Thank goodness I went ahead and found a CMS/workflow management tool to organise the sailmaking work. It has been a very busy month and I can see at a glance where I am up to. Before it was so confusing to keep all the boat design stuff and all the sailmaking stuff in my head.
Note that these images are of finished boats and not our sails (for the most part). I just wanted to share some of the great things we see and the people and businesses doing it all.
So it’s been a busy month!
Somes Sound 12.5 – Mainsail and Jib for Bermudan Rig version
We did a quote some time ago for the gaff version but have priced out the Bermudan version for delivery to the USA.
Balance Lug Sail Ian Oughtred designed Skerrie Skiff 17
This photo is from a boat built by Maine Boats for a customer. Again – not one of our sails, but shows what great boats we get to look at. Oughred’s plan quality was a big influence on the way I do my plans in the early days. We also both share a heritage of light fast Australian racing dinghies.
My sailmaking eye wants to tighten up the lacing along the yard, but that’s not stopping the boat from going somewhere fast.
Chase Small Craft Boat Kits – Sailmaking Mains, balance lug, Standing lug, Jibs, Mizzens, Spritsails – White and tanbark sailcloth
This is his Deer Island Koster. (again not one of our sails)
We are doing a big bunch of sails … too many of Clint’s designs to individually mention, but including our Goat Island Skiff Yawl version. Clint’s kits are really fantastic and well thought through. The kits go from cut ply to full service to fittings through to sailmaking if required. Have a look at his range here – this link will drop you in his sailboat kit pages, but he has more.
And his Goat Island Skiff Kit is really clever too – it all slots together and solves a lot of problems for first time builders. And advanced builders in a rush. Clint is in the rear boat. GIS sails are stock white through Duckworks USA as well as Clint.
Flashboat by Paul Gartside – Dipping Lugsail for the UK
I was really excited to see this order come in. It was one of the two boats featured in the first issue of Woodenboat that I saw and bought decades ago. A narrow waterline boat with a wide beam to swing longer oars than normal.
I wanted to just put the lines drawing here because that what I fell in love with.
The sail is a pure Auxiliary for downwind sailing. A nice simple sail by sailmaker standards. There’s a nice piece by Uffa Fox about making a rowing Gig fly under sail (and having to row it around the corners as it had too much directional stability to tack easily). This will similarly fly under small simple sail.
Ok … I can’t resist, here is one in the workshop built by Paul Gartside Designer/Builder himself – practices what he preaches!
A bunch of Oz Goose Lugsails for stock at Duckworks
Ok, they are the outlier here amongst all these gorgeous boats.
But they sail well and are introducing huge numbers of people to sailing – 40+ boats in the Philippines and costing around 1/10 of an imported Laser. This is a video of a sail I was testing with a new shape. It was a bit tight on the leach so we only use it for battened sails. So we continue with our Mk3 Oz Goose shape available from Duckworks and will do more work with the Mk4.
A bit wobbly because of steering with one hand and quite a bit of leftover chop. Sail ended up coming second in the Nationals.
One interesting repercussion of the more dishy shape with slightly finer entry and little flatness in the leach is that you can pinch the boat a lot more without stalling the centreboard. The power fades much more gradually as you point up too high.
Here is boat with its ridiculous number of telltales to diagnose the leach problem. A good method to see if a sailmaker is aboard!
Special Expedition Sail for Chuck Pierce’s Jim Michalak designed Mayfly
Chuck is known for his long distance sailing including the Texas 200 (mile) event. He sails in all weathers and carries a huge amount of gear on the boat. He is one of the guys who helps everyone else repair their boat. He probably has a vice in there.
His old sail has been going for many seasons and was getting just a bit tired. So he contacted us for some sailmaking. Chuck provided us with bend and size measurements and we basically followed his choices – a bit of extra patching to make everything a bit tougher.
Dave Gentry Chautaqua Sailing Canoe – Lug Mainsail and Mizzen
Ok … we are design competitors, but I really like Dave’s stuff. This one got in just before I installed the workflow management software and is now in the hands of the owner. We finished another one last month.
Again not our sails in the photo. The most recent canoe sail order were silkscreened with the boat’s name in the same blue as the hull.
It is a skin on frame sailing canoe and Dave has done an enormous amount of work pushing back the structural limitations of Skin on Frame when it encounters sailing loads. His solutions are very slick.
I’m addicted to sailing canoes despite sailing the Oz Goose). My first design was the BETH sailing canoe which triggered my interest in balance lug sails and lug rigs. Just wondering what performance was possible compared with modern boats if I did as much as possible the modern way.
Conclusion
I am sure the variety of boats is a bit less efficient in terms of production. Though we do have the Chase Small Craft Kits as stock with our own Goat Island Skiff 105 lug, the Oz Goose 89 lug and the smaller 36 canoe sail. Sold through Duckworks
But we are learning a lot from both the users and the designers and the conversation.
Please have a look at our Really Simple Sails facebook group to see the discussion happen and the wide range of boat uses.