DoryMan

Dragon Harald Fairhair

2012-01-29T20:01:00.000-08:00

The largest Viking ship built in modern times.

Named after Harald Fairhair, the king who unified Norway into one kingdom, the great dragon ship is coming together in the town of Haugesund in Western Norway.

Though recreating this ship mixes modern with traditional methods, the timeless beauty of the Dragon Harald Fairhair is indisputable.

Thirty five meters long and nearly eight meters wide, this Viking ship requires one hundred oarsmen.

Longships with carved dragon heads would be a fierce image in wars involving superstitious people.

Heeling and rowing tests were done with models to examine the salient characteristics of the longboat designs. Beautiful Sixareens!

Experts in traditional Norse boat building and the square sail are engaged in the development and construction of this ship as an experimental archaeological research program.
The aim is to recreate a ship with the superb seaworthiness that characterized the open ocean longships of the Viking Age.

The Dragon Harald Fairhair will have the same sea qualities as the great ships (storskipene) of the "leiðangr" - the Norwegian war fleet. According to old Norse sagas these ships combined the excellent sailing characteristics of ocean going ships with the ordinary warship's use of oars.
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Teaching With Small Boats Conference

2012-01-26T08:10:00.000-08:00

The Center for Wooden Boats(CWB) will host a conference on Teaching With Small Boats, April 27-29 at its Cama Beach campus on Camano Island, Washington State, US.

The goal of the conference is to help communities, through sharing the experiences of others, to find new paths for teaching science, technology, engineering and math to under-served youth. Through direct hands-on experience students can discover their ability to solve complex problems.

Two years ago, the Alexandria Seaport Foundation hosted a similar conference at their facility in Alexandria, Virginia. More than 60 organizations participated. A consensus emerged: the Teaching With Small Boats community should organize for mutual benefit and hold conferences every two years, with rotating hosts.

The Cama Beach conference will address the efficacy of the Teaching With Small Boats community with a broad range of topics, including boatbuilding, boat sailing, team building, partnerships, academic focus, environmental focus, celebrating heritage, weaving community fabric, fundraising and student evaluation .

Representatives of attending organizations will provide information through a program catalog and presentations. Groups will collaborate on future plans and will discuss organizing a Teaching With Small Boats Alliance.

Attendees are also invited to participate in hands-on activities involving heritage maritime skills in the Cama Beach boat shop and on the water.

Registration for the conference is solicited now and must be received by March 21. To register or for more information, contact:

Tyson Trudel, The Center for Wooden Boats,

1010 Valley St., Seattle, WA 98109, (206) 382-2628 ; email: ttrudel@cwb.org

For additional information on the conference, you can also email CWB Director Dick Wagner at dick@cwb.org .

The conference will be followed by a three-day “Building to Teach" seminar, also at Cama Beach, providing participants with improved tools for math instruction.

For information about the Building to Teach seminar, email Joe Youcha: youcha@alexandriaseaport.org
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Congratulations Laura!

2012-01-22T13:08:00.000-08:00

Laura Dekker has completed her solo circumnavigation of the world. She and Jessica Watson are an inspiration to young people everywhere.

Congratulations, Laura and Guppy!
We are very happy for you.

Shame on the Dutch authorities who have made her effort so difficult.

Pacific Storm

2012-01-22T12:11:00.000-08:00

I had hoped to tell all of you that progress has been made on the Doryman Melonseed. Nature has other plans.

For the last week, the coast of Oregon has been buffeted by winds up to 100 miles per hour.
One night, when the winds approached Beaufort 12, rain fell in sheets and all hatches were battened down tight, a neighbor's tree fell on my car. The tree did not actually fall down, it's top snapped off 20 feet up and spun over the car to damage the opposite side.

When you live in an extreme environment, winter storms become second nature and residents are resilient. Everyone bands together after such an event to help clean up.

Except the insurance company.

The insurance people tell me my property is not covered in the event a tree falls during a storm. How absurd is that? That's why we purchase insurance, isn't it?

The damage to the car is not disabling, but will cost more than I can afford (the boat building business is deep in the red right now.)

Does anyone want a somewhat damaged car that runs well, for a really good deal?...

...didn't think so.........
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César et son fils Canot D'Ecorce

2012-01-18T21:19:00.000-08:00

César Newashish, Native American Nation, Attikamek Manouane Reserve, Quebec, built this canoe. Early in the spring while the sap is running, he goes into the woods and chooses his birch. He sews the peeled bark with stripped spruce roots. Cedar wood comprises the end of the boat, ties, membrane and lathing. Last comes installation of the gunwales, sealing the boat and decoration.

His canoe is a work of art. At every stage, you will wonder anew.

A film by Bernard Gosselin.

Thank you Dave for sending me this jewel.
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Welsford Rogue

2012-01-15T22:20:00.000-08:00

Scott Marckx recently completed his John Welsford Rogue enough to launch and row. He's planning to do some exploring under oars with Lagniappe this spring on his home waters, in the vicinity of Port Townsend, WA,US. (Salish Sea)

Since Scott builds violins for a living, it may be assumed he found boat building easy, though he tells me he has new respect for boat builders after completing this project.

His plan to use the boat awhile before rigging is a very good one. He gets a break from heavy woodwork and learns about the fit of his boat. He wants to keep the interior clean and open for gunkholing, so is busy designing leeboards. It will be interesting to see how this works out.

Congratulations Scott, well done!

Doryman hopes to catch up with Scott in Lagniappe sometime this summer, on the Salish Sea.

(Photos are courtesy of Scott Marckx.)

Rogue
by John Welsford:

L.O.A. 4.45m; 14ft 7in
BEAM. 1.36m; 4ft 5in
WEIGHT 80kg; 176Ibs
SAIL AREA 11 sq m; 118.5 sq ft

Doryman's Melonseed

2012-01-08T20:31:00.000-08:00

The Melonseed hull is roughed out.

Patience is not a Doryman virtue, so waiting for glue to dry is a real challenge (or is it a cliche?)

The build continues on Flickr:
(photos will be posted there throughout this project).

Op-Ed

2012-01-06T19:53:00.000-08:00

Where did all our money go? A timely essay from ClubOrlov:

"The lesson that the United States desperately needs to learn is that their trillion-dollar-a-year military is nothing more than a gigantic public money sponge that provokes outrage among friends and enemies alike and puts the country in ill repute. It is useless against its enemies, because they know better than to engage it directly. It can never be used to defeat any of the major nuclear powers, because sufficient deterrence against it can be maintained for relatively little money. It can never defuse a popular insurgency, because that takes political and diplomatic finesse, not a compulsion to bomb faraway places. Political and diplomatic finesse cannot be procured, even for a trillion dollars, even by a country that believes in extreme makeovers.”
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Alaska Dory Fishing

2012-01-02T10:57:00.001-08:00

Time and again stories surface that distinguish the humble dory as a historically significant boat. A faithful reader named Michael contacted me recently to share his passion for these simple boats. It’s always good to hear stories of how well a dory has served its owner, often against odds. The setting for this story is the yet untamed wilderness of Alaska, in the 1970’s, when young adventurers arrived with dreams of becoming wealthy salmon fishermen.

Michael begins his tale:

“My first dory was by Grunwald of Aeolus Boatworks in Davenport, CA. It was built to the lines of the Higgins and Gifford Dory in Chappelle's American Small Sailing Craft.”

“I took it to Alaska on a boat trailer in 1972 and it's still there. A couple of youngsters made an extended camping trip in her a couple years ago but she's too far gone to be trustworthy now.”

“The plywood planks are lapped and are backed by full-length battens inside, very strong construction. I can't begin to describe how horribly I mistreated that boat in Alaska. It lived the life of a neglected livery boat most of the time. She also transported deer and packed water to a winter cabin. That dory enabled a safe subsistence lifestyle in a very remote place.”

“I used to row this dory on San Francisco Bay, often crossing at night. I picked up birds during an oil spill, in 1971.
In 1972 I towed the boat on her trailer to Haines, Alaska then by ferry to Juneau, and then motored with a British Seagull engine to a small fishing village where I began my commercial fishing career.”

“After fishing the Gulf of Alaska for a couple years, I stashed the boat at a cabin on the outside coast and a trapper found her, enlarged the motor well to make room for a great big outboard, and then lost the boat.”

“I was in California at the time arranging financing to buy a commercial trolling boat when I got a call from the Coast Guard wanting to know if I was dead. It seems a Red Stack tug traversing the Fairweather Grounds with a double tow found the boat sunk and drifting. The skipper made a circle of a mile diameter and picked up the boat, taking her to Seattle, where I found her and arranged for passage back to SE Alaska on the deck of a tender.”

This hard working and long lived Higgins and Gifford Dory, shown above, beached on the rocks, now belongs to Omen Wild, a native Alaskan.
Photo is courtesy of Omen.

Michael continues:

“This is Raven, my current Grunwald dory. The flare angle is greater than any other dory I've measured. This makes her tiddly when light, but easy to row, even in a breeze.”

“I plan to close up the motor well, install water stowage, rig for sailing, and take on a long trip in the foreseeable future, possibly Puget Sound to Cross Sound in SE Alaska.”

Michael loves dories and has plans to build another (when he gets done with a couple kayaks he has in the works). This one will be a bigger cruising dory.

“The boat I currently dream of building is R.D. Culler's cowhorn dory, rigged with a balance lug yawl or junk sail, and set up like the Atlantic rowing dory boats for long distance cruising."
"I plan to make a planking model this winter. The cowhorn dory is on page six of Skiffs and Schooners. It is the size of a St Pierre but more moderate in rocker and sheer. She is very close to a 125% scale-up of Alfred Johnson's Centennial, which John Gardner documented in Wooden Boats to Build and Use, on page 53.”

Michael has been a visitor here for some time and I’m happy to finally make his acquaintance.

