Products, designs, opinions and concepts on this page have passed the first taste as being worthy of your attention. I cannot however take responsiblity for the eventual outcome of purchasing, using or incorporting any of these.
WOODENBOATS
FOR EAST TIMOR
A Mk 11 'Tat Canoe" parked outside Barry and Michele-Marie Wicks home on the Clarence River near the New South Wales Border with Queensland in Australia. She looks very boxy and almost absurdly simple but this boat is intended to be effective rather than pretty.
From another angle, Barry and friend leaning on the gunwale gives you an idea of just how big these boats are. Intended to be worked by two or three and pushed buy a low powered outboard they have to be efficient.
A view from aft showing the outboard well, this protects the motor when fishing, much reduces the chance of swamping the carburetor or ignition, and is long enough to swing the motor right up inside when running up on the beach in surf. The sides of the well are closed in to make buoyancy tanks to support the motor weight if the boat is swamped, there is another large air tank forward to ensure that she is recoverable if the worst happens.
Off the trailer, made from mostly 9mm ( 3/8) construction ply she is quite light for her size. This stretch of water is only one arm of the Clarence river, I'd say 3 or 400 yards wide here and from here there is something like a hundred and seventy miles of estuary upstream, the area is quite sparsely settled and from the top of the lookout on the hill above McLean township the whole thing looks just about like paradise.
Barry at the helm, Sarina and Denny enjoying the ride. The old Tohatsu 3. 5 is kicking her along at a really good pace. Although we did not have a log 1 estimated from the wave spacing that she was doing between 6 and 7 knots. The clean wake does not give a realistic indication of her speed.
Speed run! The wake is very flat and she is only squatting slightly. We had her out a few minutes later with four and there was no noticeable change in trim or speed.
WOODENBOATS
