Our story on New Zealander Brad Haye's wooden surfski, aroused plenty of interest including a comment that it was ‘great to see some "SOUL" in the sport'... Well, it seems there's plenty of "soul" down under - here's news of another timber-ski project, this time by Stephen Kelly of Brisbane, Australia.

Soul ski! (Pic: Stephen Kelly)

Having just "laid eyes on Brad Hayes' beautiful timber ski - great job Brad - I thought I should show you an Australian timber ski," he said.

Spec-type ski

"This one is not the ocean racer type but more along the lines of a surf lifesaving spec.  She is only 5.2m long and 520 mm wide. I made her to purely go out and catch a few waves but have paddled her in a couple of 10-12 km races with the Gold Coast Ocean Paddlers.

"More a surf lifesaving type ski" (Pic: Stephen Kelly)

"She weighs in out around 21kg so is a bit heavy but I did not want her to break up punching through the first set so I probably over speced!

"Like Brad this is all my own design - drawn up on a CAD system to what I thought looked good. The next one is on the drawing board and will be an ocean racer type - hopefully as good looking as Brad's."

Stephen is a land surveyor and uses AutoCAD at work - and used it to draw up the plans for the ski.

"I have since discovered the Carlson Design program Hull Designer which is specifically for hard chine plywood boats or similar. I have looked at others on the net and this one appears to be less "bells and whistles" but as proved to be a very useful tool. I am not a naval architect so a lot of the calculations and data are lost on me."

Work of art... (Pic: Stephen Kelly)

 Plans?

"As for the plans," he said, "I have already been asked if I had them available from other paddlers. I guess I do have plans of a sort but as I drew them up for my own use they are a bit rough and a lot of what I did I worked out as I went along. A lot of time I spent on working out how I was going to build what I had drawn as I had never built anything like this before. I guess I could put something together but it would take some tidying up!"

"Attached is an article I wrote (may or may not be published) for Australian Amateur Boatbuilder magazine - the magazine that inspired me to do the project - which gives the full story of design and construct.

"Maybe one day we will see a few more timber craft competing in the ski races!"

Way to go Stephen! 

Ready for the varnish (Pic: Stephen Kelly)

Comments (6)

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nice work
written by Bill Fletcher, March 09, 2008

Your boat looks great. I peridoically use CAD for basic 2 dim, simple drawings. Drawing the boat, and it's curved surfaces is a feat in itself. Regards, Bill.

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written by Jim Murray, March 10, 2008

Jorgan Samson [struer kajak] would be surprised/maybe pleased to see your work and Brad Hayes. The most wonderful boats to paddle on flat water were and are of wood- but so fragile. I suppose sandwich construction is a little stronger, but not much when trying to keep weight down.

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I'd love to see plans!
written by trev hames, March 13, 2008

Hi Stephen,
looks a lot like the Chesapeake 18 foot stitch and glue kayak - with a sit in top.
Did you go heavy with 4mm ply?

The duck bill is fantastic.

Something narrower, longer and lighter next?

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written by Stephen Kelly, March 13, 2008

Thanks for the comments gentlemen.

Trev yes I do have the CLC book and was definitely influenced by their great looking craft. I did use 4mm ply. I have made a timber mal and used 4mm on that so went the same again. In hindsight 3mm would probable do the job and have a good weight saving.

And yes the next one is on the drawing board and is longer and narrower! However the last won took about 3 years from start to finish so do not hold your breath!

Regards

Stephen

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CLC
written by trev hames, March 29, 2008

Hi Stephen,
I've done an 18ft CLC and last time out was just playing in little swells and thinking - I've got this! Then I got dumped by a 6" cross wave in about a foot of water and couldn't get out of the cockpit cause I was sideways instead of upside down and couldn't release the spray skirt. Talk about looking like an idiot.

But it's very capable and I'd like to do a sit in top. So hurry up!

With the mal - did you do a Roy Stewart?

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Timber Mal
written by Stephen Kelly, April 09, 2008

Trev

The mal plans were from Duck Flat Wooden boats in Australia. They were from around the 1940's - ply on western red cedar - hollow of course. The board goes well - pity about the rider!

Regards

Stephen

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