Much
of the thinking is drawn from the Australian tradition of wooden racing
boats but acheived simply without expensive parts and or materials
beyond normal plywood, timber epoxy and fibreglass cloth.
There
are two interviews at furledsails.com about Australian and NZ boat
design and why it is different as well as how to get almost all of the
performance of modern boats but at a fraction of the cost. Interview 1 Interview 2
Maybe If you understand the boat, you understand the
designer. Maybe it is true in the reverse
I discovered sailing as a 12 year old when my family moved into a
beachside house as temporary accomodation while the family home was
being finished. The house was on Pittwater - which is an
hour's drive north of Sydney Harbour. It was almost the site
chosen by Cook for the new colony so is a world class harbour and
sailing area in its own right. Being almost totally unaware
of this background I walked out front of the house on a Sunday Morning
to find a mass of small boats rigging.
Fireballs, Aand B class cats, YW Herons, some Mirrors and a number of
Australian indigenous classes. One of the B class cats was
being rigged by the local bus driver who took me out for a sail after
the race. The rest is history - I haven't stopped eating,
drinking and breathing boats since. I found I had an innate
ability to record boatshapes and sailshapes in my mind - a designer was
what I wanted to be - but I took a most discursive route
Most of my early sailing years were involved in competitive sailing
with some dinghy cruising during school holidays. Then onto
Uni and some uncompleted Naval Architecture studies and more racing in
lightweight versions of the 12sq metre Sharpie.
This brings us up to the mid '80s and I started to realise that
something had changed in the racing scene. New technology had
been accepted by all the racing classes and both the initial cost and
the running cost of a competitive boat was becoming crippling to anyone
on a modest wage. This was even true of classes that had set
out to be affordable to the average family.
So I dropped out of racing.
On the "round Australia trip" that many young people take as an
initiation I found myself employed by a tiny business in Adelaide -
Duck Flat Wooden Boats in Adelaide - which was later to become the
premier plan, kit and material suppliers in Australia.
It was an eye opener - customers were highly motivated to "do something
with their own hands" and it became clear to me that it was possible to
build a boat for a fraction of the cost of current racing boats.
My ideas were quickly formed in this environment. Boats of
high performance that were easy to build, fun to sail and reasonably
cheap to put together, but retaining a strong traditional
character. The main antipodean influence was to embrace our
tradition of boats that are drastically lighter than Northern
Hemisphere equivalents (10lbs/ft) but stronger to deal with our
stronger average winds and rougher waters.
Being involved in the plan sales and backup business made it quickly
apparent that some plans were really good, confidently guiding builders
through a successful boatbuilding project and others were not -
requiring a lot of handholding from us – not an efficient business
model. Plans like Oughtred’s and Australian Murray Isles were
to be emulated – the older style of plan was not.
So I started to get some idea of how plans would look in the future –
and it wouldn’t be four sheets of paper with drawings and numbers on
them – more a take home course on how to build a boat with every step
well documented in a book.
After much deliberation and even more learning I left Duckflat to move
to Canberra and then Sydney. The first boats I designed were
a MK2 version of the Beth sailing canoe – which was also an opportunity
to start to learn computer designing techniques. Then that
was followed up with the Handy Punt and the racing sailboard.
The sailboard was an interesting case - in plywood it was 2kg -5lbs
lighter than the Mistral carbon fibre boards at the time – and about a
quarter of the price. The Mistrals had problems with denting
the decks from foot pressure. Menno van Doorn – the fellow I
co-designed the board with used the wooden raceboard for almost a
decade until it was destroyed when he lost his home in a bushfire.
Than I moved to Sydney. A lot of other boats started
appearing – you can see the list below. There were others
too, but the designs were too specifically to fit the owner and did not
have a general use.
I quickly found that Sydney was a very different market from Adelaide –
people don’t have sheds where they do evening projects.
Everyone is just too busy – and the informal “bush telegraph” so
effective for marketing in Adelaide or Brisbane is non
existent. I promoted like hell, but was only clearing a
hundred or so dollars a week. In the end I had to find “real
work” and the designing and plan business went on the back
burner. Year was ... about 1995/6. In 2000 I found
it just too hard living in Sydney – as I am a confirmned “innercityite”
I was working 6 days to live not very well. So I started to
think of alternatives.
Robert Ayliffe – still running Duck Flat called me and told me that he
was going to take a tour group to wooden boating pilgrimage sites in
the USA and he needed someone to look after the business in Adelaide
for 20 days. I said yes and went down. I had a bit
of a chance to see some of my old cronies – one the sailmaker Ken
O’Brien was working at the Binks sail loft – I ended up being offered a
job in their retail Chandlery. Sooooo – time to move out of
Sydney.
