Tag: plywood boat

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.

 

The Ella skiff – a cheap and fun way to get afloat this summer

Numbers of people boating this year are on the rise, according to the 2011 Watersports and Leisure Participation Report.

The report commissioned by boating organisations including the Royal Yachting Association, members of the British Marine Federation, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the British Canoe Union and the Marine Management Organisation showed an increase of 0.3m between 2010 and 2011 – as many as 3.2m people took to boats last year.

In this context I’d argue that the plywood boat Ella skiff – the photo above is a recent and very nicely made example built in South Africa  – represents a cheap, quick and fun way to get afloat this summer. Read all about it, and get free plans here.

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.