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
Ben Crawshaw sailing Onawind Blue in ‘entertaining’ conditions
Not for the first time, in the middle of a grey British winter, Ben Crawshaw has posted a Youtube clip of himself enjoying sailing his boat Onawind Blue on a sunlit blue sea. He’s obviously having a riot and I’m filled with envy.
There’s a serious message here for all of us: even in the UK this could be you, this summer. Get or build a boat and let’s all go sailing!
For more posts about our friend Ben and his Light Trow, click here.
Barton skiff construction drawings
I’m shattered, but it’s been worth it because I’m now ready to share the key construction details of my simple stitch and glue outboard skiff designed for use with a low-powered outboard of 5hp or so – and certainly not much more, not least because the prop won’t fit!!!
I should add that my usual caveats apply here. I have no qualifications to design boats and make no claims for the performance or safety of this craft. I accept no responsibility for any accident or loss that may be incurred during building or use of this boat. What I have drawn must be regarded as experimental.
If you’re still interested, here are my key construction drawings: Barton-skiff-plans-package (updated to v1.1 3rd Feb 2011) Expect them to add up to around a meg, as I’ve included dxf files for those who like that kind of thing. I guess they will also be useful for anyone who wants to check a particular dimension. If anyone finds an error, please let me know!
The notes are sketchy to say the least, but I have it in mind that the bottom and frames should be of 1/2in ply, while the sides can be of 3/8ths. I’d advocate using marine ply, covering it well with glass and epoxy, and using gapped inwales of 2in by 1in, with 1in blocks.
This boat is designed to be built using the stitch and glue technique – if you haven’t done this before you might be interested in my book Ultrasimple Boat Building: 17 Plywood Boats Anyone Can Build or one of the other books on this topic available from Amazon.
See some earlier posts relating to the Barton/Low power skiff project:
Low power skiff – the nested panels
Poole canoes – the motorised flat-bottomed skiffs of Poole Harbour
A model of the Low-power skiff
New low-power skiff sketches and model drawings
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Another newly boat in the Boatbuilding Academy launch in December was an Iain Oughtred Auk built by Paul Braker and Joe Flynn. Piggly Wiggly is a 7ft 10in glued clinker design built in plywood, epoxy and mahogany, which Paul will use as a tender for his current boat and to give he and his partner Sarah’s seven children something to mess about in.
Paul worked in IT until the economic situation made him look at what he really wanted to do – and he chose boat building.
My thanks to the Academy’s Yvonne Green for the photos.