Thread: Goat Island Skiff

Originally Posted by arbordg

We built the solid round mast for our GIS. I wish we'd gone hollow.

Have you weighed your solid mast? Is it Douglas fir?

I ask because I plan to order a 17' tapered aluminum flagpole for my mast (I'll cut it to length, of course). It will be stronger than it needs to be (wall thickness is .125") but it should only weigh about 37 pounds and I'm thinking that's probably about what a solid wood one will weigh. I searched for poles with thinner walls but it seems they don't go less than that.

On my Gazelle the poles (39 and 44 feet) were 8" tapered poles and the wall thickness was only .187". They held up just fine with their 400sf junk sails.

Originally Posted by MiddleAgesMan

Have you weighed your solid mast? Is it Douglas fir?

I ask because I plan to order a 17' tapered aluminum flagpole for my mast (I'll cut it to length, of course). It will be stronger than it needs to be (wall thickness is .125") but it should only weigh about 37 pounds and I'm thinking that's probably about what a solid wood one will weigh..

Our mast is Douglas fir. I haven't actually weighed it. I can tell you just from hefting it though: at the beginning of a weekend of sailing, it weighs nothing. After a long weekend of sailing, tent camping, and carousing, it weighs approximately 636 pounds, Thusly is Einstein vindicated

Now you've made me curious. I'll try and weigh it. I'm guessing you're right... about 40 pounds.


"When you are courting a nice girl, an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot ember, a second seems like an hour. That's relativity" -- Albert Einstein

I told MIK if the aluminum stick is heavier than the original solid wood one I'll pump it full of helium before sealing it up.

Another Video of a Goat.

This is Olivier's boat

Moving right along in a light breeze.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0TLXetYXo8"]YouTube - Goat Island Skiff on a nice October day in Lake Hall[/ame]

MAM - I may not be able to weigh the mast for a while. It's currently taken up residence at my co-builder's place up the Columbia Gorge. I just called him and left a message asking him to weigh it before he comes down to dinner tonight. If he manages, I'll let you know.


"I like weights. You know where you stand with them. Well, sometimes, you're lying under them, trying not to let them crush you, but you see, you KNOW they'd crush you if they could. There's honesty"

Cold weather and the holidays pretty much shut down my boat-building activities for the last couple of months. But that means I finally had some time to post a few pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...&id=1071066480

The weatherman is predicting a bit of a mid-winter thaw next week, so maybe I'll be able to make a little progress then. I'll post more pics when I do.

Thankyou hugely Paulie!

It is a bit of a struggle for boatbuilding this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere!

Best wishes
Michael

Not a GIS-related post -- just worried about you folks in Oz. I don't know where you are located. Please tell me that you are all thousands of km away from the fires in Victoria and that you are all safe and sound.

Originally Posted by Boatmik

Howdy,

Thanks for the alert Midge.

It is always a problem for a designer as to what to say in these sorts of circumstances.

Like the GIS is a good boat that sails well and with my amount of sailing experience I would be happy sailing down the coast on good weather reports and after making good preparations.

BUT - and it is a big one - I really can't say whether it is safe for anyone else to do so.

If the weather was as in the article's pictures above ANYONE could do it - but I can certainly imagine that if I was doing the trip and the weather turned nasty then I could be in serious danger in some circumstances.

The downside of the GIS is exactly as the boat shown doing the BAJA cruise in the pictures - if capsized it takes a LOT of water and takes some time and effort to bail out and while I've done it several times with little trouble I don't think i would like to do it 5 times in a row! Probably I would recommend a second person be along for just those sorts of eventualities - one balances the boat the other bails.

With the BAJA boat in the cruise pictures - what happens to their outboard if they capsize - if it gets drowned in a capsize ... then what? How much does their idea of safety depend on the outboard?

You see the point is that if everything goes OK - then you can do any sort of trip in just about any boat - even a PDRacer - but if things go wrong you are very much on your own on that sort of coast.

If most of your sailing will be in other more populated places then that is enough reason in itself to build a GIS. Then as you get to know the boat and what it can do - and more important - get to know your abilities/limitations then you can extend what you are doing.

