ROGUE Build
Posted 23-05-2010 at 11:36 AM by Dan Calvert
Some time ago I wandered out of the newsagent with a wooden boat magazine. I had been sailing once about 30 years ago and vaguely knew the pointy bit was called the bow (good job I didn't know about Ian Oughtred's Caledonian Yawl....) and I still don't know why I bought the magazine but there was one design in there that caught my eye. It looked "traditional" was designed for camp cruising, was on a trailer so it didn't need to live on the water and was designed for the amateur builder on a budget. The JW Pathfinder.
Anyway it was tossed around the family and for various reasons didn't seem practical. Twelve months later and father-in-law John, well into his retirement and a keen woodworker who had done his national service in the RAN in the 50's, was casting around for his next woodworking project. "How about building a boat?" - probably came up in conversation at about 2 minutes to midnight on new year's eve or some other equally inebriated moment. So the deal was done - Sarah and I would supply the materials and John would do the build.
But John had never used epoxy before so we figured maybe not the Pathfinder first up. We settled on the Rogue as a family friendly all rounder for day sailing, fishing and just mucking around. We figured on using it on the Clarence River which has over 300kms of navigable water. Other options are various dams, Keepit, Split Rock, Malpas, Copeton plus the Bellinger, Richmond and Tweed rivers and adjacent coast. And we bought the Pathfinder plans, because.......well.......you never know....
John's "shed" was once an indoor swimming pool but seeing as how there's only about 2 months of each year when you would actually want to swim in Armidale he quickly converted it to a shed and set up his woodworking tools. The problem is there are no big doors, but the Rogue is small and light and will fit out the existing door or even the windows with only two people.
Tools are no problem, John has a well equipped workshop and there is plenty of space and natural light in the shed.
So in mid January we ordered the two sets of plans which duly arrived a week or so later. It was like having Christmas again......
Soon after John got some radiata pine in town for the work table and while he was working on that I did a bit of research on plywood - that's when I came across Andrew Denman in Tasmania. What a great guy, he can't do enough for you. His website is
When I somewhat naively confided our grand plan to build two boats his reply was "Be very careful Dan...........Boat building is a very slippery slope to go down and it sounds like you are already on it - very addictive I tell you." It seemed funny at the time..........
Andrew uses Joubert BS 1088 Gaboon/Okoume Marine Plywood. He can tell you some horror stories about so called marine plywood masquerading as conforming to British Standards or Australian/New Zealand Standards which the wholesaler advises against using in applications where it might get wet.........
According to Andrew, Joubert BS1088 Gaboon/Okoume Marine Plywood is a Gaboon throughout plywood panel with selected cores and is manufactured in compliance with the British Marine Plywood Standard BS1088-1:2003. Lloyd’s Register Type Approved, this marine ply is recommended for nautical construction and boat furnishings and Andrew will give you a certificate stating it conforms to the above description. Nice to deal with someone who stands behind what he is selling. If you want to read what Andrew says about plywood click on this link.
We figured that out of the total cost of the boat trying to skimp on the plywood cost would be a false economy. The plan called for 7 sheets of plywood which came to about $860. The problem was freight from Tassie to a regional mainland town was $300.......Still we bit the bullet and were very pleased with the service Andrew gave us
"If you have any trouble tracing the pack just let me know and I will sort it out. I'd appreciate some feedback when the ply arrives on the quality and how the packaging survived the trip."
Well Andrew it survived very well, absolutely no damage, the packaging was bullet proof. And John says the wood has been great to work with.
Andrew also recommends:
"If you haven't already read it, a great book for wood epoxy construction is The Gougeon Bros on Boat Construction. Most Libraries either have a copy or can order a copy in for you. A lot of good information here on www.westsystem.com.au . Look forward to helping you with your project."
So onto the build. John (by now the family are calling him the Ancient Mariner) got stuck into the jig table. The key here is to make sure everything is absolutely square and plumb - just like building a house we figure if you get the foundations right everything else will be so much simpler. John has a well braced wooden floor so was able to nail the jig down solid and square.