Welcome to the Doryman family, Michael! We’d really like to see that model when you’re done.
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Bring in the New

2011-12-31T12:28:00.000-08:00

We've shared another year and as I was sorting through the months, looking for a favorite photo, none would come forth.
DoryMan has logged over a quarter million visits as of this week, and it's been a lot of fun. Hopefully you can say the same. If you're in the mood for a retrospective, please join me here.

Photo of the mast on Wayward Lass by Jamie Orr. Doryman in the distance.

Stone Horse, Belle Starr

2011-12-27T00:02:00.000-08:00

The Stone Horse, Belle Starr has been moved from the empty shop where she spent the last three years in lonely seclusion.

A boat should not spent its life inside a shop.

It was a cold day, typical of midwinter in the Pacific Northwest. The air appears thick enough to cut with a knife!

This was a herculean task, but with a talented crew all went smoothly. Her new digs aren't very deluxe, as storage goes, but she will not be there long. The plan is to have her ready for the upcoming summer season. All of the wood protuberances have weathered and checked so badly they need to be replaced. The list includes the bowsprit and boomkin, plus tiller and rudder cheeks.

The cockpit is surfaced in teak, which needs to be recaulked and refinished and there is a small area of rot in the main bulkhead. Of two hatches, one is in very good shape and the other, not so much. The sails need to be restitched and some of the sail hardware replaced. All in all, there is not a lot to do. Maybe a month of full time work.

The challenge will be the distance traveled to get the work done. I find myself in a compromised situation. Being an advocate of reduced carbon emissions, each year the internal combustion engine looses more cachet in my book. I would like to see humans abandon this poisonous contraption all together. So, the three hundred fifty miles between me and Belle Starr will require some creative transportation involving buses, trains and possibly a bicycle.

The notorious Belle Starr was a professional outlaw who's life was defined by the civil war in the US. She fraternized and married within the indigenous population of the rural South, which earned her a tarnished reputation. I suspect she was an exceptional person in her day and possibly any other day as well, but history is hard on self-determinate women.

Then, as now, marginalized individuals are forced to do what they can to survive and might end up in prison, while the real criminals run the country and become rich.

This Sam Crocker classic was designed in 1931. Less than forty were built before production was interrupted by WWII. Some of the original wood models are still sailing.
An additional 150 fiberglass Stone Horse models were built by Edey and Duff between 1969 and the early 1990s.

The defining feature of the Stone Horse 23 is her raised, flush foredeck and integral coamings. Twenty three feet on deck, the overall length of the Stone Horse is 28’-3” with a bowsprit and boomkin. The hull has a full keel with traditional wine glass sections (or in this case, hard-chined sections) and a transom-hung rudder.

Often referred to as a cutter, the Stone Horse is more accurately a cutter-rigged sloop, as the mast is stepped well forward of maximum beam and the mainsail makes up more than 50% of total sail area. The masthead rig employs twin headsails and sail area is 339 square feet.
The displacement/length ratio is 325 and sail area/displacement ratio a respectable 19.2. Ballast is 44% of the overall displacement. The design displacement for Belle Starr is 4500#.

Reportedly, since the beam waterline is broad, she stands up well in a blow. While it takes a good breeze to get her started, she tacks easily and balances well without the tendency toward excessive weather helm occasionally found on boats with proportionately large mainsails.

SPECIFICATIONS:
LOA: 23 feet, 4 inches
LWL: 18 feet, 4 inches
BEAM: 7 feet, 1 inch
DRAFT: 3 feet, 4 inches
WEIGHT: 4,490 pounds
SAIL AREA: 339 square feet
HULL: full keel, keel-hung rudder
AUXILIARY POWER: outboard in a well

DESIGNER: Samuel Crocker
BUILDER: Scott Hauser; Hauser Boatworks, Olympia, WA.
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Skin on Frame Kayak by Lou Brochetti

2011-12-19T23:05:00.000-08:00

My good friend Lou is at it again - nothing can stop this man! This winter he has already built two skin on frame kayaks, one for a friend and one for himself.

Lou is a pilot and has built skin on frame remote control planes, so he has a good grasp of the materials. I haven't seen his kayaks in person yet, though other friends of ours have built them and they are impressive for such a simple, lightweight boat.

I admit to having doubts about the durability of these featherweight vessels, especially on top of a car at highway speeds. I'm happy to report - they hold up!

The Chuckanut 15 is multi-chined, with a wide, slight V bottom for stability, zero rocker in the keel for solid tracking and a large cockpit for easy entry and exit.
She's designed by Dave Gentry as a protected water expedition boat. The Chuckanut is 15 feet long, by 31.5 inches wide and weighs about 40 pounds.

Lou is planning to offer classes on how to build the Chuckanut 15 for those who live in the Bend, Oregon area, near his shop.

If anyone from the Bend, Redmond and surrounding area is interested, please contact me here.

Stone Horse

2011-12-17T23:37:00.000-08:00

This is turning out to be a pivotal year for Doryman. Of course something is always going on around here and no one really knows what might happen.

You hear all the time about activities on the central Oregon coast and even the occasional foray to the Salish Sea. But what might happen if a link between the two were to open, like a portal to a new world?

A connection with some old friends dating back to the dark ages when Doryman was young, has turned up a jewel. What can the more savvy among us tell me about this vessel?.............

12/17/2011 Update: (Thank you for waiting patient reader, here is the story)...

It is a Stone Horse, designed by Sam Crocker and built in plywood.

My friend Scott Hauser is a boat builder who moved to Olympia, WA in 1982 from Eugene, OR as an employee of Sam Devlin, who moved his business to Olympia permanently at that time and is still there.
Scott is the builder of this boat and brought it to Olympia with him (under construction) almost thirty years ago.
He and I became acquainted through a loose knit group of sailor/builders who organized the first of the (still) longstanding Olympia Wooden Boat Festival.

Back then, several wood boat owners would gather from time to time in some private cove or on a beach to swap stories and Scott's boat was this same Stone Horse. I had an old Alaskan Bristol Bay gillnetter I'd restored and there were lots of great old boats that don't exist anymore.

Scott started his own eclectic boat building business (Hauser Boat Works) and ended up building quite few liveaboard boats and boathouses over the years. He had a strong influence on the design of my Mistral dory in 1990.

Scott redrew Sam Crocker's plans for the Stone Horse to be built in plywood and this is the result. When I found out Scott was selling his boat, I had to call. The timing was right - my interest in the Stone Horse has been recently highlighted, as you all know.

So, the connection to the Salish Sea will be this boat. The SV Belle Starr will be refurbished and moored somewhere on the southern Puget Sound, ready and waiting for the next Doryman adventure. She is a worthy and sound vessel.

A trip to Alaska is a possibility.
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Doryman's Melonseed

2011-12-14T22:20:00.000-08:00

This winter's indoor project is a Melonseed Skiff, an adaptation of an old hunting design from the Delaware River Basin, on the eastern seaboard of the US.

One of the first modern reproductions of this 1880's New Jersey gunning skiff was drawn by Howard Chapelle. The design proved to be a favorite daysailer and has been praised by contemporary sailors as a responsive sailing performer, handy under oars, and just plain beautiful.

Today there are many techniques that can be applied to building these fine boats; stitch and glue, clinker (lapstrake), strip plank, cold-molding, and traditional carvel cedar planks.

This boat will have seven planks, a combination that, to my knowledge, has not been done before. The bottom is a flat wherry keel, symmetrically double-ended and about a foot wide amidships. The next plank is wide and brings the hull up to the waterline. The wherry bottom and the garboard planks will be joined with a flush-matched chine.
The topsides are comprised of two planks which will be lapped, clinker style. The finished boat will be half-decked, because with less than a foot of freeboard, there is a risk of swamping under sail. This low, sweeping shear profile is one of the Melonseed's most attractive features.

The most common sail rig found on a modern Melonseed is a simple sprit-boom, stepped far forward. Because many of these boats are approximately 13.5 feet long, the sail is small. The rig is designed to strike and stow in the boat for rowing and duck hunting.

To adapt this boat for gunkholing or a RAID, I have lengthened it two feet and maintained the same proportions. The resulting boat is perhaps 40% larger than a Jersey Skiff of the 19th century. Every effort will be employed to keep this larger boat from becoming too heavy for one person to row. The hull is planked with 6mm marine plywood and shaped with a minimum of bulkheads. Lightweight spruce stringers will back the plank seams or laps as necessary.

The sail rig as shown in the plan employs a gaff yard with a boom. It is considerably larger than the old duck boats and should power this racy centerboarder like a thoroughbred. There are many rigging options for this little skiff, so this design may change. But the hull is already underway, so there is no turning back now.

Work is progressing slowly since the temperature outside (and on the back porch too) is above freezing only four hours a day. This is unusual for our northern Pacific coastal climate so I expect daytime temperatures to rise soon, when the rains come back. Still, it takes days for glue to dry and the sun sets way too early. Looking out the window at three in the afternoon, I could tell the sun was already near the horizon by it's low reflection on the alder trees in the backyard.

I'll keep plugging away and posting photos to my Flickr site when there is any significant progress, hopefully once a week.

Please stay tuned.....

Dunderdale Pearl

2011-12-11T20:25:00.000-08:00

Ralph Merriman has made real progress on his Dunderdale Pearl. We last visited Ralph in mid-October when he had a few planks set and now the hull is finished and turned over for some interior work. You have to admire dedication like that.

I've uploaded a few of Ralph's photos to Flickr and will continue to do so as the project progresses.

No pressure, Ralph. Just pretend we're not here.

Pearl plans are from Tom Dunderdale of Campion Sail and Design.

All photos courtesy of Ralph Merriman, who had some tips on how his work looks so clean:

"One thing I did to keep the plank seams tidy on the inside, and avoid a lot of unpleasant goo removal or chipping and scraping later, was to mask both edges of the plank when putting it in place. I use 2" clear packing tape, which makes cleanup a snap, as the squeeze-out underneath comes off on the tape. Finish off the lap with a gloved finger or paper towel and peel the tape the next day."
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Odds 'n Ends

2011-12-04T20:12:00.000-08:00

Organizing winter projects.....

