1. Hand carved wooden rudder.

2.

3. Colour.

4.

The crucifix timber hull and the discovery of the little plastic hippo led my son to the name of this boat. Another skimmer. Composed of vivid green rope, around a timber hull and a wooden rudder carved with a pocket knife. The sail is a prawn bait packet and the float was added to the crows nest to make it more visible further out. This boat was near as wide as it was long but setting the outriggers far enough back behind the mast seemed to overcome this and it sailed surprisingly well on and out towards the heads. Not being a particularly windy day a little blade of foam was added above the main sail to add thrust.

5. Crazy little Hippo.

6. Reflection.

7. Bon Voyage.

1. Little Rubs

2. Profile

3. Trial run on the creek

4. Pace

5.

6.

7.

8.

9. Cast off

10. Bon voyage

This slinky little craft had a build time of about 20 minutes. It started out being trialed on the little lake behind the dunes without any floats on the outriggers and was surprisingly quick. Assuming it would flip out on the bay some foam floats were added including a chunk under the nose. This had the effect of lifting the thin timber hull rite of the water and she took of like nothing built before on this blog. Skimming down the lake at a steady walking pace, so about 4 km per hour. A shell fragment was cut into the stern as a rudder, a take away food container for a rigid sail and a feather was added on the bow to help ensure the bow was aligned forward more quickly with the wind direction and buffer against tipping.  You can see the wake coming off the bow and floats in these pictures.

The Phoenix rises again.

A test Float in zero wind.

Added coffee cup sail didnt help in zero wind.

A few weeks after launching the Less and Learned along with the All Prezz Exprezz and watching it come spectacularly undone as it  was washed into the rocks in a big swell we returned to Little Bay to find they had both been collected from the rocks and delivered unto a little rubbish collection point. We had already had a failed launch that morning and raced to put the Less and Learned back together. Partly scavenging parts of the All Prezz to use as new outrigger floats. By the time we were ready the wind had turned inland and we had to throw Less and Learned into the car for another day. 

1. Leaving Gordons Bay.

2. Waiting for the wind.

3. Pushing out.

4. Clearing the headland?

5. From the stairs to Gordons Bay.

6. From the stairs to Gordons Bay.

7. From the headland.

8. From the headland.

9. Heading along the point.

We finally found a morning with favorable winds and took the Eric down to Gordon s Bay where we determined we could get a sea bound launch of the rocks with some cover from the bay. Unfortunately I had set the rudder to far to the left and she pulled across the SSW and possibly into the rocks on the other side of the bay rather than clearing the headland and heading out to sea. Though we will never know as we had run out of time and were watching from a headland above as she sailed under our view and we had to leave. You can also see here that the fore sail had subsequently been re rigged in a more similar style to the main sail also cut from a washed up deck chair.

1. The bits.

2. Point launch.

3. Headed for the beach.

4. Leaving the point.

5. Comming in.

6. Landing.

The Eric was a prolonged experiment that involved a couple of test launches while waiting for a suitable off shore winter breeze to sail her out into the Pacific. She was first cobbled together from flotsam collected along the rocks at Yarra Bay and test sailed from the tip of the artificial wave break back to the beach. The hull was a timber, PET bottles and foam combo with half a brick tied under it on some timber lengths. This was one of the first self righting non skimmer style boats. The mast was from lengths of abandoned fishing rod fixed together and the main sail was cut from a washed up deck chair. A float and a bit of red cloth were fixed from the crows nest a a means of greater visibility for longer should a successful sea launch be achieved.

The sail was located to far back for such a long bow and she sailed ‘sideways’ on her first run. This was corrected by adding an additional rudder and also a foresail to assist in keeping the nose downwind.