While we were waiting for the ply to arrive John started on the centre board. We had a few bits of Jarrah in the shed. For those who may not be familiar with Jarrah it's a hardwood native to West Australia. This wood had been shipped from WA to Waihi in the north island of New Zealand in the early 1930's and used for timbering the No. 7 shaft at the Martha Hill Mine owned by the Waihi Gold Mining Company Ltd. Just as matter of interest Waihi is up the road from JW at Ngongotaha and was New Zealand's largest gold producer producing over 7 million ounces of gold and 35 million ounces of silver from about 1878 to 1952. Anyway in 1988 mining recommenced as an open cut operation and as the open cut went down the old shafts were exposed and some of the old timber was salvageable. It had been underwater for about 60 years but I managed to get about a dozen sleeper sized pieces and carefully dried them out over a few years. Made a coffee table from some and John has been using bits and pieces of the rest on various projects over the years. It is very dense and heavy and John thought it would be just the thing for the centre board.
We needed to laminate the board and so it was to be our first experience with West System Epoxy. And it was dead easy - mixed the epoxy at 5 to 1 by weight (using a set of electronic scales that used to be used for weighing hops for the homebrew) mixed in some filler and clamped the timbers together and hey presto it worked just like the book says.....
Unfortunately I didn't think to get the camera out to record this historic moment but here is a couple of photos of the finished centre board (including one of the Ancient Mariner's very helpful first mate). It weighs a tonne, if we were doing it again we would make it retractable a la Pathfinder but this being the first time we thought it better to stick with the plan until we had some idea of what we were doing........John thinks he might take some scallops out of the top section to reduce weight up high. Alternatively we might be able to drill some two inch holes. Any other suggestions?
The ply arrived early March. Step no. 1 in the instructions said something like "Splice, using 8:1 scarf joint and epoxy glues, two sheets of 9mm ply." Yeah right - what the b****y hell is a scarf joint.......? A quick scurry to the internet and all was revealed (how did we exist without Google?) and very quickly got it sorted. John found the best way was to use an electric plane to trim back the bulk of the material then use a belt sander to get the final face. After applying the epoxy he then stapled each side of the joint to prevent slipping while clamping pressure is gently applied. Packing tape or similar under the joint prevents epoxy sticking to the work surface. Metal box tubing or angle iron is then laid across the surface to be clamped and the whole lot bought under gentle pressure with a clamp on each side. I'm sure everyone has their own preferred method and like everything practice makes perfect.
Then John had to scale up the drawings to full size (is this what the experts mean by lofting?). We ummed and aaahed about whether or not to make some templates and decided not to. Then John found some cheap ($10 each) sheets of some sort of lightweight board material, kind of like a heavy cardboard, and we decided templates would be an absolutely smashing idea. John thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of transferring the plans to the card and tells me he never used the rubber once.......Of course I don't believe a bit of it but when I looked in the rubbish bin I didn't see one discarded template. Those blokes bought up in the depression are very parsimonious - they don't measure twice and cut once - they measure ten times before cutting.........
So soon after John had the bottom panel cut out and laid on the jig and we finally thought to get the camera out....So here it is with the stem in position but not glued, just posed for the camera. John had to do quite a bit of figuring in the area where the stem post attaches to the keel and comments that the plan could use a little more detail in this area. But by taking his time and plenty of cups of tea (and the odd dram.....) it was sorted.
All the frames are in position but not yet glued - still posing for the camera. Note the big lump of wood used to weigh down the bottom plank and keelson. This was not very satisfactory and a hydraulic jack was pressed into service. The plans recommend that the frames be attached to the bottom plank and keel with screws which are then removed. This recommendation was not followed, the frames were simply epoxied and clamped. Seems to have worked........it'll float......we hope......
To achieve the correct curve on the bottom plank and keelson a small hydraulic jack was used to push the bottom plank down onto the jig base. The jack was braced against a roof beam in the workshop as shown in the above photos. John stresses that much time and effort was expended while building the jig to ensure it was strong and level and making sure that the height of each cross member was exactly as specified in the plan. Knowing that the jig base was level and secure meant that John could rely on his spirit level to accurately check the stem and frames were level as they were installed.
There was no great difficulty in fitting the planks to the frames, but John reckons it was handy to have plenty of clamps on hand during the process. A man can never have too many clamps.......
John is going to construct a tapered hollow mast from oregon timber. Since this is something he has never done before he thought a trial run using some 1 metre lengths of scrap timber would be a good idea. He is using the birdsmouth technique which is well illustrated in the right hand photo. The left hand photo shows the trial mast in position. The short trial one went together well, but John is bit more nervous about the real one - 5 metres and tapered!