This is how the deadeyes will look when set up on the shrouds of Saga. The top set are turned and seized with tarred marlin, which took a long time and was very hard on the hands. If you want to see how this was done, check With Needle and Palm.
I'm still working on the straps that will attach the bottom set to the chainplates.

This is more than an exercise in anachronism. A simple block and tackle is a worthy replacement for today's turnbuckle. The turnbuckle costs a lot more, yet is no more effective.
No matter how your boat is fitted, you might find this method useful one day.

Lofting for the Doryman Melonseed has begun. It's cold on the back porch! I noticed today that sometime around the solstice, the setting sun will shine directly down the middle longitude of this room.
(How do you like my new wool hat?)

In the corner is a secondhand miniature barrel stove, once used in a teepee. It burns very small dimensional wood, which is perfect for shop scraps. I'll have it hooked up and working in a couple days. Don't expect much from this little heater, but it will keep the teapot warm.

Nova Scotia Schooners

2011-12-01T11:35:00.000-08:00

Halifax, Nova Scotia.

On the back of the Canadian dime you will find the world famous wooden schooner Bluenose, the pride of Nova Scotia, and the fastest of her kind in the 20th century.

The Nova Scotia schooners were home for fishermen on the Grand Banks who fished from dories carried on deck during the heyday of the cod fishery.

But schooners aren’t just a relic from a bygone era. In fact, there’s a resurgence in wooden schooner building happening in Nova Scotia and membership in the Nova Scotia Schooner Association has increased steadily during the past decade.

Nova Scotia Schooners is a film featuring four men of different backgrounds who share a passion for schooners and are each doing their part to keep these wooden vessels alive. The documentary was filmed during the summer of 2011 and includes scenes from the Nova Scotia Schooner Association annual race week as well as the reconstruction of Bluenose II, currently underway in Lunenburg.

Nova Scotia Schooners is written and directed by Tom Gallant and produced by Edward Peill for Canadian national public broadcasting.

“This documentary demonstrates what happens when people come together around something they find both important and beautiful” says director Tom Gallant. “It highlights one of our most significant Canadian cultural icons and underscores why these traditional skills need to be passed onto future generations. The beauty and grace of these schooners is captivating and I'll wager that anyone with even a drop of salt water in their veins will love this film."

Nova Scotia Schooners will broadcast on CBC Television’s "Land & Sea" on Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 12 PM (check local listings).

For those of us outside Canada, following the broadcast, the documentary can be viewed on the CBC TV website. I've had the privilege of screening this documentary and it's excellent.

Potomac River Dory Restoration

2011-11-29T23:10:00.000-08:00

A 1931 Potomac River Dory, built by Francis Raymond Hayden in Banks O’Dee, MD is now undergoing restoration in the boat shop of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland, US.

She measures a stately 37'-0" x 12’-7” x 10-1/2".

Over the next several months museum shipwrights, apprentices and volunteers will be replacing bottom planks, fabricating a new forefoot on the stem and a section of deadwood aft with a new shaft alley. Approximately 60% of the boat will be reframed.

Please look closely at this boat. I would call this a sharpie. Often the difference between a dory, a sharpie and a skiff can be blurred. You may think this is pedantic and you would be correct. Here at DoryMan, this topic comes up often and you might be surprised to hear me say there is no clear answer.
But when, in old working boats, we find such simple, graceful beauty as this, it hardly matters what you call it.

It's art.

The Potomac River dory boat originated around the 1880s and was built almost exclusively in the area of St. Mary's County, Maryland. How the name "dory boat" came to be is not known. This unique design features a V-bottom, planked lengthwise instead of the usual cross-planking. It is believed this style derived from an earlier flat-bottomed Potomac River craft called the Black Nancy, so named because it's black hull was preserved with tar made from local pine trees.

Designed for working the Potomac River and its tributaries, the dory boat was originally built as a two-masted sailing craft used for tonging and dredging of oysters. It is estimated that 400 to 500 of these very fast and easy to handle boats were built between the 1880s and the early 1930s. Sporting traditional shear stripes of green, red and yellow, this is one of seven that have survived and are now in regional museums.
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Winter at the Boathouse

2011-11-27T13:41:00.000-08:00

It seems there are plenty of people around who paddle and row all year, despite the threat of torrential rain and temperatures barely above freezing.

Just such a group gathered upriver from the Community Boathouse in Toldeo, Oregon yesterday. As fate would have it, the weather was barely winterish. Temperatures were in the mid 50's, fahrenheit and not a drop of moisture fell from the sky.

Doryman was there in the dory cruiser SV Mistral. Though we've seen this stretch of the Yaquina River many times before, Mistral has not. This big dory was designed to explore shallow water, yet a low bridge blocks her mast about thirteen miles inland from the ocean. At the moment, I'm working on a system for raising and lowering her mast while underway. So with the rigging down, we took the opportunity and joined those fortunate who took a chance on the weather to catch the most extreme tidal ebb of the year for a joyride downstream.

Most of November in coastal Oregon has been very wet, with record rainfall. The Yaquina is nearly a foot above flood stage and rising. Couple that with a twelve foot tide drop and you have plenty of current to push a big boat. I have a long sweep oar on Mistral so I can lean back on the tiller and thus row and steer at the same time. Couldn't keep up with the smaller boats, though.

This event was in support of the Port of Toledo's Community Boathouse Project. We were going to have a potluck dinner afterward in the Boathouse but everyone opted instead for the barbeque ribs at the brewpub across the street. Fortunately for everyone, we were the only (25) people in the restaurant.

Many of these photos are compliments of Andrew Linn, who is the spark plug for the Boathouse Project. That's him just up and to the right, preparing to cut across in front of a five-ton boat.
Better hurry, Andrew!

The Toledo Community Boathouse is sponsored by the Port of Toledo.

The full story, in pictures.....

Deadeye

2011-11-20T19:26:00.000-08:00

Remember when I told you that Paul Miller offered to make some deadeyes for Saga?

The man is good as his word.

These lovely carvings have a way to go before they become rigging, but I had to show them off. They are turned from some Black Locust wood Paul had left over from making his own deadeyes.

As you can see, each piece is essentially a triple block. The whole assembly provides a three-to-one tackle for setting shroud tension. One block has a half-round groove 3/8" wide and is spliced directly to the shroud wire, which is typically wormed, parceled and served.*

The blocks work in pairs, with the other end strapped to a chainplate. This second block has a groove cut in it's circumference 5/8" wide and will require a custom made bronze strap.

It may be awhile before Saga's deadeyes look as bristol as those on Paul's Friendship.

First, the finish. Paul applied one coat of Cetol, his favorite, to my new deadeyes.

Hervey Garret Smith has been known to say, "Deadeyes and lanyards are seen but seldom nowadays, having been supplanted by the more easily obtained turnbuckles. Deadeyes have long since disappeared from the marine hardware catalogs and are obtainable only on special order, if at all. Yachtsmen wishing to convert to the old fashioned rig will probably make their own..."

* From the DoryMan Glossary:
Worm, Parcel and Serve – To protect a section of rope or wire from chafing by laying yarns (worming) to fill in the cuntlines, wrapping canvas along the length (parceling) and seizing marline or other small stuff around it (serving).
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Oseberg Viking Ship Replica

2011-11-15T10:46:00.000-08:00

In 1903 a Norwegian farmer, Oscar Rom, dug into a mound in one of his fields and found what has come to be called the Oseberg ship.

By the thirteenth century, we know that timbers from earlier ships were cleft and later they were sawn but the art of cleaving wide long boards for shipbuilding was lost for 800 years.

A team headed by Thomas Finderup, who built the large replica viking ships at Roskilde,Denmark, has developed what they believe to be methods used by shipwrights of that bygone era.

Currently the team is building a replica of the Oseberg ship. It is built entirely of cleft and hewn oak, no saws are used. You can follow this process on the Traditional Crafts Blog of the Heritage Crafts Association.
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Chevalet de Marqueterie

2011-11-13T21:38:00.000-08:00

Last summer, when I was sailing in Canadian waters, I had the good fortune to meet Paul Miller of Cowichan Bay, Vancouver Island, BC.

Paul is a retired shipwright. He's built a lot of boats.

For his retirement he built a Friendship Sloop by Jay Benford. It's cold-molded and the inside layer is laid-up to look as though it's carvel-planked. Friendship has all traditional hardware, rigging and furnishings, but a modern underwater design, so she's fast and nimble.
Paul says that he named her Friendship because that's what she's for - making friends.

I was fortunate to spend a quiet afternoon sailing with Paul. He really wanted the wind to pick up and put his boat through it's paces. But I think a boats true nature shows best in very light air. A well tuned boat sails well in a whisper of a breeze. Friendship is indeed, well tuned.

Having said that, here is a quick video of Paul single-handing Friendship on Cowichan Bay, in twenty knots of wind.

Paul is no slacker!

As we sailed, he told me of his current passion for marquetry. I knew very little about this old art but Paul has taught me a great deal. He designed and built his own marquetry horse, of which he is understandably proud.

The marquetry donkey or marquetry horse was known in 18th century France as Chevalet de Marqueterie.

A Chevalet de Marqueterie is a frame which supports a horizontal scrollsaw. The saw can be moved in three directions (up / down, left / right and forward / backward). There is an integrated seat for the marquetarian, who's feet control a pedal that opens and closes a vise jaw holding a packet of wood veneers.

The left hand moves the packet of veneers and the right hand operates the saw. The saw frame moves on a horizontal plane and is supported on a carriage attached to the arm. Most importantly the saw blade is perfectly perpendicular to the packet of veneers, thus all pieces cut from the packet are identical. The cutting hand is in front of the packet which is held in position by the foot operated vise, leaving the other hand free to guide the work. The result is accurate to fractions of a millimeter.
How steady is your hand?

By varying the woods used for the veneers, the marquetarian can make several identical images, each with unique color and grain compositions, all from the same packet.

Paul has been prolific in design and execution and wrote to me a few days ago to say he has a new website displaying his marquetry, inlay and cabinetry - prm designs. If you see something there you like, please contact Paul and tell him so.