I worked there until I had a bicycle accident that meant that I now
find it hard to bend over to work or carry weights – so I had to find
an alternative. So boat design again - 2004
BUT would the internet now be mature enough to extend my reach enough
so that I could make more sales worldwide?
I didn’t really have any alternative. Duckflat was giving me
just enough work to survive documenting their Solar Electric Mundoo and
doing small design jobs for clients – a rudder here, a sail there etc
while I built up my website and found out how to use the Web as a
marketing tool.
It worked ... slowly ... now I have agents in Australia (Duck Flat),
North America (Duckworks), Europe and the UK (Seawing boats) and now
South Africa (CKD Boats) ... it is not looking tooooo bad.
Part of it is I still live a very simple life. A bag and a
laptop is all I really need to keep going – so the list of essentials
is not very big.
That gives me huge flexibility – I can now spend part of the year in
Adelaide, part in Sydney, part in Queensland and as the income improves
look at living ... anywhere really. China is on the possible
list because I have a strong interest in that country, its history,
culture and tea! ____________________________________________________________________
OZ Mk2
PDRacer - A Simple and Cheap first boat for Adults and Kids
Sail, Row, Outboard, FishPlans $20 7'6" x 4'2" x 65lbs
(hull) x 82sq ft
Goat Island Skiff - Modern
Performance with Classic Appearance
Plans $100 15'8"
x 5' x 130+lbs (hull) x 105sq ft
Eureka Canoe - Light, Pretty,
Easy to build in Plywood
Plans $75 15'6" x 34" x 44lbs (6mm
ply) Can be built down to 34lbs
MSD Rowboat - NEW - Easily driven
pulling boat for one with occasional crew.
Plans $90
15'8" x 4' x 90lbs (estimate)
Handy Punt - Cartop, Stable
Fishing Platform, Good Performance
Plans $80 11'6" x 4'2" x 110lbs
(approx) 6 or to 15hp if you want to go REALLY fast.
Russki
- Light Wooden Surfski
Plans $80 7'9" x 30lbs - max person
weight 200lbs.
Dayboat
Launch - Simple Building method - Trailerable - Low Power and
Weight.
Plans $125 - Basic plans
and guidelines for an enclosed cabin 23' x 6'6" x 1000lbs x
10/15hp
Venezia Riverboat/Canalboat -
Simple construction - accomodation for two.
Plans $160 - Detailed
drawings and order of assembly provided 26'10" x 6'8" x 1600lbs x
10/15hp
TC35 - Live Aboard River
Boat, Simple Construction method.
Plans $190 - Detailed
drawings and order of assembly provided
35' x 7ft x 6"draft x approx 1.8tons x 15hp (or 2 x 10/15hp)
Free Plans for Paddles (Singles
and traditional double) and 9'6" Oars
Plans - Free
These
were plans I used to sell. Now I have made them
free.
Why? So that you can see the quality of what I do.
All the
methods are there, all the measurements, and explanation of how to make
them. The Paddle Plans contain all the methods so if you want
to
make the oars download the paddle plans as well.
"All
Boats are a Compromise" - RUBBISH!
The Goat Island Skiff
Maybe if you understand the boat, you understand the
designer. Perhaps the reverse is true too.
I
discovered sailing as a 12 year old when my family moved into a
beachside house while our home was finished. The
house was
on Pittwater - an hour's drive north of Sydney Harbour. It
was
the site almost chosen by Cook for the new colony and is a world class
sailing area in its own right.
I was unaware of this as I out
front of the house on a Sunday to find a mass of small boats and cats
rigging. The rest is history - I haven't stopped eating,
drinking
and breathing boats since.
Most of my early sailing years were
involved in competitive sailing with some dinghy cruising during school
holidays. Then onto Uni and some uncompleted Naval
Architecture
studies (Bulk carriers loomed) and more racing in the Australian
lightweight version of the 12sq metre Sharpie - very quick boats.
By
the mid '80s the racing scene had changed. New technology had
been accepted by all the racing classes and the initial and running
costs were discouraging both new and existing participants.
This
was even true of classes that had set out to be affordable to the
average family.
So I dropped out of most racing. But I still delight in boats
that are efficient to sail and efficient to handle.
On
the "Round Australia Trip" that many young people take as an initiation
I found myself employed by a tiny business in Adelaide - Duck Flat
Wooden Boats - which was later to become the premier plan, kit and
material supplier in the country.
It was an eye opener -
customers were highly motivated to "do something with their own hands"
and were building boats for a fraction of the cost of racing
boats of similar size.