Left photo - Mast timbers with birdsmouths cut and ready to taper. Right photo - Cutting the taper - The pattern board has been tapered and each mast timber is temporarily nailed to the pattern board while cutting.
Anyway it was tossed around the family and for various reasons didn't seem practical. Twelve months later and father-in-law John, well into his retirement and a keen woodworker who had done his national service in the RAN in the 50's, was casting around for his next woodworking project. "How about building a boat?" - probably came up in conversation at about 2 minutes to midnight on new year's eve or some other equally inebriated moment. So the deal was done - Sarah and I would supply the materials and John would do the build.
But John had never used epoxy before so we figured maybe not the Pathfinder first up. We settled on the Rogue as a family friendly all rounder for day sailing, fishing and just mucking around. We figured on using it on the Clarence River which has over 300kms of navigable water. Other options are various dams, Keepit, Split Rock, Malpas, Copeton plus the Bellinger, Richmond and Tweed rivers and adjacent coast. And we bought the Pathfinder plans, because.......well.......you never know....
John's "shed" was once an indoor swimming pool but seeing as how there's only about 2 months of each year when you would actually want to swim in Armidale he quickly converted it to a shed and set up his woodworking tools. The problem is there are no big doors, but the Rogue is small and light and will fit out the existing door or even the windows with only two people.
Tools are no problem, John has a well equipped workshop and there is plenty of space and natural light in the shed.
So in mid January we ordered the two sets of plans which duly arrived a week or so later. It was like having Christmas again......
Soon after John got some radiata pine in town for the work table and while he was working on that I did a bit of research on plywood - that's when I came across Andrew Denman in Tasmania. What a great guy, he can't do enough for you. His website is
When I somewhat naively confided our grand plan to build two boats his reply was "Be very careful Dan...........Boat building is a very slippery slope to go down and it sounds like you are already on it - very addictive I tell you." It seemed funny at the time..........
Andrew uses Joubert BS 1088 Gaboon/Okoume Marine Plywood. He can tell you some horror stories about so called marine plywood masquerading as conforming to British Standards or Australian/New Zealand Standards which the wholesaler advises against using in applications where it might get wet.........
According to Andrew, Joubert BS1088 Gaboon/Okoume Marine Plywood is a Gaboon throughout plywood panel with selected cores and is manufactured in compliance with the British Marine Plywood Standard BS1088-1:2003. Lloyd’s Register Type Approved, this marine ply is recommended for nautical construction and boat furnishings and Andrew will give you a certificate stating it conforms to the above description. Nice to deal with someone who stands behind what he is selling. If you want to read what Andrew says about plywood click on this link.
We figured that out of the total cost of the boat trying to skimp on the plywood cost would be a false economy. The plan called for 7 sheets of plywood which came to about $860. The problem was freight from Tassie to a regional mainland town was $300.......Still we bit the bullet and were very pleased with the service Andrew gave us
"If you have any trouble tracing the pack just let me know and I will sort it out. I'd appreciate some feedback when the ply arrives on the quality and how the packaging survived the trip."
Well Andrew it survived very well, absolutely no damage, the packaging was bullet proof. And John says the wood has been great to work with.
Andrew also recommends:
"If you haven't already read it, a great book for wood epoxy construction is The Gougeon Bros on Boat Construction. Most Libraries either have a copy or can order a copy in for you. A lot of good information here on www.westsystem.com.au . Look forward to helping you with your project."
So onto the build. John (by now the family are calling him the Ancient Mariner) got stuck into the jig table. The key here is to make sure everything is absolutely square and plumb - just like building a house we figure if you get the foundations right everything else will be so much simpler. John has a well braced wooden floor so was able to nail the jig down solid and square.
