CLC Pocketship

New launch yesterday.

John

PBK27 "Sea Scout" Canoe

Stanchfield landing

A couple of cedar boards, half a sheet of plywood and a role of Dacron reinforced vinyl. Work on them on and off for a month. Your reward is a wonderful 13' 6" Sea Scout covered canoe (AKA kayak in the states). First splashed this past May in South Stanchfield lake and on a trip down the Rum River. The boat is light, stable, a delight to paddle, and handles waves with ease. It is built skin on frame style. Plywood frames with keel, gunwales, and stringers attached. The skin is RSI 18 oz vinyl that is stretched and shrunk over the frame. The design is by the late great Percy Blandford.

Scout Annual

I had been wanting to build one for some time. Actually, a lot of time. You see the plans I used were published in the 1969 Scout Annual. An aunt gave me the book for Christmas that year. It did not take long to talk Dad into helping me build the canoe. After a quick trip to the lumberyard Dad was ripping out stringers and I was laboriously cutting out frames with a coping saw and dreaming about the adventures the boat would take me on. Unfortunately, the build went no further. When Mum saw what was going on she loudly proclaimed, "No son of mine is paddling out in the middle of a lake in a tiny boat made from bits of sticks and table cloth!" There was no point in arguing. A week or so later Dad surprised me with a set of plans for a Folbot Cayat, an all plywood, built like a battleship, decked canoe.

Cayat 5th Crow Wing 1970

The Cayat was a fine boat and it did take me on adventures. At 16' long and well over 100 lbs it was just too big and heavy for a skinny runt kid to handle on the ground and too big to tow behind a bicycle. It only got used when there was someone to help me. A 30 lb Sea Scout would have been used far more often. Recently, I was looking through old photographs and came upon a picture of me paddling the Cayat circa 1970. That lead to going through old boxes of books searching for the Scout Annual. There was still a bookmark on the page with the plans and I thought, "why not?" The build was quick and uncomplicated. All joints are lashed together with artificial sinew. The frame is coated with polyurethane varnish. The vinyl skin is stapled on the gunwales and glued at the stems. After the skin is attached it is shrunk with a heat gun to remove any wrinkles. The maiden voyage found me in the middle of the lake floating surrounded by sticks and tablecloth. I am sure somewhere up above Mum was shaking her head and Father was grinning from ear to ear. I know the kid in me was.

Cat's boat

Toto

Michalak Toto canoe launched! Wife disappeared...hope she's ok...

Butch

Wee Lassie

Christened the Wee Lassie today. It's called The Cousins Cruiser. I was surprised that it floated me at 225 pounds as well.

John

Lady Bug

Launching the Michalak Lady Bug. More pics on Facebook.

Diane

Perahu Katir

My version of a Perahu Katir - a style of Jukung from NE Java. Google the boats of Pasir Putih for pics of the originals. Mine is smaller, and skin-on-frame rather than dug out of a log. The outriggers, however, are of giant bamboo, as is traditional. Turns out there's a patch of it here.

Not quite finished with the sail rig, but I put the sail up for the pic. She does paddle nicely, is absurdly stable and maneuvers easily.

Dave Gentry

www.gentrycustomboats.com

Jon Boat

Taking care of business in my new $100 Jon Boat.

Billy

Pathfinder

From John Welsford, designer of the Pathfinder.

I love hearing from builders of my designs, the feedback from happy owners following launching and the first few sails is the best thing about the whole designing boats business. Greg below has been working away at building his Pathfinder for a while now, but it all came together recently and he's out on the water adventuring. Well done that man.

John Welsford.

From Greg Simmons in Africa

Hi John,

Taken a while longer than expected, but finally launched Joytoy at easter this year.

Took her on first week long trip to Maputo, Mozambique from where we sailed to the island of Inhaca, a distance across the bay of Maputo of 20NM.

I am absolutely delighted with her and the way she sails, stability and the ease of which she can be righted.

Have fitted a boom tent, and with my 6 foot five height find the bunk surprisingly comfortable.

Have further plans to take her to Lake Malawi and the Bazaruto islands in Mozambique.

Just wanted to say a big thank you. She always catches the passer byes eye and helps make new friends, and has her good looks praised.

Many thanks for a wonderful boat.

Greg Simmons

Joansa

Francios Demey in Belgium has I think been looking at the wonderful canal network around where he is, and has built one of my Joansa rowing boats in which to enjoy these historic waters, he's so impressed with the boat he's building another one!

Me? I'm impressed not only with his build and his enthusiasm, but with the ageless scenery in the background. I hope to see it sometime. Thanks Francios.

John Welsford

I send you some pictures of my Joansa in Ghent, Belgium. Thank you for having designed this lovely boat. A second one is being constructed.

François Demey

Argie 10

Just a quick note to let you know that the oarlocks and sockets arrived on the 16th, just in time to launch the kids dinghy "Toads Folly". Folly is a Dudley Dix Argie 10 with a few aesthetic tweaks. Shame that all the local suppliers had run out of stock of the two piece wooden oars I had planned on using... sigh...

I have plans coming for a Challenger 13 so you can bet I'll order the hardware from Duckworks rather than chase around here in Australia for weeks.

Ken

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