This is a man who knows how to spend his retirement! His work can also be seen here.

And yet, there's more! Paul offered to make up some deadeyes for Saga, out of some Black Locust left over from the construction of Friendship.

Now, that's a friend for you!

Thank you, Paul.

Sneak Preview

2011-11-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

You've heard me crying about not having a rowboat for the last few weeks, but the sobbing is over. My good friend Laingdon got tired of all the whining and whimpering and offered me a wherry he had in storage.

It's a A Ken Basset Firefly (appears in WB #54). She's a 22 x 3 foot plywood (6mm Okume) wherry with solid wood gunwales, transom and breasthook. The woods used are spruce and cherry. The design accommodates single or double rowing stations.

We dropped her out of the rafters and onto the car - it was love at first sight. There have been a some customized changes on this boat for a few years, so there will be a bit of refinishing and design. She lacks rowing stations at the moment.

Thank you, Laingdon!

WoodenBoat calls the 18 foot Firefly "An entry-level sliding-seat pulling boat. Provides rewarding speed in an easily built hull with enough stability to keep a beginner out of trouble."

Beginner, my arse. This boat is going to see some action.
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End of Sailing Season

2011-11-09T10:02:00.000-08:00

The sailing season is short in Makholma, Finland. Jan Eerala has already pulled Stina from the water. His old boat has had a sprung plank all summer and will likely spend next summer under repair.
Fortunately Jan still has his beautiful old S/Y Bris for his excursions to the Rayhat Reef.

Algae and fungus by Jan Eerala, Makholma, Finland.

As always, I encourage you to spend some time on Vimeo with Jan. He is a Master.
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Star Olympic Racing Class

2011-11-07T22:50:00.000-08:00

In 1906 George Corry, the leader of a small group of yachtsmen from New York City asked his friend, William Gardner to design a small, inexpensive, chine-built sail boat with a keel.

In his 1931 log, Mr. Gardner noted: "When I designed the Star, my aim was to produce a boat that was fast, handy, seaworthy, and that could be built at a moderate cost. These qualities I was evidently fortunate enough to have obtained."

The original Star cost $260.

In the fall of 1910, Francis Sweisguth, Gardner's draftsman and one of the original Star skippers, drew plans for the boat.

The Star became an Olympic racing class in 1932 and has produced champion skippers such as Paul Elvstrøm, Dennis Conner, Robert Halperin, Buddy Melges and Fredrik Lööf.

The Star, as originally drawn by Sweisguth, was a gaff rigged boat with a long boom, typical of racing sailboats of the day. The luff of the mainsail was 24'11" compared to 30’6" used on modern rigs and the foot of the mainsail was 18’4" compared to 14’7" today. In the late 1910's and early 1920’s, Sweisguth modernized the rig from a gaff to a Marconi. During that time, a boat might use either rig.

The Star class gave us sailboat racing as we know it today, with such modern design considerations as:
Jumper Struts vs. Headstay
Tuned Wooden Spars
Synthetic Sails
Jib Luff Wire Systems
Jib Sheet Systems
Cunninghams
Boom Vangs

The Star can have a dazzling array of sail controls. The boat being restored in Doryman's boatyard has a half-moon shaped traveler set in the deck, just forward of the cockpit, for it's boomvang!

It is built of 12" spruce planks over fir frames, with some very nice tongue-in-grove joinery. A very sound boat, built in the mid-60's and still competitive today. When complete she will be ready to join her sisters on the modern racing circuit.

LOA: 22ft 7in(6.9m)
LWL: 15ft 6in (4.7m)
Beam: 5ft 7in (1.7m)
Sail area: 285sqft (26.5m2)
Displacement: 1479lb (671kg)

Man Overboard

2011-11-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

We don't talk much about safety here on DoryMan, but those who have sailed with me know that I take safety very seriously. Boating is a hazardous sport, no doubt, but many casualties can be prevented with a little preparation and education.

I am enlightened this morning by a post on Ullapool Coastal Rowing, a website dedicated to the St Alyes Skiff in Loch Broom, Scotland. What a seaworthy boat! The women's crew of Ulla are a dedicated sort and decided to test their boat for buoyancy. While they were at it, they mocked up a Man Overboard Drill, which is well documented with photos and video. It's good to know that your boat will float when swamped. Please take special note of how much effort is required to recover a swamped boat.

Be careful out there! Always carry basic safety equipment; Food, Water, Anchor, Life Jackets and Throwable Floatation, plus spare clothes and blankets. I keep a safety kit of warm clothes and blankets in a sealed dry-bag, which also adds floatation to the boat.

What habits have you developed to insure your safety on the water?
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Doryman's Boatyard

2011-11-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

The weather has shifted in the last few days to the winter rains. It's been a dramatic transition this year and it was a very fine October for sewing up last minute details. It's rare, so close to the northeast Pacific Ocean, to have good weather this late in the year. I'm so grateful.

When the monsoon season arrives, it's futile to do much boat building. The temperatures are warm by inland standards, but the dew point is nominally only one or two degrees below the temperature. If you've ever put paint on wood on a promising day, only to immediately feel the dew condensing, you know what I mean. If it's forty degrees with 98% humidity, forget it.

While putting projects to bed for the winter, I've taken stock of the changes in Doryman's boatyard. Apparently the last time I did this was almost two years ago.

A few boats have come and gone since then.

Last summer the Culler Good Little Skiff Paku went to a new home not far from here, so hopefully we'll see her from time to time. She may well be my favorite boat of all time.

The rowing shell, Pintail also sold, so you can see that in the rowboat category, there is a nagging need. And big shoes to fill.
Some hot new developments in the offing.
(Offing: The more distant sea, as seen from the shore).

The Sam Devlin Egret that has languished here for two years has gone home with my friend Lou to finish. He was working out a rigging plan within moments of taking possession.
We'll hear more about that soon, I hope.

So what's new, Doryman?

Mark and his brother, Pope brought over a Sam Rabl Titmouse that needs a lot of attention. I have high hopes for this little boat. She's not a high performance vessel by any means, but has beautiful lines. At the moment, this project will have to wait until the weather warms up and dries out.

Of course there is the fabulous faering, Saga, which has proven to be a wonderful gunkholing boat. There are plans in the works to improve her livability because she and I are going to have a lot of fun together.
Here, we're catching the front of a wave, heading downwind in 20-25 knots. (Play that sheet, Doryman!)

Shipwright extraordinaire, Rick Johnson and I began a little lapstrake pram at the Depoe Bay Wooden Boat Show and Crab Feed in April of 2010, as a demonstration of how to lay-up clinker planks on a round bottom. The following year at the same show we demonstrated how to steam bend and rivet oak frames using this same boat.
This fall I found some time to finish the detailing and what a cute little tender she is!

Though most of the summer was spent maintainancing the dory Mistral, the lingering fall gave me a chance to work on the Star class racing sailboat in the 'yard. This boat will be offered for sale next spring, after I've had a chance to refurbish her masts and rigging. More about this racing machine soon...

Mary spent quite a bit of time this year sprucing up the Culler Wherry Yawlboat, Lamb Chop, which is a real head-turner.

You've seen Doryman rowing this lovely sprit-rigged schooner's tender on the header of this blog.

There are more changes afoot, so please stay tuned.

Crystal River Scow USS Wartappo

2011-10-30T22:36:00.000-07:00

The Crystal River Boat Builders chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association have made good progress on their scow project over this last summer.

The USS Wartappo was used by the East Gulf Coast Blockading Squadron along the Crystal River shore, in Florida, during the United States civil war. Its history is documented in the correspondence of the squadron which can be found on the Crystal River website.

A sailing scow was captured by the ships of the Union squadron. The scow and it's "contraband" were taken as a prize of war. The scow was likely used to transport cotton, lumber, turpentine and such from the local rivers down to waiting ships anchored at sea. The contraband was likely privately owned goods intended for sale, but trade was forbidden under blockade.

This story has become the centerpiece of a historical reenactment, if you will. The folks in Crystal River, Florida have begun construction on a "replica" of the scow Wartappo using strictly period appropriate tools and (measurement?) methods (A fellow lays on the ground with his arms spread - that's five feet.)

When I look at this vessel from a modern perspective, I see a comfortable and spacious live-aboard.

No joke.

If the Economic Meltdown of the Millennium has you down, why not build yourself a scow and live like a queen or king? And if you choose to cruise the Salish Sea (or your favorite haunt) in your scow, who's the wiser? Maybe we can raft-up in some remote cove and toast a cocktail.

On your boat.

Desperate times require disparate methods.
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Yaquina River Halloween

2011-10-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

The Western Oregon Messabouts, AKA Coots, gathered for a fall run on the Yaquina river in western Oregon this week.

Around Halloween each year, there are spring tides that raise the river to it's maximum level, then ebb to a muddy minus.

Since the Yaquina has a tidal reach twenty six miles inland, this makes for some thrilling currents to ride with an oar or paddle powered boat. The scenery is just beautiful this time of year and late fall sun is a bonus.

Ten boats and fourteen Coots participated this year, which is a drop from last year, likely due to the mid-week tide.

The tide waits for no man.

Lets go to the video...

And the photos can be found on Doryman's Flickr, as usual.

Thanks again to Mary and her fabulous video editing skills!
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Doryman Melonseed Skiff

2011-10-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

Remember two weeks ago, when Doryman caught the Melonseed bug?

This is a sneak preview of the new Doryman Melonseed Skiff design.

A fresh development of this historical duck boat, the Doryman Melonseed is double-chined and planked in 6mm marine plywood. The planks above the waterline are glue-lapped and fastened with bronze nails. The garboard-to-wherry keel seam is stitch-and-glue.

Fiberglass covers the bottom, below the waterline, because this boat is intended for weekend gunkholing and exploring. The objective is to keep her light, though she must stand up to beach landings at all those tempting places you can reach in a shallow draft hunting design.

With it's flat, wherry type bottom, this boat will rest comfortably on the strand while you set up camp.

