Detailed Plans for Building a 23-foot / 7m River Shannon Gandelow

ISBN 13 Number: 978-0-9930784-1-5: Building a River Shannon Gandelow: Step-by-Step Guide with Plans.    Recommended Retail Price (RRP) in the UK: £30 GBP, 35 Euro or $45.

     You can request a PDF version of the book now from the author, by clicking on this email link. You can download a free 10-page summary copy here (PDF, 1.5 MB) containing the contents, Index, a glossary and two sample plans pages (reduced to A4 sized).

     The book is a workshop-friendly spiral bound handbook. It has 98 pages with 7 tables of dimensions and 85 figures (colour photographs and diagrams) of which nine are detailed A3-sized plans.

     It is the definitive guide to building the 23-foot (7-metre) gandelow and was published in May 2015. The book is based on the work done in spring 2014 at the A. K. Ilen School for Wooden Boat Building, in Limerick, Ireland when four boats were built - so you can have confidence in the instructions.

     It is a practical handbook that explains in detail how to build one of the river Shannon’s most elegant fishing boats. It contains detailed plans printed on A3-sized pull-out pages (for the 23-foot version only). It also has diagrams showing section and plan views of the boat and tables of design dimensions ready to be scaled up (lofted) and used.

Corrections: We apologise for the fact that the photograph on the frontispiece of the book (of three people rowing a gandelow in Limerick) is credited incorrectly to Gary MacMahon. It should be credited to Sean Curtin, Irish photographer.

Owners of the book should review this list of corrections (PDF, 55kb) as a small number of errors have been noticed in some books since publication. Please apply the corrections to your book before using the Guide. Thank you

Plans for a 16-foot (4.8 metre) Gandelow

     Until this year (January 2017) there were no detailed plans available for the 16-foot gandelow. This was because it is a size that is rarely built (the 18-foot, 5.5 metre, one is the smallest usually made). Previously, only sketch plans for a 15-foot version were available, drawn in 2012, from a boat built for the Foynes Flying Boat Museum in Ireland.

     But that has changed! In 2017, a new 16-foot version of the gandelow boat was built in England with a ‘butterfly rhomboid transom’ - see this page where there are downloadable plans and photos documenting the build process.

     Now that that boat is finished you can see her sailing on the Atlantic, off Blind Harbour, Ireland in this video.

[As at 31 Jul 2023]