Boat plans

[boatmik]

I am helping with the teaching in a ten day boatbuilding school in Adelaide Australia.

10 boats 12 students - all off to a flying start.

Most are from interstate. Varying levels of skill. Most haven't built a boat before. A couple have woodwork or home renovation skills.

I will post more info here a bit later. Most boats are Oughtred - one Storer Eureka, a Lillistone Pheonix III and a beautiful Liz Rowing scull.

The last is like a bit of jewellery.

It is well worth seeing - goes until Thursday or Friday next week - visits welcome 9 to 4 (so we have time to tidy up before and after. We are in Australia - Adelaide

Boatbuilder heaven.

Here is the photo bucket
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boatmik/sets/72157604579153353/

I'll add a lot more each day and will gradually add some comments.

Michael Storer

 

[boatmik]

Boats being built at the Duckflat spring school

The Oughtred's Guillemot - sail and rowing compromise (in a good way) dinghy

Shearwater - by the same designer - plans are very detailed. Sailing Dinghy - can be rowed

Gannet - a bit larger than the Shearwater (around 14ft)

Acorn 15 Rowboat - stretched to 17ft - two place rowboat.

Fulmar - bulkheads, strongback (ie building frame) etc are being made up and taken back to Perth as a flat-pack on a trailer (2000km). It is a stretched version of the original - 19ft cf 17ft. Fast sailing dinghy

A Lillistone Phoenix 3 - a simpler sailing boat with good rowing properties. Simpler because it has fewer panels in the hull.

Storer Eureka Canoe - one of my designs - simpler still because of fewer hull panels. The builder hopes to get it finished in 10 days.

An old putt putt is being restored - without moving to modern glue and sealing technology this boat would probably be burned as too laborious to fix by traditional methods. Building a new boat traditionally would be less labour that repairing the old one the way it was built. So the modern technology will allow it to keep going for another couple of decades.

A Bassett Liz a fine rowboat is being built - single person - lady passenger with parasol type boat.

Some bits for a Hartley 21 - trailer sailer with sleep aboard accomodation
The owner is using a foiled centreboard and rudder for the performance advantage they offer compared to the original galvanised steel sheet construction. Also making the centrecase so he has the techniques necessary for building the boat.

All the pictures are here - I will sort some of them later.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boatmik/sets/72157604579153353/

Best wishes
Michael Storer

 

[sallyxi]

Can this boat work in the ocean, i doubt..

 

[boatmik]

Hi Sally,

I don't know which boat you are talking about.

The ocean can destroy any boat. However the owner can choose the right day and the right weather.

This is the ocean

And have good fun.

If the user of the boat is skilful then boats can go sailing in more difficult conditions.

Here is a picture of some children in very small boats that are skilful sailors on the ocean. From Argentina.

All these crazy photos are here
http://www.capizzano.com/Semana_de_Mar_del_Plata_2008/

The boats are Optimists (!) - small simple boats for kids that can be built in plywood

Best wishes
Michael
fanchuan

 

[boatmik]

At the moment there is a 200 mile (300km) sail in mostly small, cheap wooden boats up the US Coast happening.

It is called the TEXAS200.

I've been collecting news on it and will put some here.

Not that I would recommend anyone to be this crazy - but you can't keep those Yanks down!!!

There are two PDRacer in the Texas 200 - a 200 mile low key RAID event up the coast of ... Texas.

Here is a shot of the course - ending at Magnolia beach - a place much favoured by the US home built wooden boat crowd.

For a better idea of why this is a good choice ... look at the barrier islands protecting the coast from anything really big and nasty (except for hurricanes maybe).

There is a chain of Google Earth Images that can whet the appetite and the imagination. The coast is mostly ranches meaning that it is pretty untouched and isolated.
http://www.texas200.com/images/route-kellan/index.htm

If they get a northerly wind - it will be a lot of work!!! But anything from the south, East or West it will be a very easy sail - except for the distance involved - that is a 40 mile a day average in laden boats.

Something like this would be great in OZ, but the Norwegians and Swedes got all the Fjiords and the USA got all the barrier islands - Texas, Florida, the ICW.

MIK

If you want to keep more up to date than this you can see the Duckworks race site
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/08/gatherings/tx200/index.htm
or the PDRacer main site forum in the USA - look for items labelled Texas200.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pdracer/messages

 

[boatmik]

There are similar events in the UK - sometimes called RAIDs.

TEXAS 200 - from Sandra at Duckworks
June 10, 2008
Yes, a little late--Chuck just called. I know, I know, I was supposed to put up Kellan's position last night, but this is a new thing, and I forgot. Here is the first one and I will post the second last:

• http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=26.8854,-97.4615&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
  Latitude:26.8854
  Longitude:-97.4615
  Nearest Location:not known
  Distance:not known
  Time:06/09/2008 17:23:42 (GMT)

Here is what else is going on: As of 10.30AM, Chuck and Mike are at the mouth of Baffin Bay, and most other boats are ahead of them.

The Miller family left the start late, and tried to make time with full sail, and capsized

(winds were gusting to 30).

The Martha Jane skipper, who also left late, found them and helped them get back upright and advised them to reef their sail, and they are okay, but still behind the rest of the group. The Martha Jane reached the first camp late yesterday evening.

Martin Adams--sailing his owner built catamaran, has not been seen since the start, and they are hoping to hear from him today.

(if those are just ply webs from the tramp to the hull I can't see what is preventing them from sheering off - can't see enough detail - mik)

There were 28 boats at the first camp--Graham Byrnes in the Southern Skimmer reached camp first around noon. He recorded a new top speed for him of 18 mph, which was helped slightly by a 1.5mph current in the land cut.

