Akaroa Classic Boat Show

Akaroa Harbour, Banks Peninsula, New Zealand. November 21st, 2009

More on Romilly

Phil Holden sent me a note today to pass on some links and additions to his site on Nigel Irens designs. Good stories and beautiful boats. One of the links is to a new lugger site (in Dutch) which promises to be a winner.

Here's what Phil has to say:

"Hi Everyone,
Two new articles added to the web site in the last month.

David Collin sent me an interesting article about a trip he made in Speedwell to the Manx Traditional Boat Festival in 2001. You can read it here.

Karel Heijnen sent me a great set of build and sailing pictures, with notes, of his woodcore Romilly, Zeuntje. You can see the article here.

As always I would very much welcome new articles plus comments on articles that are already on my site.
Best wishes, Phil"

"P.S. Cees Verhoef has launched a new website in the Dutch language on all things lugger but more particularly Roxane and Romilly here."

Thank you, Phil, for the update!
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Lets Get Together (And Feel Alright)

Playing for Change

With a little help from Bob Marley...



Sam Cooke. He the Man!



Please! Tell me what's wrong with me!!

Remiera a Venezia

Historical Rowing Vessels in Venice

Our friend Giacomo Stefano is tireless in his promotion of the historical vessels of Venice. In this video, you can sense the almost militant tenor of the preservation effort for human powered boats and the quiet tradition of the rowing culture in Italy.

I have a great bit of empathy for this effort and additionally, support the preservation of traditional human powered vessels the world over.

It's plain to see the degradation that wave action from the multitude of motor powered boats must have on the ancient buildings of the canals of Venice. The apparent disregard for the rowers by the motor boats would cause me to be militant too. A water taxi nearly runs over the starboard oar while passing a sandolo!

Water quality is another subject dear to Giacomo and rightly so. There is not a drop of water left on the rock we call home that is not polluted by the activities of humans. We could use much more militancy on that subject.


Giacomo Stefano is planning a journey from London to Istanbul, which he has dubbed North Sea to Black Sea; to embark next spring. His low impact "less is more" voyage is intended to highlight the need to address the human impact on the essence of life, water.

You might not be surprised to hear that Giacomo has had some difficulty finding support for this event. His original intention was to organize a volunteer effort to build a Ness Yawl, but it looks like he has decided to continue on without sponsors.

His father's Eun Na Mara is also being outfitted for the trip, as the required companion boat for crossing the English Channel.



Giacomo reports on new solar panels for Takatani an Eun Na Mara gaff yawl.

"The Solon company, famous solar leaders throughout the world, which provides solar panels to Giovanni Soldini, has just made to measure, the solar panels that cover the deck house of Takatani, the support boat for the next trip North Sea to Black Sea, which will be moved only by the wind and an electric motor from ASMO Marine Copenhagen, Denmark."




"The panels, tested by Giovanni Soldini in the seas around the world, are about 2 mm thick and will provide 200 watts max power, to recharge the batteries. This will allow us to sail or with the quiet engine, allow filming without vibration to the cameramen."

"I thank the enthusiasm and expertise of Dr. Nicola Baggio, an engineer manager at Solon Italy who helped us in this first big step for a clean trip from London to Istanbul in 2010."

"Do not leave the planet to the stupid! Is the motto of Solon."




Doryman has been invited to participate in this six month voyage of purpose and if sponsorship can be found, surely he will.

A list of links for Giacomo's efforts to help bring the plight of the world's rivers and seas to the attention of all of us:
Ness Yawl on the Po River
unaltropo
Canto Mediterraneo (there is a lot here, look diligently and keep your translator handy - posts are in English, Italian and Portugese.)
Canto Mediterraneo (on DoryMan)
Ness Yawl on the Po River (on DoryMan)
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Core Sound 17

Simple, Beautiful, Functional, Versatile.

While rowing around Fort Worden in Port Townsend last month, suddenly there is a perfectly balanced two masted rig bearing down on the little wherry yawlboat carrying Doryman. In an attempt to remain on friendly terms with the natives, he calls out cheerfully,
"What kind of boat is that?".

A gruff and hearty voice says;

"The boat is a Core Sound 17 (hull #157) designed by B&B Yachts and built by Jan Nicolaisen in 2008."




"While the boat may look old fashioned, the hull is rather light and planes easily.
It's built of stitch and glue plywood with some custom features providing a more traditional appearance."

"With a very full bow and sitting on the bench seats behind the cockpit combing, the boat feels big for seventeen feet."





"The standard design calls for aluminum masts and sails with battens, but this boat has solid wood masts and sails without battens. I’ve hit 6+ knots reefed and reaching and about 8 knots downwind - all while feeling secure and under control."







"I’m still getting used to the cat ketch rig and like it even more as I learn how to handle it. It is particularly well behaved sailing down wind and easy to tack since there is no jib to handle. I can rig and launch in about 20 minutes which means I often slip out for just a few hours."






"My," thinks Doryman, "this is a friendly fellow -
and it's no wonder, to be sailing such a fine vessel in easy weather!"

It turns out the fellow is Randy Jones, and he is indeed a likable guy, with lots of good things to say about his Core Sound cat ketch.

Next time, Doryman will be shamelessly begging for a ride to test the trim of that twin rig for himself...



Core Sound 17
LOA .................. 17' 0"
BEAM ................ 5' 10"
DRAFT .............. 7.5" & 3' 6"
SAIL AREA ....... 119 sq. ft.
HULL WEIGHT .. 350 - 400 lbs
SAILING WEIGHT 1000 lbs @DWL w/crew and gear

Core Sound 20
LOA ................. 20' 0"
BEAM ............... 6' 3"
DRAFT ............. 8" & 3' 9"
SAIL AREA ....... 155 sq. ft.
BOAT WEIGHT .. 500 - 600 lbs
SAILING WEIGHT 1300 lbs @DWL w/crew and gear
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Sanpierotta Plans for DoryMan

Back in May I was lucky enough to receive some study plans for the Venecian Sanpierotta, which is a design that has been on my mind for long enough!
Currently I am striving to find a set of building plans for this timeless fishing vessel. For centuries these and other vessels of Venice have been built using design tools called sesti, to lay down the lines.

Naval historian Gilberto Penzo descrbes it thus:

"The principal system used in boat design in the Venetian boatyards is the sesto, a full-scale template that, by rotating and moving and guided by the marks on its surface, allow for the direct creation of all the frames."

"Although technical drawings showing the classic longitudinal, transverse and plan views exist, they are used only for bureaucratic purposes."

"The advantages of this template system are evident: full-scale drawings are made directly without having to enlarge them at the lofting stage; the sesto can be positioned on the block of rough wood for a more rational use of the material; one or more parameters of the boat can be changed by varying the scale of the marks and families of similar curves can be generated while avoiding possible irregularities in the form of the hull."

Historian Nereo Zane puts it this way:
"[Venetian boats] are the result of centuries of life on the water. There were hundreds of boat builders in the past and each of them used to build his own model of boat; sandoli, mascarete, batele, topi and so on. There is another thing to tell: those boats were built without the help of drawings. The builder used only a set of shapes, called "sesti" and his experience. More or less the same shapes used by a tailor sewing a suit. The result is that there aren't two suits or boats absolutely identical."

It seems highly unlikely that I will come into possession of a sesto, nor would I know what to do with one, should I be so lucky. So, it seems much of the construction of my sanpierotta will be left to my interpretation. Sounds good to me!






Recently, my friend Giacomo sent me another photo of my favorite boat - on the rio delle Muneghete. I believe it's rare to find a sanpierotta in Venice with a set of sails - they all seem to have been converted to motor boats.

But those who know me will understand if I balk at putting a motor on mine.

John Welsford Navigator

I like to check in from time to time with Steve and Bruce and their adventures in Spartina. They have made the Pathfinder, from the board of John Welsford, seem a worthy and sound boat for camp cruising. The lines of Spartina are impeccable!

A similar offering from John Welsford, is the Navigator, the original smaller design that the Pathfinder is based on. The Navigator was designed as a race training boat, and by all accounts has exceeded expectations.

A local Coot, Dave Hayden, is building a Navigator and recently shared some photos of his progress during the last year. He seems to think he's running behind schedule, but it looks like quite an accomplishment to me.
Check out Dave's Flicker site.

I love this stage in building a boat, when the shape first presents itself. Better than any sketch, is the concept first viewed in it's physical dimensions.








Navigator by John Welsford
LOA 4.5m (14ft 9in)
Beam 1.8m (5ft 10in)
Weight 140kg (309lbs)
Sails 12.6sqm (136 sq ft)

Our Dance

Bruno and Fine setting sail in Giacomo's Brancaleon on the Adriatic Sea at Vlora, off the coast of Albania, to the music of Maja.
Polyphonic music from Albania, a mixture of traditional rhythms and modern vocals in the song "Our Dance".



