oz goose sailboat review

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Oz goose vs passage maker?

Discussion in ' Wooden Boat Building and Restoration ' started by Jpav , Jan 13, 2021 .

Jpav New Member

Hi I am new to this forum and am looking for advice on my first boat build. The two designs that appeal to me the most are the oz goose and the passage maker dinghy. I have very little experience sailing so something that is fun and easy to learn on would be a plus. I want something that can comfortably carry about 700 pounds. It will primarily be a sail boat but something that rows nice would be good as well. I am thinking that I would rig it with ether a lug or a lateen sail, recommendations in that department would be helpful as well. Any advice would be appreciated, including other options for boat design or sail rig thanks.  

bajansailor Marine Surveyor

Welcome to the Forum Jpav. For general reference for other readers, here is a link to the Oz Goose - Oz Goose Sailboat - Cheap Simple Plywood Boat https://www.opengoose.com/ And a link to the Passagemaker Dinghy from CLC. The Passagemaker Dinghy: Only 90 Pounds! https://www.clcboats.com/modules/catalog/boat.php?category_qn=wooden-sailboat-kits&subcat_qn=passagemaker&code=passagemaker-dinghy-sailboat-kit The Oz Goose would probably be easier to build, while the Passagemaker would probably be nicer to row (and to sail), and 'looks' more like a stereotype classic dinghy.  

messabout Senior Member

The Oz goose is about as simple a build as you can imagine. The Passagemaker is far more sophisticated but is a more complicated build. Passagemaker might be the better choice if used in rougher weather. If budget considerations are important then the Oz Goose is the clear winner.  

upchurchmr Senior Member

Will either one of these really take 700#?  

upchurchmr said: ↑ Will either one of these really take 700#? Click to expand...

bajansailor said: ↑ That is a good point which I had overlooked - Jpav, why would you want to have such a large carrying capacity? 700 lbs is about the weight of 4 large adults, and they would all be getting in each other's way terribly, even if the boat is being used as a simple tender, never mind as a sailing dinghy. Click to expand...

missinginaction Senior Member

I can't speak to the Oz Goose but I do have some experience with Chesapeake. I built an Eastport Nesting Pram back in 2019. Thanks to the whole COVID thing it needs a paint job yet and the hardware installed. For a beginner (or even some experienced with boat building) building from plans will be a challenge. However, buying the kit is a whole different thing. As you probably know they use computer numerical controlled equipment to cut and route the parts. I was impressed with the precision this machine delivered. Everything fit. Perfectly. When I laid the panels that made up the hull on a table I remember thinking "That's pretty neat". If you go with the Passagemaker kit you will see what I mean. CLC is good with the support too. You can call them with questions. They answer the phone and don't treat you like an idiot. Good customer service. There are boat specific forums on their website as well. The Passagemaker is bigger than what I built but similar in design. Most of it can be done solo but you'll probably want an extra pair of hands when you stitch up the side panels as they are a bit awkward. Here's a tip for the side panels. I used some small ratcheting tie down straps (just 1" from Home Depot) to hold things together while I stitched. If you haven't worked with fiberglass before you really should learn how to apply cloth properly and learn how to form fillets and fill joints properly. Practice a bit so you'll be comfortable with the techniques before you're working on the real thing. If you need resources just ask. Good Luck and welcome to the forums, MIA  

Jpav, MIA makes some very good points above - if you do want to build a boat, a kit would be the way to go. But it might be better to not rush in to it all so enthusiastically immediately - how about going on a sailing course first with your wife and daughter, to confirm that they will like going on sailing adventures? If they are enthusiastic about sailing, and are keen on going camping, then I think you ideally want a bigger boat for the purpose that you have described above - trying to do all of this in a Passagemaker (or especially so re an Oz Goose) could be a recipe for divorce.  

Bajansailor has given the best advice. If you want to go camping or have other adventures, then a bigger boat is a far better choice. Building a bigger boat is no more difficult than building a small one. In fact there are some elements of the big one that are easier. You have explored the OZ Goose so now have a serious look at its bigger cousin, the Goat Island Skiff, from the same designer. The GIS sails very well and has space for the people that you have mentioned. It is also a simple build.  

Thanks to every one! You all have been very helpful. One reason I was interested in these 2 boats was for the ease of transportation, but after some of your advice I am seriously interested in the goat island skiff. Even though it would usually just be me, I still want something that can be loaded up with the family and gear, and the goat island skiff looks like it would be much better at those times. It also looks like it would be easy to build, and it looks good ( at least compared to the goose).  

