SANDING TOOLS

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A GRACEFUL CONVERSION

By John Welsford
One of the things I enjoy about cruising is sneaking up into the heads of creek and muddy beaches to seek out the really interesting boats. This lovely creature was on the beach near the ferry at Russell Island, Moreton Bay near Brisbane. An educated guess would suggest that she is a conversion from a retired Aussie Four oared surfboat. Cold moulded from wood she is light and strong, of a shape that might run as fast as 15 knots before the fine stem would squat too far to control, and she would need very little power to drive even with quite a load.
Her motor was ( I think, the mud was so soft I was knee deep before I could get really close) a 25 hp Honda so she would be very quiet under way, the outrigger hull from ply, the outrigger poles from carbon fibre poles and the superstructure from plywood bonded in with epoxy fillets.
Whoever did the conversion has a good eye for proportion as the cabin really looks the part and it was a few minutes before I caught on to the origin of the hull and all parts of the vessel look well matched to the others.
Russell Island is one of the group of islands amid the maze of channels between Stradbroke Island and the mainland between the Gold Coast and Brisbane's Southern suburbs, a lot of people live out here and commute to the carparks and buses on the mainland and I can imagine a brief case and polished shoes being slung into the cabin as a harassed office worker climbs aboard for a dose of sanity as he heads out of the marina on the last leg of the trip home.
Well done, whoever you are.