From the voyages of Brancaleon; Canto Mediterraneo, from Italy to Turkey.
Visit Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Greece and Turkey on the sloop Brancaleon, in the search for indigenous music from the past and present.
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Wizard of Oz

One of Trevor's good friends is an older gentleman named Ozzie Whittley. Ozzie has been designing and building boats all his life. He's eighty now and an encyclopedia of boat design.
It seems to me that the Australians are adept at taking a simple design and tweaking it just a little to make it an exceptional design. This is certainly true of Ozzie.

The photos shown are a thirty foot dory or sharpie ketch, designed and built by Ozzie Whittley. The remarkable detail about this design is the lee-boards. They are small and unobtrusive. One objection that I have to lee-boards is their obtrusive vulnerability. These boards are a natural extension of the boat and remind me of fins, which is exactly what they are. Apparently they work very well, as Trevor tells me (he's thinking of building this boat) :

"The frames and stem for this boat were drawn up on an old piece masonite, which I got hold of and I have managed to take down a set of offsets. It has a fairly flat run aft and a widened stern to carry (2)18hp outboards, although he found one was easily enough.(14mph; I think the old villain likes a bit of speed). Anyway, as you can see she is junk rigged, for a 70 year old to single hand. He trailered her all round Oz to many different waterways."
"Unfortunately he sold the boat before I got a chance to sail in her, but going by what he tells me she is vice free and sailed on any combination of sails. The trailer was cleverly designed with large centre rollers made from 6" aluminium pipe, allowing a one handed launch, not bad for a 30'er!"

Vice free! What better recommendation can a boat have?! Trevor says he would build a single cabin, which makes a lot of sense in a thirty foot boat.
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Huis clos sous les étoiles

Two of my heroes, Emmanuel and Maximilien Berque made an incredible voyage six years ago (when they were 53), crossing the Atlantic in a small outrigger canoe. Without documents or instruments they made a precise landfall after a month at sea.

I return to these incredible men for inspiration.

"A long time before Columbus or even the Vikings, about 3000 years ago, there were the Phoenicians and the Greeks in the Mediterranean and the Maoris in the Pacific who had been everywhere in the Pacific. How did they navigate without compass ? We have always been of the opinion that in life, it is not enough to read history or adventure books. There comes a moment when we wonder how we ourselves would compare to these fabulous heroes from the past..."






The Berque's contributed the story of this voyage to Duckworks magazine. (Thank you, Chuck, Sandra, Emmanuel and Maxim).

Avocet: another Ed Davis Tropic Bird design.

Bernie Amell wrote me to say he built a boat based on Ed Davis' Tropic Bird, which was the design that inspired Laingdon Schmitt's Sparrow.

Bernie has named his boat Avocet for a shorebird that is common in Alberta, Canada where he lives. He says the bird is nimble and beautiful in a unique way, which is a good description of the Tropic Bird.

"I built her in fits and starts over the past three years. She was on the water as row boat in 2008 and launched under sail in mid July 2009. I live in a condo development where we have a shared workshop in our underground parking garage. I rented the parking space adjacent to the workshop and used every last centimeter of the space to build this boat."






Bernie has made a few fitting and woodwork modifications, which I hope he will detail for us soon. He is justifiably proud of his creation...

"I have sailed and rowed her on lakes in Alberta and Wisconsin so far. I'm biased of course by being the builder, but she is a fine handling boat even in a respectable breeze."
"In the dozen or so times that I have sailed this year I always get appreciative comments from fellow sailors – and even from many motor boaters!"

I've never heard of someone building a boat in a parking garage, but motivated people will do amazing things! Apparently venues for sailing are slim in Calgary, because Bernie tells me he's towed Avocet 2300km each way (with a VW Jetta Diesel) to a lake in Wisconsin; the setting for the photo shown here. He estimates that the boat with rigging weighs about 750lb and was easily towed with his small car.



When I next hear from Bernie, I'll let you know...

Thanks Bernie for the photos, you have a very nice boat there!

River Ramble

Today a strong Pacific Ocean storm system is building outside the window, with lashing wind and rain and a forecast of winds of 50 mph.
But yesterday was sunny, warm and a very pleasant time for a run on my favorite river. Extreme tides provided us with currents up to three knots, which made paddling easy.



Bob brought his home built CLC kayak. Lew has a well equipped, nibble production kayak and Jim paddled his expedition canoe. Doryman rowed his bateau.













Little can be said to expound on the pictures...


















Bob has a GPS mounted on his kayak, so now I know we rowed 6.7KM. He says he was trying for 7 knots at one point, but 6.5 was about the best he could do.

The semi-diurnal tidal range varies in a two week cycle. Around the new and full moon, when the Sun, Moon and Earth are in alignment, is a condition the Greeks called syzygos and which we term syzygial.

Syzygy, then, creates a stronger tidal force due to the Sun's gravitation reinforcing the Moon's. The tide's range is then at its maximum and is called a spring tide, or simply, springs.

Spring tide, coupled with river current equal a fun ride. December and January have the highest tide ranges and the most rain run-off around here, so expect more river running soon.
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St. Ayles Skiff Launched at Anstruther

On the 31st of October, the celebrated St. Ayles Skiff was officially launched. Doryman has been avidly following the progress of this endeavor, though on the official launch day, he was drifting on his favorite local river, oblivious to the rest of the world. Perhaps dreaming of his own St. Alyes skiff, who knows?



It's a good thing Chris Perkins is on the job and thanks to him we have a welcome update with some great shots and videos of the event.
Luminaries from the The Scottish Fisheries Museum, local builders, designers and enthusiasts were present for the official launch and as may be expected, everyone was anxious to try the sleek new craft.






More information on the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project and the launch of the prototype skiff -


and more about the next St. Ayles Skiff in progress... This concept has spread like wild fire!



In the last photo, that's designer Iain in the second position.

Just for grins, this veteran crew decided on a true sea trial, over the vocal objections of builder Alec. That man has a voice! I'm sure he has confidence in the seaworthiness of his craft, but is concerned for liability reasons.
As you can see, the boat is doing what a well designed and expertly crafted boat is suppose to do, and in expert hands, obviously in it's element.





It's almost enough to prompt a man to move to Scotland...

Thanks to Chris Perkins for keeping us all informed and graciously providing us with his fine photos and videos. (please respect Mr. Perkin's copyright).
And thanks to Alec Jordan for conceiving of a project so rife with possibility. And to all those who's dedication to this project has made so much happen in such a short time; Cheers!
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EYE of the World

There seem to be quite a few circumnavigations in the press these days. A life-defining acomplishment for a young person, no doubt. But I have to confess to a bit of ho-hum about it all until I came across the EYE project.
Billed as an interactive cruise for students at home, it also offers a similar experience for all of us.

Best wishes and fair winds to Alan, Adam and Trevor.

Mission Statement from the EYE of the World website:
"EYE of the World is an interactive traveling classroom that is designed to broaden the horizons of participating students by bringing the world to their schools. EYE is rooted in the community of sailing; a community which is well versed in the history of innovation, exploration, discovery, and diversity. Each member of EYE is dedicated to providing the tools needed by our youth in order to become successful members of the international community."

Thank you, Steve (Log of Spartina) for bringing this adventure to our attention. If you haven't visited Steve and Bruce yet, be sure to - very soon!
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Paku on the Yaquina River

When the weather breaks in the fall, it's best to be on the water, as we all know. And when you have the tide running with you, it's even better.
So, this is what it looks like from both ends of the boat...

Rowing on the Yaquina from doryman on Vimeo.

Two Knot Current from doryman on Vimeo.

Overcast but very little rain and the Good Little Skiff Paku on the Yaquina River, All Hallows Eve 2009.
It's a yearly tradition.

We are each the other's favorite company.
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Fort Worden Small Craft Messabout

Laingdon Schmitt and Tom Regan organized an end of the season gathering in Port Townsend, Washington last Saturday and Doryman drove 400 miles to attend.

It was worth it!

The clouds parted for one day and left us with glorious sailing weather. Everyone brought food and beautiful boats to historic Fort Worden at the confluence of the Straight of Juan de Fuca and Admiralty Inlet.

The winds came up and everyone hit the water. Doryman jumped in the little wherry yawlboat Lamb Chop and took some photos. (Why is she called Lamb Chop?)










What a day!

On the Rio della Sensa in Venice

Sanpierotta in Venice from doryman on Vimeo.

My good friend Giacomo caught this Sanpierotta on film for me, since he knows how much I love these boats. Had to share it with you...

