Update on Projects

It has been awhile so this is a quick overall update on projects:

* Goat Island Skiff kits can be cut anytime. Marketing for kits will begin by late Winter time and CNC cutting will be part of the plan. Meetings with CNC companies will happen early winter. I am taking coursework in Rhino/CAD to enable me to create files, modify files, and give them to CNC cutters.

* The Deblois Street Dory lines and offsets are finished an available. Hull #1 is being built by a customer here in Portland. Construction and sail plans are being produced now and plans will be available this winter. Kits for the D St. D will eventually be produced for the kit catalog.

*Frolic, the Flying Fifteen is as it was upon delivery. The keel comes off in the next week. As this is a personal side project, progress on it depends on how much customer work is going on at the time. Clearly, we have been busy with customers, so Frolic sits awaiting her complete restoration.

*Carbon fiber blade-Spruce oars are underway and will be part of a line of custom and semi-custom oar and paddle offerings that will become part of our specialty line of products. An online shop will be part of this endeavor, but probably won't be set up until early Spring in time for the Boat Shows. The blades are epoxy, vacuum-infused carbon fiber for total lightweight blades and balanced oars.

* Another specialty is Birdsmouth mast and spar construction for craft up to 22'. In the shop, staves are being cut for a Shellback Dinghy and Goat Island Skiffs. We use beautiful White Spruce and Sitka Spruce. We'll be combining the two species to make beautiful masts. Clint will have a line of mast types to choose from revolving around Birdsmouth construction, with different wood species to choose from for the spars.

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Happy September!

Late Summer Update and Announcement

The KDI project is fully funded thanks to a group of enthusiastic sponsors. Thank you! I now have a lot of work to do through October!

More screenshots from the computer model of the DRB

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interview

Finally got around to watching my interview from the worlds. Knowing full well that i'm a pretty rough looking bloke I was putting off watching at it in the name of self esteem, but now I've seen it and i think the worlds media team really did a great job so i thought I should share it. The particular 'some guy' mentioned I think was Bill Olsen (with probably the nicest paint in the fleet) - don't think we'd met at that stage.

cheers

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Argie 15 People Carrier

I have written here before about the versatility of the Argie 15. This week I watched a video posted on YouTube by Özden Oğul, of two couples sailing an amateur-built Argie 15 in Turkey. Normally a 15ft dinghy with four adults aboard is full to the brim with people. This video really brings home the size and comfort of this dinghy as a family fun boat. The winds are light, yet even with this load it is moving along very nicely, with plenty of freeboard to take more.

The crew are spread out in the boat, with one even right up in the bow where you don't normally have someone sit on a boat of this size. It accepts this and carries on sailing. This video highlights how much space there is in this boat.

The Argie 15 is a great camp-cruiser, with a good turn of speed. That also makes it a nice raid boat, capable of taking rough water and covering extended distances.

For more info on this and out other designs, please visit /.

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Hull-Turning of Didi 23

Steve Watson is building a Pulled out of the garage.

Half-way over. A hull is intimidating in this position and must be controlled. Gravity can quickly become the boss.

Stern view. Steve has added a scoop stern to the transom.

Going back into the garage for work to continue.

A boat-under-construction takes on a whole new character when it is turned right-way up. This is the first time that the builder gets to see it right-way-up and the final shape of his creation.

Hull-turning is a memorable milestone in a big boatbuilding project. This is always a good time to have a party, to take your rewards and gather your thoughts, resources and energy for the next stage of the project.

The way that Steve and friends turned this hull worked for them. The bigger the boat, the more complex the turning process becomes and the more care that must be taken with preparations and equipment to keep this heavy structure under control. Carelessness with this phase of the project can injure or kill people and also damage the carefully-built boat.

To see more of this and our other designs, please go to /.

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The Bionic Broomstick

Skip Johnson has been working at the bleeding edge of experimental, backyard proa design and construction. 

The photo shows the proa tipped on it's side with the ama in the air.  The rigid wing sail is lying on the grass.  Since proas sail in either direction, there is a cassette rudder at each end.
Skip is not exactly new to this sort of thing having built a larger proa some years ago.
Here's a great video about Skip and the kayaks he's designed and built.

Paper Jet Prototype for Sale

I designed the Paper Jet in una-rig Lite format.It has proven capable of doing all that I intended, although I have used my prototype #001 as a single-hander for myself. I have cruised it in sedate fashion in light breezes, when it reels off the miles. I have also blasted on trapeze at well over 20 knots just clipping the tops of the waves. And between those two extremes she has given me many hours of fun and exhilarating sailing.

Paper Jet in Turbo format, with asymmetrical spinnaker on the foredeck.

But, I have had knee problems since a teenager, from surfing too many hours in icy cold water without a wetsuit. Now, 50 years later, it has caught up with me. My knees won't let me get out on trapeze any more and my left knee dislocated at least 6 times while sailing this past weekend. In the middle of a tack is no time to be manipulating a dislocated knee back to its intended format.

So, the Paper Jet prototype, sail #001, is for sale. She comes with all components for all three rig formats as well as upgrades that I made to the design over the 8 years that I have sailed her. Included are:-

Standard mainsail
Turbo full-batten fathead mainsail
Jib on roller-furler
Asymmetrical spinnaker with sock
Mast with short and long topmasts
Boom
Retracting bowsprit
Daggerboards - three different lengths
Rudders - old and new versions
All deck hardware
All standing & running rigging
Launching dolly

Selling price is $8,000, which is not a lot more than the material cost to build her with all of the sails and bits that she has. She is in good shape, with totally watertight hull, just needing some minor paint and varnish touch-ups. We will have her at the contact me.

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