"Lots of Websites look really cool but say nothing.  This isn't one of them"  ;-)   We have real information that relates to ANY project you may be working on right now.   In the end I don't care whether you build one of my designs or not - but what I want is for you to feel excited  about BUILDING, USING and ENJOYING Wooden Boats. Of course, more people building wooden boats might be good for my business in the long run.

 

 

RAID41 Expedition Sailing Dinghy - After the success of the three little 8ft PDRacers in the 200 mile long TEXAS200 there was discussion on the Oz Woodwork Forum about a singlehanded boat  for long distance events, but be a fair bit faster than the smaller boats.   

Narrow enough to fit in a 4ft wide box trailer or maybe just light enough and narrow enough to get on a roofrack.  Self draining after capsize.  Plan is being put together now.  UK build of prototype underway.

The design that is emerging is the 15.5ft RAID41.  Not designed to be an out and out racer (but still quick), but scaled to make it easy for one person to handle on the water or on land.  It uses some of the standard PDRacer bits.

British Backyard Boatbuilding Forum - Mike Austin asked me to take part in his new forum.  I have put quite a few articles and pics up in the areas he gave me.  I will try to keep it well updated with information and discussion as well as topical UK stuff.  There are starting to be quite a few storerboats building in the UK including the RAID41 Cruising Racing Dinghy Prototype.

February 20 - 2 New Websites GOAT ISLAND SKIFF and  EUREKA CANOE - Two very beautiful websites created by the remarkable Peter Hyndman.  They detail the current state of information about building and using the two different boats, some articles, lots of pictures showing step by step details.  The now (slightly) famous videos showing the boats in use are also linked to.

February 7 - NEW FORUM for STORER BOATS - There is now a Storer Boats Forum on the net.  It is at the popular OZ Woodwork Forum run by UBeaut.  They also run the very popular "Working with Wood" shows that are around Australia.  Because it is new it is still small, but it will grow and grow.  So if you have any general questions about my boats you are welcome to contribute.  Joining up takes a few minutes and they won't send you any annoying emails.

January 29 - VIDEOS - of Goat Island Skiff, PDRacer, Eureka Canoe - while in Mooloolaba Peter and I worked on a set of videos for the boats we had on hand.  We actually had a BBQ and invited some of the local storerboat builders to come along.   We had 7three PDRs, two Eurekas and "Gruff" the Goat.

The food and weather was pretty kind - but the wind was a bit puffy at times.  But no-one got into any serious problems ... I got stuck on the bottom at low tide a few times and PhilW flipped one of the PDRacers - but had it upright and sailing again about 30 seconds later.

January 21 - Chuck and Sandra Leinweber of Duckworks USA in OZ - We were privileged to be visited by the proprieters of Duckworks last week.  They run one of the biggest websites about wooden boats on the web and also are my USA agents.  Chuck and Sandra are on a "Once In A Lifetime" trip to Australia and New Zealand.  

They arrived a little jet lagged on the Friday but on Saturday we rigged up the two PDRacers, the Goat Island Skiff and also arranged for Steve Wagstaff to bring his unlaunched OZ PDR along to be put in the water for the first time.  In this case the Mooloola River.  Photo series is here.

a GIS.  And they ended up taking the fantastic result back to Sydney.  The full story and links to the photos are on my Blog.

October 22 - New Lug rig option for OZ PDR - it has a shorter mast, a little bit more sail (89 square feet) and can be reefed easily - This is available free with proof of purchase of the OZ plans.  Of course you know we have the best pages on the net or maybe anywhere about making lug and sprit rigs perform well!?

October 19 - 11 year old Dakota builds her OZ PDRacer - Story and Pictures.  Over three lots of school holidays Dakota and her Dad Larry built an OZ PDRacer.  They launched it two weekends ago.

September 29 - Price Drop for 27ft Venezia Riverboat / Canal Boat.

• A new Eureka Plywood Canoe Launched - Builder's comments and some nice paddling photos - pretty in wood
• Photo Diary - Two teenagers start building a Eureka - they've already built the paddles
• Free Paddle Plans - added a picture of the paddles built by the teenagers building the boat above
  

Chris bought an old wood hull that had seen better days.  It had great space inside.  This page goes through some of the design process showing some of the steps and also showing pics of how the boat is now.  Duck Flat in South Australia are doing the work.

February 12 - Rigging details for OZ PDRacer sprit rig.  Also gives many tips on cheap but effective rigging for any sprit rigged dinghy.  Pictorial on Flickr

February 9th - My brochure for the Tasmanian Wooden Boat Show and the Goolwa Wooden boat festival. My agents will be in Tassie on the Boatcraft Pacific Stand but I will be at the Goolwa wooden boat show with a whole heap of boats (all wood) on the Duckflat stand and on the water with the PDRacers - come and try one!

February 8th
Madly busy getting the two original PDRacers ready for the Goolwa Wooden Boat (South Australia) show early March - it has given me the chance to take some photos to make the rigging guide

January 29
Some nice pics of the 16' Goat Island Skiff at speed.  The point is that plywood boats can look really pretty. Look on the right side of this page link if you want a traditional looking sailing boat that goes ...

January 27
Twice yearly Boatbuilding Classes in conjunction with Duck Flat Wooden Boats, Adelaide Australia

January 15
Big update to FAQ - lightweight paulownia timber, canoe design, repairing decks, tortureboards, restoring a racing dinghy

The Fenwick Williams Catboat page- Updated May 7
A Gorgeous Catboat designed by Fenwick Williams has been launched - cedar strip - gorgeous wood work. Trusty inboard motor.