While we were waiting for the ply to arrive John started on the centre board. We had a few bits of Jarrah in the shed. For those who may not be familiar with Jarrah it's a hardwood native to West Australia. This wood had been shipped from WA to Waihi in the north island of New Zealand in the early 1930's and used for timbering the No. 7 shaft at the Martha Hill Mine owned by the Waihi Gold Mining Company Ltd. Just as matter of interest Waihi is up the road from JW at Ngongotaha and was New Zealand's largest gold producer producing over 7 million ounces of gold and 35 million ounces of silver from about 1878 to 1952. Anyway in 1988 mining recommenced as an open cut operation and as the open cut went down the old shafts were exposed and some of the old timber was salvageable. It had been underwater for about 60 years but I managed to get about a dozen sleeper sized pieces and carefully dried them out over a few years. Made a coffee table from some and John has been using bits and pieces of the rest on various projects over the years. It is very dense and heavy and John thought it would be just the thing for the centre board.
We needed to laminate the board and so it was to be our first experience with West System Epoxy. And it was dead easy - mixed the epoxy at 5 to 1 by weight (using a set of electronic scales that used to be used for weighing hops for the homebrew) mixed in some filler and clamped the timbers together and hey presto it worked just like the book says.....
Unfortunately I didn't think to get the camera out to record this historic moment but here is a couple of photos of the finished centre board (including one of the Ancient Mariner's very helpful first mate). It weighs a tonne, if we were doing it again we would make it retractable a la Pathfinder but this being the first time we thought it better to stick with the plan until we had some idea of what we were doing........John thinks he might take some scallops out of the top section to reduce weight up high. Alternatively we might be able to drill some two inch holes. Any other suggestions?
The ply arrived early March. Step no. 1 in the instructions said something like "Splice, using 8:1 scarf joint and epoxy glues, two sheets of 9mm ply." Yeah right - what the b****y hell is a scarf joint.......? A quick scurry to the internet and all was revealed (how did we exist without Google?) and very quickly got it sorted. John found the best way was to use an electric plane to trim back the bulk of the material then use a belt sander to get the final face. After applying the epoxy he then stapled each side of the joint to prevent slipping while clamping pressure is gently applied. Packing tape or similar under the joint prevents epoxy sticking to the work surface. Metal box tubing or angle iron is then laid across the surface to be clamped and the whole lot bought under gentle pressure with a clamp on each side. I'm sure everyone has their own preferred method and like everything practice makes perfect.
Then John had to scale up the drawings to full size (is this what the experts mean by lofting?). We ummed and aaahed about whether or not to make some templates and decided not to. Then John found some cheap ($10 each) sheets of some sort of lightweight board material, kind of like a heavy cardboard, and we decided templates would be an absolutely smashing idea. John thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of transferring the plans to the card and tells me he never used the rubber once.......Of course I don't believe a bit of it but when I looked in the rubbish bin I didn't see one discarded template. Those blokes bought up in the depression are very parsimonious - they don't measure twice and cut once - they measure ten times before cutting.........
So soon after John had the bottom panel cut out and laid on the jig and we finally thought to get the camera out....So here it is with the stem in position but not glued, just posed for the camera. John had to do quite a bit of figuring in the area where the stem post attaches to the keel and comments that the plan could use a little more detail in this area. But by taking his time and plenty of cups of tea (and the odd dram.....) it was sorted.
All the frames are in position but not yet glued - still posing for the camera. Note the big lump of wood used to weigh down the bottom plank and keelson. This was not very satisfactory and a hydraulic jack was pressed into service. The plans recommend that the frames be attached to the bottom plank and keel with screws which are then removed. This recommendation was not followed, the frames were simply epoxied and clamped. Seems to have worked........it'll float......we hope......
To achieve the correct curve on the bottom plank and keelson a small hydraulic jack was used to push the bottom plank down onto the jig base. The jack was braced against a roof beam in the workshop as shown in the above photos. John stresses that much time and effort was expended while building the jig to ensure it was strong and level and making sure that the height of each cross member was exactly as specified in the plan. Knowing that the jig base was level and secure meant that John could rely on his spirit level to accurately check the stem and frames were level as they were installed.
There was no great difficulty in fitting the planks to the frames, but John reckons it was handy to have plenty of clamps on hand during the process. A man can never have too many clamps.......
Close up of the centre board case.
General Views
Second plank on - she'll float now.
Detail of mast step. Note step being laminated from a piece of local eucalyptus known locally as stringybark.
Three and a half planks and inwale stringers on, really starting to look like a Rogue now. The boat that is........... The inwale stringers are radiata pine, selected to be as straight and knot free as possible. With the benefit of hindsight (always 20/20 vision) we would probably use meranti. We used meranti on the strakes and it is a lot harder but still quite easy to use. it has a nice straight grain and no knots - very versatile wood. Pulling the inwale stringer to the frames takes quite a bit of force - we held our breath when the clamps first came off. I don't know what is in that epoxy but it sure is strong...........