The GIS is a proven design that is a lively sailor. It is basically a flattie or flat bottomed skiff. It can stand some moderate weather but due to its flat bottom it will pound when in a lumpy sea. It pounds and will be noisy when it is upright and at moderate to high speed.. When heeled a few degrees it rides without serious pounding, or the loosening of your eye teeth. This is typical behavior for flatties, or sharpies as they are sometimes called. When under sail it will be heeled a little bit in any course except dead downwind. There are a gazillion boats of this type including one of them in my back yard. You can find lots of these designs by exploring the internet. You do need to be a bit cautious if the design is not well proven for sailing. A similar boat, one that looks almost like the sailing flattie, has no aft rocker. That one is intended as a power boat and will not sail or row as well. Not to confuse the issue, but while exploring, take a look at the Bolger Gypsy. It is a nominal 16 footer that has a "trapeze" bottom that makes it a pretty good rowing boat and a more than adequate sailor although it carries only a modest amount of sail in a really simple sprit boom rig. It will not be nearly as fast as the GIS but it will excel in light airs. It will have a smoother ride than a classic flattie. Gypsy is an easy build and will not present much of a challenge to build. I mention this one only because it is cheap and easy and works well for its' intended purpose. This one will be a little bit more tender than a typical flattie of similar dimensions but it is safe enough for most conditions.  

Bolger's Gypsy is a wonderful design - that is a good call M! Here is a link to her on the Instant Boats site - Gypsy – 15′ x 4′-4″ – H.H. Payson & Company https://www.instantboats.com/product/gypsy-15-x-4-4/ She is also mentioned in detail in their book 'Build the New Instant Boats' (I have a copy) - this would be well worthwhile buying. Build the New Instant Boats – H.H. Payson & Company https://www.instantboats.com/product/build-the-new-instant-boats/ And here are some photos of a Gypsy for sale - Bolger Gypsy sailboat for sale https://www.sailingtexas.com/sbolgergypsya.html  

BOATMIK Deeply flawed human being

Jpav said: ↑ The 700 pound number is on the High estimate of what I might put in it, but with myself my wife and our daughter, plus what ever junk we might be bringing, I figure we would probably have about 500 pounds. I just figured if it could take 700 ish than I have capacity to spare, whitch is probably a good thing with a less experienced sailor. I was thinking it could be used to haul us and some camping gear to a few places that I like to camp. I also like to gold pan and sometimes I bring buckets of dirt back with me. I am not expecting to load it like that very often, I was just looking for a boat that might be able do it safely if I needed to. Click to expand...

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Milehog Clever Quip

On another thread swoody126 brought up the Mayfly family. Look at the 16. As for rigs I like the balanced lug a lot. Mayfly 16 Plans PDF - Duckworks Boat Builders Supply and the book Boatbuilding For Beginners (and Beyond) - Duckworks Boat Builders Supply  

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Last winter my father and I started building two Oz Goose sailboats. We got one of them finished up in the spring and have spent the summer and fall learning how to get the most out of the boat. Our initial requirements were pretty simple. The Goose had to sail well enough to be entertaining and also be a good platform to start teaching the kids in the family how to sail. We were initially talking about building Puddle Ducks, but I ran across Michael Storer’s versions of the box boats and discovered his design for the 12 footer. The larger boat seemed like a better choice for our intentions, so we bought the plans and got started.

When I was initially asked to put down a few words about our boat, I intended to write a piece about how we built the Goose. I would have covered the ins and outs of the construction process and the choices we made along the way. Tonight, I decided to go a different direction. Most folks here are already familiar with box boats and building boats with plywood. Michael Storer’s plans and instructions are so thorough, there isn’t much to add. The build was pretty simple. Instead, I’d like to tell the story of what happened after the build and how we discovered what a great little boat we had.

The Launch The Goose was launched on the first possible day it could happen. The previous weekend was spent finishing up the sail and rigging the boat for the first time. The balance lug rig was an unfamiliar animal. We knew a bit about Bermuda rigs, but this was new territory. We rigged it according to the plans and started watching the weather forecast. Weather can be a tricky thing during the spring in Texas. It is temperamental and can go from mild to severe in a hurry. We found a place to launch and headed there on Saturday. There was plenty of wind, which we found out later was pushing twenty knots. It was sunny, warm and the water not too chilly. We decided to launch off of a lee shore as a safety precaution (yes, you read that right). The plan was to launch into the wind, so that we could get back easily if something important broke.

