Boat Builder Central

I am very saddened to read this. Like Evan, I first encountered Jacques on the rec.boats.building newsgroup on Usenet back in the mid-90s while I was a college student. I was trying to finish a small boat by a different designer, and even though I wasn't yet his customer, he took the time to point m...

At this point I have only taken it out on a few of the local lakes. Usually the problem has been not enough wind. Have not had the "opportunity" to experience whitecaps in it.

You may also be able to slightly lower the berth to add to what you're doing above. With the hull curvature it probably isn't possible to go two inches, but even if it's only 1/2", it's a gain of headroom. Of course, that reduces the under berth storage by the same amount . . . there's no free...

Yeah if I had it to do again, I would have built a bigger boat. It's great being able to just load it in the back of my pickup truck (especially since I can load a canoe on the rack at the same time), but sailing it is mostly a solo proposition. Right now is kind of that in-between time where my kid...

My question has to do with changing the center seat to a lengthwise position. I’ve seen this in other pram designs, with the centerboard box through the seat. In my (inexperienced) mind it might make changing rowing position and balancing a load easier. How might that work out sailing a sprit rig C...

On my D5, I added some extra layers of fiberglass to the bottom of the skeg for extra protection, and I have touched it up with filler a time or two and not noted any penetration through to the wood. To my thinking that's better than using a strip of wood that will get chewed up and need to be repla...

I put up a shelter logic brand tent, and it's worked great. Still using it 5 years later (no wind issues here, but it's held up to some decent snowfall) Guy I used to work with, bought two of those type tents, used the second one to double up the structure (snow load) for the same size, and then ha...

I assume that the production boats where they pour the foam in after the fact, they have the benefit of experience building the same boat over and over. They have had ample opportunity to develop a consistent measuring and mixing technique, and know exactly how much foam they need to measure out and...

You mentioned John Welsford. He is a real professional designer. I met him once, he knows what he is doing plus he is an experienced sailor. I say professional because it matters when everybody who downloads Delft thinks he can design a boat. JW has several very seaworthy designs that would fit the...