About me

I build and sail wooden boats for my own pleasure. I also enjoy designing them and developing the practical details. Starting with traditional shapes and methods, I hope that by applying my own skills and experience as an engineer I can refine my designs and incorporate more modern ideas and materials .
I built my first decked sailing canoe during the period 1986-90 . I won first prize with it at the Classic Boat Show in Greenwich in 1991 and exhibited it at Brest 92.
Since then I have been working on other boatbuilding, restoration and design projects, and raising a family. I also worked part time as a structural engineering consultant but have now retired. Most recently I have designed and helped build ( with a team of five others) a modern, water ballasted, canoe yawl called Dart.

Although I also co-own a larger yacht myself ( a 33 ft McGruer sloop called Nan of Kames), I feel that many owners of larger vessels have lost sight of the some of the excitement and freedom they once felt when sailing and exploring in a smaller boat. Decked sailing canoes take us full circle, back to where the sport began over a century ago, and allow one to explore a whole different and remote world of shallower water that you would not dare to venture into in a larger craft.

John Floutier BSc CEng MIStructE