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Romilly Pocket Cruiser

In the last six months we've seen the Romilly pocket cruiser come up a couple times and it never ceases to delight...
Phil Holden, the author of the website; Roxane & Romilly, Traditional Hi-Tech wrote to me today from the UK:


"Quite a few people have contacted me recently and provided excellent photographs and descriptions [of Romilly]. I wanted to let everyone know that there is new content on the site and to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has contributed. The web site is now becoming a valuable resource for Romilly and Roxane owners."

"Some articles are very inspiring, I would never have decided to build a Romilly in cold moulded veneers but Thomas Huber's hull looks stunning. Bill Buchholz has built using lapstrake construction and has modified the rig to high peaked gaff in a very simple way. Constantinos Peraticos has built a lovely Romilly which looks very Greek simply by the choice of colour scheme."

"Other recent articles provide practical information on hauling out and cabin layout. I've found every one valuable and have delighted to see the excellent photographs which are now on the site."

"We now have contributions for Romilly and Roxane owners in Greece, Scotland, Holland, England, Ireland, Germany, Finland and the US."

"If you visit the site you will see that I have reorganized it on a subject basis rather than by date."

The photo is provided by Bill Buchholz who has built the Romilly clinker fashion, rather than strip planked and changed the lug rig to a gaff. Here we see him coming home - near midnight - in Finland.

His explanation of the changes:

"Regarding the lapstrake construction, I really felt that it would look good with this design. Romilly has some sort of work boat inspiration behind her and while I don’t know for sure, I suspect that a lot of the coastal fishing boats on both sides of the Channel were clinker."

There is a lot more on Phil's website and I heartily recommend a visit.
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Sparrow Takes Wing in Port Townsend

19’ Clinker Built, Double Ended North Shore Dory

The original design for Sparrow is from Ed Davis' Tropic Bird, as described in "WoodenBoat" magazine #163, which in turn is developed from the North Shore Surf Dory as documented by John Gardner.


Ed Davis, in his search for a design he liked for a small, open cruiser, came across the North Shore Surf Dory documented in John Gardner's "Building Small Craft", which he modified to carry a sail rig of his own design.
Davis further credits the development of the surf dory to William Chamberlain, renowned builder of dories in 19th century Massachusetts.



Laingdon Schmitt is the proud owner of Sparrow and has generously offered to explain his choice of this double rowing/sailing design and helpful details about how she was built:

"Builder Kees Prins lofted the boat, converted the original batten seam design to lapstrake, and increased the scantlings from 1/4" plywood to 8mm. Drawing on his experience with open water and open boats, he built double bulkheads fore and aft for floatation chambers in the extreme ends with decked over stowage forward of the main mast and abaft the mizzen. Kees designed plywood lazarets that run the full length of the cockpit. These are excellent for keeping gear and two sets of oars out of the way, but they do limit the space in an already narrow boat. The benches also strengthen and stiffen the boat enormously. It's possible that if we had had that aspect of the design in mind when we began building that we might have gone with lighter planking. I've discussed this with Kees, and he's still more comfortable with the boat as built, but I feel that she's on the heavy side."


"Kees also designed the steering gear. In the original design, the boat is steered with a symmetrical yoke on the head of the rudder post, from which runs a loop of line that circumscribes the cockpit, with two whipstaff-like levers at the gunwale, one to a side that, moved fore and aft, steer the boat. Once we'd gotten as far as the lazarets, it became apparent that this system wouldn't work very well in the boat we were building, and further, we preferred traditional tiller steering. The result is the intricate and effective steering gear of Sparrow. Another traditional solution to the conflict of tiller and mizzenmast is a yoke on the mizzenmast. Kees developed the pivoting tie rod arrangement you see. The pivot on the mizzen became a bronze mast partner and the geometry of the mechanism needed to accommodate the existing after hatch. There is a limit for the throw of the arms, and hence the range of movement for the tiller. This last is the only drawback to this setup; you can't throw the tiller over and kick the stern around or stall the boat as you can with a conventional, stern hung rudder."



"Thus, the boat is a bit slow in stays. This winter we're going to bring her into the shop at the new Northwest Maritime Center (Port Townsend,WA,US), where Kees is now the shop Director, and give her a new, higher aspect board, hoping this will improve her maneuverability and windward performance."

"After Kees fabricated and shaped the steering gear, he turned the parts over to Walt Tisdale of Haven Boatworks, for welding. Walt did a wonderful job and the result is the eye-catching beauty of the finished gear."



"The rig on Sparrow is much as Davis designed it. Since we increased the weight of the hull without scaling up the rig to suit, she's now somewhat underpowered in light air. I sewed a lightweight drifter that hoists to the masthead and boosts her along in lighter air, as well as a mizzen stays'l. Both were cut from old spinnakers, and though their shape is not ideal, they were easy and inexpensive to make."





"The peak of the mainsail has been redrawn to more closely match the mizzen, which has a fuller roach, for purely aesthetic reasons. I built the sails at Sean Rankins' loft, Northwest Sails. Sandy Goodall, of Victoria (BC,CAN), computer drafted the full shape and offered suggestions for refinements. The cloth supplier cut the panels and I built the sails under the tutelage of Sean and his associates at the loft. Davis' original rig included a small gunter yard on the main to accommodate the fractional jib and batwing style battens. At Sean's suggestion, we converted it to a pole mast and track, which proved problematic in raising/striking sail, and did not allow the sail to set to best advantage. At present, I have lacing and a small stiffening yard that keeps the upper part of the luff close to the mast, but I am considering going back to a true gunter design, reconfiguring the battens and enlarging the main to improve light air performance."

"Sparrow is inherently tender, since she is narrow for rowing efficiency. I recently sailed in company with a Caledonia Yawl, which is almost exactly the same length and a foot wider, and the difference in relative stiffness was clear. When the rising breeze had me up on the rail and playing the main sheet in gusts, the skipper of the other boat simply had his crew move up from the leeward side to windward and carried on."

"I have enjoyed this boat enormously in the last three years. The tenderness contributes an athletic quality of sailing I've not enjoyed since I grew up sailing Lasers on Long Island Sound. I have a boat that I can comfortably and enjoyably row in a calm, and that crossed San Francisco Bay in a breeze that was clocked on shore at 35 knots."



"I can set a tent fly over the cockpit and, sleeping on the floorboards, have a comfortable enclosed camping space."
"A number of people have mistaken my boat for a Ness Yawl, which is not surprising, given that they are almost exactly the same size. Kees asked at the outset why I didn't want to build to a fully realized design."











"The answer is; I grew up in New England, and have a personal and regional connection to the boats of that area, and to dories in particular. Dories are part of my background in a way that Scottish yoles are not. I also wanted something unique, something that would be very much it's own kind of boat, and that, I certainly have."


Adam Bays and Brad Seamans worked with Kees Prins variously during construction. That's Adam sanding the hull.


Kees Prins told me he had participated in RAIDs with Iain Oughtred and his work is obviously influenced by that experience. A small boat that offers a good compromise between sailing and rowing characteristics is hard to find. As with Sparrow, preferences for one or the other will inevitably dominate the design.


Laingdon and Kees participated in the Shipyard School RAID in 2006 with Sparrow and have attended the Sucia Island Rendezvous in Washington State’s San Juan Islands with this fine boat, where it was my pleasure to meet them last summer.

The obvious advantage in a dory design is its seaworthiness, not to mention inspirational beauty. It is for these qualities that Sparrow is now featured on the header of this website.

Photos of Sparrow under sail and during construction courtesy of Laingdon Schmitt.

Thank you very much Laingdon!
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The Wherry Yawlboat from Pete Culler

The wherry yawlboat designed by Captain R.D. “Pete” Culler was one of his favorites. It is a proper ship’s yawlboat, so had to be strong, but not too heavy, able to carry stores and water barrels, row well, and sail considerable distances in a seaway. They were used to kedge out anchors and lines or fish for fun and necessity.
The plank or wherry keel allows the yawlboat to land and sit upright on a bony shore, as well as providing a solid base for the centerboard trunk. This is a burdensome and very powerful hull based on yawlboats used as tenders a hundred years ago.




The distinguishing feature of the wherry is the plank keel, sometimes called a wherry keel. The keel is fashioned from 2x6 spruce stock, tapered at both ends. The deadwood aft is wedged and shaped, with the plank rabbit running full from deadwood to keel stock. The result is a round bottomed boat that is actually flat bottomed and will sit upright, on it's own, on a beach. (or as we see here, upright on sawhorses).





The scantlings are light and strong with natural crooks for knees and braces. The planking is red cedar and the trim and thwarts are spruce - all pinned together with bronze rivets. This particular little wherry has yew wood frames, small and delicate, yet almost indestructible. It's survived thirty years so far!
Durable, light and sound, this little craft is designed and built in the old way.