One modification i would consider is to enlarge the buoyancy tanks (or box in the middle seat) so that the boat floats higher when full of water and there is less to bail.

As far as lightness goes - the GIS is light - unladen I can drag her up Midge's beach and onto the grass - but once some cruising gear is aboard you will need an inflatable roller or two to move the boat by yourself.

One additional thing ... I am working on an extended version of the GIS which has a self draining cockpit as a RAID boat. It answers the main criticism I make above which is that if capsized it will come up with no water aboard and it will still be a lot lighter than the boat in the article above. I've attached a pic - the floor drains out through the back of the boat and the boat will come upright empty of water - so no bailing and a considerable increase in safety margin. There is also some chance of carrying some water ballast under the false floor in the midsection of the boat.

Best wishes
Michael Storer

MIK,

I am taken by the concept of the GIS, but would like a bit more capacity to beachcruise with family. What's the new on the GIS Long that you plan, how big will it be and when do you think you may have the plans completed? I think I would be interested in building one.

Hedley

Hi Hedley,

the longer GIS is a long way away I am afraid. It might even transmute to a different type of boat ... as it was leaning a long way toward a boat that two experienced people can sail fast in rough water.

Not really a family boat. For the moment the RAID41 is filling a bit of the same niche ... but in a relaxed way. Not sure the expanded Goat would be relaxed in other words.

Best wishes
Michael

New GIS video on Gary Blankenship's youtube site.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7un1SZ-YYo"]YouTube - Goat Island Skiff sailing[/ame]

The sitting up the back thing ... I can't do it ... much nicer and faster being on the mid seat.

But I bet he was nice and warm in the sun!

MIK

Hedly did you see the pics of the Goat in Oregon...Arborg's boat with oars and what 6 people aboard and plenty of freeboard. I chose the Goat because it is the only beachcruiser type I can afford time and $ wise that will get me and the family out by next summer. The mizzen in my boat will make it even more family friendly.

Clint

Originally Posted by PAR

Ponderosa pine is useless in boat building applications, except as picture frame material for hanging your better half's portrait on a bulkhead.l.

Oh? You know, there are a lot of publications and experts out there telling us what is good for boatbuilding. And for the most part they are correct. When I lived in the Pacific Northwest I was blessed with large amounts of Fir. Great stuff for boatbuilding. Now that I live in the rural desert of Arizona quality wood is hard to find. What is available to me is what's carried in the big hardware stores. (Some form of maple and pine, poplar and red oak.) To the beginning builder this would pose quite a problem especially after reading most boatbuilding forums. While I would stress using good plywood when ever possible, for the backyard builder on a limited budget making a skiff to take advantage of some quality family time, I would say use whatever is available in your area. I have done just that. I have made small boats 8-13 ft using Ponderosa Pine with excellent results. It is common in my area and it is cheap. If I had listened to the experts pounding out the published data on what MUST be used to build a boat I never would have been able to afford my first boat. I built that boat many, many years ago out of cheap A/C plywood, some odd lumber that was just laying around, non waterproof glue and nails. No epoxy, just caulking, latex primer and paint. That boat is still in use today. "Rots easily, low rot resistance" and so on are terms used to scare people into buying the "accepted" mainstream products. I have not started my GIS yet as I have to build a Sissy Do from Glen L first, and you can bet I will be using Ponderosa Pine for my frame work. Maybe some poplar for the bow stem. I will glass the outside with vinyl ester resin and light cloth and the inside will be given a coat of good wood preservative then everything will get primered and coated with acrylic latex paint. If things go as normal, ten years from now that boat will still be usable. Not a bad investment. We should be encouraging people to build, build, build! To take that first step. Cut that first piece of wood. Get the family involved. As Harold Payson used to say, "Just do it!" Use what you have and what you can afford but "just do it!" It will be the first step in an amazing addictive adventure.

Hi Michael

I noticed in the last video clip - was is Gary's GIS - that he was sitting on the stern bench. Relaxing rigth at the back corner at the stern transom.

Now, I thought that because of the ropes at the back (traveler?) that was not possible.

The idea of relaxed cruising siting at the back seems appealing.

Peter