My ideas were quickly formed in this
environment. Boats with good performance, that were easy to
build, fun to sail and reasonably cheap to put together but retaining a
strong traditional character. The main antipodean input was
our
tradition of boats that are dramatically lighter than Northern
Hemisphere equivalents (average 10lbs/ft) but tough enough to deal with
our stronger average winds and rougher waters.
While
working at Duck Flat it was obvious that a few plans were very good at
supporting people who had not built a boat before and others were
not. Plans with poor detail and poor procedure consumed crazy
amounts of time in the fledging business. The best plans, by
far,
were from Iain Oughtred who at that time had about 3 wonderfully
documented designs. It was clear that the better the plans,
the
less work the designer and plans agent have to do in the long
run! Lesson learned.
That leads to a slightly embarrassing
confession ... I am a really lazy boatbuilder. I might love
the
look of Nat Herreshoff’s Coquina , or an 1880’s sailing
canoe with batwing sails ... but I can’t even imagine building
either! I want boats that build in weeks rather than months.
So
plywood is my first choice in materials – nothing speeds up
boatbuilding (for the chronically lazy) or simplifies it more than this
one choice. The second big influence in construction is a
result
of improvements in bonding technology. There are no permanent
nails and screws which allows solid timber holding the bits of ply
together can be quite small in dimension. Weight
and the
number of parts are both reduced but reliability and strength increased.
Less timber used in the boat saves money.
Less structure - saves weight - increases performance.
Fewer parts so the boat builds much more quickly.
But
I was (and am still) in love with beautiful boats. Was it
possible to create simple ply boats that just “look right”
on the water? My first simplified hull shape in 1990, a
sailing
canoe, ended up quite pretty. About two designs later in
‘92 came the Goat Island Skiff (GIS).
So why is the GIS my favourite boat?
The
main reason is the same as for many of the people who buy the plan
– it looks wonderful. When my now friend Peter Hyndman
built one of the first boats he used to have requests from his three
teenage daughters to rig up the boat on the beach for them.
When
asked if they needed lifejackets they replied “No Dad - we are
just going sit beside the boat and read - but the boat is a real bloke
magnet”.
But importantly the good looks are supported by
truly excellent sailing performance. Performance is close to
conventional non-trapeze racing boats. Compared with
colourful
recreations of boats gone by – it sails rings around almost all
of them.
My first sail of the GIS was a day of sailing on
Brisbane’s Moreton Bay with 4 adults and a picnic aboard
(700lbs/310kg) for a day of sailing in a nice sailing breeze.
We
covered a lot of ground upwind and down and could skim over shallows
with the centreboard half up. I’ve also sailed the skiff by
alone - last year to watch the Etchell World Championships or
this year for a strong wind photoshoot. It’s a handful, but
fun when gybing and tacking in stronger winds if the sail isn’t
reefed.
I could go into detail about the reasons for the
performance but I don’t have space here to elaborate. Much
is taking some of the efficiencies of modern racing boats but
incorporating them by design in a way that is invisible to the
builder. Large and efficient-section foils (rudder and
centreboard), slender bow, optimised volume distribution, light weight
structure where possible and many refinements garnered from lots of
sailing with simple balance lug rigs. All achieved with
normal,
moderate cost materials with labour minimised during the building
process.
The hull is built “instant” style with no
building jig required. For simple hullshapes I don’t think
stitch and glue is warranted – real timber to hold the ply
together is faster, more efficient and much smoother.
The hull
is made up of four bulkheads and the transom prefabricated to fit
between the two sides then turned over to fit the bottom. Add
three seat tops, the centrecase, gunwales and inwales and it is time to
start the spars and foils. Even I was surprised when this
big,
almost 16 footer came out at 127lbs for the complete hull before paint
and varnish. Part of that is down to building of
Gaboon/Okoume
plywood which is highly recommended. It makes the boat so
much
easier to move around on land.
So a boat for lazy people who like pretty boats that go fast!
OZ Mk2
PDRacer - A Simple and Cheap first boat for Adults and Kids
Goat Island Skiff - Modern
Performance with Classic Appearance
Eureka Canoe - Light, Pretty,
Easy to build in Plywood
MSD Rowboat - NEW - Easily driven
pulling boat for one with occasional crew.
Handy Punt - Cartop, Stable
Fishing Platform, Good Performance
Russki
- Light Wooden Surfski
Dayboat
Launch - Simple Building method - Trailerable - Low Power and
Weight.
Venezia Riverboat/Canalboat -
Simple construction - accomodation for two.
TC35 - Live Aboard River
Boat, Simple Construction method.
Free Plans for Paddles (Singles
and traditional double) and 9'6" Oars