Proof of it's integrity is a mishap which pinned this unfortunate little tender between it's mother ship (a schooner of considerable size) and a dock. The tender survived as you see it, with a couple new planks and shear guards, but the yew wood frames, spruce keel and stem survived intact.
The boat is burdensome, with a traditional sprit rig and a cotton sail, built exactly to the Captain's specifications.



Pete says:
"Wineglass sections throughout the hull will give slack diagonals in a chunky boat (short and beamy). Now everyone thinks just the opposite, but the Norsemen knew a thing or two."

We'll go with the Captain on this one! This little wherry is a work of art, no wonder it's latest home was a local historical museum.






Now she's joined Doryman's "museum", or as it's characteristically known, his boatyard. A classic and a true yacht's tender.




Though she carries a fair amount of reserve buoyancy, this wherry yawl has very fine ends and remarkably well shaped sections, for easy rowing and hours of sailing fun! With a little spit and polish (and a new stern seat), she'll be as good as new.

There is a version of this boat being built today at Chequamegon Boat Works and is the boat in the photo shown to the left, under sail. (a very interesting site, by the way - be sure to check out Garry's work. Very nice!)


My sweetheart is quite taken with this little skiff and has an interesting back story on her wool and fiber blog.
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St. Ayles Skiff

For those who have been following this story, there is no need for me to be redundant. You can find the latest update from Chris Perkins in the boat shed and at Rowing for Pleasure.

Alec Jordan and crew are working pretty hard on this project, but it's plain to see everyone is also having a lot of fun. The upper frames are installed with the thwarts fitted. I understand there is a good chance the first St. Ayles Skiff will splash in a week or two.
The Scottish Coastal Rowing Project is well underway.

A very nice design!

Chris Perkins has been working on this project and has the in-depth story from Scotland.
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TSCA On-line Registration

TSCA on-line registration is now available. For a mere twenty dollars a year you can support the Traditional Small Craft Society, a very informal group for owners and enthusiasts of traditional small boats.

The Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc., is a nonprofit, tax-exempt educational organization which works to preserve and continue the living traditions, skills, lore, and legends surrounding working and pleasure watercraft whose origins predate the marine gasoline engine. It encourages the design, construction, and use of these boats, and it embraces contemporary variants and adaptations of traditional designs.

Any and all are welcome! For the price of dues, you get the quarterly publication, The Ash Breeze, a member contribution journal with great stories, events and launchings. Other member benefits are often announced, including discounts.

We all love a good deal!
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Building the Rushton Catboat

Lofting and Planking a 15' Clinker Built Sailboat with Douglas Brooks

In a recent conversation with Douglas Brooks, he recommended we visit Amateur Boat Building to read about his Rushton Catboat. You can find articles about the design and construction of that boat there, which detail every step from lofting, to setting up and planking a clinker built boat.
Henry Rushton's 1903 catalog offered his Catboat in a departure from his usual fare of recreational hunting and fishing boats. The utility and versatility of the design is readily apparent. Rushdon's catboat is beamy above the waterline for sailing stability, but narrow on it's static waterline for minimal friction under oars.



As Douglas says:
"Rushton's catboat features a plank keel five inches wide amidships, tapering fore and aft to a 1.5" wide stem and deadwood. The bilges are full amidships, which should give this catboat good stability when sailing, but run smoothly to a slightly hollow entry forward. Aft the hull bottom rises up sharply to the classic wineglass transom so characteristic of whitehalls."

"Her load waterline should come right to the base of the transom, making her effectively a double-ender in the water, which means she will move easily under oars."




Douglas is a boat builder, researcher, and lecturer who counts as part of his extensive resume' the building of traditional Japanese boats for which he has spent considerable time seeking out obscure teachers in regions of Japan. He will be embarking in mid-November to apprentice with one of the last native boat builders in the Okinawa district. The build will be documented on his website, so be sure to stay tuned!




Please visit him and look closely at the detailing of Douglas' boats. The signature of a true lover of his craft.
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Pete Culler's Wherry Yawlboat

Doryman is currently in negotiation for this finely crafted ship's yawl, built from plans by the Captain himself.







My friend Steven is playing coy, but I think we are getting close to an agreed price. Steven is the builder responsible for the Good Little Skiff, Paku and this little tender was built around the same time, about 30 years ago.




There is a bigger story here, but we'll get into that when I bring her home. Hopefully I'm not jumping the gun.

Pete Culler's work is simply gorgeous! And so is Steven's. Pretty exciting!

St. Ayles Skiff

Encouraging Boat Building and Rowing in Coastal Communities

Chris Perkins gives us a quick update on the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project and the St Ayles Skiff by Iain Oughtred.
Big progress has been made on small details. I love this stage of a build, when the boat begins to show it's structural integrity. The prototype St. Ayles Skiff is coming along nicely.

Thanks Chris, for the photos!






Doesn't this entice you to build a boat?

If that's not enough, there is a fellow not far from here on the Oregon coast (US) who's building a Valgerda faering by John Atkin.






Good job, Brandon!

World Rivers Day

Among the vesicular watercourses belonging to the vestiges of primordial rainforest of the Great Pacific Basin, the Yaquina River retains much of its fundamental native beauty. Fifty miles long, and nearly thirty of them are tidal, thus navigable from the Pacific Ocean. Tall hardwoods hung with vines grow beside the conifers presiding over lush undergrowth along this terrestrial Eridanus.




Sourced in the Siuslaw National Forest on the western verge of the Willamette Valley, the Yaquina flows south, then generally west in a serpentine course, past Toledo, home port for SV Mistral. It melds with the Pacific Ocean in the Yaquina Bay, a broad estuary at Newport, Oregon.




A chilly fall morning may find intrepid fishermen sounding their way through the fog to prey on salmon or sturgeon, a practice inherited from the aboriginal inhabitants. Yaquina is a tribal name - people extinct now by the intrusion of aggressive settlers - but their presence can be felt on such a morning, so much that you might expect to see a silhouette digging for oysters or clams along the mud flats.
A loud protest and a lift of huge wings betrays our ghost to be a heron or a pelican who (rightly so) considers human presence invasive.




It’s still possible to ride the currents of the Yaquina with the rhythm of the tides. Rowers or paddlers will soon find themselves accompanied by a seal or sea lion. Not quite as primeval as Europeans found it, but a visitor can get a sense of a Stone Age rainforest fed by the waters of antiquity.











It’s the same water after all. We live in a closed hydroponic system, fed and watered by the same condensation rained down on millennia of denizens of the third planet from the sun.
With every country seeking to satisfy water needs from limited water resources, some see a future filled with conflict. But cooperation is the most effective response to trans-boundary water management issues.





We share responsibility for managing and protecting the world’s rivers for current and future generations. Despite pristine appearances, the Yaquina swings in disturbed balance, affected by human activities. The same fate defiles every drop of water on our little rock, from the Yaquina to the Etruria.















.....The water was like glass, no sound but the rhythm of oars as they dipped into the water like a metronome. Our only companion was a lone blue heron sitting on the bank watching us pass, a statue but for his swiveling head. The sun was slow to rise this close to the equinox, in the early morning fog, on the river...

Caper

Pleasant fall weather has allowed Doryman some time in his boatyard.

Pictured is the racing sloop Caper, a Rhodes 33. Caper is an ongoing restoration project, which unfortunately doesn’t fit in Doryman’s shop. So work progresses as weather permits. Conflicts arise, as may be expected.





Caper is a classic, built by the South Coast boat yard in Newport Beach, California in the mid-1930’s.
Designed by Phillip Rhodes and designated the Rhodes 33, she measures thirty three feet eight inches over-all with a design water line of twenty two feet four inches and a beam of six foot ten inches.




Last weekend Caper was thoroughly fared and a coat of white primer applied to her topsides. Some new frames will be added when the mast step is replaced, so the primer is an intermediate step to protect the boat from the coastal winter storms that ravage Doryman’s home. Hopefully the work on the mast step and the frames that hold the chain plates will commence this winter.



Isn’t she a thoroughbred? Just look at that old custom made hardware and rigging. That stick on the deck is a roller-furling boom. The boat also has a standard boom and all the fittings of an old wood racing yacht, including a bronze bell and two fine old compasses.

Racing was once a stylish and genteel event, no wonder the crew all wore ties!




The mast is forty feet of clear spruce and is also undergoing a face-lift. All old varnish and paint has been removed and the bottom three feet replaced by scarping in new wood where rot had taken hold. Mast step and mast butt, two eternal problem areas in an old wood boat. Caper also suffers from slacking at the turn of the bilge, another predictable problem area. Some sistered frames and new corking will solve that problem. The piles of oak boards under the boat are expressly for that purpose.









