Tag: Mouseboats

Mouseboats at Port Aransas

Boats and boating are such a blessed relief from the woes and divisions of the world. So an email from Gerard Mittelstaedt about a bunch of kids building Mouseboats at Farley Boat Works at Port Aransas, Texas (it’s not far from Corpus Christi) had me grinning from ear to ear, as emails like this /always/ do. Thanks Gerard!

The Mouseboat design they used was the flat-bottomed Mini-mouse, which may now be the most popular version. Here’s what Gerard says about the project:

‘It was great fun. My wife, Mona, and I assisted… It was a 180 mile drive from our home in McAllen, Texas to do this… and well worth it. I’ve put a web page up celebrating the event.

‘A good time was had by all and the launching was very celebratory.

‘Mona, a retired teacher of the very young, noted that the children participating were amazingly well behavedand managed to finish and enjoy the project and the launch. It was amazing how well the children took to water… like little ducklings paddling along with great joy.’

If you’re in the area or can be, two youth boat building sessions at Farley Boat Works are scheduled for Summer 2017.

For Mouseboat plans, see the plans page here on Intheboatshed.net.

Mouseboats built and launched at Faversham

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Folks on a training course at the Faversham Creek Trust’s Purifier Building led by local boatbuilder and repairman Alan Thorne have been building Mouseboats to my free plans – and yesterday they launched four of them on a pond at the head of the Creek.

A good crowd turned out to cheer and witness the event, and even the local press arrived with their cameras!

A fifth Mouseboat also turned up to be launched – this one was built by Terry Croucher, who has been working as an assistant to Alan.

Plans for the Mouseboats are available free from the Yahoogroup Mouseboats. To obtain them you have to sign up to join the  Yahoo (and the  Yahoogroup). Alternatively, some folks prefer to buy my book published some years ago – it is available from Amazon, but be warned that the new prices is a lot less than some folks are charging for second-hand copies!

The 8ft Mouseboats cost very little to make and are typically very light – they can be carried in one hand, yet can allow folks to go on the water very conveniently. Hundreds have been built around the world.

The boats built by Alan’s group are the Minimouse model with an easy to build flat bottom, but other similarly easy to build types for different purposes are available from the Yahoogroup.

Mouseboat building at the Faversham Creek Trust’s Purifier Building workshops

Mouseboat building at the Faversham Creek Trust's Purifier Building

Here’s a sight to gladden a chap’s heart – five Mouseboats being built at boatbuilder Alan Thorne’s workshop in the Faversham Creek Trust’s Purifier Building. (To contact Alan, see the little ad in the left hand column of this weblog.)

The project is part of a Department for Business, Innovation & Skills training programme, and I’m hoping the little boats will be put to use on the Creek – not least a goodly amount of messing about, perhaps also the occasional race…

Mouseboat plans are available at Duckworks Boat Builder’s Supply and the Mouseboats Yahoogroup (which is where plans for this flat-bottomed Mouse can be found). There are also plans in my book, Ultrasimple Boatbuilding. If you choose to buy the book though, avoid the Kindle version, as I’ve heard the drawings are difficult to see.