Tag: boat plans

The Edge – a Mouseboat for teens and small adults

Mouseboats Yahoogroup member Tomasz has made me smile with his build successful build of my The Edge stitch and glue sailing dinghy design intended for teenagers and small – to medium-sized adults.

When I drew it, I described it like this: ‘designed to deliver the most fun I can squeeze out of a minimum of materials and construction work. In this case the main constituents are three sheets of 1/4in marine ply and a quarter sheet of 1/2in marine ply, some lumber and a sheet of polytarp’.

He describes it this way: ‘lively, fast and easy to steer. We did not observe her as tippy. You can easy climb into the boat from deep water.’

Well done Tomasz! I must say I particularly like the look of that lateen sail.

Plans for The Edge are at Mouseboats, and also at Duckworksmagazine.

 

BBA student class of September 2011 launch their boats despite wind and rain

Principal Yvonne Green has kindly sent over this photo from the latest Boat Building Academy student launch day, at which the rain clearly failed to stop play.

Here’s what she says:

‘It rained, and rained, and rained, and then at 2.30 it stopped and, while the sun didn’t exactly come out, it wasn’t wet and it wasn’t cold. It was still a bit breezy, but I don’t think people would have noticed a downpour once the boats started going into the water.

‘It was a brilliant day, and they have been a brilliant group.’

The photo show the view from Yvonne’s office window just before the boats went down to the Cobb – that’s the local name for the massively built and ancient westward wall of Lyme Harbour, and the FaceBook video link shows a Looe hire boat restored by BBA students being overtaken by instructor Justin Adkin and student Shane Newcombe riding on board Shane’s Tiny Might built to plans provided by Glen L, and fitted with an engine from a jetski.

Tiny Might video

Goat Island Skiff community produces a photographic calendar

 

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.