Caper already has a new set of sails to go on her refurbished mast, so progress is being made, wouldn’t you agree?
(Yeah, I know that's a broken plank on the starboard. We'll take care of that, too!)

Scottish Coastal Rowing Project

Soon after the post on the St Ayles Skiff a few days ago, I recieved a very nice note from Chris Perkins, of Strathkanchris’s Little World. Chris is working with the crew on the St. Ayles Skiff prototype underway in Alec Jordan's shop. He sent me three views of the boat turning, which show how graceful Iain's design is, how precise Alec's work is and how absolutely dainty a hard working, seaworthy twenty two foot boat can be.

Chris is very congratulatory about the design and the product:





"A significant stage was reached this week with the turnover of the hull - Iain's design looks even better the right way up, a really sleek lady. As is normal she looks huge in the build shed but I am sure that once she takes to the water the usual visual shrinkage will take place."

I replied that it looks like two crew could make good time in some rough water, gracefully symbiotic with the element, and Chris agreed:

"I think you are right about two oarsmen being able to make her fly, for a 22 foot boat she is amazingly light, we think that after fitting out she will be about twice her current weight, still very light for a boat of this size."


We are left to make some guesses of our own about that, but it can't be much! I'm hungry for those details, as many will be. I, for one, can see myself slicing through the waves and currents of the mighty Pacific in the St. Ayles Skiff.


Chris has some comments and advice from his recent experience building this vessel:

"I have been privileged to be invited to help, and very good fun it is proving to be. It has been interesting to see just how fast one of Alec's kits can be put together and I have been really amazed at the accuracy of the system Alec has devised. Building a prototype of a design that is still under development might be expected to produce a few areas where a rework might be needed but so far very little has shown up, a few tweaks to the building frame to simplify it for future builders is about all that has been identified so far."
"I would not otherwise have had the chance to work on a build of this size and that alone makes driving the length of Scotland well worthwhile. I have been delighted by the amount that I have been able to learn from Alec, as a professional he has to make time and materials count against my rather relaxed amateur approach to both! If I were to build a boat with a paint finish I would get one of Alec's kits for the significant time and stress saving in the build."



That's a strong recommendation from a craftsman. I'd love to build one of these gems myself! Chris assures me that the boat is so well balanced that it sits upright unassisted on it's keel.


The challenge to build and race these boats is scheduled to culminate in events starting as early as eight months from now.

I see growing interest and promotional variants of the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project sprouting up all over the globe.

For on-going documentation of this project, visit the new Scottish Coastal Rowing Project website.
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Old Town Freight Canoe

The work on this old canoe is progressing slowly. An interesting thing happens when working on a highly detailed project.
After days and weeks of scraping and sanding, pounds of paint material have been removed from between each of many frames inside the canoe, but to me the change has happened over many months and thus nearly indiscernible.

At first the interior was a dark brown and underneath was a layer of gray over a layer of old varnish. The result of all that sanding and scraping can be seen here.







When several coats of epoxy and varnish had been applied, the new shear guard was bent on. I used an African species of mahogany called Oboto which is beautiful, but rigid for this application and gave some resistance.




A bit of persuasion with a satisfying result, don't you agree?

The layers of glue on those clamps attest to their value in this man's shop!












The outside of the hull had been recovered with fiberglass years ago, and has been fared and painted. One more coat will finish the job and the final new color will be green, in keeping with Old Town tradition.














Presto!

Hand Sewn Mainsail Rings

Some readers have asked recently about Mistral's new custom mainsail. I just got a quick update from my sailmaker with a couple photos of the head, clew and reef-point rings she is sewing by hand (when she gets a chance from her busy schedule).

The first photo is the head ring with a reinforcing blot rope. This how the halyard was attached to a sail before the advent of metal head boards. An aluminum headboard can chafe the sail and many cruising sailors prefer an old fashioned sewn ring instead.

A piece of rope is sewn into a cringle for each ring, then a brass ring is hammered into the cringle for protection against chafe. The skill for this work is in the experience and the tools necessary are very simple. A cruising sailor can do the work on-board if repairs are necessary, which is the main advantage to having this kind of finish work.



In the second photo we see the tack, downhaul and reef point cringles on the luff of the sail. Click on the images to enlarge them for a closer view.

Sails are rarely made with this kind of attention to detail, in today's busy culture.



By no means secondary to the practicality of this system is the old time beauty of hand work done well. Look closely at the precision of the hand stitching. Lynne is incredible, isn't she? This sail is going to be a real beauty.

More on Mistral's new sails soon.

For an informative discussion on sail design and the multiplicities of the center of effort verses the lateral plane, visit Arpex. Peter Mirow is designing and building a proa in Rio and has much to say about life and the sea and the life of the sea. Multihulls are a topic we have not covered here, but we will, I promise.

Scottish Coastal Rowing Project

The Scottish Coastal Rowing Project is underway.

The Scottish Fisheries Museum at Anstruther is supporting this initiative to restart coastal rowing and racing along the Scottish coastline.

The project proposes individuals build the St Ayles Skiff, designed by internationally renowned small boat designer Iain Oughtred. The design provides a mix of tradition, seaworthiness, speed and ease of build.

The St Ayles Skiff is designed to be built by the clinker plywood construction method.

Anyone familiar with Iain's designs will recognize this boat immediately. More of a dory than a skiff, it is an obviously efficient boat.

The St Ayles Skiff is approximately 22 feet long with a beam of 5′8″. Crew will be four rowers and a coxswain.

The kits will be available through Alec Jordan Boats soon and the prototype is going together as we speak. There are photos of the build at Strathkanchris's Little World.

So, the question that comes to mind?

Why should the Scots have all the fun? Why, when there are coastal waters just outside my window just begging for the proper mix of tradition, seaworthiness and speed?

Is anyone for making this a global project?
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Romilly Pocket Cruiser

If I was to build another boat right now, the Romilly, a yawl from the hands of Irens and Burnett would definitely make my short list. A very pretty boat and a nice rig, too.
Her big cockpit makes her an ideal boat for camp cruising. There are a lot of inland waterways within a day’s travel that need exploring!




Phil Holden visited a previous post about Romilly and writes to me to explain that he has a web site dedicated to Romilly and Roxanne her larger sister, Romilly Sailboat. He hosts a forum for owners and builders to share ideas and would love input.



He tells me:
"I own a Romilly called Riant. I'm 6'2" and have slept in the cuddy cabin very comfortably. There's room for two adults but not much else. (The sitting headroom measured from the berth surface up to the cabin top is about three feet). There is also a cockpit tent, which extends the usable space."

"I fell in love with Romilly years ago when she was on the front of Classic Boats Magazine but I never thought I would be able to one day afford her."

"Most folks don't notice her on her berth but many sail over for a closer look when we have her out for the day. She really is a stunner."

It's the sails that make her a beauty everyone can recognize! That high peaked yard is simply beautiful.

Romilly's plans call for a strip-planked hull covered in 300gsm glass, but here is a cold molded version being built in Germany.




















The plans also call for carbon spars, the main yard, the boom, the boomkin, the mizzen yard and the mizzenmast are shown in the photo.



Phil says:
"I would strongly recommend the carbon fibre mast and other spars. No one, even other boat owners will know and they make a massive difference to stability and sail handling. Please don't make the mistake of making wooden spars."


I found this a little intimidating, since I usually build the whole boat, but have never made a carbon mast. As this video shows, it’s not exactly rocket science, so I’ll have to give it a go. (Sorry, there is no "part two" that I could find).

Apparently the hard part is engineering the mast for stiffness, since there is a fine line between too bendy and too stiff.

Since Romilly uses unstayed masts, error on the side of stiffness seems a good idea. I see Phil’s point about stability, such a fine hull would be easily upset by a top-heavy mast and yard.

Beautiful, but not conceited and above all, nimble and fast. A high performance family daysailer or gunkholer with a lot of class.

Romilly is also available as a kit and a very good article on building one can be found in Luggers for Today.
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Catenary Formula

For those who have asked me how much anchor rode is necessary for proper scope, here is the
Catenary Mathematical Description

The equation (up to translation and rotation) of a catenary in Cartesian coordinates has the form:

where cosh is the hyperbolic cosine function.


The scaling factor a can be interpreted as the ratio between the horizontal component of the tension on the chain (a constant) and the weight of the chain per unit of length.


The Whewell equation for the catenary is:



Differentiating gives:



and eliminating
gives the Cesàro equation:


For more fun than you can stand, visit Bowsprite!
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Canto Mediterraneo II

From Venice to Istanbul. The music of the waves, the music of the world. A language we all understand.






