More photos of Fleet the planing version of Flint

The first example of Fleet, the planing hull version of Flint is getting much closer to launch day. In fact she has already been in the water to allow the marking of the waterline in preparation for the painting of the boot top - empirical data gathering!

Painting has gone ahead at a great rate, using the skills of people who normally apply coatings to aeroplanes and helicopters.

First real opportunity to view the hullform in the flesh.

 The hull shape is similar to the designs of the late William H. Hand, said to have been the inventor of the vee-bottomed motorboat. What made the William Hand designs significant was the way they would handle well at lower speeds when throttled back. Weston Farmer said of them, "They were steerable throughout their entire range of speed in following seas. The full planing boat is a dog in this department. Unless they are banging along full bore, you cannot steer them. And full bore in some seaways with this type of boat, demands Polident for the helmsmans teeth and metal brassiers for the ladies." ("From My Old Boat Shop" International Marine 1979.) Now, I think planing hull design has come some way since Weston Farmer formed his opinion, and there are some very fine designs around for full planing hulls, but the fact remains that for moderate planing and semi-planing speeds, a long, narrow Hand-style hull can be superb.

Getting ready for a trip down to the boat ramp for waterline marking. Gunwales are masked, as they will be finished bright using Deks Olje #1

First splash. Chines dont even touch the water when light. I hope that with a single oarsman on the forward thwart, the boat will be reasonably pleasant to row, even though she is a planing hull. Trim will be everything with passengers aboard.

25 litres of water in the aft well to represent the outboard and fuel, plus two people. The fellow on the helmsmans thwart is quite light, but the trim is very close to that predicted on the plans.

After the floatation tests, marks were made to allow masking-off for the boot-top.

Note the chinagraph pencil marks at the base of the stem.

Boot top masked ready for topside painting

Here you can visualise the fine, sharp lines up forard - she should give a smooth ride at moderate speed in a chop.

Almost ready for the water - just the oiling of the gunwales and breakwater/coaming to go. Test motor will most likely be a 6HP 4-stroke, but that is to be confirmed.

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Flint a capable boat

Eddie Guy with the very first Flint

I think it was sometime in 2004 that Eddie Guy came to me for a new rowing and small outboard boat. Eddie lived on an island in Moreton Bay, and being an experienced waterman, he used small boats to travel to the mainland, in all sorts of weather, to pick-up supplies. His previous boat was a stitch-and-glue, flat-bottomed rowing boat which he had built from plans. The design is well-known, and of a similar size to Flint with an emphasis on rowing, but with provision for mounting a very small outboard. The problem was that Eddie found her very difficult to keep tracking in a cross-wind or cross-sea, and the pounding was driving him crazy.

As a result of Eddies query about a replacement boat, I drew Flint. The construction was the same as the flat-bottomed boat he was using - stitch-and-glue from developed panel shapes - but my design incorporated a V-bottom with extremely fine and sharp foreward sections in an attempt to avoid the pounding problems Eddie had encountered. The radical part was the amount of twist and bend in the bottom panels, which takes developable plywood panels to the limit. As it turned out, eddie said that, "....the boat just fell together..." Now Eddie is a very capable builder, but my experience has been that as long as you use good-quality plywood of the correct thickness, the boat is a breeze to build.

Very simple construction - no mold or strongback required

Eddie liked his boat very much, finding that she handled the choppy conditions of Moreton Bay well, without pounding, and tracking well.

I subsequently built one for another customer, and had the opportunity to test her.

Car-topping was easy...

...boat was light...

...rowed nicely...

...and to my eyes at least, looked pretty.

There have been a lot of Flints built, and generally they get used. One person who has really inspired me is Alec Morgan. Alec has done a number of muti-day rowing expeditions and has also fitted his Flint with a polytarp "crab claw" rig. He doesnt use a centreboard or lee-board - just relies on her sharp sections and a steering oar for lateral resistance.

Alecs rig

Beachcruising under oars - healthy for mind as well as body

Alec has just sent through a nice email about a recent trip - only half-a-day, but it goes to show just what good fun can be had in a very short time, using minimal resources - very impressive

Hi Ross

In this part of the world its that time of the year when the dominant swells travel north with the humpbacks and the estuary bars are safer for small craft going to sea.  A couple of weekends ago I set off early to row from Currumbin Creek to Point Danger.  With forecast 0.8 metre swells and light to moderate winds out of the south I packed the sail for a cruise on the return run.

Everything went to plan except for 10 or so seconds where the gps records a 15kph spike surfing a wave back in through the rivermouth  No harm done but a few exciting moments and half a dozen scoops with the bailer.

The gap in track is a result of me not knowing how to pause while taking photos.

