Ray Cole

MIE Aust. CPEng. AMSNAME

Ray Cole is a dedicated sailor who went for his first sail at Easter 1942 aboard a cruising yacht in Moreton Bay in South East Queensland. He has been involved in boats all his life and now lives in Melbourne, Victoria, where he sails at his club Carrum Sailing Club in his yacht Bushranger Vl.

Ray's working life was spent as a Professional Engineer, before taking early retirement to concentrate on boat design at the age of 58. Ray earned a Diploma in Small Craft Naval Architecture Technology with Honours on completion in 1985 of a correspondence course over several years with Yacht Design Institute of Maine, USA. On graduation he became an Associate Member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and opened his own design office. Since then he has designed sail and power boats and built some of his own designs. His favourite design is Bushranger (Design No 50) which he has raced and cruised since 1991. He has built two Bushrangers, and the sisterships race against each other weekly in Club events and enjoy very close competition.

Despite sailing being his passion he has designed several successful power boat designs most of which are available as Stock Plans at affordable prices.

His most popular stock plan is "Sciboat" (Design No 66) a 16ft plywood skiboat hull for inboard engines. The design has proven most successful in ski races and a boat built to that design by Ken Smith of Pearcedale won his division in 2006 in the Southern 80 an 80kilometre race towing two skiers on a river course on the Murray River.

Another very popular design is "Scamp", a 10ft dinghy for sailing, rowing or outboard. As well, the family of Scooters comprising the open 13ft 6in Scooter, the 16ft half cabin Scooter Plus and the larger 18ft half cabin Super Scooter are all selling well. All the Scooters are built using a hybrid technique that combines both stitch and glue and frame on stringer construction. This hybrid method allows both economical and easy building. By lapping plywood panels one person can work alone free of stress without the necessity to work feverishly to get the panels positioned in the open joint time of the epoxy resin.