Thread: Son of Goat project

Originally Posted by wayne poulsen

JOHN G
Hi John, have you tried Your main mast in the original aft position with the mizzen rigged?
I am wondering if the full seven inch relocation has been necessary in practice?
Wayne Poulsen
Fremantle West Australia

In the forward mast step with mizzen the boat tracks nicely for long distances with a bungie cord holding the tiller.

We have not tried the combination of original step location with mizzen. I wonder how it would change the handling of the boat? We can try it this spring.

Originally Posted by Boatmik

Howdy,

Just as an update as to where I am. This will be the next boat off the line, however a number of things have slowed up the start.

One is the rise and rise of the OZ dollar - most of my business comes from overseas - since last year I have seen a $500 cheque in US dollars go from $850 to $480 in OZ dollars. Also the implosion of the puddleducks at the beginning of the year - now on the mend - cut into my best selling plan - a great introduction to the quality of my plans that led to lots of sales for the more expensive plans.

So my focus at the moment is to increase plan sales - a new plan alone might increase sales by 5% if it hits the right tone with the consumer. But if I can increase the sales of all the plans by 5 or more percent that will be more helpful. I have a number of strategies for (hopefully) pulling that off underway.

Despite focussing on that I/we did get three new plans last year. The Quick Canoe, the Quick Canoe Electric for trolling motors and my half of the Ocean Explorer microcruising sailboat.

The current design work is to finish the instruction pack for building the legal puddleduck kit that is being produced in Texas by J.O. Woodworks. It is a bit new for me working out a boat in collaboration with someone else - trying to match our ideas for putting it together and matching drawings, text and pictures to our intentions. Its also been confused by the PDR rules which have enshrined a very unfair (non smooth) bottom shape - this means the ply doesn't sit flat on the bottom - we were trying to use the duct tape and fillet method that came out of the over complicated RAID41 process, but the ply just won't sit down nicely with the lower forces the duct tape develops.

It's been a good process, but more complicated with my normal "build in my head the best way and write every step" method.

So ... delay delay, but hopefully not too far away.

MIK

Sorry about our currency's effect on your business model. On the flip side, maybe now's the time to buy a bunch of US goods with your Aussie Bucks!

If it's any consolation, I'll buy a set of SOG plans just to have 'em. Is there any chance that OZRacer parts (foils, rigs) will transfer over? THAT would be sweet. I understand that every boat design has its own optimum specs, but trading up from a starter boat to a more serious dinghy might be easier if some of the work was already done.

Just a thought...

Originally Posted by davlafont

If it's any consolation, I'll buy a set of SOG plans just to have 'em.

Same here!

Best regards, Joost

Sadly, I think I'm in the same boat Joost. SOG promises to be a boat I'd dearly love to build, but I have a house to substantially renovate very soon or else I'll be singing that DIVORCE song . The house rebuild will take me at least two years, so it will be a little ways into the future before I can get to it. However, I'll also buy the plans and build it in my head

Curses ... sorry chaps



MIK

Originally Posted by woodeneye

Sadly, I think I'm in the same boat Joost. SOG promises to be a boat I'd dearly love to build, but I have a house to substantially renovate very soon or else I'll be singing that DIVORCE song . The house rebuild will take me at least two years, so it will be a little ways into the future before I can get to it. However, I'll also buy the plans and build it in my head

Ahh yes, the true cost of boat building...

Why do we build boats rather than buy them? - Partly because we imagine that we can hide the true cost of our hobby from our wives, and spread it out over a longer time.

Thing is, they're not so silly, and they know that if they see us spending on our hobby we won't be able to complain about them spending money on their 'hobbies', so what ever your estimate of the cost of building a boat, there is a multiplicative factor according to how much extra your wife feels she can spend on herself and her projects because she knows you can't object.

Anyone care to estimate what that multiplicative factor is!?

Personally, I'm guessing/hoping it's not more than two, but in Bruce's case, the factor sounds like it could be more like ten or twenty...

Ian

P.S.

Imaginary boats are a good concept -it's great that Mik's plans come as a pdf file, it makes it much easier to buy them and build them in your head and saves the awkward questions that would result if another long cardboard tube arrived before you had completed the project that came in the last one.

I think the trick is to try to ensure that the hobby is no competition for the wife. There are times when the hobby can easily become the "other woman", and this is to be avoided at all costs!

Originally Posted by woodeneye

I think the trick is to try to ensure that the hobby is no competition for the wife. There are times when the hobby can easily become the "other woman", and this is to be avoided at all costs!

This absolutely my dilemma and I have no hope of avoiding it. Instead, I've negotiated with my wife, warned that I believe she will be jealous of a wood working project, and promised to wait until after the holidays... before I become obsessively consumed and distracted by a woodworking project.

One of the PDR guys had a good solution.

He had a hard time from his partner for sailing and boat building. So he set up by building a PDR or two and struggling against the concerns of their spouse.

Then they started buying magazines for kit planes and hang-gliders and talking about that instead of sailing.

Their partner then suggested 'what ever happened to the boats ... boats make a lot of sense"

Ian, I will try to put together a plan that is not only deliverable as a PDF but assembled from un-needed PDF files.

MIK

MIK

Originally Posted by Boatmik

One of the PDR guys had a good solution.

He had a hard time from his partner for sailing and boat building. So he set up by building a PDR or two and struggling against the concerns of their spouse.

Then they started buying magazines for kit planes and hang-gliders and talking about that instead of sailing.

Their partner then suggested 'what ever happened to the boats ... boats make a lot of sense"
MIK

MIK

Great minds think alike! My son and I have already spent some time looking at pictures and blogs on home built aeroplanes and getting excited about that idea, all on the theory (on my part) that it will make boat building look more reasonable.

I managed to take the kids out on a friends sailing dinghy the other week, and the enjoyed that, so support is pretty much there, though I'm wondering what the next household project will be 'before you can build another boat'. I heard ominous noises about double glazing in the middle of last winter so hopefully next winter is mild!

My other tack is that we live in a land of lakes and mountains, and sailing is a lot safer than mountain climbing, I'll be a lot happier if the young fellow becomes a sailor rather than a mountain climber.

Ian

boats and aeroplanes are closer than you might think - particularly the wing construction.

A DR-107 One Design is on my list at some point down the track - check out the wing construction - very similar to a plywood dingy - http://www.dr107.info/graphics/wingail.jpg


but it is easier to justify $5000 on something like a GIS which can carry 2-3 pax, compared with $80,000+ on a single seater plane

Originally Posted by duncang

boats and aeroplanes are closer than you might think - particularly the wing construction.

I think the sailors will tell you that their wings are far more complex than the wings of a DR-107

Originally Posted by woodeneye

I think the sailors will tell you that their wings are far more complex than the wings of a DR-107

too true

Huh, call me crazy but why not be upfront with your wife about the cost of your hobby - whatever it is?

I thought marriage was a shared experience without the games of "hide the ball." Sure, I know (or think I do) this is all tongue in cheek but, really, if you have to "hide" the costs of the boat, I don't get it.

And if it is just "joshin'" then I don't like the idea of casting your wife as, somehow, the "enemy."

Just my thoughts. I'll go back to packing for my road trip.