Voyages on Brancaleon from Italy to Croatia.
With Bruno Porto from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as skipper........

Bruno's Log; August 13th, 2009:

"Against light airs, we move slowly. The night comes fast and I take turns with Giovanni at the helm. On the horizon, small storms form and at four in the morning we are in the grip of a full gale. We were already down the coast of Istria and we have to move away from shore for the lack of visibility. Lots of rain, wind around 35 knots with lightning everywhere. Suddenly, a scare! At the moment a ray falls relatively close to the boat, I take a strong shock via the helm! At the moment I do not understand why and I do not know what to do. The wind is with us still and dropping the helm does not seem a good option. But to keep holding, all wet, in the middle of those flashes, a piece of metal that had just given me a shock ... did not seem a good alternative! Trying to understand why, I realize that the whole system from the helm to the rudder shaft in the water is of metal. I'm holding a piece of metal that is grounded in the water in the middle of a thunderstorm. SHIT! I am a little fuck! Luckily the storm passes soon. And isolating the helm goes to the list of things to be resolved urgently."

Translated from Bruno's Portuguese by Doryman.


Visualizza Canto Mediterraneo in una mappa di dimensioni maggiori

Click on the indicated way points for information on the ports of call for SV Brancaleon on the Voyage Singing Mediterranean
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Concordia Sloop Feather

Back on Sucia Island the Concordia Sloop Feather caught my eye. There is no mistaking a Culler boat. Capt’ Pete could inspire people to take up sailing, just to be in one of his lovely creations. One day I hope to sail (or row) Feather. I have high expectations and don’t expect to be disappointed.

Glenn is skipper of this little sloop and obviously loves his boat, so I’ll ask him to tell us about it.

“Feather is a Concordia Sloop Boat, designed in 1964 by R.D. "Pete" Culler, for the Concordia Company of Dartmouth, Massachusetts. John Graham in Sausalito, California built ours in 1983. We purchased it from him in Sequim, Washington in June of 1994.”






“She is 17' 8" long, 5' wide, and draws 18" with the centerboard up and 3' with it down. She is rigged as a gaff knockabout sloop with 172 square feet of sail, 127 in the main and 45 feet in the jib. There is no standing rigging and the jib is set flying. She displaces 1240 pounds with rig and anchor and carries as many as six adults. She has two sets of reef cringles in the mainsail, allowing her to sail to weather in 35 knots of wind with both reefs in and the jib set”

“Most of the work we’ve done on the boat is more in the nature of maintenance and repair, keeping up brightwork and spars. There have been a few modifications and some repairs of the inevitable sailing damage.”




“In the summer of 1999, when our daughter was five weeks old we took her across San Francisco Bay and back in Feather. Even an infant’s life jacket was too big."

“Last year I used her for winter crabbing season from late October to the end of December. On December 20 I pulled my pots out for the year under sail, the air temperature was 20 degrees. I was glad the wind was light -- it was a wonderful last sail of the year.”









That’s what that boat was build for, Glenn!
Thank you for taking us with you….







Photos of Feather under sail by John Kohnen, taken at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Show.



Glenn has a great story of struggling to attend the 2007 Sucia Island Rendezvous in Feather:

Northbound
Crossing the Straits of Juan de Fuca

"The beginning was a fiasco."

"Feather had been out of the water for a couple of years after a mooring parted and she went on the beach in the winter of 2004, tearing off her skeg. I recovered all the bits at low tide, including the keel band, rudder and attendant hardware. I spent the month before Sucia Island Rendezvous 2007 with a good deal of help from my brother Alan, building a new skeg and performing various other repairs. Alan also built a rowing seat to mount on the aft end of the centerboard case."

"Our plan was to launch Wednesday afternoon, load up and let the boat soak overnight (I'd been soaking the bilge with a hose for 3 days), then leave on the dawn ebb Thursday morning. Wednesday evening found me frantically varnishing spars and oars and leathering the oars."

"We launched at dawn Thursday. By the time we loaded and cleared the dock at Fort Flagler at the north end of Marrowstone Island, it was almost the end of the ebb... We tried anyway and sailed across to Keystone on Whidbey Island. It was obvious we had totally blown the tide. If it weren’t for the back eddy in Admiralty Bay we'd have wound up in Seattle!"

"We worked the back eddy as far West as Admiralty Head, where it peters out against the Whidbey shore and spent the rest of the flood tacking on and off the head until it eased enough to reach off to the State Park moorings at Ft. Worden in Port Townsend. Feather was making more water than was comfortable, but hourly pumping kept up with it. Never hazardous, but a worry for the whole cruise."

"We spent the night at Alan's and left, rowing on the dawn ebb Friday. We hit the tide perfectly, but cut too close to Pt. Wilson, actually passing inside the buoy. It was a miserable time trying to row in the rips, so rough that I was afraid we'd lose the boat. Thank Pete Culler for a seaworthy design! The water would just come to the deck edge, and that beautiful bow would rise over the sea. It was all I could do to keep one end to the seas (I swear they were 6 feet high and 3 feet apart!), either bow or stern first, like a MacKenzie River drift boat. Between rips we tried for all the northing we could. Somewhere around the "SA" buoy we got enough wind to set sail, which steadied us out a lot, and relieved us of rowing."

"We learned to check our charts for topography liable to cause rips or overfalls. Bad ones are usually labeled as such on the chart. It's obvious that ebb coming around Pt. Wilson will be forced up by the rapid shoaling there and raise a huge rip. We should have headed well east from Ft. Worden and not gone north until we had enough offing to keep the ebb from setting us through the shoals."

"We went east of Smith Island, which was a mistake. The tide turns in Admiralty Inlet an hour before it does in Rosario Strait. So when the wind died, we had the remains of the ebb setting us south again. We were afraid if we got too far south, we wouldn't make the flood up Rosario. So we rowed for three hours and actually lost ground from being just at the north end of Smith Island, to a little south of Smith before the tide turned."

"Around the south end of Flounder Bay we got a little breeze and were able to sail north through the bay, into the marina. We arranged to spend the night with some of Alan's friends in Anacortes."

"Saturday morning, the tide didn't flood until afternoon. We were underway on the first of the flood, sailing for less than an hour until the wind dropped and it was back to rowing! Up Rosario Straight a little wind off the east corner of Orcas Island allowed us to lay one long tack with the tide holding us to the wind. Then, back to rowing off Barnes and Clark. Near dark, we found a counter current against us on the south side of Matia Island, which wasn't shown on the current print out Alan had downloaded. With diligent pulling, we made it into Fossil Bay just after dark, and a day late, to the music of Jamie's bagpipes."

Homeward
"Southbound down President's Channel to Jones Island, the wind was light."

"Everyone else was being sporting, using sails only, and edging towards Waldron Island to get a little more wind. We edged closer to Orcas Island to get a better current; whenever the boom swung inboard we'd top it up and row. We were first to Jones Island, beating in on the last mile against a brisk southerly."

"We parted from the flotilla the following morning at Spencer Spit with a light southeast wind and drizzle, rowing most of the day, with no problems with tides or rips this time. Going through the channel to the west of James Island we had enough wind to sail as the following current pushed us south. By now the drizzle had soaked us thoroughly. Whoever had the helm was hypothermic. Rowing kept the other one warm."

"Lousy visibility with drizzle -mist and fog off Smith Island, with no steering compass. We used my hockey puck hand-bearing compass, sighting on our bow and periodically wiping off the rain while we rowed. Southbound, past Smith the current change worked in our favor, so passing east of Smith again worked best. Hugging the Whidbey Island shore would have worked too. South of the "SA" buoy we got enough wind to sail, but with a headwind from the southeast. We made one long tack from there to Point Wilson, the flood being strong enough to lay the Point. We encountered some light rips, but not so bad on the flood and we stayed outside the buoy. Feather lost the wind again off Fort Worden and we had to row up Port Townsend Bay."

"Just before we got to Point Hudson the long forecasted westerly wind finally kicked up, so we sailed the last quarter mile, after rowing most of the day."

"The next day I took Feather home, across the bay to Marrowstone Island. We’d rowed three fourths of the trip!"

Glenn Woodbury
PKA Black Douglas,
Master of the Sloop-Boat Feather
And the Terror of Scow Bay



For those not familiar with the San Juan Islands, that would have been over 100 nautical miles!
Doryman.

Schooner Phoenix Progress

North of here, in the San Juan Islands, Captain Kruse is making progress on the masts and yards for the schooner Phoenix and you might appreciate an update.

The Phoenix specifications are:

LOA 87', LOD 60'
Beam 17.75'
Draft 9.5'
Displacement 51 tons
Sail area 3,500 sq. ft.





Captain Kruse has more videos of his work and a website he shares with Iris his Bengal cat.