We launched as planned, into fairly determined chop and managed to climb our way upwind while staying off the bars and out of the fishing lines. The Goose accelerated quickly and handled the rough water well, if not noisily. The bow was pounding across the chop, but we were moving well and everything was (mostly) under control. We had our hands full with an unfamiliar craft and the rough conditions, but it was obvious that we had a decent boat. We just had to learn how to sail it well.

We spent about 45 minutes of tacking back and forth. The Goose was cooking on a big gust when the throat grommet tore out of the sail. Bang! Our rig blew up. We quickly doused the sail and took a look around. We were sitting about a half mile off of our launch point, but happily, directly upwind. I pointed the Goose at the beach while my dad held up a couple square yards of sail. We arrived back at the beach in a few minutes and picked up speed during most of the run. We got the Goose on the beach, examined the damage and unanimously declared victory. The torn sail was but a speed bump. We now knew the Goose was a fun and capable little boat.

Early Lessons The sail was repaired easily and we managed to get the boat on the water nearly every weekend for the next couple months. After the first outing, I immediately cleaned up the lines and rigging and made everything a bit more tidy. We continued to launch from the same ramp. The water was usually rough, but the wind backed off to a more reasonable 10-15 knots on most days. We got better at tacking the boat without stalling and learned a little more about setting up the balance lug. The kids and wives got their first rides and everyone was having fun in the new Goose. Our confidence was building quickly.

The first pleasant surprise came when sailing singlehanded for the first time. The Goose has loads of stability with two or three people on board. The handling gets a little more lively with just one. It was still easy to sail, but quickly led to the addition of a hiking strap and a tiller extension. This is when I first noticed that the Goose could really get moving. Even in light air, the Goose responds to every little gust and just accelerates away. The sensation of speed was present in all types of conditions.

Performance I eventually found a better place to launch. It was on a sheltered cove with the prevailing south wind blowing off the beach. I took the Goose out to the new spot by myself and was happy to find flat water and a strong breeze. The next couple hours of sailing changed my entire outlook about the Goose. It is no longer the stable little boat that sailed well and would happily do 5 or 6 knots in moderate wind. This is a rocket, with some real performance potential. I spent the day flying back and forth across that cove, hiking out hard with the Goose obviously planing. Loads of power, eye-watering acceleration and still easy to sail. At the end of the day, my hand-held GPS told me the Goose has topped out at 10.3 knots. This was fun!

By this time I had been pestering Michael Storer with questions about boat setup, sailing techniques and any other information I could get. He patiently answered all my amateur questions and was very generous helping me tune up the boat and my sailing. I have a background in flying and we went back and forth about the aerodynamics of sailing until I started to correlate my experience to the new regime. This was invaluable feedback over the summer as I tried to get more out of myself and the Goose. As an Australian Dinghy Racer (I think that’s a formal title), he steered me towards the performance end of sailing. It has taken some time for the lessons to sink in (still working on it), but gradually, I have been able to apply some of it to sailing the Goose. In return, the Goose responded by performing better and going fast more consistently. The learning process has been extremely engaging and more fun than I ever expected.

Teaching the kids A big part of our original mission for the Goose was to get the kids on the water and learning to sail. My youngest is six and she has two cousins that are just a little older. Dad and I finally got them all out to the lake at the same time and we got them started. They had all had a couple rides, but this was our first try at purposefully teaching them a few things. We started with capsize practice. Before rigging the boat, we pulled it out into waist deep water with just the mast stepped. We started with the boat floating on its side with one of us holding the mast on our shoulder. The Goose floats high on the side air boxes. Tipping it over is one of the fastest ways to empty out any water in the cockpit. We set the kids in the boat, sitting on the airbox panel. Then we could right the boat and end up with all the kids in the boat. They aren’t big enough to climb in by themselves yet. This saved boosting them in after righting the boat. We practiced this a few times and rigged the boat to go sailing. After some quick review, I took each of them out into deeper water and we did a real (planned) capsize and recovery, just like we practiced. This accomplished two things. First, we now had an easy way to get the small kids back into the boat and they knew the drill. Second, it removed all fear of capsizing for the kids. Kids having fun equals kids learning.