26.06.2011

Distance:  20.46km

Time:  3:32:10

Max speed:  15km/h

Ave Speed:  6 km/h

Alecs Journey

An early start from Thrower Drive ramp in Currumbin Creek just beating the sun to the water.  The wind blew off the land from the southwest all morning hence the outward track hugging the coast sitting a 100 metres or so out from the surf zone.

My offshore rig includes a safety pack of the usual kit, V Sheet, flares, mirror, whistle boarding ladder, torch.  The kit can be reached from either side of the boat or when upturned sliding on the lighter red line.
The thicker rope tied to the centre mounted cleat on the transom serves as a boarding ladder if Im in the deep.  The underseat tanks are filled with sealed plastic softdrink bottles.  I wear a floatation vest through the surf.  I have bailer attached on stretch cord at the ready in a fishing rod holder.

Forgive the tardy stitching on the leathers.  The twine was a kite string I had so I waxed it afterwards with surf wax to provide some protection.  I planed the oars down to take out some weight and add a little spring so fitting was a bit harder than I planned.  The lanyard around the rowlock is a thing I do when sailing as I often drag an oar to leeward while standing and using my weight to steer. I get them at conferences all the time and they have handy little clips on them.  Having the oar in the water and ready means I often only have to twist the blade slightly to pull the bow off the wind and get her tracking again.  The trailing oar also functions as the leeboard when reaching.
Photo is looking north to Burleigh Heads (Bluff in centre of picture) with Surfers paradise further to the north.

Not much surf for the boardriders at Snapper Rocks the home of the Quiksilver Pro surfing contest.  To the right of the twin pines on the hill in the centre you can just make out the Point Danger lighthouse that sits on the border of NSW and Qld.

Making for home.  Wind remained in the sou-west.  Sun shining.  Muscles warm.  Lots of 9 km/h + readings on this leg.

Happy happy Alec

Well, what more encouragement do you need? Low-cost boating at its best, low carbon foot-print, good exercise, and rest for the mind.

Ive drawn two rigs for Flint but her primary function is that of a rowing boat. A small outboard will push her nicely at semi-displacement speeds.

Here is Steve Dorrington in New Zealand doing 6.3 knots by GPS with a 35 year-old British Seagull 40-plus 2.5hp

Free study plans are available on my website in the designs section.

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Fleet a Planing Hull Version of Flint

Back in about 2003 I was asked to design a rowing/small outboard boat for operations in a short, steep chop, with the emphasis on lack of pounding. The resulting boat, named Flint, has been very successful and popular. She is very easy to build - if you follow the assembly sequence - and a distictive feature of her hull is the fine, hollow sections in the forward part of the boat. What is amazing is that this shape can be produced from a single developed plywood panel. I have tried to achieve this sort of shape in the past using conventional projection of developable panels, but the geometry required to produce a hollow shape has always defeated me. The arrival of computer programs which have the ability to do the mathematics saved me from myself!

Proof that the hollow sections come from a single panel of plywood

The very first Flint, built by Eddie Guy

In recent times I have been approached by a number of people who have wanted to build a planing version of Flint. The hull of the original rowing/sailing/small outboard version is of the displacement type, although her fine sections and high length-to-breadth ratio mean that she can be pushed faster than her theoetical displacement speed which is 5 knots. On launching day we got her to 6.1 knots with two adults and two teenagers onboard, using a 2hp Yamaha at part throttle. Steve Dorrington got his to a speed of 6.2 knots under the urge of British Seagull 40-plus - certainly an achievement!

Steve Dorrington measuring his 6.2 Seagull-knots using a GPS. Note how Steve has to sit on the midships thwart in order to retain proper trim. In the case of the planing version, a helms-person should be able to sit aft and operate the outboard without a tiller extension.

Bruce Erney, on the east coast of the USA modified his Flint to take a 6hp motor and got her up to 17 knots, I think, but he needed to put trim tabs on to overcome the tendency of the displacement hull to point her bow at the sky. I was concerned about the exercise, but Bruce had many successful trips while fishing in the big waters.

Bruce Erneys trim-tabs

One of Bruces many fishing trips in his modified Flint

Ive made a number of attempts at drawing a planing version of Flint and things were brought to a head this week when a friend/customer for whom I have great respect, asked me for a semi-disposable planing power boat which he and a friend could build over a weekend or two, to be powered by a 5hp outboard. He looked at few drawings I had on hand, and chose a preliminary sketch of a planing version of Flint, which I drew as a discussion piece for Rick Hayhoe a number of months ago.