Iris is a very cool kitty!




Another video of assembling a hollow mast (don't know who to credit this to....)

Mistral Voyage

Yesterday morning Captain Rick and The Lady Cat accompanied Doryman 13 miles down river on the beautiful Yaquina.
Mistral embarked at 0520 in the morning dark and fog. The sun was slow to rise this close to the Equinox and even when it did, with all the fog, visibility was almost nil.











The Dory knows her home waters though and the day broke calm and silent, full of marine mammals and wading birds of all descriptions stirring for breakfast.









Even within the mouth of the river where the highway passes between ocean and sheltered waters, the Yaquina Bay bridge was barely visible beyond the breakwater.
















0800 hours and back in Port.

Chameleon

Until a few weeks ago, I’d always thought that a nesting dinghy was a matter of necessity, but had little else to commend it, all practicality and little poetry.

But then I met Martin and his home-built Chameleon. When I first saw Martin in the San Juan Islands, he was disembarking from his Allegra 24 cutter, Clover into his rowing dinghy and I would never have guessed this might be a nesting boat. Then, to see it on the water was amazing! Martin has a fine little boat there and it handles as good as it looks.

When Martin loaded his dinghy on his house deck, it seemed easily and efficiently done with the two nesting parts lifted from the water, one at a time.

Martin graciously submitted some photos and his impressions of building Chameleon for the Doryman blog:






“The Chameleon was designed by Danny Greene. The construction is basic stitch and glue. I wanted a hard dinghy that would fit aboard a 24-foot boat. The Chameleon answers the need very well for me. I'm quite lucky - there's clearance under the boom, the fore hatch is unobstructed, and the foredeck is still accessible.”

“One thing I would advise to a person new to boat building, even if they're not new to woodworking, is to get a book on the order of Devlin's Boat Building, by Sam Devlin. That's the one I got for myself, and I learned all sorts of things that I didn't know I didn't know.”

“The other thing would be to not scrimp on materials - not necessarily getting the most expensive possible, but never getting something that you figure you can just get away with. By the time you've added the work required, there's no savings at all left in a part that suffers in quality due to inferior materials. The builder's time, and the resulting boat, are both worth it.”

Martin has some good advice. He's a diligent sailor, too from the look of his cruising cutter, Clover. The Chameleon is a smart design for such a capable little ship.

Here's our friend Kees sailing the Chameleon.


Designer Danny Greene has this to say about his nesting dingy:

“Chameleon can be assembled and disassembled in the water, as it is possible to launch and retrieve her, one piece at a time. Each half weighs approximately 50 pounds. There are built-in buoyancy chambers in the stern and a fore-locker that could be sealed for buoyancy by fitting a water tight hatch.”

“As a rowboat, Chameleon features two rowing positions, so she can be properly trimmed with one, two, or three people aboard. Oars of about 7-1/2 feet length seem to work best. Safe capacity is about 500 pounds. For those interested in fitness rowing I have designed a sliding seat/outrigger option that is inexpensively built of plywood and allows use of 8-1/2 to 9 foot oars.”





I witnessed how well the Chameleon rows and sails; as good or better than any comparable dinghy. And with good looks, too! Martin could make some impressive speed under oars. She's a compact stowable dinghy with seaworthy capacity.





























Thank you, Martin, you've done a very nice job of your Chameleon!









Chameleon:

LOA: 10’-4”
Beam: 4’-2”
Nested Dimensions: 5’-4”x 4’-2”x 1’-8”
Sail Area: 50 sq. ft.
Hull weight 100 lbs.
Motor: 2– 4 hp

Danny Greene
Offshore Designs Ltd.
PO Box GE 213
St George's Bermuda GE BX
dtgreene@ibl.bm





For a description of building a Chameleon, check out Sailorgirl.















There goes Martin in Clover now!

Northwest Waters

In Sailing Uphill, Sam McKinney describes minimalist sailing along the West Coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia -- a wild, weather beaten coast of broken shorelines, islands, reefs and deep inlets. Rugged and perilous and a true test of the seaworthiness of the worthy dory know as Nootka Sound.




Sam’s story begins as his tales do, with the building of a boat:

“The boat I built was a dory, a descendant of that humble craft of legend and utility that was developed in the last century (sic) for cod fishing off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. The distinctive shape of the dory --- the swoop and lift of it’s sheer, sharply angled sides and tombstone-shaped transom --- is an icon of maritime art and literature.



"Neither time, nor chipped paint nor scabby planks can mar the perfection of that shape.”



“Not much of a boat, that little open dory, just twenty feet long. It had two sails, a five-horse outboard and a back-up set of oars. The bottom of the boat was the bunk, a brass-bound box was the galley.”


“During one long summer, I explored that coast in the little dory, from Barkley Sound in the south to Nootka Island in the north… My voyage had no particular destination. Just being wherever time and chance carried me was the order of each day as I slowly followed close along curving shorelines of rock, beach or forest and crossed open, sun-burnished channels of the sea to disappear again into the sheltered lagoons of encircling islands.”


Sam should be pleased to know his little gunkholing dory is in good hands. My friend Jim is the current owner of Nootka and last weekend he took a short jaunt upriver on the Yaquina, to show his capable dory to admiring crowds at the Toledo Wooden Boat Festival.


Looks to me as though Jim is hiding. Too much attention can be exhausting!
More about the Nootka Sound can be found in Duckworks Magazine.












Nootka Sound Camping Cruiser
Designed by
Joe Dobler


LOA 20'
LWL 16' 6"
Beam 5' 6"
Draft (board up) 7"
Draft (board down) 3'

Ash Breeze

The Fall issue of the journal of the TSCA arrived in my mail box this week. I read the darn thing on my way into the house --- What a great magazine!

In this issue: the Philadelphia Wooden Boat Festival and the Michigan Classic Boat Festival.

Also some wonderful digital illustrations drawn for the Florida Maritime Museum at Cortez documenting samples of shallow draft boats historically used in the state, like the sharpie Egret and the West Palm Beach Sharpie Schooner. These illustrations are available as note cards and postcards by contacting the artist (Irwin Schuster) at Ahoy@YourBoatArt.com as a fund raiser for the museum.

Another highlight features pictures from the 2009 Petaluma River Row. Some great classic rowing craft!

Articles for the Ash Breeze are submitted by members and feature photos taken by enthusiasts like yourself. Just like getting a report from a friend. I'd recommend joining the TSCA today, if you haven't already, and get your own Ash Breeze with your morning coffee four times a year!
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Toledo Wooden Boat Show 2009

Toledo, Oregon, USA is Doryman's home port, so this little show has personal resonance.

A good time was had by all in the summer sun. We would like to share it with you!

Apologies to any who were not documented. The cruising dory Mistral and Sweet Sixteen, the Thistle racing dingy shared the far end of the dock, so Doryman was continuously entertained by visitors, in slow traffic, on the cul-de-sac.



Good fun, great music, yummy food, beautiful boats, incredible weather, lots of great people --- isn't that what life's all about?

Thank you, all who participated. And the rest of you, wish you'd been there!

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Launching Thistle #16

Yesterday was the first time Thistle hull #16 has been in the water in 30 years. After a complete restoration, she's showing her full colors.
Hull number sixteen was built in the first year of Thistle manufacture in 1946 and is registered from 1947. 63 three years young!
Doryman celebrated his triumph with a nine mile single-handed run up the Yaquina river.



The Thistle is a very nimble boat and quite a handful for a solo sailor. Luckily the winds were light, about 10 miles per hour, with puffs. There was one accidental gybe where the boom caught Doryman's PFD from behind and tried to throw him overboard, like a puppet. But the real thrill was lifting Sweet Sixteen up on a plane (twice!).

The nine mile trip took just under two hours.

Not bad!
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Great Pelican for Sale

Lou Brochetti has decided to sell his Great Pelican, Toucan. If anyone is interested, or knows someone who might be, they can reach Lou at:

lbrochetti@isp.com
or: 541-504-0135

Lou lives in central Oregon, US.



A lot of boat in a trailerable package! Lou built this boat (he's a professional boat builder) and his work is top drawer.
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Frank Pelin Sailing Dory; Melissa II

My friend Trevor sent me some photos recently of a spirited sailing dory he built. Unfortunately for us (and him, too), Trevor suffered a hard drive melt down this year, so pictures of the build are lost. Trevor is the person responsible for the Cape Ann dory build he shared with us a few months ago. He's an ambitious builder and his work is an inspiration!

This is from his note:

"I'm sending some pictures of the Cherry 16 yacht I built a couple of years ago, a 16 foot trailer-sailer designed by Frank Pelin of New Zealand."





"It is a stitch and glue design which goes together very easily and a very pretty boat, so I named her after my grand daughter, Melissa II."

