Welcome new Swifty Marc Koska

[swiftsolo1]

All please welcome Marc Koska who is going to be building a Swift in the UK!! Marc is a a very skilled boat builder and a very skilled sailor.

Marc just purchased the plans and manuals… and is raring to go. 

I have attached photos of a Nick Schade Kayak built by Marc in matching walnut. 

Marc Welcome 

More photos to come GG has a limited MB size 

Paul

Paul Osullivan

CEO, AMP RE Consulting. 

Paul.osu...@gmail.com

916 224 2374 

[Mark White]

Welcome aboard Marc, that is beautiful!

Mark

Sent from my iPad

On Feb 23, 2021, at 16:00, swiftsolo1 <paul.osu...@gmail.com> wrote:

All please welcome Marc Koska who is going to be building a Swift in the UK!! Marc is a a very skilled boat builder and a very skilled sailor.

Marc Welcome 

Paul Osullivan

CEO, AMP RE Consulting. 

Paul.osu...@gmail.com

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916 224 2374 

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[David Lindsey]

OMG. That’s one of the most beautiful builds of “anything” I have ever seen! Wow....

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[swiftsolo1]

HI Mark .. do have a few photos to send to Marc ? 

Cheers 

Paul Osullivan

CEO, AMP RE Consulting. 

Paul.osu...@gmail.com

916 224 2374 

On Feb 23, 2021, at 3:28 PM, Marc Koska <marc...@me.com> wrote:

Many thanks Mark

Hope to sail with you all one day!  But not before I will be needing lots of help!

Best

Marc

Marc Koska  OBE

ApiJect.com

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

+447710305064

On 23 Feb 2021, at 11:23 pm, Mark White <mwhit...@gmail.com> wrote:

Welcome aboard Marc, that is beautiful!

[Mark White]

Anything in particular?

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On Feb 23, 2021, at 17:29, swiftsolo1 <paul.osu...@gmail.com> wrote:

HI Mark .. do have a few photos to send to Marc ? 

[Robert Harper]

Welcome to the group. Mark White has built the most beautiful Swifts to date. You'll have to give him a run for his money. Nice work on the kayak. I've only built cedar strip boats.

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[Philip Ryan]

Welcome Marc!

Your workmanship looks fantastic, That is a really beautiful kayak! 

I have built and rebuilt a bunch of other boats, but never did anything that nice, and have not built a Swift Solo. But in the 12 years I have been part of the fleet, I have noticed some patterns in the ways that builders "go down the rabbit hole" when they build. The most common thing is to build the boat a little stronger or tougher or "better" than the design and plans call for. As a result, their boats end up heavier than the class minimum. For some reason, this mindset seems to produce boats that are just about 30 lbs heavier than they should be. A few of the comments that I have heard and connected with this outcome (in no particular order) are:

- I looked for stiffer, stronger cedar for the core

- I left the core as thick as possible

- I used a tougher species of wood for the gunwales and/or toe rails. (mahogany etc)

- I used slightly bigger epoxy fillets

- I used an extra coat of epoxy to be sure "it" was sealed

- I used an extra layer of glass here because it didn't seem like enough

I own one of these boats, and I admit that it is truly tough. When I let someone sail it and he lost control in a gust/shift near the beach, he hit a metal dock at about ten knots. All the boat showed was a slight scuff mark on the rail. It hit so hard that I was afraid that he would be injured when he fell on the deck and hit the mast.

I guess the point is that the engineering of the boat is excellent and needs no enhancement, and the more common tendency is to end up with a heavy boat. That is unfortunate once all the work to build it has been spent.

There are however, a few boats that have been built under weight, and the most common thing that these builders did was to vacuum bag the interior carbon/kevlar layer. This seems like a good idea, and worth the expense. A decent chinese vacuum pump for evacuating automotive AC systems will work and costs about $100. It is a low volume pump though and will need assistance with the initial evacuation of a large vacuum bag. A vacuum cleaner works well for this. One of the underweight boats  was built with a shop vac for pulling a vacuum.

As I'm sure you know, the easiest thing to do is to make the boat heavier (bring it up to class minimum), but it is nearly impossible to make a boat lighter.

I really look forward to seeing your build, and hope to meet you at a regatta soon! 

Stay in touch - Philip

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/swiftsolo/f32911ae-2f92-1335-96be-e6ab913791a9%40xmission.com.

[marc koska]

Thank you all for your warm welcome and comments.  Philip (phryan002) appreciate the pointers on weight.  Carbon and Aramids and other fibres are really extraordinary especially as they perform super well, even in the hands of us amateur constructers!  I will start building after May/June.  I think.  This is mainly due to having a new workshop being built at our home, which will give me much more space than I have had before and that should help with a bit of calm!  And with the summer season of sailing in a new boat (Shown in photo) much anticipated I think it should be next winter that the first UK Swift is complete.  We will see, but very much looking forward to the process and will keep you all informed.  Comments welcome always!  Best to all.   Marc 

[William Scheumann]

Mark,

Welcome Swifty!  You may want to look up Thomas Owen at the link below, as he began USA020 back in 2003 before returning to the UK to begin a career in boat building.  Tom was attending the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, RI, USA, when he turned the incomplete hull over to me to build the deck and rig the Swift.

Good luck with your build and please stay in touch with this fantastic group of sailor/builders.

http://www.classicyachtrestoration.co.uk/tomowen.html

USA 020

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On Feb 26, 2021, at 7:45 AM, marc koska <marckosk...@gmail.com> wrote:



Thank you all for your warm welcome and comments.  Philip (phryan002) appreciate the pointers on weight.  Carbon and Aramids and other fibres are really extraordinary especially as they perform super well, even in the hands of us amateur constructers!  I will start building after May/June.  I think.  This is mainly due to having a new workshop being built at our home, which will give me much more space than I have had before and that should help with a bit of calm!  And with the summer season of sailing in a new boat (Shown in photo) much anticipated I think it should be next winter that the first UK Swift is complete.  We will see, but very much looking forward to the process and will keep you all informed.  Comments welcome always!  Best to all.   Marc

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/swiftsolo/b632c8ce-e340-4a3c-ba52-70dac3f39b2dn%40googlegroups.com.

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