A spritboom sail and a pair of oars are all you need. All your gear will stow up forward, under the deck, leaving a roomy six foot cockpit for the skipper and crew. Half decks and a three inch coaming insure that no matter what the sea conditions, the adventurers will stay dry.

Doryman Melonseed Skiff (click on the image for a closer view)

LOA 15'-8"
LWL 14'-11"
Beam 4'-10"
Design Draft, centerboard up 4"
Centerboard down 3'-8"
Sail Area 119 sq. ft.
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Gone Sailin'

2011-10-20T11:09:00.001-07:00

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Doryman is out sailing on his favorite river, enjoying a lingering summer.

If you're stuck at home or work and need a dory fix, please visit Scottishboating.

"Dories have long been recognized as fine seaboats, but their low initial stability and active response to wave action is apt to be disconcerting to the sailor unaccustomed to dories."

John Gardner

Dunderdale Pearl

2011-10-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

My friend Ralph Merriman is a prolific amateur boat builder. He wrote to me recently to catch up on news and it was no surprise to hear him say:

"I am building another boat, this one a 16 foot daysailer to the Pearl design by Tom Dunderdale, in England."
[if the link doesn't work, copy and paste:
http://www.campionboats.co.uk/html/pearl.html ]
"I chose Dunderdale's Pearl over a Welsford Navigator. Fine boat that Navigator, but there are so many out there and I so easily succumb to the allure of something different."

Just to get a little perspective, Ralph built the kayak he works out in most days.

He also built this Iain Oughtred Whilly Boat, which now belongs to Mike Scott.
Here's Mr. Scott putting her through her paces.

I came very close to buying this strip-planked Adirondack Guideboat last year. Ralph told me it was a dream to row, and he's right.
He hasn't sold it yet........

For those who are familiar with the work of Kees Prins, you know that his new cabin cruiser, Fetch was a hit at the recent Port Townsend Boat Festival. She even made the cover of Small Craft Advisor.

What I didn't know is that Ralph built the original open daysailer Kees started with for this project.

There are probably more on this list, but back to the Pearl. Ralph has made his masts, rudder and centerboard. The strongback is set up and the plank lay-up has begun. Why do I get the feeling the completed boat is not too far off?

Please stay tuned...

Pearl:
LOD: 4936mm or 16ft. 2in.
LOA: 6036mm or 19ft. 9in.
BOA: 1820mm or 6ft
Max. design displacement: 575 kg; Min.: 330kg
Hull weight: 135 - 160 kg
Ballast: 75 - 125 kg
Sail area:
Gaff rig (nominal): 123 sq ft / 11.4 sq m. or 136 sq ft / 12.65 sq m
Lug and Yawl rigs: approximately 11.5 sq m
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Wemyss Skiff

2011-10-11T21:42:00.000-07:00

Alec Jordan of Jordan Boats is at it again. He and Iain Oughtred have teamed up to create a smaller sistership to the St Ayles Skiff.

The Wemyss Skiff is designed for tandem rowing, with or without a cox. Alec launched the prototype four days ago, in Ullapool, Scotland.

He gets some last minute advice from Topher Dawson.

Our good friend and photographer extraordinaire, Chris Perkins, was there and sent in some photos which just about tell it all.

This is what Chris had to say:

"Alec Jordan won one of the raffle prizes at our [Loch Broom Skiff] Regatta back in August, a nights B&B accommodation in Ullapool. Since last weekend was the Guitar Festival he decided to redeem his prize."

"This also gave him a fixed point on the calendar to get the new Wemyss Skiff on the water (I was going to say finished but you will be only too familiar with boatbuilder optimism and finish dates). So after working non-stop for twelve days and with the varnish still tacky, Alec drove up from Fife last Saturday to splash the new design on Loch Broom. The words on the Ullapool Coastal Rowing Club site probably tell most of the story."

The Weymss Skiff is 16 feet LOA and 4 feet-9 inches extreme beam, lightweight and very seaworthy. If the St Ayles Skiff is a bit more boat than you need, the Weymss Skiff might just fit the bill.

Stay tuned......

Melonseed Skiffs

2011-10-09T21:53:00.000-07:00

New Jersey and the Delaware River Basin have a rich history of small craft. Unique vessels have evolved for hunting, fishing, clamming and transportation over a diverse range of water conditions.

From the shallow waters of Barnegat Bay through the surf off the Jersey Shore to the Delaware River, these vessels were designed as work boats which, over time, became recreational boats.

The Melonseed is still a popular design, which has been documented from 1882.

Melonseeds today have evolved from skinny water duck boats into conveyances for sailors who no longer hunt ducks. They still ply the same waters with their proven seaworthiness, fine bows and sleek, low hulls.

Recently three new Melonseeds were launched, which has set off a flurry of interest that has caught Doryman in it's wake.

There was Barry Long's matched pair of Marc Barto 13' Melonseeds, Aeon and Caesura. If you haven't followed Barry's diary about building these fine boats, he publishes as EyeinHand.

Barry's Melonseeds are strip-planked construction.

Then we saw Mike Wick's Moggie taking on all comers at the St Michael's Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival.

Mike's boat is a cold-molded Cortez 16 Melonseed, taken off a strip-planked hull. It might just be the lightest (and fastest?) Melonseed yet. I think Mike is just the guy to demonstrate what a Melonseed can do as a racer.

About twenty years ago, Marty Loken, who had the The Wooden Boat Shop retail store in Seattle at the time, was so impressed with Melonseeds that he commissioned a stitch-and-glue version from Sam Devlin.

Marty owns a Seaford Skiff built by Paul Ketcham of Amityville, New York, in 1950. He claims the Seaford Skiff is a delight to row or sail. "Like some other melonseed designs it has a plank keel and is very low in the water. You sit on the hull when sailing as though you're in a narrow Beetle Cat, and the overall sensation is a bit like sea kayaking... in the water, not just on the water."

Marty's Seaford Skiff is carvel planked.

The boat Marty commissioned is Sam Devlin's Melonseed, done in Sam's trademark stitch and glue construction method and called Zephyr.

Joel Bergen of Navigator fame chose the Zephyr as his first boat building project. We will have to dedicate some time to Joel's Melonseed at a later date. Apparently he kept a weblog while he was building his Zephyr, but that chronicle no longer exists.

The stitch-and-glue Melonseed lacks some of the gracefulness found in the round-bottom designs but can be built in 100 hours with minimal skills. It's a pretty boat with characteristically good sailing qualities.

In conversation with other boat builders, we agreed that this boat might make a very good sail-and-oar boat for RAIDs and weekend gunkholing.

Now you know why Doryman is so excited. Will we see a Doryman Melonseed?

The Voyage continues...

If there is to be a Doryman Melonseed, it will have to be clinker built.

Enough said.

Bolger Stretched Dory

2011-10-04T22:16:00.000-07:00

Phil Bolger designed a 19'-6" version of his famous Gloucester Gull (15'-8") and Rob Jackson of Florence, Oregon is building one.

Rob is sixty-two, an ex-logger and commercial fisherman who has had a lifelong passion for boats. Now that he's retired there's time to build a boat he's always liked.

The hull is meranti mahogany plywood and Rob claims to have used cedar, fir, hemlock, oak and "anything else kicking around the shop floor".

He tells me he will be rowing on the Siuslaw River and lakes surrounding Florence.

He didn't say, but I bet he does a bit of fishing too.

The oars will be hollow loomed and made from some yew wood Rob cut himself and has stored for thirty five years. He has not started making the oars yet. I hope he sends us some photos when he does. Yew is a very strong coniferous wood - a bit heavy, but it can be shaved down very thin. It's pretty and should make a fine set of oars.

Congratulations to Rob, who is building his first boat! He couldn't have chosen a better beginning.

Another build of the Bolger Stretched Dory can be found here.

Traditional Small Craft at Fort Worden

2011-10-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

Saturday last, we headed north to the confluence of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Admiralty Inlet. Port Townsend, Washington is on the northeastern corner of the Olympic Peninsula, in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains. If it's wet all over the rest of the northwest Pacific rain forest, it will most likely not be raining in Port Townsend.

Last weekend was no exception. Alas, whistle though we may, it was in vain, there was no wind. Some of the rowing or paddle boats left on an excursion and the sailboats stayed close to shore.

The annual meeting of the Puget Sound TSCA occurred on peaceful shores. Good company, good food and a beautiful beach in any weather.

Thank you to our good friends in the PSTSCA!

And now to the slideshow:

This video gives some indication of wind(?) vs tidal current:

Thank you, Marty Loken and Mary McCall for all the great photos (and for covering my back while I was out having too much fun.)
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Paulina Lake

2011-09-27T23:15:00.000-07:00

We spent last weekend with the Oregon Coots at Paulina Lake, Oregon. Nestled in the Deschutes National Forest at 6000 feet, Paulina is a high desert gem and a great place to sail.

Paulina Lake is about 45 miles south of Bend, Oregon and is situated in the Newberry Caldera National Monument.

It's nearing the end of the season and a lot of folks showed up to get in one last camping trip.

The food was excellent, culminating in a pizza feast on Saturday night in Jetman Dan's homemade portable pizza oven (650 pounds of brick and steel!).
He baked a dozen pizzas to feed about thirty people. Bob Wessel made his German chocolate Dutch-oven dump-cake. Jim Reim brought his world famous cheesecake.

The clouds rolled in and Sunday morning dawned cool and wet.

Time to pack it in and head for home.

A photo slideshow for those of you who couldn't make it - See you next year?

And the video:

Ulukhaktok Dory Ketch

2011-09-25T22:12:00.000-07:00

Issuma is a 15m (50') steel staysail schooner with lifting keel, built by META in France to a Damien II design.

She has recently navigated the Northwest Passage from Whitehorse, Canada with a relatively ice free summer. Issuma has just completed the Bearing Strait, north to south. A fascinating story.

