Sunday 24 July 2016

Katie As Done Down Under

Regular Viewers will be acquainted with Katie Beardie my sixteen foot sailing paddling expedition canoe, you might even have read about her in Watercraft Magazine or seen her at Beale Park Boat Show.  Its all here in her very own Katie Beardie.  page .  


I have been asked a few times whether there are any plans available so that people could build their very own Katie.  The answer has always been, well not really. As you can read over on Katie's page there never were any proper plans, I've just pointed people towards the two pieces of A4 Chris Waite provided and said, go ahead if you are brave enough.

Over on the other side of the world serial boat builder Rob Blackburn was looking for his next build and after a shortish conversation decided to take up the challenge.

Rob is going his own way with his version of Katie, the hull is the same but the deck, hatches and cockpit are of his own devising. 

Now while I did my initial testing under the full media glare of the HBBR paparazzi,  


Rob has had his own special test tank built in his back yard. 
They don't mess around in the antipodes you know. 
Here he sensibly gets his attractive helper to test the stability while he manfully stands ready to prevent a capsize. 


Rob has devised a roller furling lug sail, which seems eminently sensible and he is also fitting electric bilge pumps for when he gets the inevitable dunking. 

There has been a lot of progress recently with paint being applied and all the little fiddly jobs being done so a Southern Hemisphere Spring Splash should be happening quite soon. 



I'll keep you posted. 

2 comments:

frank said...

just wondering how you set the keel spring / rocker?
I see no indication on the plans. I guess it wouldn't be much - but how did you fiddle it in 3D ?
regards,
frank

Graham Neil said...

Hi Frank.
The "keel" from the forefoot to midships is straight, the bottom then curves up towards the stern. The rocker is set when the curved sides are stitched on to the bottom panels. This pulls the bottom into a curve. When she's in the water the trim settles her down so that the greatest draught is midships and she effectively has rocker over her full length. Hope that all makes sense, regards Graham.