After the capsize drills were over, we set out in the Goose with all five of us on board. Each of them got a few turns at the helm and trimming the sail. We even tacked a couple times with the kids running things. The plan was coming together! The Goose sailed just fine with the large crew and behaved the same as always. It was still stable, easy to steer and trim and even continued to accelerate nicely in the puffs.

Goose Improvements Learning more about performance sailing helped me learn more about our Goose. I began to realize there were a couple things that needed to be better if I wanted to see the Goose improve. The foils are everything on a sailboat. Both the foils in the air and the foils in the water. We stuck to the plans on both, but our execution on the wet foils was much better than the execution on the sail. Leech control was a problem on our sail. No amount of tension between the boom and yard would tighten the leech. As a result, it fluttered constantly. The time came to build a new sail. I was more careful and accurate making the second sail and it was worth the effort.

In a departure from the plans, I adopted a common setup from Michael Storer’s Goat Island Skiff. First was changing from a laced foot on the sail to a loose foot. This required making a new boom that could handle the loads. In addition to changing the footing, I followed the lead of developments worked out on the GIS setups. The downhaul was moved back on the boom to work more as a vang (sometimes called a ‘vanghaul’ by Goat drivers). I upped the purchase to 6:1. Still pretty light compared to modern rigs. The boom parrel was converted to a limiting line to keep the boom from sliding forward on the mast. This has come to be known as a ‘bleeter’ by the GIS folks. The outhaul was changed from a static setup (tied with a line) to an adjustable rig with 2:1 purchase. This allowed easy depth control on the lower sail while on the water. Combined with the loose foot, the new controls allowed more and finer adjustment while sailing. It also allowed us put some of those high performance techniques into practice. Lots of practice.

This combination of improvements changed the character of the boat under sail. The leech was now quiet. The rig could be adjusted for conditions from almost no wind up to a stiff breeze. The boat could be configured quickly for beating, reaching and running with fewer compromises. This revealed more performance under a range of conditions and speeds. With the leech under control, the lift to drag ratio went up. Less heeling for similar power and speed. The cost of these improvements was minimal and it only took a few days work to make the new sail and boom.

Performance Revisited The next few outings after the rework proved to be interesting. It was now early fall and available wind starts dropping off in this part of Texas. We got out on a couple 3-5 knot days. Speed was clearly better than before with similar air. Trials were run of various settings until we had the right range roughed out for different points of sail. Interesting and useful endeavors, but we were waiting for a day with a breeze to see what the Goose could do with the new rig. I did manage 10 knots in a decent gust one afternoon, but that was short lived. The opportunity to fully test the boat came while attending Sail Oklahoma 2014.

Sail Oklahoma is an amazing gathering of water folk. Most boats are built by their owners and most are sailboats. I don’t have the space here to tell all the details of that week, but if you have the chance to attend, you should. It was a great time and there was lots of sailing.

Conditions on Lake Eufaula were moderate most of the week (except when the cold front came through). Thursday morning was the strongest wind of the week for me. It was blowing just north of 10 knots, but the gusts were close and strong. A few may have been pushing 17-18 knots. On a two hour sail, I spent a fair amount of time above 8 knots and several excursions over 10 knots. The boat was behaving beautifully. Finally, on a reach in the middle of the lake, I got a couple gusts that really let the Goose wind up. By bearing off in the gusts and hiking moderately hard, the Goose registered 12 knots on the GPS. The box boat made from Home Depot plywood and lumber was solidly in the double digits. Last Sunday, in a nice stiff breeze on the home lake, the Goose hit 12.9 knots and was in double digits almost half the day. Think about that for a minute.

Final Thoughts A yahoo from Texas with no real sailing experience, built a box boat for a few hundred dollars. The materials were all local and came from Home Depot. Pine plywood, pine and cedar lumber and as a bit of icing on the cake, using a sail made from Tyvek homewrap. The boat floats and sails. With the help of Michael Storer’s ‘Learn To Sail’ online correspondence course, it even sails well. Add the shallow pond of experience gained over a summer and some adjustments are made. The boat now sails extremely well.

It performs well in light wind and is stable and safe in strong winds. The Goose is a load of fun single-handed, but still fun with a pile of kids on board. Inadvertent capsizes are rare, but recovery is quick and easy. Plus, it comes up almost dry when righted. It has the controls needed to start learning some advanced sailing techniques, but can also be set and forgot for simple cruising. This is some serious bang for the buck. It requires approximately the same building skills as constructing a dog house that will keep your dog dry.

