Sailing Canoe "Swift"

First sail of the season

First sail (and swim!) of the season. It's a long time since the canoe was in the build stage in the workshop (see earlier posts) so fitting in a first sail in March has got 2010 boating off to a good start. It also made a nice change from the current maintenance work and stripping down antifouling in the boatyard. It is a great deal more picturesque and better for the lungs).

New crew

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Launch Day

Launch day finally arrives

Weather and launch went perfectly, the sails for the Gunter rig set the Iain Oughtred designed MacGegor canoe off perfectly. I remained the right way up and out of the water for the duration and 'Swift' lived up to her name.

Nothing of course ever quite ends as planned in boatbuilding and my reluctance to risk damaging the varnished deck by over strapping the canoe down to the trailer was to have disastrous results. 'Swift' I noticed (after the launch) had damage to her hull, where she had lifted and must have slammed down onto a point load on the trailer rollers. I have now learnt a difficult lesson in this respect and boat building has now instantly moved to boat repair.

On a more positive note, she is a fine little boat and once over this frustration and what we intend to be an invisable repair, I'm now up for some winter sailing.

How could I let this happen.

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Design Plans

This morning to Bristol to collect sheets of top notch 4mm marine ply. At �95 per sheet will I ever dare make the first cut?



The Plans have arrived





The drawings had already arrived several weeks back, so it was good this afternoon, to finally unroll them and plane up some iroko for the hog, keel and laminated stems.




For anyone wanting the drawings the original 19th century design by John MacGregor has been re-drafted by Iain Oughtred, to a modern lapstrake plank epoxy construction. These can be purchased from http://www.woodenboat.com/

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