Send a picture or three
and a short description of your boat and its launch to [email protected]
for inclusion here next month.
Puddles
There is still a lot to do, but I got to the point where the
location of oarlocks, seat etc. had to be tested, so there was
no choice but to launch the boat. Pictures
are in this Flickr set.
The boat I have been rowing for the past 4 years is a 14' Whitehall
type, known as a decent pulling boat, so my comparisons are to
that. The Walkabout is stretched to 17" 10".
SPEED: Steady long distance rowing speed for the Whitehall has
been 3 - 3.5 kts, and Walkabout measures about the same on GPS.
This is great, I was afraid the bigger boat would be slower. Pulling
very hard, Walkabout got to 4.5 - 5 kts, faster than the smaller
boat probably due to longer waterline. Even at this speed there
is very little wake generated, where the Whitehall would be surging
and making waves.
STABILITY: The Whitehall is sensitive to fore and aft trim, and
more tippy. With two people in Walkabout, not trimmed properly
as there is only one rowing position at the moment, it made very
little difference in speed. I can also sit out on one side seat
and the rail is still well above the water.
APPEARANCE: Although some people in our local plastic and aluminum
boat community would comment on the Whitehall, I am not able to
row very far before someone wants to know about the cool wooden
boat. I guess this doesn't help the speed...
I now have a boat with much more room for passengers and storage,
camp aboard capability, and the same performance as the smaller
boat. Thank you, John, for the design and for steering me to Walkabout
as a pulling boat.
Rick
Cynthia-Lynn
Let me introduce you to Cynthia-Lynn, as you can see she is
Jim's 13 foot Toto design. This is my first boat building project
and I doubt it will be my last.
She is named Cynthia-Lynn in honor of my sister who passed away
this February from cancer.
I want to thank you and Sandra for all of the great supplies
I ordered through Duckworks. I also want to thank you for replying
to my emails when I had questions - you were there with sound
advise...
Thanks again - Bill Shurbert
Nordlund Skiff
The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, https://www.nwboatschool.org/
is proud to announce that the latest version of the Nordlund Skiff
was launched Friday May 14th under the watchful eyes of its designer
Dale Nordlund in Port Hadlock WA by students and staff at the
Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding.
Dale Nordlund is a well-known local boatbuilder who apprenticed
in Seattle in the mid-1940's. He first drew the lines for this
Pacific Northwest skiff in the mid-1950's. Several skiffs were
built to these lines at that time.
Traditional Small Craft class students lofted the boat with
the help of instructor Jeff Hammond, and built the boat under
the guidance of instructors Ben Kahn and Ray Speck between January
and May as one of the craft in their curriculum. Students Bryan
Mann, Hannah Lynch, Max Richter, Walt White, Bill PostvanderBurg,
and Jeremy Cole all worked on the boat.
The Nordlund Skiff is lapstrake-built and traditionally constructed
of copper riveted red cedar planking, larch guards, Sitka spruce
risers, and locally harvested black locust knees and breasthook.
The boat is 11 feet 6 inches long.
Students and staff celebrated the launch with a picnic under brilliantly
sunny skies at the Port Hadlock launch ramp next to the School
on Friday afternoon, May 14th 2010.
Left to right: Traditional Small Craft students Bryan Mann,
Hannah Lynch, Max Richter, Walt White, Bill PostvanderBurg, Jeremy
Cole, designer Dale Nordlund, instructor Ray Speck and the Nordlund
Skiff built by the students at the Northwest School of Wooden
Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock WA. (Picture by Peter Leenhouts.)
Boat School Traditional Small Craft student Bill PostvanderBurg
rowing the Nordlund Skiff May 14th, 2010. (Picture by Peter Leenhouts)
That photo was taken at CLC's OkoumeFest last weekend on the
Chesapeake Bay. We had so much wind and waves that the CLC folks
did not let their demo boats sail. My Kwik Kwak is an OZ Mk II
with regulation hull shape, quite by accident, because I had no
idea there was any difference and so when I got MIK's plans and
changed design mid-build, it just ended up that way. The boat
flies due to the 89 sq ft balanced lugsail. I have a couple of
good video clips of Kwik Kwak on Beaver Creek Reservoir, Crozet,
VA. I have uploaded a video
clip of the boat.
