We have launched our newest boat, a glued plywood lapstrake sailing dinghy based on the late Iain Oughtred’s Gannet design. We had a busy day of getting the boat out of the shed on June 29, 2024, and mounting the seats, floorboards, and hardware, but didn’t quite get the sailing rig up – that was done the following Saturday.
Before that, we had a few weeks of painting and varnishing, with members coming in during the week to apply coats. Each new bit of paint raised the anticipation level!
Once the interior, deck and topsides were painted, we turned the hull over to get at the centreboard slot, which needed to be trimmed to final width. Our donated Milwaukee router did the job nicely.
Meanwhile, a bunch of items were being worked on, getting them ready for installation. A beautiful set of gumwood cleats were made (from the off-cuts of the cap rail of a boat in our harbour), oars were leathered, floorboards oiled, and hatch toggles shaped.
One of our members made a stencil to paint the name, and it worked nicely – we got a really good result, with only minor touchups. After painting on the name, we applied a couple more coats of varnish, which yellowed the name a bit more than we expected, so before launching, we used the stencil again to mask for a very light coat of spray – that was a bit nerve-wracking!!
Launch day was a flurry of teamwork with bringing the boat out and installing all the centreboard and as much hardware as we could. The extraction went smoothly, with only a minor scrape as rub-rail scraped the top of the door opening.
Around the designated time, we determined that the rig would not be ready for launch, but the hull was good to go. We repositioned it to the launch site, said our words, christened the boat, offered a drop to Poseidon, and proceeded to introduce the boat to the water.
After that, all that was left to do that day was eat, drink, and row the boat! Many people got a turn at the oars, and after the initial meandering row between the moored boats, we figured out that the centreboard and rudder made it a lot easier to hold a straight course. The rudder was found to be delightfully responsive, and we enjoyed testing the scalpel-like accuracy of course changes.
We eventually and reluctantly left the boat at the dock, and made plans for rigging the boat the following week. But not before trying out the mast in place.
One week later we had another intense session of preparing all the parts of the rig – finding suitable (but temporary) ropes, bending on the sails, stepping the mast, checking the alignment of the mast, restepping the mast, rechecking the alignment, and finally installing the mast step for real. We dug through our stash of hardware and got enough suitable pieces to be able to sail the boat.
Then it was time to hoist the sails, lower the sails, and make some adjustments until we were satisfied. The sails were provided by one of our members who had been storing them for 30 years or so, from one of his previous boats – they’re slightly undersized, but that’s not a bad thing to start with – we may be altering or replacing them later.
And finally, we were able to sail the boat, and sail we did!!!
She sails like an absolute dream, as good or better than we had imagined and hoped for!!! We got some very nice breezes to test her – everything from very light to “a nice stiff breeze”, and she handled it all so well! With four people aboard, she was shrugging off the load and sailing well. She’s roomy and comfortable, stable and fast, just as we had hoped – we are immensely satisfied with this wonderful boat!!
There are videos and more photos of the whole process and the launch days on our Google Photos album. Or come down to the dock to see the boat for yourself!
Oarlock & Sail Wooden Boat Club 