While they were in Ulukhaktok, Diamond Jenness Peninsula, Victoria Island, Canada, they came across the steel dory ketch Nur, which naysayers will note is a St Pierre Dory writ large.

Just sayin', James!

Dan Johnson, I thought you in particular would appreciate this shot. Welcome aboard!
Looking forward to hearing more about the construction of your Badger.
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Tammie Norrie

2011-09-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

You already know of Adrian Morgan. He's the guy who was almost featured in a Balvenie Masters of Craft Award ad.

Did you know Adrian has been building an Iain Oughtred Tammie Norrie? Hopefully you have been watching the sidebar and checking up on progress in Leckmelm, Scotland.

Adrian is a professional boat builder, which probably means he lives on beans and rice. But since he's currently off on a vacation to France, I suspect that he makes a fair penny from his writing - Which is superb, I might add - please do visit his site.

The boats from Adrian's shop are often of Norse origin and built of larch and oak in a time tested manner. And every one is a beauty.

This Tammie Norrie is no exception.

Adrian has said, "Can there be anything more beautiful than a clinker boat at this stage of building?... There are imperfections that cannot be replicated, but make such a boat truly handmade. Some of those timbers are a little more (or less) than exactly 8 inches apart, for example..."

Photos by Adrian.

Live-aboard Dory and other news from Scotland

2011-09-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

So, I get this e-mail from Chris Perkins, which is always a delight. He has news from Leckmelm, Scotland that is right on-topic.

Apparently Dan Johnson and Charlotte Watters are building a brand new Badger dory from Jay Benford's design, in the old Cow Shed on the Loch Broom.

Dan says: "The ‘Badger’ has long been a boat of interest to us. When looking at the construction plans in detail, with a view to build, I became convinced. It looked like it should be fast and economical to construct and so far has proven to be so. I plan to do everything myself from casting the keel to sewing the sails".

This new Badger will be the same junk rigged dory design that has earned international acclaim. Nice job, Dan and Charlotte!

In further news, Adrian Morgan is putting finishing touches on a traditionally built Iain Oughtred Tammie Norrie. Adrian has strong views of what constitutes a well built boat and often uses his own work as a bench mark. He will find no argument from me, though I hear that he has stooped so low as to use plywood on this one. If so, he has a lot of explaining to do!

More about Adrian's Tammie Norrie soon...

And... up there in the rafters of the Cow Shed is a very strange looking Merry Wherry.

This may be the best story of all.

Chris Duff made an effort this last summer to row from Scotland to Iceland in his modified Merry Wherry, which has to qualify for pure crazy. The weather was against Chris from the start and he will make another attempt next year. I can relate to Chris' sentiment when he decided to return to Scotland:

"The northern winds that have slowed me down all the way from Thurso to north Shetland have finally quit - now that I have decided to head south, of course. The south winds that I could have used all the way north have now developed and have been on the bow, slowing or stopping me completely as I head south."

So his boat rests and waits here in the rafters, in a land where summer is fleeting and gorgeous, for another day, another attempt at conquering the northern Atlantic, solo, in a diminutive boat.

Photos from the cow shed courtesy of Chris Perkins.
Tammie Norrie stem close-up by Adrian Morgan (what a beauty! Adrian is an artist)
Photos of Badger courtesy of Dan Johnson and Charlotte Watters.
and thank you, Chris Duff. You are an inspiration!

Live-aboard Dory

2011-09-16T12:26:00.000-07:00

DoryMan has been receiving visits from a discussion on the WoodenBoat Forum lately on the subject of St Pierre Dories and live-aboard dories in particular. But the Forum will not allow me to respond. Imagine that.

So, this is for you folks who come here looking for information on dories. Mistral is my own dory-cruiser and a fine live-aboard she is. She is my own design and I built her (by) myself. She is 36 feet LOA with an eleven foot beam and displaces five tons. For those contemplating such a task, let me warn you - it will take a lot of energy, time and commitment. At times, I was on the verge of cutting Mistral up for firewood.

But to live your dreams is worth every minute. In fact, I am convinced there is no other way to live. That's why I write this blog - to encourage others to live their dreams. It does not matter if you don't know what you are doing - you will learn.

Mistral is not a St Pierre Dory, but similar. Her bottom profile is flatter, which gives a comfortable walking area below (the St Pierre has the most severe bottom rocker of all the dories and walking around in one can be a challenge). For those who are contemplating building a St Pierre, we have been following two different stories this last year, click here.

You are encouraged to add to the comments at the end of this post (or any post - I love to talk about boats!) Or contact me: mbogoger(at)gmail.com if you have a story to share.

Images of Mistral under sail can be found here.
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Rosie Splashes in Portland, Oregon

2011-09-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

Portland, Oregon, US is called the "City of Roses" and has a huge rose garden overlooking the city and the Willamette River, which runs through it. Roses can be found everywhere in Portland this time of year.

The Willamette River was the scene last Saturday for the launch of Rosie, the second St Ayles Skiff to hit the water in the US and the 26th boat to be built from this hugely popular one-design, worldwide.

The women's red scarves recall Rosie the Riveter, an icon from WWII celebrating the women whos manual labor kept the US economy alive while the men were fighting.
This team of women are from the first class to build a boat in the newly formed, not-for-profit, Wind and Oar Boat School - the first boat for the School and the first boat for the women, most of whom had never built anything in their lives.

I have said many times that building boats builds community, builds character and brings out the best in people. Here is the proof.

The new boat was christened with pure water, to avoid contributing to the industrial pollution of this old working river.

I have had the privilege of being a consultant on this project, but please don't tell anyone that I had hoped, from the first, to be allowed to row the finished boat.

My dream came true Saturday. You are witness to one very happy Doryman.

Thank you, Wind and Oar Boat School and thank you, Rosies!

Good Luck and may the Wind be always at your Back!

Rosie was launched at the Willamette Sailing Club, just upriver from downtown Portland.

Mary made up this video of the launch.
The first musical piece is "Preludio" by Archangelo Corelli.

The second tune is "The Skye Boat Song" a traditional Scottish song played by solo flute. This traditional Scottish song recalls the escape of the young pretender Charles Edward Stewart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) after his defeat at Culloden in 1746. Aided by Flora MacDonald, Prince Charles escaped to the Isle of Skye in a small boat, in the disguise of a maid-servant.
"The Skye Boat Song" was first published in 1884, with lyrics written by Sir Harold Boulton to an air collected by Miss Annie MacLeod in the 1870s. It is said that Miss MacLeod was on a trip to the Isle of Skye and was being rowed over Loch Coruisk when the rowers broke into a Gaelic rowing song called “Cuachag nan Craobh” (The Cuckoo in the Grove). She set down only what she remembered of the air when she arrived at her destination, and this is probably why, while the first half of the tune is actually believed to be an old sea shanty, the other half is traditionally attributed to Miss MacLeod.

The third song is "Rosie the Riveter" by The Tillers, a group based in Cincinnati.

Launching "Rosie" at the Willamette Sailing Club from doryman on Vimeo.

And if you haven't had enough, here is the slideshow:

Bill Garden Canoe Yawl "Eel"

2011-09-10T22:23:00.000-07:00

Peter Keyes, from Eugene, Oregon writes to tell me he is selling his Bill Garden designed canoe yawl.
You might remember seeing one of these fine double-enders in the story of the Sucia Island trip this summer. The cabin design is different on this boat, but that doesn't change the fact that it is one of the most beautiful little pocket cruisers I've ever seen.

Though Peter lives here in Oregon, he moors the Tappan Zee in Penn Cove, Whidbey Island, Washington every summer (Salish Sea). I can think of no better match than to see this boat on those waters.

Peter has provided a link to a picture album for anyone interested in this boat and asks that folks contact him by e-mail: (petertwoshedskeyes@gmail.com)

Tappan Zee:
William Garden designed "Eel", canoe yawl.
18.5' LOD
6' beam
1' draft, centerboard up.
1200 lb. displacement.

Built in 1983 by Schooner Creek Boatworks, Portland, Oregon. Cold-molded with three layers of western red cedar and the final layer strip-planked meranti mahogany.
The mainsail is gunter-rigged, which keeps all spars shorter than 18 feet, for simple trailering and rigging.
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Sailing Scylla Ellinor II

2011-09-08T11:37:00.000-07:00

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Once more we feature Jan Eerala and his fabulous boats. The man is an Artist!

Sailing singlehanded - 20/8/2011 - old Scylla Ellinor from Jan Eerala on Vimeo.

And another fine video from Graham Gaunt on the Isles of Scilly, obviously a kindred spirit to our friend Jan.

St Agnes from Graham Gaunt on Vimeo.

Thank you, Jan and Graham. You each enrich our lives.

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Building the Rebelo

2011-09-05T21:51:00.000-07:00

Hakan Ericsson told me of the Rebelo of Portugal, a traditional transport vessel once made entirely by hand. He suggested we visit A Cidade Surpreendente to see how a Rebelo was built and the process documented on film.

The build adhered to the Nordic method of naval carpentry, as in the formation of the hull before assembly of the frames. With no power, only human effort and without molds, the boat form was obtained from traditional measurements - the art and practice of many generations.

The site chosen for building the boat was the town of Lomba, a few kilometers from Porto, Portugal. The work takes place in a large open space, allowing the eye to measure the grace of the hull in the perspective and enjoyment of the river.

There are five shipwrights, ranging from 59 to 80 years of age.

The story is told in Portugese but the photos are in the language of art.
Courtesy of Carlos Romao.

Obrigado, Carlos!
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Atchafalaya Basin Piroque

2011-08-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

Irwin Schuster sent me some photos of an Atchafalaya Basin piroque he found in in the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, MA.

The forward rowing platform seems cumbersome in contrast with the beautiful lines of the piroque.

A friend once told me that the defining characteristic of a piece of art is whether you can live with it.

This is a boat I could live with but I would sit down to row, if only to eliminate the rowing stanchion.

Small matter how it's rowed with a craft as sweet as this. Put this one down on the list of boats Doryman wants to build.