We could not have picked a better boat for our first build. It met and then exceeded everything we wanted to accomplish. It would have been difficult to pick a boat better suited for learning to sail. Certainly not for the time and money invested. Puddle Ducks are a great option. They can also sail very well and have some of the same benefits as a Goose. If you want a little more room and a lot more speed, the Goose is worth a look.

When we started the build we had a pretty low bar for success. It just had to sail and maybe not be a barge. I can’t express how much fun we have had discovering what this humble boat has to offer. I can only encourage you to get in on the fun. It is an excellent choice for a first sailboat.

Michael Storer Boat Design - Oz PD Goose – plans available from:

www.duckworksbbs.com/plans/storer/pgr/index.htm

OzGoose and OzRacer Sailboat design, construction and performance questions

Inquiring minds.

The  OzRacers and Oz Geese have always been attractive to beginner sailor – but particularly to beginner sailors with a good technical background that like to ask interesting questions  about sailboat design, foil and sail design and how to keep boats light but strong.

The boats have gone a long journey since famous designer Phil Bolger drafted up the humble “Brick” which these boats were derived from. My own interest was to take the very basic shape and to see what it would do with a large well set up rig, good sails and excellent foils (rudder and centreboard blades)

A lot of these from the long list of archive questions, here are some of the best.

Is the Oz Goose and Particularly the OzRacer a Planing Hull

Why are the Oz Goose and Oz Racer are built of such thin plywood

OzRacer, Oz Goose and building for high strength to weight ratios

Oz Racer and Oz Goose – weather helm lee helm and boat balance

Oz Racer and Oz Goose – why and Centreboard or why a Leeboard

Why is the centrecase on the OzRacer Mk2 so far back?

Why doesn’t the Oz Racer and Oz Goose have a swinging centreboard?

Is my boat pointing OK – measuring pointing and tacking angles?

Buy Oz Goose Plans

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Product Description

The Oz Goose is a low-cost sailing dinghy that is easy to build and is perfect for clubs, regattas and learning to sail.

Australian boat designer Michael Storer created this fun sailing dinghy as a project that makes dinghy sailing accessible to everyone. Where he lives, in the Philippines, family and corporate groups are able to build ten Oz Racers for the same price as importing a single Laser dinghy.

The Oz Goose is light and simple to build, with no complicated woodwork. It also sails extremely well despite the low cost.

The Oz Goose will carry an instructor and two adults for sailing lessons, or one or two adults for club racing. It is equally at home with two adults and children aboard for family picnics.

The kit is for the epoxy filleted construction method. An alternative timber-framed method is also described in the plans, for builders in countries where timber is cheap.

The kit includes:

• Pre-cut wooden panels (6 mm plywood) with pre-cut joints
• Solid wood for gunwales, spacers and frames
• Epoxy resin and activator
• Epoxy fillers
• Woven glass fabric
• Woven glass tape
• Mast staves (for hollow wooden mast)
• Wooden blanks for boom and yard
• Daggerboard blank
• Daggerboard case
• Rudder blank
• Tiller blank
• Comprehensive building manual
• Free technical support from a competent builder

The kit does not include the sail or warp although we can supply them.

What else do I need?

The 114-page A4 plans for the Oz Goose are more like a book or a boat building course. They contain detailed information on each building step, including how to join the plywood, mark the shapes of the panels and use the epoxy.

The plans are highly detailed and fully dimensioned. That means that there is no poring over them with your scale rule and getting scale conversions wrong: the measurements you need to know are written in clear type and in the area that you are looking at.

An electronic version of the plans in PDF format that can be viewed using Adobe Reader. After credit card authorisation the file will be sent to the email address put on the order form.

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Oz Goose – simple 12ft family sailboat

This is a list of articles about the 12ft oz goose sailboat., the plan information for the 12ft oz goose sailboat is here.

Home » All Our Articles – Lugs, Setup, Boatbuilding, Repair » Boat Plans » Oz Goose - simple 12ft family sailboat

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All our lug rig information on one page. We have seen the change from the balance lug being almost forgotten to becoming the predominant rig for small self built wooden boat. This was the situation a hundred years ago. We can still use the cheapness and effectiveness of this rig to create boats with very quick and pleasant sailing characteristic.