Lines Drawing of the original Flint

Lines drawing of the planing version, now called Fleet

In the above drawings you can see the substantial changes made to the shape of the hull aft of the midsection. I have retained the fine, hollow forward sections, although Ive increased the rake of the stem very slightly in order to reduce the severity of the bending and twisting of the plywood panels. With good-quality ply the hull is easy to assemble, but some people still insist on using poor-quality sheets in order to save a dollar, and end up encountering problems - hence the alteration.

My aim with this design is to retain the extemely light and simple style of hull as seen with the original Flint, and to have her run efficiently with nothing larger than a 4hp motor. This is important in my part of the world because we can operate with up to, and including, 4hp without needing to register the boat. The customer wants to use a 5hp, and specifically asked for a water-shedding foredeck and side decks under which he can store fishing gear. He intends taking her into the open Pacific off the Queensland coast here in Australia, and so adequate emergency floatation is essential. His boat will have built-in buoyancy under the sternsheets (aft seating which extends aft in a horseshoe arrangement),  under the midships thwart, and under the large foredeck. We have not finalised details of the arrangement, but here is a very preliminary sketch with the decks and seating shown in blue.

Here is a very sketchy drawing showing one idea of an internal layout. The final version is a fair way off yet, I think. The decks have very pronounced camber to aid in water shedding (those odd looking bits at the bottom are just working drawings to establish the height of the inner edges of the side decks at each station). Note how the cambered foredeck makes the sheer look much flatter than in the undecked original - this is an optical illusion. 

This little article should give some indication of just how much the character of a boat must be changed when the mode of operation is altered. However, a completely open version with a very small motor may retain the spartan feel of the original, while still performing in the semi-planing and planing modes. When the plans are complete and the boat tested, Ill post more details. For those who want to read more about the original Flint follow this link and this link.

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Sailing Flint

Flint is one of my favourite designs, having shown that she is one of those unusual craft which can work effectively as a rowboat, a motorboat, and as a sailing boat. You can read more about her in this post and several others which you can find by using the search function of the blog.

Flint, showing a handsome profile....

.....and her deep and sharp entry lines

Here she is with a very heavy load, doing 6.1 knots (by GPS) with a Yamaha 2 hp at reduced throttle

At the request of a number of people, I designed three different sailing rigs to go into Flint,

Flints standard rig

but before any of my sail-plans were tested, a number of Flint customers had gone their own way with successful results.

Alec Morgans widely travelled Flint, here displaying her surprisingly successful Crab Claw rig

First off the mark was Alec Morgan, who has travelled extensively on South Queensland waters here in Australia, regularly departing and arriving through ocean surf. Alec made a Crab Claw rig using polytarp, with surprisingly successful results. There is no daggerboard, and the only lateral plane is supplied by the sharp entry lines up forárd.

Flint on the east coast of USA showing off her ex-sailing canoe rig

Above is a photo of Flint being sailed by a gentleman on the east coast of the US. Im ashamed to say that Im unable to locate the mans name at the moment, but I remember that he had sailed her with satisfaction in a number of locations.

Brian Guzas built a Flint in America, and he was one of a number of people who asked about the possibility of rigging her with an un-stayed balance lug rig. I did some extra drawings for such an arrangement, but I had to lose the forward rowing location in order to fit a foredeck, buoyancy compartment, and mast partner. Brian finished his boat, and here are some photos of the result.

Brians boat, Keel Basa, displaying her foredeck and buoyancy compartment

Brian looking relaxed

Keel Basa running downwind with her free-standing rig

Very recently, Ive finally had the opportunity to test sail a Flint with the standard rig fitted. She was built by first-timer Adam Smith, who has been using her in her rowing and electric motoring configuration with great satisfaction. Adam is an innovative and determined character, and he decided to make his own sail, using material from an old catamaran or Sailfish sail. Not only that, but he sewed the sail by hand!

I helped Adam rig his boat, and I very diplomatically (I think) told him not to expect too much from his home-made sail, but I had to eat humble pie, as the boat performed extremely well on her first sailing outing.

That is me trying out the standard rig for the first time. A pivoting tiller extension would be helpful.

In the gusts she was easily managed, and the flaring sides kept her surprisingly dry despite the lack of side decks.

Neither Adam nor I are light-weights, but the boat sailed fast and remained dry in the gusty conditions. The water was a lot more choppy than the photos indicate.

The sailing experience was highly satisfactory, and I was also very pleased indeed to find that the very light rig (made possible due to the stayed mast, which is only 40mm (1-5/8") in diameter), stores away to one side in the boat with minimal interference.

Flint can be built from only four sheets of 6mm (1/4") ply, plus a small amount of 12mm (1/2") ply for rudder, daggerboard and transom.

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Flint and Alby Sailing Videos

Ive written a fair amount about a group of my designs which make use of a very simple boat-building method, know by a range of names including "Stitch-and-Glue", "Taped-Seam", "Tack-and-Tape", "Composite-Chine", and so on.