Neap Tide

2011-08-25T00:19:00.000-07:00

It was a gorgeous summer weekend for a boat show. This year's Toledo Wooden Boat Show was the seventh annual and the best yet. An amazing number of people come to the Oregon coast for this August event and the slideshow will demonstrate why.

Please enjoy!

Doryman's friends Claire and Bob were there to show us how to row a faering. Come on, Bob - Give me 20!

The Doryman Song, by Scott Kirby. Courtesy of Dave Calhoun. Thanks Dave!
Video produced by Mary McCall. Thank you, Mary!

Rowing the Faering, Ravn from doryman on Vimeo.

Brandon is the proud winner of the "People's Choice" award for his beautiful Ravn.
Doryman rows over to offer congratulations! Couldn't have chosen a better man, nor boat.

The seventh annual Toledo (Oregon) Wooden Boat Show was a huge success, right here in Doryman's home port.

The DoryMan blog has logged over 200,000 visitors, as of yesterday. Thank you all for stopping by and please come back soon!
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John Welsford's Penguin Yawl

2011-08-18T20:43:00.000-07:00

The Ann Martin, a mini-yacht.

In April of 2010, I met Phil Rossignol at the Depoe Bay Wooden Boat Show and Crab Feed. He was exhibiting a traditional Banks dory which he had built with solid timber and was quite proud of. He had never built a boat before, or anything other than some bookshelves.

Phil and his wife and have had great fun with it, fishing on lakes and crabbing on the Yaquina river.

Just when I was wondering how Phil was, he wrote to me and said he was launching his second boat.

I had to see it!

The pocket cruiser in question is John Welsford's Penguin. Following the success of the clinker-built dory, Phil's ambitions were high. He made a great choice, as you will see:

"Overconfident about my abilities, I suggested to my wife that we build a small cruiser and explore the Inside Passage. My double garage has a workshop extension and can accommodate building a twenty plus foot boat."

"I spent a few months reading about small boats in books and on the web, and finally settled on Penguin, designed by John Welsford. I also considered great designs by Oughtred, Dix and Selway-Fisher. The Penguin is just short of 21 feet, with an 8 foot beam. The cabin is spacious, can accommodate a head and a galley, and has four berths. The cockpit is self draining. The hull is flat bottomed with sides of five overlapping strakes."

"I started the build in March 2008. I’m not a woodworker, and more of a wood butcher, to use Charles Stock’s phrase. I used the ‘looks good from 10 feet’ rule, and sometimes stretched that out a bit. I proceeded working on it about an hour every night. I read that a boat that size realistically will take 1000 hours for an amateur to build, and I believe that’s correct. In my opinion, a risk for homebuilders is sporadic progress, leading to discouragement. My solution is to do something every day, however little, and see continual progress. It keeps your spirits up."

"The first major challenge was turning it over in order to glass the bottom. My garage is long but only a few inches higher that 8 feet. I suspended both ends from the ceiling beams and slowly spun it around."

"The second challenge was the ballast keel. The plans call for 900 pounds or so of lead poured in a fairly complex curved shape. I could not locate anyone in the Pacific Northwest who would pour it and I don’t have a property suited for safe smelting, so I had a welding shop find two solid iron bars, close to 500 ponds each and drilled recessed holes. It adds about an inch of depth and two inches of width over the lead ballast, so it worked out fine."

"I focused on the exterior, hoping for a float test in 2011. I pulled it out of the garage and onto a trailer in early summer. It barely made it out of the four-panel high door! We threw champagne at it and christened it the Ann Martin. It trailered easily over the Coastal range on a surge brake trailer."

Phil and his wife Ann pulled the boat over the Coast Range to launch on the Yaquina at Toledo, OR. My friend Lou and I were lucky to be there in time to see the moment when trepidation becomes triumph. They took the Ann Martin for an inaugural spin and were obviously very happy:

"This design feels very steady and stable and was easy to move with a 2hp Honda outboard."

"I’m very satisfied with the boat’s handling and appearance. It’s a great boat!"

"The rig will be a yawl with a gaff main and lug mizzen. Last winter I cut a small Doug fir from our property for the mast, which has dried very nicely. Next winter I’ll sew sails from a Sailrite kit, bolt on the ballast and finish the interior. It should be ready next spring."

"Then it’s on to Alaska!"

A Day in the Life

2011-08-13T22:07:00.000-07:00

Of DoryMan

Here in the Pacific Northwest one must make the best of every sunny moment.

Two years or more have passed since the dory cruiser Mistral was hauled out and painted. So, it's off to the boatyard for Doryman.

Just look at the barnacles on that rudder! Get a good mental picture of the rudder design because it is about to be scrapped.

With the radical angle of the transom on this boat a wide rudder such as this will lift nearly out of the water when the boat is heeled-over. As a result, the boat stalls when turning to windward and can go into irons during a tack.

To maintain the shoal draft of this hull, Doryman took his trusty power saw to the fin and redesigned it as a swing-up rudder, thus moving the power of the spade deeper. There is a ten pound plug of lead in there to hold it down and a wire lanyard attached to a block on the stern pulpit.

You remember the Teak Lady, Che Hon? This petite yacht is a diamond in the rough.

She was very dry from being stored in a shed for seven years so it's been a cork and caulk challenge.
Several weeks of soaking brought the teak planks back to shape and closed the seams enough for new cotton. Some Slick Seal compound and new bottom paint sealed her up pretty well. There's four coats of fresh spar varnish on her topsides.

We dropped her in the water lashed to the Travel Lift straps, just in case she tried to sink to the bottom. Two hours later she had less than a liter of water in her bilge.
As the tide rises and falls this weekend, she will soak four more times before we let her loose early Monday morning. Then she will float on her own to the dock for some finish-sanding on those decks and treatment with Deks Olje. We have about two hundred hours into this restoration so far and it is worth every minute to see a seventy-two year old boat looking so good.

There is no time to lose!

The seventh annual Toldeo Wooden Boat Show is next weekend.

All in all, a very good day.
Now - back to work DoryMan!...

North Sea to Black Sea

2011-08-10T21:54:00.000-07:00

Giacomo de Stefano began his journey of conscience in London and so far, the trip has been all uphill.
The most recent section, before entering the Danube and the down current leg, was the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal.

The Rhine-Main-Danube Canal joins the Danube at Kelheim. The canal is 171 km long, 55m wide and 4m deep. It has 16 locks and upon completion, in 1992, created a constantly navigable connection from the North Sea to the Black Sea.

This is where we find Giacomo today. 1500 kilometers and three months in a Ness Yawl. Up stream against the current and through hundreds of locks.

Whew!

Now to the Black Sea on the mighty Danube. It's all downhill from now on, Giacomo!

The Cedar Dugout Canoe, Vagabundo

2011-08-08T21:50:00.000-07:00

This is a story from the late 1960's. The west coast of Mexico was not yet a tourist destination. There were no cruise ships, no para sailing, no jet skis, no Senior Frogs.

Imagine.

Charless Fowlkes took his dog on a 150 mile cruise in an old cedar canoe... but it's best when he tells it...

"The canoe was a derelict from San Juan Island in 1968. The hull had countless splits and was barely in one piece. I bought her for $5 from my longtime friend, the late Carl Harper who took the boat in trade for shoeing a horse."

"Some of the copper patches required to seal it were 8 inches wide and several feet long. Lots of Thiocol was troweled into splintered wood to hold it together. A hole was worn through the bow from scuffing on the beach. I seem to be drawn to the challenge of hopeless projects! The shape is very fair and the cedar hull is very uniform, one inch in thickness. The length is 15 feet with a 34 inch beam and weight of 160 pounds. It's been described as a Native canoe, but I have my doubts."

"I built a cotton sprit sail, a lee-board and a rudder in Seattle, loaded it on the roof of my camper and drove to Mexico. After sailing it the first time in Mazatlan I capsized when landing in 2 feet of surf. I added the outrigger using bamboo poles and a plastic pipe softened and bent in a campfire on the beach. Crude but immensely more stable."

"I launched this outfit at San Blas with my Labrador, Tar Baby and sailed about 150 miles to Mismaloya Beach south of Puerto Vallarta, camping on the beach at night. I had read that this area was the most deserted and beautiful coast on the west of Mexico. Just as I found it."

"My chart was traced from a borrowed chart. Using my very broken Spanish, I talked with Mexican dugout fishermen (the switch to fiberglass had just begun in the early 1960's). They identified places along the coast where the surf was not high and a canoe might land. During my trip of 7 days the highest surf I saw was about 4 feet. I got wet a lot but was never capsized or driven back to the beach when launching."

"When winds were light, I would paddle. On the last day when rounding Punta de Mita and crossing Banderas I had 20 knots reaching and following and was reefed part of the time.
(I reefed by removing the sprit, rolling up and and lashing the peak triangle with grommets along the leach, leaving a small triangular sail.)"

"Tar Baby and I arrived at Mismaloya beach at dark. A great trip with good weather, wonderful scenery, and the few people I met were friendly."

"The Mexican dugouts were common back then and were roughly made from wood that looked like mahogany to my amateur eye. They would be over 2 inches thick and weighed over 400 pounds. Two or more men would land a dugout and put logs under it for rollers to move it above the sea. I could drag my dugout up the beach by myself."

"Mexican fishermen viewed my dugout with interest as it must have looked like a racing shell to them. The Mexican dugouts used sails made from sacks and were normally steered with a paddle. Once in La Paz in 1961 I rented a native dugout for several hours. It was the only one I saw that had a rudder which I thought I might be able to manage. Back then each morning you would see several canoe fishermen sail out of the harbor at La Paz and then returning in the afternoon when the wind changed."

"During the past 40+ years there has been immense growth and development, especially near Puerto Vallarta. When I landed Vagabundo at Mismaloya Beach in 1968 there were two native houses, a palapa on the beach used mostly on weekends and half a dozen ex-patriots and bums like me who camped there for free. I returned to Mismaloya a few years ago to find the inlet filled with houses, restaurants and a couple of hotels."

