Thread: Goat Island Skiff

No worries on the statistical front. After tallying votes for every image, I identified the top 18 which will give Mik some leeway to pick out the best quality/clarity. The top vote-getter was that beautiful New Hampshire VOLCANOE of a sunset shot - with 19. Right behind it was that artsy, underwater, Texas 200 shot - with 18. After that, it started dropping off quickly - 13, 12, 11, The fewest votes to make the group of 18 had 4.

Even after reviewing the set of 64 that Mik picked out many, many, times... I still come away quite impressed with the beauty, variety, and creativity shown by Goat owners in their foto efforts. Let that be a challenge to all of us! If you want to make this an annual calendar - the first requirement will be a large enough sampling of gorgeous images to pick from. So dust off those cameras... and prepare to take lots of fotos of Goats this year!

Did this get posted on the Goat facebook page too David?
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It keeps the methodology transparent and reinforces how nice the process was and all the photos are!

MIK

Originally Posted by Boatmik

Did this get posted on the Goat facebook page too David?
Log In | Facebook

It keeps the methodology transparent and reinforces how nice the process was and all the photos are!

MIK

Tis done.

Howdy ... the photos from the group members came in and David Graybeal and I worked through the pics.

The Calendar is done! Looks pretty nice.





You can get a link if you PM me.

Michael.

The powers of google and the woodenboat community and I found our not-for-profit calendar:

Goat Island Skiff 2012 Oversized Wall Calendar > Michael Storer Wooden Boat Plans

Duly Ordered.
Some of the pics have me regretting decision not to build GIS...
For a short time anyway.
A non-sailing life-partner who doesn't appreciate heel is kind-of a show stopper...
cheers
AJ

Hi AJ,
Thankyou for the nice comment. But you are one of the most boaty people I know! Designer and builder!

The Calendar is nice ... makes me wish I had a Goat too!

Michael

Super article by John Goodman on Duckworks.

It is mostly made up of text messages while his kids helped build the first yawl rigged Goat.

It is fun, funny and instructive!

David: Glued some wood together today Daggerboards for the win!

Reply: What’s a daggerboard?

And nice pics.

Building a Goat Island Skiff with kids - fun text messages

Best wishes
Michael

For the right family, I think the GIS is a winner. It is good if the eventual sailors are adventuresome and/or experienced. It helps if they are adventurous as builders, too.

There is a need for a GIS perhaps at smaller scale that can be built quicky and sailed safely by a family.

Neither of my kids did quite as much work on my boat as I had hoped they would, but each did enough to feel some "ownership" in the finished product. That's good.

For me, the key to keeping them involved was to let go of my innate perfectionism. No one wants to work with "the boss" hovering over him/her being all judgmental. I had to really dial it back when they were around.

I have to say, though, that it took all the courage I had to hand my daughter a random orbital loaded with 80 grit and point her at an almost-completed hull. "Try not to dig too deep", I said, and then I picked up another sander and went around the other side. She did fine, at least as well as I would have. But I did have visions of holes in the side panels before I checked her work!

Wow, you are brave. I remember working with my dad and how much i hated it! He wanted everything perfect, we did good work that got compliments. Now my grandfather was the opposite, his attitude was who cares what it looks like, lets get it done. We built a brick bbq when I was fifteen. We finished off a 5th of rum too while building. It was crooked as hell and we named it TOOT-TOOT. I'll never forget it, best project ever. My son who is sixteen will help me build my goat. It's going to be tough because I want the perfection of my father, but the fun of my grandfather for us.

I long ago learned my hands do not produce the perfection I see in my mind's eye. While I care what my boats look like, I know they are not perfect - and that's okay.

One thing the Goat taught me: no one else sees all the imperfections which are so glaring to my eyes. I know all the places I screwed up when building. My neighbors just see a beautiful boat. Knowing that, I'll be much more relaxed if I ever build another boat.

The bbq incident reminds me of building a screened-in porch on my uncle's house with my grandfather and his brother. I was maybe 17 at the time. We shared "a few" beers while we worked. The final result was, um, interesting. Definitely one of the best weekends of my life.

Howdy,

I want to share this pic that DavlaFont put up a week or so ago.



Varnish is like Alchemy. It takes something that is neatly done and changes its nature completely. It becomes so much more.

The person I know who had the best interaction with his kids building any boat was John Goodman. His kids were mid teens. They contributed in lots of different ways ... but one thing he did do was to give them responsibility for whole items.

I don't know about the kids' backgrounds in making things - but they were a bit shocked and surprised to find out dad was doing a boat. They also contributed the final colour and the transfer on the bow - "GIR" is a cartoon character - it's a bit more fashionable to say "Anime" now .

One of the things I have learned from teaching is that the hardest thing is to stand back. If you don't then the person doesn't gain a sense of enjoyment (like working with your father). But probably even without the whisky the building process would have been fun with your grandfather.

I think the kids did quite a lot of work on the foils - which look like the most difficult part in some ways, but the only thing that has to be watched is the swap over from plane to sanding block. And the use of the template has to be correct too. Drawing pencil lines on the foil blank so they can see is good too.

It is also something that can be one at leisure ... I would just ask for help during gluing and coating processes at the beginning until both you and they get a hang of it. But the prep - the dry fitting is a perfect place to get help from the kids too.

I'm very keen on the dry fit process as you see through the plans. It is nice to have one person align things and the other to fire away with the cordless drill to fit the screws.

If you look through John's thread ... you can see some of the things his kids did.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f169/texas-gis-109653/

But for a better idea of the dynamic he put together this great article based on the his kids' text messages and phone photos sent to their friends.

Duckworks - Working With Kids

MIK