stitched together; the model on his desk proved the principle

Norman Fuller has started work on the rowing version of the Ella skiff, a simple 12ft stitch and glue flattie skiff named after my daughter. He lives in Norwich, close to the Norfolk Broads, and I gather intends to take it to the Barton Broad UK Home Built Boat Rally event in May – so let’s all wish him luck with his project. It’s looking good so far, and I’m pleased to see he built a model first.

Making a model is always a good first step, not least because it boosts the builder’s confidence in the design and the process.

For more on the rowing version of the Ella skiff, click here.