Thread: Boat Plans

Gem56,

Go to the newsagent and get a copy of AUSTRALIAN AMATEUR BOAT BUILDER,

you will find several sources for your QUEST,

jeff
vk4

G'day Gem56
I'm guessing by the wording of your question that you haven't built a boat before ?
and that you have some experience on the water, but it's not your second home, so to speak ?

here's a random selection from my bookmarks

Michael Storer Wooden Boat Plans Wooden and Plywood Boats (MIK has his own sub forum at this site)
The Instant Boats
Duckworks -
Bayside Wooden Boats Ross Lillistone (Ross is located at Esk)
B & B Yacht Designs (has a Brissie agent)
Wooden Dinghy - Radosław Werszko
Free Boat Design Resources - What's New
Selway Fisher Home Page
Duck Flat Wooden Boats

PAR might have something suitable too - you'll see him contribute here often,
but he doesn't have a website.

It's worth mentioning that the 4.2 skiff on Mr Werzko's site is free. It's worth downloading so you can have a good look at what's involved even if that's not the boat you want to build.

It's also worth mentioning that with the extraordinary cost of top quality ply nowdays it's actually cheaper to build in strip plank, especially if you use paulownia rather than wrc.

2c.

Hi gem56, I've got the plans for John Welsford's 'Houdini' for sale, $120.00. The plans are in excellent condition as I never got to build this dinghy due to a back injury which does not allow me to sail or build boats due to the handling of sheets of plywood.
Anyway if you are interested send me a pm of you can contact me on 0419002468.
I've spent many years working with timber and when you start building your sailing dinghy you will truly enjoy the experience.
Cheers Alby

Hmmmmm....
Idea light goes off in head.
Building Houdini in strip would be an excellent way of resolving the forefoot
twist so many builders wrestle with. It would look awesome too. Thanks !!
[adds note to Houdini plans file... one day... one day...]


Can't believe I didn't put JW's link up earlier
http://www.jwboatdesigns.co.nz/
And a pic of Houdini graces the front page of the JW builders forum. http://www.jwboatdesigns.co.nz/

Despite my enthusiasm for the boat, it's quite a build.
If new to the whole boat-building thing, I recommend looking at one of Michael Storer's plan sets.
Each one is a complete boat-building course in its own right, and he's already calculated out the
correct size & shape of everything.

Of course, you haven't commented on the proposed uses, locations. or people carrying capacity...

My first reaction is what will the boat be asked to do. Row, sail and power is a very broad range of conflicting conditions. A boat that powers well, sails and rows poorly. A boat that rows well, often doesn't sail very well and is quite badly shaped for powering, at anything but very slow speeds.

So, I think the best thing is is define the use of the boat. Where will it operate, what will it's primary and secondary roles be, stability requirements, average sea state it will be expected to encounter, etc., etc., etc. Once a reasonable set of goals is established, you then can refine the design search, which has been naturally focused, eliminating some and enlightening others.

Some many years ago I built a Peter Fletcher design Trio 12 it was great I learnt how to sail and boatcraft at a early age ,something like this but a little larger for my grand kids to experience sailing

It occurs to me that unless you particularly want to build, you might get better
bang for buck buying something second-hand, like a TS14 or Green Island Skiff.
Building isn't cheaper any more (if it ever was).
If you are determined to build, then best value in a single boat is probably
Michael Storer's OzPDGoose. Would be quite happy in Brisbane / Caboolture /
Logan Rivers or southern bay or Pumicestone Passage. Or build 2, 3, or 4
OzPDRs to give some independence to the grandkids.

Look at the impulse dinghy. Solo boat built from ply