Slideshows of the GIS Sailing Nicely

I have just realised what fun the slideshows on Flickr are.

I already have photo sequences of the Goat Island Skiff stored there.

Can you believe it has taken me this long to have a look! You do need broadband to get the best effect.

Strong wind sequence including quite a bit of planing.
Goat Island Skiff planing

Medium and strengthening wind sequence including a capsize and recovery.
Goat Island Skiff sailing and ... "Ahem!"

Dial up users can just leaf through them one by one at lower resolution.

Can the GIS be Roofracked?

Well, it is light enough, but maybe have a close look at this series of photos from Simon Wein.

Actually the pictures of the boat upside down on the roof makes it look very much like some of the Australian and NZ racing dinghies - like a Cherub or NS14.










That's my sailing background - so my boats tend to reflect that form. Through a succession of different designs and sailing on a lot of wooden boat designs it gradually dawned on me how to get a lot of the performance of mainstream racing dinghies into a simplified hullform.

It is pretty amazing that this simply built near 16 footer is a similar weight to the high performance, but 14ft long NS14.

Built of the suggested materials the GIS is actually 10lbs lighter.

But the big problem is the bulk of the boat - all that volume translates to external measurements a little large for most cars. Maybe if it is a short distance to the water or you have a van like Simon it might be practical enough.

From Simon:

Pictures ...

View on the middle of Yarra and also of the boat on the car - gives a good view of the lovely lines of the boat.

And building in the front garden - the bright light in the background was a portable downlight that we used for heating the epoxy - we did not build a light box in the end

Overall an enormous pleasure doing this - challenges the brain so differently from day to day activities

thanks

Simon










I asked Simon whether I could use the photos for my nefarious marketing activities

A couple of days later ...

With pleasure - I am going to paint it this weekend - methinks white or marine blue.

You may also mention - that I had no boat building experience nor any real woodwork experience but with the plans (improved now!) and you available for questions that it can be done.

Simon

Finally - building photos for the Goat

During the recent Duck Flat Spring School (I was one of the instructors) a GIS was built by Paul and Chris - who are a pair of old school chums who have a long term plan of building something bigger to share the use of.

During the class they built the hull, glued up the hollow mast and made the blanks for the centreboard and rudder blades. Not a bad effort at all for 9 days.

It was particularly interesting as neither of them had built a boat before.

The picture right shows Paul demonstrating the Internationally recognised "Request for Assistance"

The full photoset direct link is on "Building the Goat Island Skiff"
The other pics of GISs sailing are My Flickr Page

Paul - the prime mover of the project - who I would sum up as a person of prodigious intelligence - would be the first to admit that he had never picked up a tool in his life. He probably was at the bottom of his compulsory woodwork class at school (he's in good company - I was too!).

Chris is a farmer of organic beef, so has a good level of practicality with basic tools, but had no experience of this type of work or in all the different epoxy methods. Like many he took a little convincing that it was OK to have no nails or screws in the final structure (actually there are 6 screws).

At the beginning I thought that they would work in a co-dependent sort of way - that Paul would use his people -skills to get Chris to do all the work! How wrong I was!

It did take him about 3 days to come to grips with the project - to understand how it all worked - and then something clicked and - then - totally commited.

Cutting, trimming, planing, mixing epoxy, complex gluing jobs. He's cautious at the beginning but once he understands ... There is nothing this man will not do!

I think his - as one of those books would say - Paul's "personal growth" side made a big jump too! I mean the type of books show pictures of the author on the back cover looking far too tanned for the season and having about 10% more teeth than a normal human being.

When they left for home it was clear that they had a ball!!

They will finish the GIS in Sydney and probaby sell it quickly to get funds for the bigger boat - So if you see it on Bobbin Head Rd with a "FOR SALE" sign...

Paul and I had some long discussions about what he wanted for the following project. I didn't have something that fitted so suggested a particularly nice Selway Fisher design with a balance lug.

What a great experience! What great people we meet in this boatbuilding caper!

Here is a list of the other boats that were built at the School - photos for all also on Flickr
Iain Oughtred - Feather Pram, Acorn Skiff, MacGregor Canoe
Steve Redmond - Whisp
Bear Mountain - Rob Roy - built in lightweight Paulownia (kirri) strip
CLC - LT17
Joel White - Nutshell (being finished off)
Michael Storer - Goat Island Skiff and Eureka Canoe