Geelong Wooden Boat Festival

In March 2010 I exhibited at the Geelong Wooden Boat Show. I had three boats there and spoke to many people over the course of the week-end. 

The Baidarka as seen on this site was there, kindly on loan from her owner. The Percy Blandford PBK57 styled in the Geodesic Airolite manner also made an appearance. And one of Platt Montfort's popular designs, a Snowshoe12 was also on display. These three craft were chosen to represent different aspects of Skin-on-Frame (SOF) construction.

The Snowshoe12 is pure Geodesic Airolite, though my interpretation strays from the original design in just two areas - the execution of both decks or breasthooks and the addition of a stylised backrest.

The Percy Blandford PBK57 design was chosen as it is one of the few PBK designs to use bent frames rather than ply cut-outs. I departed from the traditional canvas covering and skinned this example with Dacron and Kevlar roving as per the Geodesic Airolite style. Finished weight is almost halved at 11kg.

The Baidarka is another skin on frame example, this time the skin is Ballistic Nylon coated with a two-pack Urethane. The Baidarka also differs in that the frame is lashed and pegged - no glue nor screws or any other fastenings have been used.