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Bird Island
Even before I started building my first boat my girls were fascinated about the stories I told about visiting the various islands of Moses Lake, Washington, where I grew up. Some of my fondest childhood memories revolve around paddling, rowing, or sailing to Goat Herd Island or Marsh Island, and my girls were intrigued by…
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Utah Lake State Park
For the second weekend in a row I was able to get my boats out on the lake. Like last week all three of my littlest girls came along. This time my son Zachary was able to come with us as well. It was a lot of people for two small boats, but we made…
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Puddle Duck Racer Refit — Leeboard
I am not a naval architect, but designing boats is sort of fun. My pdracer is inexpensive enough that I am more than happy to experiment, and at some point I am hoping that experimentation includes some racing. To me, that’s the beauty of the Puddle Duck Racer. They are easy and inexpensive to build,…
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First Boat Outing 2015
The stars finally aligned, and I got my boats out on the water for the first time this year. The day got off to an inauspicious start. Eliza had a bad cough, Abby wasn’t feeling well, and Stella, well Stella is always a little difficult. However, Eliza and Abby have been dying to try the…
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Puddle Duck Racer Refit — Gunter Rig
Nephi’s Courage sports a nifty gunter rig, and I really like it. The rig allows me to sport a ridiculous amount of sail area on spars made from 12 foot 2×6 boards. Yes, 12 foot spars don’t fit in the boat, but they do fit well on top of my minivan. Of all of the…
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Serial Boat Builder
This Saturday the girls and I finished our second boat. The tentative name is “Lizer Pizer,” but Eliza doesn’t get to officially name her boat until I have built one for Abigail as well (I am going to vote for Fabbylosa for that one).
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Michalak Oars
I had always planned on a set of oars for Nephi’s Courage. I drew oar locks into the plans, and I purchased an inexpensive set of nylon oarlocks from Duckworks when I made my big order from them, and I even installed the oar locks when I built the boat. It turned out to be…
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Puddle Duck Refit — Rudder
I built my puddle duck racer with a Michalak-style kick up rudder, and I still think that was a pretty good choice. However, the place where I typically launch is shallow for a good distance, and I did not take the time to install a lanyard that would allow me to pull the rudder blade…
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New Sail Boat Cart
The weather here in Provo has been beautiful. In fact, it has been so beautiful that I am starting to believe that maybe I will be able to get out on the water sooner rather than later. With that in mind I decided that instead of painting the mouse boat today (more on that in…
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Nephi’s Courage
In October of 2013 I started building an 8 foot sail boat. Or, at least that was when I made the first cut in the wood that I purchased. I had decided to build a boat after spending some time looking at the prices of new sail boats. I now think that if I had…