Chuck says everyone he has seen is happy and having fun. they are sailing fast, but when they catch up with Kellan (whose inflatable kayak is doing just fine), they will slow down and stay with him as they have most of his food and lunchtime is approaching. He said he will give me a longer report tonight--phone connection was spotty, lots of wind.

Here is Kellan's next position:
Kellan's position:
Latitude:27.1006
Longitude:-97.442
Nearest Location:not known
Distance:not known
Time:06/09/2008 20:24:49 (GMT)

If you want to keep more up to date than this you can see the Duckworks race site
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/08/gatherings/tx200/index.htm
or the PDRacer main site forum in the USA - look for items labelled Texas200.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pdracer/messages

 

[boatmik]

The smallest boats doing the trip are 8ft 2.4m PDRacers

The saga of the PDRs and others doing the 200 mile longshore event along the texas coast.

Managed to get some photos from yesterday from Jim Isbell who retains copyright but is allowing use here - thanks Jim!

Texas 200 from Sandra at Duckworks

June 11, 2008:

No reports this morning, but I am guessing everyone had a good night's sleep after a good meal the night before.

Here is at least a partial list of all the different boats--only a few names to go with them at this point:

1 Fugu (Kellan)
3 PD Racers
1 Potter 15
1 Bolger Bobcat (Chilek)
1 Piccup Pram
1 Chrysler Lone Star 16'
2 Potter 17's
2 Hobie 18's
1 20' sloop?
1 Coresound 17
1 John's Sharpie trimaran (Charlie and Laura)
Proa (Kevin O'Neill)
Boston Whaler sailboat
EC 22--Southern Skimmer, Graham Byrne
32' Motor trawler
1 Sea Pearl
the Caprice
Mikesboat
2 Shearwaters (by Bolger)
1 Princess 22
1 Coresound 19
1 Martha Jane (by Bolger)

Chuck says the fellow with the Martha Jane bought it on ebay 2 weeks ago! More boats will be joining them today and tomorrow. Our Ladybug, skippered by Roger Harlow and also Bob Shipman and Bob Williams will be coming in with one of Bob S's boats. The are heading through Corpus Christi Bay today and by more than one route will end up north of Rockport looking for a sandy spot to anchor for the night. They were going to stop at Dead Man's Island, but it is pretty exposed, so last night I looked on Google Earth and found a spot that might work, and they will check it out today.

No position from Kellan--too early--they will just be heading out.

If you want to keep more up to date than this you can see the Duckworks race site
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/08/gatherings/tx200/index.htm
or the PDRacer main site forum in the USA - look for items labelled Texas200.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pdracer/messages

 

[boatmik]

Here we go again ... All the pics here are of home built boats.

From Jim Isbell (who has also provided these photos taken yesterday - they are copyrighted but I have permission to put them here)

I just got the weather report for today. On Corpus Christi
Bay....which they were crossing today...., we had winds of 50 mph and
gusts to 55 MPH!!!!

Jim Isbell
"If you are not living on the edge, well then,
you are just taking up too much space."

I don't think it was quite that strong around the edges of Corpus Christie Bay but it sounds like it wasn't an easy day for them

From Andrew Linn via Jeremy Nodsworth

I got a call about an hour ago from Andrew. (he is in one of the PDRs)

His words (as close as I can remember them) were "Jason and I tried to
quit today. We really tried. John left out before we did and we'd
had it. Then, Jason and I ended up taking a path only Puddle Ducks
could ... (something involving an 8ft bridge) and we caught up to
John!... We're still in it!!"

He was tired, it sounded like a pretty long grueling day. His
gooseneck broke, but he's lashed it together with rope. He mentioned
that there had been some ferocious wind last night.

His max speed today was 5.3 knots.
His avg speed today was 3.1 knots.

If you want to keep more up to date than this you can see the Duckworks race site
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/08/gatherings/tx200/index.htm
or the PDRacer main site forum in the USA - look for items labelled Texas200.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pdracer/messages

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Thanks for posting the updates there, Boatmik.

A couple of weeks ago we had the Lake Pepin Messabout. There were a couple of PD Racers there.

This one was said to be PDR #2

And this one clocked 6.5Kts on his GPS

 

[boatmik]

Howdy Dave,

yes Mr Abraham's #2 "Ugly Duckling" was a lot of the reason we started to get interested in the PDRacers here.

It is a very seriously clever boat that clearly sails well.

However I do have a pic of one that has gone a bit faster than the other you show - in tideless, currentless water.

here was the GPS reading after the attempt

The average was low because the wind was about 25 knots and I had to go to shore to reduce sail area. I had to sail downwind (wind behind) into a narrow gap between two wharves and I didnt want to be doing it at 8knots!!!

For everyone else ... PDRacers have a whole series of "not too serious records" including the biggest fish caught and the largest number of people in the boat at one time.

Honest ... we are not COMPLETELY serious about our records (wonder what the wind will be like this weekend?)

Michael Storer

 

[Tusses]

some of the boats on here look easy enough to make

http://www.vintageprojects.com/

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Most boats really aren't that difficult to build. It's more about just starting it and plugging away at it until it is a boat. The "writing sideboard" shown in the Projects forum is an example of a piece of furniture that looks too complicated for me but I'm sure that if I just got started, I could build one too.

Boatmik, that definitely beats the speed of the other PDR but the day of that speed run the winds were only 10kts, gusting to 15kts.

 

[boatmik]

I'd completely agree with that - I've seen similar numbers - in flat water at least!

MIK