"I cannot take credit for the professional paint job, it's epoxy paint sprayed on by my son in-law who runs a busy spray painting business. I did spend a lot of hours fairing the boat, under his supervision. I did not recess tape joins and paid the penalty of a lot more work in preparation."







"The all up weight of the boat is about 750 pounds and is basically a beamy Dory, it planes quite easily and is a lot of fun to sail. Unfortunately I am still using second hand dinghy sails and look forward to a new set sometime."

"The boat is still not finished inside, a work in progress..."










"The picture on the beach is in front of our club house (Trevor is Commodore of his local yacht club) situated in a narrow inlet at the Northern end of Western Port, Victoria, Oz. -- The maiden voyage."

"The other shots are taken during our annual feature race, the Warneet Around French Island Race (WAFIR). 'Where the hell is Warneet' I hear you ask? The Google Earth shots show."



















"With the current rig the boat does not point up all that flash but is a rocket off and down wind. My skipper tells me to move my weight more to leeward to get the boat to heel more, this does help with going to windward. Typically dory, I think."




"On the south side of the Island the wind against tide, channeling through a fairly narrow gap, churns up a lively washing machine effect with three foot waves coming from several directions at once. The Cherry handled it quite well but it is exciting in a small boat. It does lack a bit comfort for an eight hour race, though."























"Being a small lightweight boat, crew position is critical. Downwind we both sit way forward and this gives us almost a knot more speed."




Thank you very much, Trevor for your insights on dory handling. This little yacht sure proves it's mettle!

It looks like quite a challenge to sail out the channel from Warneet, doesn't it?



Post Script:
An unidentified reader from OZ (I think)left a comment on the Cherry 16, but misplaced it with another post. I will copy it here, since it's a very interesting development in the boat for better windward performance:

"The Cherry 16 can go to windward well if set up right The Tasker jib looks too full. A flatter jib, set at 15% is ideal, but the main has to be rigged to suit this trim. The problem is the original design was for a family cruising boat in NZ moderate/strong winds. The Australian racing version was an improvement for the relative light conditions in Victoria and was some 7% quicker."

And, if that reader is out there, please respond to me directly: mbogoger@gmail.com
I'd like to hear more!
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Canto Mediterraneo

Introducing Canto Mediterraneo. The link to the blog and web site documenting this incredible journey can be found to the left on the sidebar. Each new post to Canto Mediterraneo will show up under the heading. It promises to be a valuable lesson in human cultural exchange and you are invited to participate.

Objective
"We want to achieve closer contact with the people and the culture of the places we visit and realize a true cultural exchange."

"Canto Mediterraneo (Mediterranean Chants) is an intercultural project realized by four people from Italy, Brazil and Germany who are sailing from Venice to Turkey in the summer of 2009 to research contemporary music of the countries they visit. Local musicians that create a mix of traditional and modern music are going to be contacted and one song of their choice plus an interview will be published on this website. The objective is to tour the whole Mediterranean Sea in successive years."

"This project introduces the far reaching ambition of executing sustainable tourism journeys. Journeys that respect the nature and culture of the places visited, with the intention of achieving the most authentic knowledge possible of the countries that receive the crew members."

Doryman applauds this adventure and joins the voyage in a spirit of camaraderie.
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"Vesper" a Flat Bottomed Schooner in New Zealand

The schooner Vesper rides at anchor in Auckland, New Zealand. A reader sent me an article about it a few weeks ago and I followed up with a note to Andy who first posted about the schooner.

Andy provides a very good overview of the history of the shipping scows of the Auckland Coast, which were similar to the one we visited here back in June. (At first he thinks this is an old commercial scow named Vesper but it turns out this one is considerably smaller.)

However, after demonstrating that the boat he found was not the scow he first thought it was, he leaves us wondering what the boat in the photos is and what about it's history?






I suggested that we post an inquiry to see if there is anyone who might know more about this Vesper, and link back to his site.

Andy says:

"Go right ahead, I'd love to find out more."

"I'm certain it was built before WWII. Its made from wide planks, probably kauri wood (which is no longer logged). I'd place it somewhere between 1930 and 1945, that's just a guess. It's construction looks quite crude and the cabins look like an after thought, to me it looks more work boat turned pleasure boat than one designed for private use from the outset."

He estimates the boat to be 35 feet long with a 12 foot beam, though it looks longer to me.















So, there it is. A Doryman boat if I've ever seen one! If any of you know more about this boat, please respond to mbogoger@gmail.com or leave a comment at the end of this post.

Venetian Boats

I hope you aren't tired of Venetian boat photos. Here in Doryland we can't get enough!
I've longed for years to visit Portugal and see first hand the beautiful fishing vessels made by hand in that lively culture and now I add to this fantasy a trip to Venice to experience the ancient waterways, run my hand along the shear of a Sandolo or Mascareta, and sail a Sanpierotta!

I offer some photos sent by my friend Giacomo who is as excited to share his interest in traditional craft from his home as I am to present them here. For now, the story is in the pictures, and hopefully, soon we'll have more details. Giacomo spent a day recently taking these photos with his cell phone. Thank you very much, my friend!

I invite anyone familiar with these boats to please share comments and information.
(click on photos to enlarge)






Two boys rowing a puparìn in Malamocca.



















The Mascareta, in addition to the Sàndolo, was once a common means of family transportation. This boat is lightweight, easy to maneuver, and above all, inexpensive. It weighs as little as 120 kilos and is approximately 6.5 meters in length. It is one of the simplest of the traditional boats, and thus popular among modern amateur boat builders.
















The Bragozzetto is demonstratively a hard working, stout boat with an inboard motor and heavy scantlings.



Whether for work or pleasure all these boats have exquisite detail and are obviously a point of pride for their owners.



























A Moto-Topo.













The Topo Veneziano. Note how far aft the mast step is. This boat has no keel or centerboard and depends solely on a shallow skeg and it's leeward chine for lateral resistance. (All of these boats are flat bottomed and shallow draft for the slim waters of the lagoon.)
























And lastly, this very fine one hundred year old caorlina.

Does it get any better than this?

Eugene Wooden Boat Show

Eugene, Oregon is an inland city, but there is a popular local reservoir with a yacht club. This weekend the Eugene Yacht Club and the Oregon Coots Chapter of the Small Craft Association hosted their second annual wooden boat show.

It's a small local show in it's infancy, but participation was enthusiastic as could be expected in 100 degree weather!




There were quite a few familiar faces and plenty of good camaraderie.
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Moment of Glory

Momento di gloria from Stefano Leon Rodriguez on Vimeo.

This is the true test of a video camera. Stefano films with a small Sanyo waterproof video camera.

His description of the day:

"Release lightning during a sailing course at the Navy League of Venice, with Edoardo Cimadori and Stefano Leon Rodriguez on a 420 Shabby."

"The storm lasted fifteen minutes, and was beautiful!"

Visit Stefano between waves and music.
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Sucia Island Rendezvous, Epilogue

Bound for Home

I could go on forever, but as they say, all good things... (must make way for other good things).
For this series I'll leave you with two of my favorite boats from the Sucia Island Rendezvous.

First, the 18 foot Sloop Boat Feather, designed by Pete Culler. Is there any doubt that Captain Pete Culler is one of the preeminent designers of the twentieth century? Two brothers, Glen and Alan rowed this fine boat from Port Townsend, Washington.












Feather waits quietly at anchor.








Also from Port Townsend is Sparrow, a 20 foot yawl rigged Swampscot Dory designed and built by Kees Prins for Laingdon Schmitt. Here we see Kees at the oars and Laingdon standing by.

Kees and Laingdon have rowed and sailed Sparrow in the Shipyard School RAID and found that they make the most efficient time if one rows while the other rests, then switch. These hardy fellows are setting out on a blustery day to head home, while the rest of us wait out the storm.........

(In the comment at the bottom of this post, Laingdon describes the consequence: "Kees and I got completely spanked by the huge gusts sheering down off the mountain on Orcas (Island)- at one point even running off with just the jib was too much, and we were making steerage and then some under bare poles. Ended up taking refuge in Brandt's Landing, by the mercy of the harbormaster; spent the night aboard there, while Kees hitched to the Anacortes ferry. Next couple of days I sailed back to Port Townsend through San Juan Passage.")

"Great little voyage!"
























Kees designed this bronze steering linkage which hinges around the mizzen mast with such precise linkage that it feels like the tiller is attached directly to the rudder head. A very well executed design from stem to stern.








Kees Prince has competed in RAIDs with Iain Oughtred and Iain's influence is apparent in Sparrow.


There is more, much more, so look for all the dedicated Sucia sailors and their seaworthy vessels in future posts......