The Goat Island Skiff

[Clinton B Chase]

Some of you know, I am a fan of a number of Michael Storer's designs, such as BETH and his new rowboat that I am building with a group of kids, but especially the Goat for its simplicity, clever design elements that work together so well, its handsomeness, and its great performance reviews. I have eyed the Goat as a inexpensive, quick way to get a person or kids into a sail-and-oar boat and I and others have thought with Michael about modifications (such as adding a mizzen) to make the Goat more usable in something like the Small Reach Regatta. Another forumite, MAM, has a great post on a beautifully built Goat Island Skiff in Georgia:

http://www.woodenboat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=85690&highlight=goat+island+skiff

I am going to cut-and-paste from the Michael Storer Forum a great test of a Goat in the Raid Caledonia by "Joost" in the Netherlands who recently finished up. This test says a lot about the versatility and capability of the Goat Island Skiff. Again, I did not do the Raid, but was impressed with what JOOST learned about his boat through the experience.

Cheers,
Clint

[Clinton B Chase]

All are cut and pasted out of a long poste made by a man screen-named JOOST in the Netherlands.

"After a week of Sail Caledonia making our way across the Great Glen under oar and sail I can confirm that the GIS is a suitable craft for raids!!!

Raid Caledonia is a “race” from the salt water in the West to the salt water in the East across Scotland on the Great Glen waterway which consists of 3 lakes (called lochs in Scotland) and some canal stretches between the lochs adding up to a total of some 96 km.

Having sailed GISwerk only five times prior to our departure from the Netherlands for Scotland 2 weeks ago, the Scottish lochs and canals have truly shown us what a capable boat the GIS is. On Loch Ness we were confronted with fairly strong winds (with gusts above 20 knots and a short steep 4 ft swell) which GISwerk handled beautifully and without much problem under full sail downwind. Probably not a very sensible thing but it definitely made for a most exciting and fast surf and gained us a first place in the leg!

What matters most however is that we had a blast, got to know the boat fairly well sailing and rowing the boat in a lot of different conditions, met some lovely people during the event and enjoyed the fine music, food and drinks the organisation had arranged for."

[Clinton B Chase]

"The GIS is not the fastest rowboat around since it can only handle one pair of oars. It does however not loose that much ground in comparison to an Oughtred Ness Yawl especially when one considers the fact that a Ness Yawl is rowed by two persons using four oars. Our GIS has a crew of two where the crew was steering with the rudder half raised. With the anchor gear on the port side of the boat, the helm could sit on the cockpit floor on the starboard side just in front of the aft deck and next to the tiller to keep the boat balanced.

In the Great Glen most of the time the winds are either fully in the back or are to be confronted head on. This raid we luckily had them in the back for the whole duration of the event which helped during the rowing and made for some very fast and exhilarating sailing (longer downwind sailing with some shorter upwind reaches incorporated in the sailing legs).

With my limited experience sailing the GIS, I am convinced that the fastest course for the GIS is on a reach, but she will plane alright with the wind coming straight from behind when the wind is strong enough. She remains very stable when surfing down waves and there seems to be sufficient volume up front to keep the nose from diving (one person sitting on the thwart, the other person steering the boat from the aft deck in these conditions, otherwise from the gunwale just aft of the thwart).

Up wind she does alright without much water coming over the sides (and I have been told that if a boat doesn’t take on much water up wind on Loch Ness, it is not very likely she will do elsewhere). The Ness Yawl however seems to be faster up wind. Another interesting boat that did especially well in the upwind legs outpacing all other boats was the Pathfinder canoe stern yawl designed (and sailed) by Colin Cumming."

[Clinton B Chase]

"The boat feels very stiff, strong and safe and seems to be capable of handling a lot of wind and waves without any problems at all.

Doing Sail Caledonia means having to go through multiple locks with a lot of boats (10 boats in competition and 3 safety boats in this case) and mooring up to 4 boats next to each other on pontoons as well which left a couple of inevitable (minor) scratches on the hull and mostly the rubbing strips. Some varnish and she will however be as good as new again!

I stupidly decided not to entirely follow MIK’s plans for the rudder stock by leaving the bolts out that go through tiller and stock (yes, I know, I should have followed the plans where I elsewhere have diligently done so and not have gone for the looks of a boltless tiller).

