Free plans for making a handy dinghy trestle

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Dinghy trestle built to Steve Blackman’s instructions

The Home Built Boat Regatta group includes some pretty handy folks, among them Steve Blackman, who enjoys refurbishing old plywood dinghies. Just now I gather he’s working on a Heron that I gather may be ready for the Lechlade Raid and the Beale Park Thames Boat Show.

A few days ago his instructions for building a trestle appeared online on the HBBR website, and I thought they were so useful I should share them. Trestles like this are useful in boat parks, when painting and also when building in stitch and glue, or traditional American flat-bottomed skiff style.

Woody Jones builds a model Julie skiff

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Woody Jones’ model of the Julie skiff

Woody Jones has written to share these photos he has made of the intheboatshed.net Julie skiff – the little wire figures are a lot of fun!

See our model here and Ben Crawshaw’s model here.

Plans for making the model are here and for making the complete rowing skiff are here.

For more on the skiff, the plans for the boat and for the model:

Is anyone building the stitch-and-glue intheboatshed.net skiff?
Model Julie skiff photos from Ben Crawshaw

Complete free plans package for the intheboatshed.net flat-bottomed 15ft 6in skiff
intheboatshed.net skiff – drawings and coordinates for stitch and glue
intheboatshed.net skiff – photos of our model, and maybe yours too?
Intheboatshed.net skiff – now we can make a model
Intheboatshed.net skiff progress
Early drawings for a 15ft 5in lightweight flat-bottomed American-style skiff

Water Craft magazine preview – and subscribe through PayPal now!

Water Craft is a great little magazine and, after talking with folks who edit it, I’ve decided to publish previews’s of each issue. Hopefully it will remind people to nip down to their newsagents – or, better still, to buy a subscription for themselves or a loved one.

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The March/April issue of Water Craft. As usual, click on the thumbnail for a bigger photo

The bi-monthly Water Craft is a great magazine and, after talking with folks who edit it, I’ve decided to publish previews of each issue. Hopefully they will remind people to nip down to their newsagents – or, better still, to buy a subscription for themselves or a loved one.

Editor Pete Greenfield reports that ‘small is beautiful’ has emerged as the dominant theme of Water Craft number 74, which is due out on the 26th February.

It’ll include a reprint of an article by Moray MacPhail first published 14 years ago, which now seems more relevant than ever, particularly in the light of the evidence of the WBTA Boat Buying Survey also included in the issue.

Also,there’s a piece from canoe builder John Floutier describing a sailing canoe cruise in company in the Western Isles. Also Kathy Mansfield impressed by the 14ft GRP Devon Yawl, and Jo Moran down in Cornwall sails the similar-sized and equally gutsy GRP Bristol Jolly Boat.

Smallest of them all in this issue, however, is Chris Perkins’ latest home boatbuilding project, the 10ft Stickleback canoe designed by Iain Oughtred.

Look out also for Dick Phillips sailing Secret, a 20ft Edwardian-style ‘gentleman’s cruising yacht’ you can build from a pre-cut plywood kit, and the beautiful 20ft Laurent Giles Sandpiper named Surprise, built by Tom Naismith in his garage.

The Grand Designs series features Nigel Irens’ 15-knot electric speedboat, which made her debut at the London Boat Show and Australian designer Michael Storer introduces his Radical Raid Boat, which will make her debut on the Water Craft stand at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show.

Subscribe to Water Craft now using the button below – with the pound so cheap now, this must be a real bargain for many of our international readers!


Water Craft subscriptions




Check this website to find a newsagent in the UK: http://availability.mmcltd.co.uk