Rigging guide for Goat Island Skiff – Efficient lug sails

How do you rig your Goat Island Skiff or other balance lug rigged boat? This page will be useful for everyone, but specifically assist Goat owners in selection of rope, rope lengths and show all the rigging details. We have also found a number of cheaper ways of doing things from our experience in the Philippines. Halyard, downhaul, outhaul, lashings, rope fittings, rudders, centreboard.

Finding downwind speed – Planing in OzRacers and OzGeese.

Planing and downwind speed is a practiced skill. But the 8ft OzRacer and the 12ft OzGoose have strikingly different behavour. Goose planes easily in light wind. OzRacer needs a lot more wind and jumps up and down in speed.

Choose between Swinging Centreboard and Daggerboard

A discussion about basic pros and cons for swinging centreboards. And dagger centreboards. Centre Board means the board is in the centre. Which is different from a Lee board which is too the side.

Ensuring Hull strength and stiffness vs low weight. Oilcanning, twisting and torsion boxes

Making a boat light may make the hull distort more thus losing some of the advantage. But is is possible to build light without distortion. The answer is YES.

Sailing in Crisis? Is it dying out? Are basic boats too expensive?

How introductory boats that were intended to be cheap have become crazy expensive. And forced sailing to contract. Hundreds of sailing clubs have disappeared in Australia alone. Sailing is now semi professional and elitist again.

Achieve best Cost/Performance with Traditional Sailing Rigs – Balance, standing lugs and sprit rig sails

A guide for choosing cheaper alternative rigs. Balance Lug, Standing Lug, Sprit, Lateen and more. These rigs typically save a lot of money over conventional sailplans and set up right offer much the same performance. They respond to the same principles. Are boomless sails OK?

Kits and Videos to build your own Oz Goose are Available

It sails really well, but the Oz Goose is also easy to build. No experience? Group build at at one of our famous Family Boatbuilding Weekends or from the comprehensive plans or a precut kit using our video series.

Assemble from the Oz Goose precut plywood kit

We are extending the areas where the kit is available. Please contact Roy at Monsoon Marine on Facebook.

A family project at home can use the plans and our excellent video series on building the Oz Goose to create a successful project. Many Geese are built this way. If there are problems or questions there is online help available from experienced builders and instructors.

Join a Family Boatbuilding Weekend to Build an Oz Goose for your Family

Once or twice a year we run FBWs or Family Boatbuilding Weekends. Families, Corporate and Community groups can build their own Oz Goose in a group with other builders with instructors to guide you through the process.

Biglang Sailing Club with the Oz Goose

So if you understand that 10 or more Oz Geese can be built at one time then it is possible to start a Biglang Sailing Club (Instant Sailing Club).

This is exactly what happened in Albay (12 boats) and Butuan (20 boats) with a community boatbuilding project. In fact, Albay finished the boats last year in 2021 during the height of COVID and get them sailing many days of the week. The Club also hosted the 2022 Oz Goose National titles opening tourism to this marine wonderland. A great celebration of a city coming back to life after the restrictions of the epidemic.

Watch in 4K if you can.

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RSS OzGoose/OzRacer Sail

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Description

Additional information.

OZ Racer RSS Sail

Specifications

• 89 square feet
• laced on foot but can be set loose footed
• 4 ounce cloth

Really Simple Sails is a Philippine owned business that works closely with Michael Storer Boat Plans to produce sails for the  Goat Island Skiff   and the Oz series of boat - the  OzRacer Mk2  and  RV , the  OzGoose  and Perttu Korhonen's  Ocean Explorer .

What is the quality of materials?

All the fittings and sewing thread are well known brands used by most sail lofts in the USA, Australia and UK.

The cloth is used by hang glider manufacturers and sail lofts in the USA as well as the major sail lofts in Hong Kong.

What is the cloth weight?

It is 4.1oz high tenacity dacron for the Oz Racer Sail and Canoe Sail. The Goat Island Skiff Sail is now made from 5 oz cloth.

How many reef points?

There is more information below, but the Goat sail has three uneven reefs, the Oz sails have two even reefs and the Canoe sail has one.

What are the main differences to sails I can buy from my local sailmaker?

If you have a really good local sailmaker they will be able to make a sail with slightly better shape. A racing sailor will know what they want and go that way. But Really Simple Sails offers the same quality of materials for much less money.