In the smaller waves hardly any touch to the rudder was required; planing down the bigger waves in the middle of Loch Ness in force 5 is a different story however and at one time some corrective tiller action was needed to prevent the boat from breaching and to keep her the right way up. The stresses were however too much for the rudder stock causing a crack from the top of the rudder stock down to the rudder fittings some 2 inches from the top. Immediately after the crack happened we reefed, lifted the rudder a bit to ease the pressure on the rudder stock and raced down to the finish line to take first place in the leg.

Easiest way to repair this damage that I can think of is to pour liquid epoxy in the crack and to clamp it until cured. Then 1 bolt will have to go trough the tiller and lower reinforcements and the rudder stock to reinforce it sufficiently (as per MIK’s plans).

I must stress however that the conditions on Loch Ness were quite severe and I am fairly confident that under more normal conditions (or if we would have put in a reef) this damage would not have happened at all (it is very unlikely that a reasonable thinking person would normally take his/her boat out in the conditions we had anyway).

The hull is stiff and strong enough to take a quite a beating, so no concerns there. The only thing I might do differently if I were to build another one was to use a hard wood for the side frames. The side frames seem to get most beating when using the boat as a sail & oar boat and it therefore seems to be a good idea to strengthen them with a small penalty with regards to weight.

The tiller extension I currently have on the boat uses a bit of rope to connect it to the tiller. The rope however stretches a lot (knots tightening) and it gives a vague feel when steering. To resolve this issue I am going to replace the piece of rope by either a stainless steel bit are a standard dinghy tiller extension."

[Clinton B Chase]

"The sail. The balanced lug rig seems perfect for the boat. I would however appreciate feed back on the following:
- sail might perhaps be a bit smaller for a sail&oar set up (8.5 m2 would be better for single handing and for stronger winds or winds that change in strength rapidly and frequently)
- more reef lines would be advantageous as it would enable to adjust the sail area in a better way in relation to the wind (for an 8.5 m2 sail maybe to reduce the sail in 2 steps to approximately 7 and 5.5 m2)
- the sail I have has a flat cut (Duckworksbbs USA sail). It sets well but I feel that a bit deeper profile would benefit the upwind performance especially in lighter airs.
- I might prefer a sail not laced to the boom as this would mean more adjustment possibilities. The required fatter boom would allow cleats to be attached to the boom which would make for easier reefing
- Next to the downhaul, a kicker might be handy to have more control over the sail shape (following Keyhavenpotter’s set up on his scow)

The GIS might be the perfect boat for single handing raids (perhaps with the aforementioned slightly smaller sail). She would then definitely go faster under oars (transom clearing the water and less weight) and should also pick up some speed under sail."

[Clinton B Chase]

Thanks for reading Joost's words from the Michael Storer Forum.

Folks should stay tuned for more builds on this boat. I may be starting one to have on display at WB Show NEXT YEAR and for next year's Small Reach Regatta, which hopefully won't fall on a special event for my work!

I'll be at WB show this year displaying my rowboat Drake and will have info on the boat, a nice color drawing of a version of the Goat with a mizzen and would love to chat about the Goat.

Cheers,
Clint

[kenjamin]

Hey Clint,

I'm a big fan of the Goat too. Hope to see you at the big show at Mystic. Xena will be there with her bamboo seats and birdwing mast. I'm looking for crew early Sunday morning if you're interested in going for a sail and I'd sure like a turn at the oars in your boat. See ya there!

[Clinton B Chase]

I see this thread was popular...thanks for replying Kenj

Yes, see you at the show. Drake and I will be at the "I built it myself" section. I'm 6'6" and wear a Tilley hat.

Yes, this is a great boat. If I build it, I'll show it next year at the show. I also have the dory to think about...I'll have drawings of it at the show.

The Goat is much like a dory: versatile, fun to do anything in, but it is really meant to sail well. But it's lightness and capacity make it dory like and nice to row too. It goes together without a lot of time, so I like that in my life right now with #2 kid coming soon!

Clint

[StevenBauer]

Have you finished the Goat rig you've been working on yet? Gavin and I would love to have test sails.

We're going to bring Talisman around to her mooring this afternoon if the rain lets up.


Steven