1. Front view.

2. Rear view.

3. First Fleet with Flying Squid.

4. The Perfect Storm.

5. Bon Voyage, First Fleet leaving Botany Bay.

The First Fleet was a composition of foam and feather that my son put together. He called it First Fleet as it was the first time he had a real go at making a boat (not to overlook this is Botany Bay ). It sailed very well as you can see. One of its claimed features was that it could be ‘chuck launched.’ That is to say it could be launched by throwing it out behind the shore waves and it would land rite side up unbroken. The First Fleet was launched with Flying Squid at Congwong Beach

1. From rubbish to boat.

2. Me and Tiwi and J W with the Exon.

3. Early enthusiasm.

4. Bon Voyage Exon.

5. Bon Voyage Tiwi.

The outstanding pictures in this Post were taken by our friend Christian Borchert. Actually two boats Tiwi and Exon were a competitive enterprise whipped up on the beach at Fisherman’s Bay. Our friend Johnnies Exon was a plank and sand tub affair with foam core sail and rudder wedged into slots in the sand tub. The Tiwi was a smaller plank and foam outrigger number with a trapezoid foam core sail. Apart from being easier and quicker to manufacture than sheet style sails the foam core sails seem less prone to flipping the vessel. Probably because as the boat tips forward the air pressure is shed from the top of the flat plane.  Whereas it tends to ‘hook’ in the slack at the top of a plastic or cloth sheet sail. The Tiwi pushed rapidly out into the Pacific Ocean. In fact when we left the beach and walked up to the top of the headland we could still make her out way out past the heads. Sadly the Exon, as per its namesake, came unstuck in the chop around a near reef and spilled its load of sand into the Pacific.

1. Flying Squid.

2. Flying Squid.

3. Next to strange beach object.

4. Bon Voyage.

The primary components of the Flying Squid are the squid cuttle hull and the pelican feather sail. This was a fast construct on Congwong Beach after a bush walk around the headland with my son. The outriggers are cut foam pinned on stripped down pelican feathers. The keel is the corner of a plastic chopping board pushed through the hull and held up with a length of bamboo pushed through a cut hole. The whole thing tightened down with a scrap of orange plastic rope. The multi feather sail was just stabbed into the deck. It sailed surprisingly well and steadily made its way out towards the heads.

1. Less and Learned with bow board sail.

2. Tupperware sail.

3. Zip cord outriggers.

4. Bon voyage.

5. Heading for the rocks.

Less and learned was put together at Yarra Bay then taken over to Little Bay to be launched on the south wester. Carved foam outriggers fixed with zip cords found on the beach. A foam nose cone and plywood bow sail kept her pulling in a straight line considering the long wooden hull and main sail positioned quite far back. The other boat in pic 4 is the ‘All Prezz Express’. Less and learned took off well in the strong breeze and cleared the shore break easily. She was looking good and pulling out to sea but ultimately couldn’t clear the extensive heads to the north of Little Bay and was dragged across and smashed onto the rocks in spectacular fashion by the large swell out on the point. You can just make out about half way across the bay in picture 5 taken with the zoom on my phone.

1. The Roster.

2. Bow float.

3. Stone keel/rudder.

4. Ambitious sail area.

5. Setting out.

6. Bon voyage (short lived).

The Roster employed some inventive tying off, a fancy foam and wooden combo hull and a stone rudder/ keel, a roped on foam nose cone and a tall blue sign board sail. She looked like a pretty tidy ship, however was to tall on the water and didn’t make it to far out before toppling over. These skimmer style boats are not particularly good at self righting anyway if they go over and this one had no chance with a tall sail, under sized outriggers, a dinky nose float (for the amount of thrust from this big tall sail) and small keel ballast! Still a few new tricks were learned and some rubbish taken away from the beach. Though some people on the beach did mutter some disapproving comments of me and the boat when it tipped over. You cant please all the Aqua Bogan onlookers all the time I guess.

1. My son with his creation 'The All Prezz Exprezz.'

2. The All Prezz Exprezz.

3. Bon Voyage.

The All Prezz Exprezz was a fine little craft created by my son. A cylindrical foam core hull with a carved wooden rudder, a coffee cup as a sail, a lump of sandstone roped to the hull as ballast and a honed wooden peg used to tension the rudder rope. She took of quite well in the steady south westerly breeze but was unable to clear the heads and ‘did a double whammy’ into the rocks on the other side of Little Bay.