Another view of the mast step.
All planks on - time for a wee dram......
Getting the first plank on was a bit tricky around the bow. But John just took his time, glued the from the stern to mid ships then when that was properly dry he just carefully worked the bow into position. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of how that was done, but just take your time and carefully work it into position. Some "Pathfinder" and "Navigator" blogs cover this quite well. The planks were roughly cut out with the jigsaw then trimmed with the bandsaw and a final trim up with the spokeshave. Planks two, three and four were quite straightforward - you just need to check everything lines up about three times BEFORE you reach for the epoxy. Because the Rogue is only 4' 6" wide the planks do not have to curve as much as more beamy designs and perhaps they might be a bit more difficult but really the plywood is so easy to bend so I can't imagine it would be an issue.
Spot the mistake. Can't see it? See the starboard seat cover - it's much easier to measure it before you put the planks on......The seats are also flotation compartments so need to be watertight. We debated whether to have a little storage compartment just forward of the transom but in the end decided to build as per plan. We can always retrofit. The other issue that came up was that we needed one more sheet of 6mm ply than specified. We had actually considered getting a spare sheet with the original order, but decided against it........Anyway freight for one sheet from Tassie was prohibitive so I trawled around town looking for something that was at least stamped marine grade and finally found a single sheet of 6mm at a local building supply company. Its not as good as the Joubert but its not bad either and being on the seats and deck its not quite so critical.
Because he used templates John very carefully arranged things to maximise use of the ply and as previously mentioned nothing ended up in the waste bin. I know Kiwis don't waste a thing but John's ancestors are Scottish too so I think there may be a teensy error in the specs there. If you are building a Rogue its something to watch for anyway.
Starboard strake. As mentioned this is out of meranti which is quite a hard wood but with the relatively thin section of the strake it is fairly easy to bend. Looks nice too.
It's all happening at the pointy end. This sequence of photos shows the area around the mast step being painted before the seat cover goes on (LH photo), then the seat cover on (Middle photo) and finally the deck being fitted (RH photo). A fair bit of the area under the seat is actually covered with epoxy over run. John gave it a couple of coats of and oil based undercoat/primer, once the seat is on there is no further opportunity to paint in there. John took JW's advice and we are not spending money on marine paints, just normal oil based paint. In the right hand side photo the port deck has been glued and the starboard is being checked for fit. There is plenty of support under the deck so we used 6mm ply rather than 9mm as specified.
Detail of starboard knee.
The rudder is also made of meranti, being laminated in the left hand shot. We used the same frame for laminating the centreboard.
It's come up nicely and will be epoxy coated with fibreglass protection down the leading edge.
Decks going on, both port and starboard aft decks are now glued. Decks are optional - we thought in a stiff breeze a little deck might be a bit more comfortable to park your butt on and from various photos we have seen we think they look a bit neater. But this is definitely an area of personal preference and vivre le différence.
Decks all on
Detail of under seat framing aft
Two heads are better than one.
John reckons this little sanding disc has been really handy for cleaning up rough edges and very good for removing fairly large amounts of material. Highly recommended, but like any power tool, use with care.
Up and over! The boat is now ready for the keel and we just happened to have some Scottish visitors........so they were press ganged (bribed with beer) into helping with the big flip. Because the "Rogue" is quite light this can be done with two people although having the third on hand to steady the ship was handy....
Building jig.
Upside down at last.
Two coats of primer and two coats of Dulux hi gloss enamel house paint from Bunnings......looking good, but it's a bit of a shame the timber look has gone......We are now thinking names..... "Ply Eyed" "Plied Piper" "Maid of Ply" "Ply Struck" "Ply Blown" (Sheep farmers will get it...) "Over Draught" "Plymey Dart" "Cor Plymey" "The Plying Dutchman" groan....but current favourite is "Dragon Ply". All suggestions welcome!
Back at the pointy end with the coaming going on, note mast ring, John says he'll put a little groove in to tie the mast boot in snugly (or a little cover for when its being used without the mast). The paint near the bow wasn't quite up to scratch so a bit of sanding back there. Cold weather is really slowing progress, John can't use the epoxy some days and it takes at least a day for a coat of paint to dry.
