Thread: MSD Rowboat in Brisbane

Nice pictures.

Tom and MIK, in this picture



it's really good to see she has stability right down to gunnel touching the water.

Could I ask, was the feeling of that stability that she felt secure or on a knife edge. As I say, nice to see her so far over, but also interested how it felt?

My internet has been down all week. Suddenly this afternoon the line mended it's self. Engineer not due till Monday!

Brian

Interesting how calling the engineer resolves the problem. I will leave Tom to comment on the stability - or the feeling at that angle.

The boat doesn't feel twitchy at normal angles. When I rowed one in Maine I certainly though i could have made it a bit narrower (but that would have needed the complication of 'riggers).

MIK

Hi everyone
Thanks for the photos Mik, some of the flikr ones show me at my best, dont they
Brian I reckon the boat was close to the limit there, my weight must have been real close to over the chine and a wind or wave would have flipped me. Mik and I had previously emailed about doing a stability test and a deep water recovery but it was such a lousy day it didnt happen. Although I was already wet when the photo was taken. So I was stable like that, but if I had slidden to that positoin I reckon I would have gone over and I didnt feel confident of leaning further. One of the reasons I put the hatches in the seat was so that my bum would tell me when I was getting close to the edge and to stop leaning over to get the fish in the boat. To lean any further over I would want a paddle or oar in hand to push myself back up.
Something else completely unrelated
That was the first time I travelled the boat upside down. I am using my box trailer with some HDPE (breaddboard plastic) strips on the top edges as skid strips. No problems right way up but upside down I musnt have got it tied down hard enough and it was able to slip about a bit and rubed through the clear and epoxy on the gunwhales, which are fairly soft tinber, huon pine. So I reckon I will be sanding back and putting a strip of 2 inch tape on the gunwhale as protection
I had previously travelled the boat right way up but because It hangs over the back of the trailer to the limit of legality (as long as I am holding the dumb end of the tape measure) I discovered that when the boat is on the trailer overnight and it rains the water that the boat collects will leave the skeg in the lawn. Didnt get a photo of that
I havent yet tried to get the boat onto the car racks, It will have to got right way up for that, trailing has been fine so far
Bye for now
Tom

I promised Mik last week I would post a rough breakdown of the costs and I even have most of the reciepts!!
Plywood 4 sheets Pacific maple marine total $160
Framing timber Huon Pine approx $300
Epoxy about 3 1/2 litres including pumps $150
Paint aprox $200
Fillers and tape $50
Plastic hatchs $50
Disposables sandpaper, brushes, rollers gloves masking tape and all the little bits lets say $300

Total approx $1200
Time unknown
I already had the tools I used and I have not made a set of oars for the boat.
Hope this is a help to anyone planning a similar build, there are savings to be made if you can find cheaper framing timber and use cheaper paint
Hope this helps,
Tom

Tom, the boat looks great. She is a good boat and will take care of you...it is like a dory, with a little more initial stability. Great for fishing.

So what did the skeg end up being in depth? Looks about half what the students' boat ended up.
Clint

Howdy Clint. The back end measurement ended up being 90mm. I did draw it large on the original! Easier to cut down than increase

Hi Clint
Mik is a much faster replyer than I am, The skeg is now 90 mm (3 1/2") tapering to the 1/4" center strip about 1800mm ( 6') from the stern. I reckon a few mm each way wont matter. The boat now seems to just blow sideways, as in leeway in a crosswind, and can spin quite easily and still tracks true and glides in flat water. It likes the load to be kefp centered, but I am now looking forward to some camping trips as well as fishing and general mucking about.
Hope this helps
Tom

Hi everyone
Daddles has asked me about the footrests and I thought I would put my reply here as well -- I was slack answering him and I am sorry for that

Hi Richard
Sorry about the slow reply, I planned to take a few measurements on the weekend and got sidetracked.
I only installed 1 set of braces, and dont use them a lot but they do give an alternate place to rest the feet a bit. I honestly find that only being an inch and a bit wide they dont really support the foot or ankle, never mind the legs apart frog position.
When I made the wheelie thingy I made it so that when in the boat it is at the same distance from the seat as the footbraces and is angled to be a footbrace and that is what i mostly use. Mik has some photos in the collection he made. If anything they are a touch too narrow at 450mm total width, that was decided by other factors. My braces meet the floor 580mm from the back edge of the seat (not the frame) but as i said they dont get a lot of use. The front of the wheely thing is on the same line. I remember sitting in the hallway on some old phonebooks to get my bumheight right with a doorway where the rowlock was meant to be and carefully measuring the distance to my heels. Waste of time really but it seemed like an essential thing to do at the time.
So now mostly I rest my feet on the wheely thingy when rowing, it rests against the back bulkhead (frame 4) and that feels pretty good.
I hope this is some help
I dont think a cleat across the floor would provide adequate support either, perhaps a full size foot brace would do, I mean something 3 or 4 inches wide each side to rest the foot on. I know I am not talking about sliding seats, but I reckon you need a foot support when fixed seat rowing just to support your lower back and to save to save unnecessasary bum clenching to grip the seat
The wheelie thing is under the boat under the house at the moment. If anyone is interested I can drag it out and measure and photo, It isnt anything special, just made of this and that but is wheelie useful.
Bye for now,
Tom