10 Oz Goose Sailboats in the Philippines: for price of importing One Laser and spares.
Or a sailing boat at same price as an iPhone
It is hard to believe that with some sponsorship help and lots of hard work by volunteers that we can build 10 Oz Goose sailboats for the price of importing a single Laser Radial and a few spares into the Philippines.
You can see it sails very well … speed is about the same with one or two people aboard – a well sailed Oz Goose with two can beat an almost well sailed Oz Goose with one.
So that means 10 to 20 people on the water for the price of importing a boat for one person to sail.
Less than 10,000 USD for a racefleet of 10 boats for adults and teenagers. Half sponsorship, half paid by family and corporate teams.
Sailing too expensive in developing nations? No. And you can see the closeness of the racing in these photos. In general about 1/3 to half the cost has been covered by sponsorship by local materials suppliers and sailmakers.
The rest is made up on a per team basis by the participants.
Most of the management of these projects is through Roy Espiritu of the boatbuidling advocacy group Pinoyboats.org (PHBYC on Facebook).
They look odd – so how do they sail? Top recorded speed solo sailing has crept up in the last two years. Originally 12 knots it was raised to 12.9 (both on a tideless lake in Central Texas. And finally raised to 13.8 knots on a tideless lake in the Philippines. Here is the designer’s boat in upwind mode in about 15 knots.
The Oz Goose class starts after the Hobie 16s at the TLYC. The Taal Lake Yacht Club is probably the Philippine’s most active sailing club and has traditionally focussed on the Hobies. However Hobie 16 is far too expensive for the average middle class family. So Commodore and Founder Peter Capotosto is looking at the Oz Goose to bring more people into the club, increase participation in sailing and to provide a pool of sailors, some of whom will move into more advanced sailboat types as their experience increases.
For fleet racing they are quite competitive sailed two up allowing learners or disabled sailors to take part in racing against the singlehanders.
But how does that flat bow and flat bottom deal with rough water? For six month of the year the wind blows down to our lee end of Taal Lake. We get SERIOUS waves and chop with lots of reflections off the rocky shore. The goose is very powerful because of its high stability and able to carry full sail happily in 20 knots even with 65kg sailors.
Two up (or three in pic below) it just smashes any taller wavetops out of the way, but a bit of heel gives a smooth ride. In light winds and leftover chop they can be quite noisy, but the 89 sq ft of sail gives good speed and action is smooth with a little heel.
Even more interesting when the building of the boats takes about 10 days prep time from a volunteer team. Then the families and corporate groups arrive and in three days for them the flat packed kits turn into 10 boats ready to sail.
We did it 18 months ago on Luzon and repeated this year on another main Philippine Island of Cebu. Instant fleet for racing, teaching sailing, trekking and fun sailing.
2017 we are looking at starting another fleet on one of the other islands – another instant teaching and racing fleet of around ten boats. The third such project for the Philippine Home Boat Builder’s Yacht Club an internet group of enthusiasts
For sail training we find the boats sail very well with two adult learners and a trainer with good response even in very light wind – thanks to the 89 sq ft sail.A boat that responds instantly is the only way people will learn to sail well.
This prestart photo is Job Ferranco who is regularly coming in the top three of local racing after graduation from one of the sailing racing courses last year. The white boat is being steered by Clyte Bernado a member of the National Parlympic Sailing Team(Sailability) as is Cherrie PinPin in the green boat in photos above.
The Oz Goose is easy to build from available local materials. It is well developed with good foils and sail/spar matches. It is quick as a one person boat. It sails well to teach people to sail with two learners and one instructor right through the wind range.
And you can build 5 or 10 (with materials sponsorship) for the price of importing a Laser Radial into one of the Developing nations.
In the Advanced economies we see builds going together for well under USD1000 (some have been half that) or around USD 2000 for a boat built of top quality materials.
Plans are highly detailed and you will be introduced to modern boat building methods step by step in the 100 page manual. Itself a course in modern boatbuilding.
Find out about buying the Oz Goose plan for under $40 here and group discounts are available.