View from the stern showing tiller from Tasmanian oak. Top rudder pintle went AWOL and can't be found....maybe it's under the seat......Never mind another one is on its way.
Also visible is the boom and hidden behind it is the gaff both of nice new oregon timber, beautiful stuff. Note the hatches for dry stowage - very modern. John now thinks he will put hatches under the forward seat as well.
Also visible is the boom and hidden behind it is the gaff both of nice new oregon timber, beautiful stuff. Note the hatches for dry stowage - very modern. John now thinks he will put hatches under the forward seat as well.
Some nice shiny new fittings.........
John is going to construct a tapered hollow mast from oregon timber. Since this is something he has never done before he thought a trial run using some 1 metre lengths of scrap timber would be a good idea. He is using the birdsmouth technique which is well illustrated in the right hand photo. The left hand photo shows the trial mast in position. The short trial one went together well, but John is bit more nervous about the real one - 5 metres and tapered!
Left photo - Mast timbers with birdsmouths cut and ready to taper. Right photo - Cutting the taper - The pattern board has been tapered and each mast timber is temporarily nailed to the pattern board while cutting.
5/8/10 Left photo - The mast has been glued, sorry I didn't have the camera on hand when we glued it together. It went very smoothly, there were three people to brush the glue on quickly then each timber was placed in position in the cradles (to the left of the mast) and the whole lot was tightened up with about 10 rope twitches. A very kind lady donated her hair dryer which was used to direct air down the hollow - worked a treat the air coming out the end was at about 22C so the epoxy cured nicely despite the rather chilly ambient. After it had dried John planed it down and he now has a lovely light strong mast which will really complement the traditional feel of the boat. Photo at right shows the nice neat tip of the mast.
19/8/10 John has gone to Queensland golfing, and we don't know where he are.....(apologies to the Banjo). So there hasn't been much on the build to report but there has been progress on other fronts.
Finally tracked down a trailer! They are not very common up here and surprisingly it was quite hard to find a suitable one on the internet (at least at an acceptable price). Also I'm a bit wary of buying something second hand on the net when you can't physically inspect it. I was resigned to having to get a new one, and thought we would go down to Coffs for a weekend and see what we could get for our money down there. John's other daughter, Louise, had driven past North Coast Mobile Marine at Urunga and suggested we call in there while we were down so after picking up some oars, hatches and lifejackets at the Coffs chandlers, we toddled off to Urunga. And it just so happened that Sam was expecting a second hand trailer later in the week, which he thought would fit our needs perfectly. He said it would need some tidying up and perhaps some modification to fit the Rogue hull shape but he could let us have it for $650. As Louise and her husband were due down in Coffs later in the week they would be able to inspect it and bring it home, so it all came together rather well. After all that hard work we retired to the OVH at Urunga for a beautiful seafood counter lunch in the beer garden while we enjoyed the balmy 21C. What a tough life.......
Photos show the trailer just after it arrived covered in mud in the left hand photos and after a tub on the right. A huge thank you to John and Louise for bringing it home and also to Sam Perry at North Coast Mobile Marine who is a real straight shooter - nice to deal with and extremely helpful. Another great guy, we will be going back there if we ever need anything he deals in.
Photos show the trailer just after it arrived covered in mud in the left hand photos and after a tub on the right. A huge thank you to John and Louise for bringing it home and also to Sam Perry at North Coast Mobile Marine who is a real straight shooter - nice to deal with and extremely helpful. Another great guy, we will be going back there if we ever need anything he deals in.
And the sail has been ordered. On the recommendation of Andrew Denman we contacted Russell Streckfuss of Storm Bay Sails in Tasmania. Russel makes all of Andrew's sails and originally hails from Coffs Harbour. It would seem that sailing is really in his blood and I felt really comfortable when he was telling me all about his Tammie Norrie build, he really seems to understand traditional boats. More importantly he understands duffers who don't understand anything about boats and sails.......... And he didn't bat an eyelid when I rang him up a couple of days after placing the order "Err Russ, about the colour..........it appears that I didn't consult widely enough........... apparently my marriage could be in some sort of jeopardy......... any chance of a change?" Not a problem. Delivery will be in about a month.
