Chris Perkins Oughtred Stickleback canoe, Storer Raid cruising dinghy and weblog

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Chris Perkin’s Stangarra, built to Iain
Oughtred’s Stickleback drawings

Chris Perkins has kindly sent me this collection of photos of his beautifully-made Stangarra canoe built to Iain Oughtred’s Stickleback plans. The quality of Chris’s boatbuilding work is widely recognised, and some readers may remember that he won the 2007 Watercraft magazine competition.

Competitive types may be secretly pleased to hear that Chris, who is one of nature’s gentlemen, has forsworn entering any further boatbuilding competitions. But some even more important news is that his Stickleback project is to feature in the next two issues of Watercraft magazine, which will be well worth looking out for on the news stands.

Chris’s message was also a reminder to me that I’ve been meaning to link to Chris’s weblog about his building projects, StrathkanChris’s Little World. The list of boats that have come out of his green shed is becoming more and more impressive. The latest project featured on his weblog is an example of Michael Storer’s solo open cruising boat, the Raid 41 – see the photo pasted below.

See the Iain Oughtred plans catalogue here.

Also, kits to build some of Oughtred’s designs are available here and in the USA from Jordan Boats.

A good read for a winter’s night

If you don’t already know it, Moray McPhail’s Classic Marine website is an excellent resource. There’s an extensive catalogue for all the nice bronze and gunmetal bits and pieces that traditional boats require, including a wide range of fittings for rigging, as well as navigation lights, portholes and lamps, rowlocks and the rest, and there are also boat plans from Iain Oughtred.

Classic Marine homepage:

http://www.classicmarine.co.uk

With Christmas coming up, I’d say the navigation and cabin lighting sections are well worth a look for possible presents.

Moray’s site offers more than a fascinating catalogue, however, for he has written a series of essential articles on every detail of a traditional boat’s running and standing rigging hardware. Perhaps the most useful to many will be his article Using Wykeham-Martin Furling gears – an Unofficial Guide.