Later, Paul Helbert
KiwiPDR
Here are some pictures of our first sail with the Kiwi PDR. Those
are my three boys Lukas (in the back), Joshua (my red headed Viking),
and Oliver (with the goggles).
It sailed beautifully windward and down wind. I kept stalling
on a tack once, but I've thought of a couple of reasons: I
had my wife in the boat also and I didn't have a good feel for
when I should move my rear end over, it may be the weakness of
the leg-o'-mutton rig that it has a "bad" tack, and
the wind had shifted a bit so I got confused about where I was
in relation to it.
The boat really is beautiful, almost sexy with all those curves.
And personally that is exactly how I like it. I'm
all for practicality and being utilitarian, but looking good...well...that
just makes the world seem all right.
Thank you John Welsford for designing such a beautiful boat!
I couldn't be happier and my boys absolutely LOVE the boat.
It rained all last week and Cowell struck a king tide on Saturday
- thought there was no hope of launching. On Sunday, with a bit
of wind and a few showers we were still in with a chance. After
lunch, had a break in the weather, so a few of us said, 'Yeh,
why not? Let's do it'. I'm glad we did.
With 30 hp the Mushulu flew like the wind. Absolutely fantastic.
The harbour was pretty rough and water looked murky, so being
the first try I kept it in the break water just to see what it
was like, she got up and planed beautifully. Quite a few of my
parishioners came down to see the launching, we popped a bottle
and sprinkled her with some bubbly, after the first run, they
said it sat really well in the water and looked stable. I'm more
than happy with the final product. It's a wonderful boat and I'm
really surprised how well it went and how nice it goes in the
water.
Yesterday, Liz and I took the M14 into a boat shop to have the
HIN plate fixed, one of the staff walking past, stopped, looked,
came over and said, "Gee, that's a nice rig mate, build that
yourself, or did you buy it?". Say no more.
Thanks Mark for your input, your encouragement and expertise.
Keep the designs coming. Now I can't wait until we get a nice
break in the weather, give her a good run and finally catch some
fish. It's been a great project from start to finish, and a beautiful
boat indeed.
John Goodman & family just launched the first yawl rigged
Goat Island Skiff. The Goat Island Skiff ,GIS, is a design from
Australia by Michael Storer. Collaborating together, Clint Chase
Boat Builder in Portland Maine and Mik, as he is called, in Australia
designed the yawl rig while John and his family built the boat
over a 6 month period in their garage. John would like to warn
our readers that promising your children that they can name and
pick the color of the boat can lead to an interesting result.
GIR, (just Google it) painted lime-green, was launched was June
13.
The GIS can be built using very simple woodworking tools. John’s
favorite tool was the Japanese pull saw. Bulkheads are built first
then 6mm marine grade plywood in bent around the frames. No strong
back is needed. John used gaboon marine grade plywood, western
red cedar for frames, fir rub rails and spruce gunnels. John’s
hull weighed in at 141 pounds before hardware and rigging.
Thanks to John for his beautiful design, to everyone here who
provided advice and encouragement - including the indirect encouragement
of all on the forum whose presence, even as lurkers, is evidence
of our shared dreams.
All the best, see you around!
Osbert
Gene Launches "Spring Fever"
We finally got "Spring Fever" launched last weekend
in Rend Lake, IL. There is a messabout there once a year and I
was determined to be there with my new boat. The boats designer,
Kilburn Adams, is usually there along with some other SA20 owners.
There were five of us in all this year. The boat was still not
totally finished lacking some electrical wiring, the brass port
lights and the Bimini. I took the Bimini with me to install there
but was missing two parts so had to do without it. Kilburn and
By helped me launch it which I appreciated as I have never owned
a boat this size in my life. Kilburn gave me pointers on controlling
the boat as it is very light for its size and wind affects it
very easily. Overall it was a very good experience.