TO BE CONTINUED.........
Total Comments 21
Comments
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We spent about 10 years living in Kalgoorlie and used to go to Esperance on the south coast for Christmas most years. There was a little caravan park at the Duke of Orleans Bay and we would pitch our tent their for a week or ten days. A beaut spot miles from anywhere, you could drive for ages along the beaches and not see another soul. Anyway one year their was a nice gentle surf with some good regular waves up to 6 foot and the kids were out surfing on their boogie boards having a great time catching heaps of great waves when all of a sudden Sarah and I both saw at the same time a half a dozen fins in the water right next to the kids....... it took us about five seconds to realise they were actually dolphins but i reckon its the closest we've ever come to a heart attack.....Actually it ended up being really cute because the dolphins were all up for a surf, so every time the kids caught a wave there were a stack of dolphins in there with them - a real privilege to see that.
It was also a good spot for whale watching, they would come right inshore, Humpbacks and Southern Right whales, splashing around with their big flippers and tails banging the water a very impressive sight. And its not until you are up close that you realise how big they are.....wouldn't want one of those to come up underneath you that's for sure.
But I agree, I don't think there is too much to worry about, just use a bit of commonsense. I'm more worried about stepping on a snake down the paddock.......
Cheers
DanPosted 10-07-2010 at 11:09 AM by Dan Calvert 
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Yep, I was privileged to see, from the air and just off the coast of Port Hedland, a school of dolphins actually kill a shark. They circled the shark like Indians around a wagon train and peeled off, one by one, to charge a head butt into the shark's side. That shark had no chance.
I reckon you're safe against shark attack when a school of dolphins is around.
Killed a few snakes in my time there, up in the wheatbelt country in WA. Often found 'em enjoying the cool inside the outside dunny or in my sleeping quarters. They were of two species: tiger snakes and dugites (western browns). Nasty if they get you but docile enough provided you don't step on 'em or actually corner 'em.
Saw worse in Africa, mate. Got chased around the Chief Pilot's garden party one day by a very angry mamba. Fortunately, it was a green one, not the black. It fell out of a tree just beside the ladies' chat spot. Hilariously funny on reflection. Apparently the black mamba is the only snake in the world that will attack for no fathomable reason. Judging by its green cousin, that could be ... errr ... rather nasty.
P.S. WRT the name for your boat, my suggestion is to replace 'ply' with 'wood' or 'wooden'. For some strange reason, the word 'ply' conjures up a less than favourable image, possibly down to the awful rubbish sold in many a hardware supplier or big chain store as 'plywood'. There is ply and there is marine ply. I would not mention ply as such, even in a name. Maybe even 'especially' in a name. Otherwise, loved the humour.Posted 10-07-2010 at 09:22 PM by Mike 
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Absolutely first class workmanship there. John seems to know his stuff. That is one hell of a stout mast. Thanks for those pics. I intend to use the same technique in building my own spars.
Posted 06-08-2010 at 08:54 PM by Mike
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That trailer looks fine, Dan, and was incredible value for money. Well done.
Thanks for posting on some good contacts for the Aussie members, of which there are indeed a few. It never ceases to amaze me how many members we have who are scattered all over the planet. I had a study plans order recently from a keen enthusiast in Finland.
The Internet certainly has its uses in spreading the good gen far and wide. Love that.
Regards
MikePosted 19-08-2010 at 10:07 PM by Mike
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No worries Mike, bearing in mind that you are trying to keep the site commercial free, I'm happy to pass on a comment about good service or a good product. I think if someone is "having a go" and doing a good job then it's fair to recognise that and hopefully it doesn't cross any boundaries about commercialism on the site.
I think that by the time we modify the trailer, replace a few rollers and get a spare tyre and maybe a lick of paint we won't have much change from $1,000 but we'll see how it goes!Posted 20-08-2010 at 12:53 AM by Dan Calvert
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Looking at your photos above, I would say that a thousand AUD is still excellent value for that trailer, Dan. You certainly wouldn't do that well in the UK, that's for sure.Quote:Originally Posted by Dan Calvert
I think that by the time we modify the trailer, replace a few rollers and get a spare tyre and maybe a lick of paint we won't have much change from $1,000 but we'll see how it goes!Posted 20-08-2010 at 11:31 PM by Mike
