Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
Fancy one of David Moss’s highly regarded canoe yawls?
They don’t come up very often, but there are no less than two of the lovely strip-planked boats for sale right now at canoeyawl.org: the 13ft Ethel, which currently belongs to canoeyawl.org editor Dick Wynne; the other is the 15ft 6in Bunny, now owned by Nigel Field.
Damien O’Grady of the Australian town of Cairns has reported that he’s built Murray Isles’ great little Aurette stitch and glue dinghy from plans included in my book Ultrasimple Boatbuilding, which was published by International Marine a few years ago now.
The Aurette is Murray’s take on the legendary Auray punt (see earlier posts), and the project has clearly gone well. Here’s a little of what he says about it:
‘Probably the hardest part was early on, fitting the forward transom to the sides – a lot of twisting and manipulating of the ply sides to get them right, and then I had to temporarily screw the pieces together to give me time to get the ties in, and then remove the screws. Also there’s quite a camber on the foredeck, so that took some grunting.
‘Anyway, she’s great to row, and I’m looking forward to sailing her. I have the yard done – the mast is still to be shaped. I have made the sail – making it by hand took a few hours in front of the TV in the evenings.
‘Congratulations on your great book and website – I wish I could persuade some of the jet-ski mob around here to have a go. Actually there is a wooden boat club here in Cairns – http://www.wbac.com.au/ – they have an annual romp up at Lake Tinaroo in the Tablelands (no crocs, no jellyfish, no sharks, but, if you’re lucky, a few barramundi).
‘I’ll send more pics when I get the sail hoisted.
‘Cheers, Damien’
Thanks Damien – it’s always great to hear about successful projects from Ultrasimple Boatbuilding.
Please forgive me what might seem a bit of self-puffery – but I just love it when people build my little boats, even when they’re models for kids to play with in the shower.
João Pereira’s model of an Ella skiff certainly charmed me, and the Lego people are just about to scale too!
Here’s what he wrote:
Hello Mr Atkin!
I’ve recently come across the intheboatshed web site looking for boat plans and I was surprised by the amount of information available.
The idea of allowing someone to make a model before the real boat was very good.
I tried to build mine entirely with 4mm ply but it didn’t work. The sides didn’t bend easily so I used card-board from a milk carton for the sides and bottom. The frames, deck and gunwales are 4mm ply.
My kids play with it in the shower often because it is glued with Araldite, painted and varnished. I think it is a good test to check for defects and durability.
Best regards from Portugal,
João Pereira
Thanks João! That’s not a bad way to start kids with boats. I hope you go on to build the real thing. If you do, please keep in close touch so that I can help make sure it’s as successful as the bath toy…