A taped-seam hull under construction - in this case a hull made from my First Mate design.

There are some significant advantages associated with this construction method, with notable ones being:-

• if properly designed, hull panels can be marked directly onto the sheets of plywood used in the boats construction;
• the builder can produce a "flat-pack" kit ahead of time, which allows those who have limited building space to get a head-start on the job;
• again, if the boat has been properly designed, accurately marked, and carefully cut, the hull can be built without a fixed strong-back and station mould assembly - a very significant saving in time and resources;
• the amount of timber framing in the hull can be reduced to a minimum, saving cost, reducing weight, and avoiding rot-traps - all without sacrifice in strength;
• the vulnerable edge-grain of the plywood is exceptionally well protected within a cocoon of thickened epoxy and glass firbes;
• sanding, painting, and maintenance are all made easier due to the clean interior (and exterior) of the hull.

Please do not get me wrong - I am not advocating this system over other methods of construction. All construction methods have advantages and disadvantages, and every boat design and building project must be carefully considered in the light of many compromises. What I am saying is that taped-seam/stitch-and-glue/composite chine should be given the respect that it deserves.

I continue to design boats to be built glued-lapstrake (glued-clinker), glued-strip-plank, cold-moulded, and taped-seam. Frequently the design itself determines which method will be the most appropriate, and it is very important that the builder understands the design, materials, and application very clearly. Education is the word!

Here are two video clips of taped-seam (stitch-and-glue etc) boats under sail.

The first is a clip shot by Paul Hernes, a Phoenix III owner-builder, showing a boat built to my Flint design by Paul McShea. Flint was designed primarily to be a rowing boat, but her hull shape assumes that some will feel the need to sail her, and/or mount a small outboard motor. The plans include details for a sailing rig, daggerboard and rudder. However, Paul McShea had a Heron rig on hand, and it happens to be just about the right size and shape for Flint.

https://vimeo.com/111257166

Ive also been able to shoot a short clip showing my Alby design under sail, showing-off her tanbark-coloured balance lugsail. There are plenty of eight foot long pram dinghies in the world, but what is important about Alby is that she has an unusually large carrying capacity, and due to the design of her chine-line, she is still able to travel quite fast while leaving a relatively flat wake. Both Alby and Flint have easily-driven hulls for their size.

This particular Alby carries a short foredeck, which is a variation from the plans - something I do not recommend.

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Another Flint Launching

Ive just received an email from Flint builder, Ken Newey advising me of another launching of what is turning out to be a very popular design. Most of the boats built to the Flint design have been constructed by amateurs, and Im very happy to say that as long as decent quality ply is used, the boats go together fine. This is very gratifying, considering the extreme amount of twist in the developable panels used for the hull construction. The resulting shape shows lots of curce and concavity, which makes for a smooth ride in choppy conditions.

Photo of the first Flint, launched about five years ago?

Here is the text of Kens email: -
Hi Ross,

I notice you have other completed Flint builds on your website and thought it appropriate to send you a shot of mine. It took a bit longer than hoped to complete, but thats only because I didnt really do anything during winter and only got back into finishing it in October/November. As it is, its not quite complete - I am in the process of painting it - Ill follow up with another shot when its all done.

First time out (and each time since) I have had the whole family on board (~200kg) and used a 2hp Honda to push it along - cant really saw how fast I went but it seemed to be quite reasonable. I look forward to taking it out on my own. Final weight is estimated to be about 60kg, but you can see I have added to the gunwales.

I am also thinking about setting up the sailing rig and have built (not yet glued up) a mast using the birds mouth technique. The staves are roughly 20mm x 10mm so the finished mast should be around 50mm in diameter. The timber for the mast came from a 1.2m length of oregon verandah post ripped into 28 strips which were then scarfed to produce 8 x 3.5m staves. Not sure how this will turn out - but it was pretty simple to make. I will be using a timber plug in each end (protruding at the tip to take loops for the forestay and shrouds). Does it need any other internal plugs for hardware? I dont think so but I am working it out as I go along.

Regards,

Ken Newey

Kens New Flint, showing her nicely made inwales. Boat yet to be painted?

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FLINT A Major Journey Planned

Some while ago, I wrote a post about my rowing boat design Flint, in which I described the activities of Alec Morgan. Alec has been using his Flint heavily over the years and has made some significant coastal journeys in the area between the Gold Coast and Brisbane on Australias east coast.

Alecs Flint, photgraphed by him during a beachcruising trip

Alec is now setting up for his most ambitious trip yet, and has started a Blog about the expedition.

You can find Alecs Blog here.

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