Thread: OzRacer sail tweeking

Originally Posted by Boatmik

And so, you show that something that would send a racing sailor looking for someone to fix it for them doesn't even give a home builder pause!

I think you are partly responsible for that Michael. I think I, like others here that have built from your plans have learnt a lot about boat building. You have simplified things for us amateurs. So if we can build a boat, why can't we fix it ? I think most home builders build because they can't afford what's out there on the market but people like you make it possible. So if it breaks, make a better one. Simple.

Cheers, Kev.

not to mention it's good fun to make stuff

Originally Posted by Flatdog

I think you are partly responsible for that Michael. I think I, like others here that have built from your plans have learnt a lot about boat building. You have simplified things for us amateurs. So if we can build a boat, why can't we fix it ? I think most home builders build because they can't afford what's out there on the market but people like you make it possible. So if it breaks, make a better one. Simple.

Cheers, Kev.

It is actually more cheap to buy a used boat. There are plenty of used boats sold for cheap... I think the biggest reasons for building are:
1. You can not find exactly what you want.
And/Or
2. You just happen to like to build things.

With my tight budget, it would be cheaper to just buy a boat. There are used Lasers, Europe dinghies etc cheaper than what my GIS project will become. Still I am planning to build a GIS one day, just because I can not find the same good compromise anywhere else. What I want from a sailing boat is
1. Performance (Okay, that I would get from a Laser also)
2. Still minimum of splashing. (Laser is having too low sides)
3. Enough space to take my whole family. (That I would get from bigger sailing boats, and there are cheap ones but then I am not having good performance)
4. A boat I can put an engine on as we have a really long and narrow bay to get out from. It takes almost an hour with 7 knots, and as the wind is always against, it would be almost a whole day project to just get out from it.
5. Something I can put on a trailer and take to other places when needed.

So far, GIS has been the only boat fulfilling all those requirements.

Yes that's true Engblom about being able to buy a cheap boat, but I bet if you went out there and tried to buy exactly what you wanted it would be really exspensive. When I look at what we spent to build the Eureka we could have bought a cheap plastic canoe on Ebay and had enough money left over for a couple of weeks camping. That wasn't what we wanted. I wouldn't have the experience I now have. We wouldn't get comments like we recieved on the weekend "Haben sie das selbst gebaut? Wow man das ist der Hammer".

I think you're the same as us. We're also on a tight budget but Michaels plans give us the opportunity to build exactly what we want.


Cheers, Kev.

Originally Posted by engblom

It is actually more cheap to buy a used boat. There are plenty of used boats sold for cheap... I think the biggest reasons for building are:
1. You can not find exactly what you want.
And/Or
2. You just happen to like to build things.

With my tight budget, it would be cheaper to just buy a boat. There are used Lasers, Europe dinghies etc cheaper than what my GIS project will become. Still I am planning to build a GIS one day, just because I can not find the same good compromise anywhere else. What I want from a sailing boat is
1. Performance (Okay, that I would get from a Laser also)
2. Still minimum of splashing. (Laser is having too low sides)
3. Enough space to take my whole family. (That I would get from bigger sailing boats, and there are cheap ones but then I am not having good performance)
4. A boat I can put an engine on as we have a really long and narrow bay to get out from. It takes almost an hour with 7 knots, and as the wind is always against, it would be almost a whole day project to just get out from it.
5. Something I can put on a trailer and take to other places when needed.

So far, GIS has been the only boat fulfilling all those requirements.

I would add:
6. quick and easy setup and takedown of rigging (no stays)
7. easy to row - most daysailers and sailing dinghys are not set up for rowing at all.
8. short mast, so the whole boat fits easily in a storage area without having to separately store a mast that is six feet longer than the hull (like on other designs)
9. lightweight - so you don't need to back a trailer into the water to load it, and it can be loaded easily by one person
10. can easily be set up for fishing - either trolling or bottom fishing

Nice comments above on both sides of the point.

Another factor of buying a second hand boat is worn out, damaged or missing gear.

An experienced buyer of a second hand boat is OK because they will either show the money and they say ... can we rig the boat first. Or be able to observe the conditions of sails (in particular) and all the other expensive bits that make up production boats.

And if there is some structural problem discovered later ... then there are not the skill to rectify it ... so you have to take the boat to be repaired.

When my second boat became leaky we took it to a repairer. I still remember the bill ... materials $8 labour $125. I was a kid ... but when I saw the repair (glass taping the cockpit seams) ... I knew THEN that I could have done it myself.

That was about 1975 ... the boat cost a total of $250 on trailer.

Another point is that building a boat need not be expensive at all. The reason I brought in a second tier of plan prices (a cheaper one) for the Quick Canoes and the OzRacer and Oz Goose is the experience of building two OzRacers for $350 each.

Cheap plywood, recycled fingerjointed timber for framing (never use for spars or gunwales ... only where plywood glues on TWO faces of the framing) and we used cheap pine floorboards for the first masts - which broke because of too short scarfs (done out of my eyesight) and then we found some nice oregon (fir) that someone was throwing out - a partially rotten pergola.

We epoxy glued the short bits together.

Polytarp sail for less than $30.

Most will spend more than this .. maybe double $700 is a better average outside North America .. but if I was giving advice to a newbie I would be strongly recommending not to spend less than $1000 on a second hand boat on trailer at any rate.

While I very much like Eureka Canoes and Goats to be built of nice materials (they deserve that) There is a place for cheaper boats with cheaper plans and cheaper materials to get going in sailing with all the benefits listed above of building a boat yourself.

Later if the mood takes a more expensive project can be undertaken.

MIK

Originally Posted by Boatmik

While I very much like Eureka Canoes and Goats to be built of nice materials (they deserve that) There is a place for cheaper boats with cheaper plans and cheaper materials to get going in sailing with all the benefits listed above of building a boat yourself.

Later if the mood takes a more expensive project can be undertaken.MIK