The sails will have been folded for their shipping. We recommend you follow the information below for storing the rolled sails attached to the spars semi permanently to allow the folds to work their way out of the sails

In many cases the cost of getting your boat on the water will be reduced by 250 to 350 dollars and you will get the same lifetime as locally made sails.

Are there any advantages to Really Simple Sails

Michael Storer has developed the sails from the lessons learned from the many people sailing the boats around the world.

Some examples are that the Goat Island Skiff has uneven reef points. From experimenting with the boats we have found that the first reef should be significantly smaller than the following reefs. An opposite case is with the Oz Series boats. The rectangular planform gets outstanding stability, so the reefs are fewer and equally spaced.

Sail Development

The feedback from sailors also allows Michael to develop the sail shapes and details in the light of shared experience of many sailors. He implements the revised drawings into the working instructions for the sailmakers.

Static sail test of the Goat Island Skiff Prototype #1. You can see it is a little bit too flat in the top and mid parts. The Prototype #2 sail was made deeper and the production sail deeper still.. There is a little bit too much tension along the head putting a fold in the sail next to the yard. The spars are flexible enough for downhaul tension to flatten the top of the sail easily.

The current sail design for the Goat Island Skiff has gone through three iterations. We did two trial sails that were tested and measured by Albert Zuger in Canada. As a result we took the best sail of the two as the basis. We also found that the sails were a little flatter than optimum, so more depth has been added in the Mk3 version.

The Oz sail is the mk2 version, the best of the first two trail designs tested by Rick Landreville in Canada.

Storing the Sails

We recommend the sails be stored attached to the spars to make getting ready for sailing much faster. Put the mast in, attach the halyard to the yard (the top spar on a balance lug is always called a yard, never a gaff), hoist the sail, tension the downhaul and attach the mainsheet. It is possible to rig either the Goat Island Skiff or the Oz series of boats in about 5 minutes.

Rolling the sail without detaching it from the yard and boom facilitates such quick rigging and the rolling prevents sail fatigue along folding lines as they are folded and unfolded repeatedly.

Front Reef Line   - The sail is reefed normally by lashing down the luff and leach using the big eyelets on the edge of the sail. As small boats get less stable as you move forward in the boat having a reefing line tied off on the boom, through the front eye for the reef and to an eye or block on the sailthen back along the boom to a cleat. I would recommend either a CL217mk2 Clam cleat (it is a side entry cleat so you don't need to thread it or a traditional horn cleat.

If this is tied in first and pulled very tight that is enough. I would probably recommend spectra for the rope so it doesn't stretch at all.

Back Reef Line   - The back end is more accessible from the body of the boat usually so can be tied in manually.

It is very important the sail is tied down to the boom as well as pulled out towards the end of the boom. If the reef is going into the front sail on the boat, don't overflatten the sail. Depth in the foot of the front sail will help you keep going against waves, particularly upwind. Much, Much faster. It gives you power low down that won't heel the boat too much and a touch more weather helm to stop the waves knocking the bow off the wind.

Basically you want to have a depth to chord (distance direct between the tack and clew of the sail) ratio of 1:10. So put a mark on the boom for the back of the sail and write “Reef 1” or “Reef 2” beside it. Guide marks like this can save a lot of time and reduce the risk of making an error.

Reef Point Lacing   – there is some urgency usually attached to reefing. For most boats the reef lines are the important item. But often when there is some chance that the sail will be unreefed a bit later or there is not time to snug everything down racing sailors won't bother at all with the reef point lacing in the body of the sail. It depends on the boat but often the untidiness is not great.

Additionally, the traditional solution of an individual tie at each of the eyelets is slow and awkward to put in and remove. Also it is a rigid system. If one of the reefing lines comes undone all the load will go on the first sail tie and risks ripping the reef point eyelet out of the sail.

I recommend the same method used on racing yachts. They use a thin shock (bungee) cord that spirals around the boom and will stretch and not damage the sail if a reefing line comes undone or breaks. Also the number of eyelets is minimised.

It is also quicker than tying in several separate ties along the boom. Tying individual reef ties belongs on full crew square riggers doing Cape Horn!

Using Really Simple Sails on other boats. Advice and dimensions

First live firing of Really Simple Sails for GIS

PDF with sail details on GIS and OZ sails:

RSS Sail Dimensions

More info on the Canoe Sail:

RSS Website

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