Building
Enjoying Boatbuilding – at Home, Club or School
Dads, mums, grandads, teenagers, schools - it's fun and everyone is having a go! All you need is basic skills, basic tools and a space suitable as a temporary workshop. Some people who have only ever built a bookcase before have completed the Rainbow successfully.
Tools and the Home Workshop
A good set of tools is preferable but it is always surprising what can be achieved with just the basics. It is good to have a proper workshop but far from essential...
Getting it about
One of the joys of small boats is ease of storage and transportation. Rainbows can be trailered either on their own, on top of a bigger boat (Power boat or catamaran etc) or in the case of club boats or a family fleet, in a stack. As an affordable alternative, they can easily travel easily on a car's roof rack.
Ease of Storge
Rainbows take up less real state than other 12ft boats. With a hull only 375mm deep (excluding breakwater), 3 Rainbows can be stored the same space as one Heron, 125 or the like.
Learning sailing terms
Like every sport, sailing has some technical language. Whether you do all your sailing in small boats like the Rainbow, or try your hand in larger craft, it is important to know this terminology. To help become familiar with the basics, the Rainbow building instructions contains a 'Glossary' which explains the meaning of sailing and boatbuilding terms.
Sailing Clubs
The Rainbows at the club have resulted in considerable publicity which can lead to some interesting spin offs eg; local high schools looking at building a fleet of boats. Club members can provide guidance during construction and can assist the school with boat storage, learn-to-sail classes etc. The keener pupils can be encouraged to join and progress through the sailing community, further boosting membership.
Build a Boat at School
Am I hearing right? At last some fun learning in the classroom! Schools in Australia getting involved in classroom building where the project attracts special funding and successful students receive credits into tertiary courses. The kids love it - there have been reports of children actually working on after school hours on 'their' boats!
Good Support
The Rainbow enjoys friendly support from the following companies and organisations:
Rakau Designs, Sector 7G sails, Boatcraft NSW, Making Waves Foundation, Concord and Ryde Sailing Club, Australian Woodworker Magazine.
And the following individuals: Ross Venner, Paul Scotland, Sean Colahan.
