Amphora, Alexander Gudschinsky, AK

This Amphora was built by Alexander Gudschinsky, with help from his sister Laura and father Mark. If you have a copy of The Amphora, you'll understand the shot above on the right! Great job, and a new look for our boats; I haven't ever seen this paint scheme on a boat. Nice job Alexander!

A note from Mr. Guschinsky about the project:

Here is Alexander Gudschinsky's Swimmer. Built by Alexander with help
from his sister Laura, and Dad.

Alexander and Laura did all of the lofting. Alexander did all of the
cutting but he made Dad do most of the sanding. The design for the paint
job is 100% Alexander's.

He was in a race to complete his boat with the builders of the Amphora
Dragon, so he ended up launching in the ice filled waters of the Chena
River in Fairbanks Alaska. The race isn't finished though. There is an
ongoing challange to see which Capian and Crew can find the most sunken
artifacts by summers end.

Thanks

Mark Gudschinsky

Wow — We didn't expect to see any of the little Amphora being built again, as the book that design was in went out of print decades ago. Nonetheless, at least three have been built this early 2004 season! Very cool; the Amphora is one of our favorites. We may just have to bring the plan back...In the meantime, look on www.abe.com for used copies of The Amphora, by Peter Stevenson. It was the second book in a trilogy of project books for younger builders (ten and up about), along with The Buffy-Porson (how to build a coaster car) and Farming In Boxes (a greenhouse project.)

Mr. Matthews sent us several pics of his beautiful Amphora above, so we put them on a separate page: Click Here to see the photos!

More Amphorae!

Another well-earned rest!

Amphora, The Lucketts, MI

Another of 2004's season of Amphorae. The Dragon was built by the two young fellows Sam and Ben above (looking justifiably proud of their new craft!) There was a bit of a race this spring between two groups of young builders, the Luckett's in Michigan and the Gudschinskys in Alaska! The Alaskan crew got their boat in the water a nose ahead, but we think both groups are winners! Well done to you all, and we look forward to more shots when you start exploring this summer!

Model Weekender, Paul Douglass, WA

This model was based on Mr. Kevin Green's paper models which can be found here. A nice job, and we'll let the builder dsescribe it:

Attached are a couple pictures of a model weekender I built out of balsa using Mr. Kevin Green's plans. I tried to build it as I would my full sized Weekender I hope to build in the near future (I have plans #912). I need to work the sail over a bit, I'm not much when it comes to sewing. Sure had fun working on it. This winter I would like to do the Pocket Cruiser and Vacationer.

Paul Douglass
Benton City, Washington

The Caliban, builder unknown

These are pretty surprising shots: The boat design is The Caliban, one of Peter Stevenson's very early works. It was the first of his designs featured in a magazine, Boating if I remember correctly. This was before we started handling the plans sales ourselves, and was probably at the tail-end of the 1960's.

These shots were sent to us by a person who had seen this boat posted for sale on the net. He wondered if we still had plans, which unfortunately we don't (not even a copy for our archives — if anyone out there has a set they'd be willing to lend or sell, let us know!) We were glad to get the shots though. It looks like the boat was well enjoyed!

Weekender Models, Robert Reyner, MT

These three Weekender models are based on Mr. Green's paper models again. The smallest is the paper one, then a 200% and a 400% version of each of those (the scales are 1/32, 1/16, and 1/8.) The largest is rudder-only radio control, which is a very fun and relaxing way to have fun. We have never done an R/C Weekender ourselves, but this is similar to what we'd do if we did one: a little ballast has to be added to the model as the scale-effect doesn't allow a direct copy, it would also help to enlarge the rudder slightly for the model. The properties of air and water are such that designs don't work in a linear fashion between sizes of things: a one-foot model behaves differently than a one-hudred-foot one.

A builder sent us this shot of his very modified Mini-Cat. It looks like a good fishing platform. We did some experiments with electric multihulls for fishing some years ago and found that the fish were very friendly for some reason. Perhaps the quiet drive and the shapes of the hulls? Who knows; they certainly catch fish well!

Click Here to watch a 1.3M Quicktime movie of this fishing-cat in action!

Bass Boat, E.H. Jatin, Surinam!

This was a surprise: a very nicely done Bass Boat being used as a river ambulence by a clinic in Surinam (north part of South America). Although we no longer sell the Bass Boat plans, we thought people might get a kick out of this.

Bass Boat, Gerard Petrella

"...a scan of my recently completed Bass boat. I spent about two months working on it during the
summer. I worked on it at my leisure that s why it took me two months, I could have completed it much faster if I would have concentrated on it. As you can see in the scan I really loaded it with options, amateur radio,marine ship to shore, airiated live wells, deluxe swivel seats, teleflex steering, 15 horse electric start Johnson out board, and a Johnson trolling motor. The boat handles well but I would like to use a bigger motor, but the flat bottom makes for a bumpy ride at fast speeds. I finished the boat with oil base paint and did not elect to fiberglass the hull. It has not taken on any water, I also used non snag marine carpeting in the cockpit and on the casting decks. As I said before, I am very pleased with the boat. I have sent for your Kayak plans and I am looking forward to building that in the near future. I also have your mini cat plans but just never got a round to building one. I am to busy playing with my other toy as my wife calls it. I will send you a scan of it also, I built it back in 1987 and it flys great."

Send e-mail to: gerard@tristate.pgh.net

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