FLYING ANT Building Resource

[Neil C.]

Flying Ant plans attached!

In Australia, the Flying Ant is a natural feeder class for young sailors who may later move up to a Cherub. I emailed the NSW Class President to see if they have any building plans available. Here is his response:


Hi Neil,
I grew up with Flying ants and then progressed to the Aus Cherubs before progressing into 16 foot skiffs for many years.

The flying ant is brilliant and a great progressions skiff boat for juniors.

Recently I have purchased a 1990's "foreign affair" type cherub to relive my youth.

I have some plans attached but unsure of how complete they are, most boats have been built out of female moulds over the last 30 years but many were home built off male moulds up into the 90's.  I do know some of those home builders so will contact them about anything they may have to help you out.

We changed the constitution a few years back to include an asymmetric spinnaker that has had great success, the constitution is available at:

http://flyingants.org.au/assoc_page.cgi?c=0-10316-0-0-0&sID=325831

We also have 2 active Facebook sites for the 2 main states that race them

www.facebook.com/FlyingAntNSW

www.facebook.com/Flying-Ant-Skiff-Association-of-WA-105410087397

Any questions you have, shoot them through and I'll see what we can do to help

Jono


If anybody feels like having a go at building one of these excellent little ships, this would be a good place to share your thoughts and ideas.

[flatbackcaper]

Awesome could be building one of these in a couple of years for my granddaughter, shure as hell beats a cadet or mirror
Andy

[Tim Noyce]

Great work Neil! If it was possible to get something a little more complete in the way of plans that would be ace. If not then I could probably be persuaded to transfer the PDF drawings onto SolidWorks and produce some actual drawings if and when I find the time.

Looks simple though, and good fun.

Obviously the PuddleDuckRacer is the ideal feeder class to the Flying Ant if what you want is home build ease!

[Neil C.]

I had a look at Puddle Duck Racer. Found this useful advice on their website:

"Don't know how to sail?
Sailing is easy, just point the boat in the direction you want to go, then pull the sail in until it stops flapping."

Brilliant!

[Tim Noyce]

Now... where was this advise all those years ago?! Would have saved me loads of time finding out the hard way!

[JimC]

You've really got to say that the Firebug hits the spot for a feeder to the Ant. I'm lost in admiration at how Spence managed to get such a very boat shaped boat with such constructional simplicity (all the chines are at the same angle, two of the 4 frames the same etc etc. The contrast with the not very boat shaped PDR (or Oppie) is striking.