John’s Blogspot Archive

Its off to SCAMP Camp again, the clinic has given me a conditional clearance, in practical terms that means that I'm ok and my health insurance is...

Tool test. Now and again I get power tools for testing in return for writing up publicity stories for magazines, on odd occasions I’ve gone back to...

Back to work on SEI. With the bottom panel all scarfed up and the edges faired off with a hand plane it was time to cut the daggerboard case slot...

Boatbuilding again. “Cold” here in the north of New Zealand only means a vest and a reasonably thick sweater.  Epoxy still sets ok, but with...

Ships, and dogs both need a run every now and again.  Come to think of it so do their owners! This mornings weather forecast made “lousy” look...

Some years back a US East coast resident asked me to to design a sail and oar cruising boat. The brief was for a boat that would suit a wide variety...

Here in the Southern Hemisphere its winter of course.  So what am I doing instead of going sailing? Around the shortest day here in NZ we tend...

  Change of Season. Well, the shortest day has just gone past, today was 37 seconds longer,  gosh it made a difference! (heh!) ...

Cleaning her bottom. There is much variation in tidal heights here, Its springs right now, and of course not only are the high tides high, but the...

I really enjoy solo sailing, that’s my “time out” from the world. I’ve not been able to do much of that for a while, but next summer is looking...

 REALLY big! This is the superyacht M5.  Her mast is 88.5m high, read on. Those tiny things on the bow just inside the outer forestay are...

Its Sunday, what with one thing and another the past week has been a very quiet one on the boatbuilding front, I’ve cut the notches for the seat...