Though Vagabundo has not been in the water since the color photo from Acapulco in 1968, Charless still has her.

When he told me this story, I knew you all had to hear it.
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Bellowhead - Jordan

2011-08-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

Sailing Scylla Ellinor. A few miles west of Ulkolaskulta Sapin, wind SW 10. Perfect weather.
A video by Jan Eerala, Makholma Finland.

Sailing Scylla - 1/8/2010 - Elli Säpin Ulkolaskulla from Jan Eerala on Vimeo.

Papua New Guinea Sailaus Canoes

2011-08-06T22:28:00.000-07:00

Nice cutwater.

The Trouble With Building Your Own Boat

2011-08-05T22:33:00.000-07:00

...is, you start thinking about building other things.

When I hear from someone like Erik Mancini, it's a really good day.
Erik wrote me a few months back with a wide open question - "what would you recommend I build?". He had a few choices and I remember making mine based on the beauty of design coupled with reports of good sailing qualities in a rowing boat. There was a video of the Northeaster Dory from CLC with a modified lug sail rig making good time to windward and I said "this is a boat I would like for myself".

Apparently the design spoke to Erik too because he ordered a kit for the boat and is about to finish his first build, ever. He sounds serious because his most recent note asked about making his own oars. All this from a guy who's never built anything before!

This is what he told me:

"I am by no means a handy individual, so it was with some serious trepidation that I decided to try and assemble a boat from a kit. Truthfully, much of the impetus was economic. I wanted a boat that was small enough to keep in my garage and that was capable under sail and oar. Boat builders that specialize in this are few and far between and are quite costly."

"I must say that the act of building it has given me a certain amount of confidence with other projects that I would never consider before. I guess you learn that going deliberately and seeing steps in chunks takes away the uncomfortable feeling most unskilled guys like me get when they're confronted with a technical task. Most of all, you learn that asking for help from people with more experience is the only way to fly. I think the guys over at Chesapeake Light Craft recognize my voice over the phone by now. They've been super helpful and tolerant of my newbie questions. Also, online forums and bloggers like yourself are indispensable to a first time builder."

"When I tell people I'm building my own boat or when they see my progress in person the look they give me is worth all of the sanding and head scratching. This may sound a bit out of left field, but I think accomplishing something like this engenders a real sense of nonconformity (at least for a suburban American). A lot of people I know cannot fathom why I wouldn't just save up and buy a boat (preferably with an engine)...isn't that what we're taught to do in our consumer culture? It's funny, every day I get closer to finishing this boat I feel happier and happier I decided to build it. At this point even if I could have just bought one, I'm truly glad I didn't."

"This way, it really is my own boat."

Amen, Erik!

The last two photos of the Northeaster Dory, courtesy of Chesapeake Light Craft, tm.
Remaining photos courtesy of Erik Mancini.

Inside Passage Gunkholing; Sucia Island Epilogue

2011-08-01T20:58:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to flog this topic much longer, but I'd like to take a minute to talk about the fine people one meets on the water. I could not begin to name them all.

Joe trailers his boat to the islands from Texas every year. Now that's a commitment! When I went to Ganges Harbor on Saltspring Island to find Lou, Joe was already there reading his book. I interrupted him in his revery and I'm glad I did. Joe is an old friend of Hobie Atler and had a lot of great sailing stories to tell.

He built his kayak tender from Pygmy plans and now cruises in this little tug, which is popular where ever he goes.

The Harbor Master in Ganges was a jewel. How many Harbor Masters will ask how long your boat is and when it's 18.5 feet, charge you for only 18? His wife was on the boat across from me and never batted an eye when she saw how small my boat was and gave me a wealth of information about where to go and what to see.

There was the couple from Olympia, Washington on their old wood yacht, Sea Lass. Could have talked with them all day. Can't remember a thing we said, but it was stellar.

The remaining cruising days in the Islands were in company with Lou. I got very used to seeing this view somewhere nearby. Lou is a sailor's sailor. I'd trust my life to this man.

Reading back through the log, I feel compelled to raise a thorny issue. Often an entry comes up that mentions some flagrant violation of the rules of the road or a down-right effort by an inconsiderate yachtsman to swamp a small open vessel.
In one notable incident a motor yacht of about 40 feet came down on me at cruising speed from the leeward side. I was on the port side of a channel leading to a popular harbor, leaving, along with a contingent bound for a particular favorable tide.
This was a displacement yacht traveling at about 16 knots and pushing a corresponding wake. Everyone else traveling in his direction (opposite mine) was on my port. As he came directly opposite me on my starboard (why did he come a half mile to execute this maneuver directly alongside me??), he slowed to about 6 knots. With no room to turn into the pursuant wake, anyone who has spent any time in a small boat knows what comes next. My log entry says "why do they look back, seeing me pitching through 50 degrees and hanging on for dear life, and wave, like we are good friends?" Because they think my middle finger is a friendly gesture?

My next log entry mentions three twin screws traveling in close formation in the same channel. Like the effect from the slip stream of three semi-trucks on a bicycle.

Need I mention all of this occurred in a well marked "No Wake" zone?

Short of being caught in a gale, the most dangerous threat to a small open boat is the large wake thrown by a deep hulled motor vessel pushed past it's hull speed by twin props. Three or four of them in close formation are more destructive than Neptune himself.

When I meet these same people in Port, they are kindness itself and sure, they never meant me any harm.

Oh, if only it were so!

When I was strapping Saga to her trailer in Anacortes at the end of the trip, Charless Fowlkes came over to ask me about my boat, which is usually a prelude to hearing more boat stories. Charless had some good ones, from an old lapstrake renovation to a genuinely ancient dugout canoe he patched with tar and rigged for sail.
Charless and I might still be back there in the parking lot, swapping stories if Marjorie his wife, and partner in crime, hadn't come over to remind him of a dinner reservation. (He claimed he didn't care about that...)

I hope to hear from Charless and Marjorie again someday, after they've made their way back to Montana.

Farewell to Sucia, the Gulf Islands and the Inside Passage until next year, by which time I expect all People of the World will live in Harmony and Bliss.

Fair Winds!
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Sucia Island Rendezvous 2011, Part 3

2011-07-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

Farewell to Fossil Bay. Some of us went home and some continued north into Canada. The BC Canadian islands are called the Gulf Islands. We spent one night at anchor in Bedwell Harbor where we checked in with Customs.

The following day was warm (for a change) as we set off for Portland Island. The tide was in our favor and also what little wind there was. It took four hours to sail nine miles, which is why many people do not like sailing.
But I must say, it was very fine!

One more night of revelry (indeed - in bed and asleep before dark - we call that revelry?) and the next morning everyone went their separate ways.

Jamie, in Wayward Lass, decided at the last minute to head north with me instead of south and homeward.

Here comes the best part.

We headed out into Moresby Channel just as the wind started to pick up. Jamie hove-to and put in a reef. He yells over to me "the best time to put in a reef is when you think of it".

Jamie is a very smart man.

I yelled back "Damn the maneuvers, go straight at 'um" and gave her all the canvas she had. We shot off the wind up Swanson Channel and surfed the waves for four hours. That's the beauty of destination sailing. You head off in a favorable direction and you keep going as long as it's favorable. No need to round up and beat back, just keep the sail full!
(I know if Adrain sees this he's going to insist I get rid of those shrouds.)

As it was, we were on the lead edge of a storm front and while anchoring in James Bay on Prevost Island that evening, we had time to contemplate our grand passage as rain came down on the Chebacco's cockpit tent. We shared some Scotch and I borrowed Jamie's phone to call Mary at home.
He tells me "Make sure you tell her Doryman is Crazy".

The storm continued the next day and though Jamie had to get home, I had nowhere to go in this kind of weather. Note that I have abandoned the plastic hoop frame for the tent. It was a good idea, but took too much time to put up and strike each day.
Since the boom is not attached to the mast with a balanced lug rig, to suspend the boom, yard and sail requires two halyards. It took some trials over a few days to get this right and even then a portion of the rig stuck out each end of the draped tent, which encouraged rain to drip inside. So here I am sitting in a dripping tent on a dark heavily overcast day, in a tiny boat on a lonely sea.

Perhaps Doryman is crazy.
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Sucia Island Rendezvous 2011, Part 2

2011-07-28T22:34:00.000-07:00

Let's look at the boats.

Many of the small boats that make their way to Fossil Bay for this rendezvous have either been built or restored by their owners. So it's a chance to test yourself, your boat and how symbiotic your relationship can be.

First there is Joel Bergen's Navigator. He's kept a great blog about building this boat and he says it best, so please visit him through the link above. Great boat, Joel! Her name is Ellie. Joel brought his son, Tim.
Here we see Ellie, skippered by Joel in the 'Round Sucia "Race".

You've met Jamie Orr and his Chebacco Wayward Lass. Jamie just retired this week. Congratulations, man!
Jamie gets a lot of credit. He keeps this group alive and is the consummate host. If you're curious, he keeps a web site for this gathering here.
That's the skipper at the helm, our friend Alan and also Jamie's son, Alan on the foredeck.

I just met Rick and Judy. They traveled north from Portland, Oregon and brought their own Welsford design. It's a Houdini named Gertrude. This boat is set up for cruising! Storage everywhere, portable rain and sun covers - how big can a small boat be?
Rick built the boat and Judy carved the figurehead.
A first for each of them.

Frank Mabrey brought a Bartender he's been working on. The Calkins Bartender is a rough water fishing boat that could be ordered from the factory or built as a kit and occasionally built from plans. These double-enders are very popular with fishermen because they were designed for some of the roughest waters on Earth - the river bars of the Oregon coast. There is a brand new version out, made in aluminum, but this one is old and made of plywood.

Paul Miller is a retired shipwright. He's built a lot of boats. For his retirement he built this boat.
It's a Friendship Sloop by Jay Benford. Cold molded, but the inside layer is laid-up to look as though it's carvel planked. The Friendship has all traditional hardware, rigging and furnishings, but a modern underwater design, so she's fast and nimble.
Paul says that he named her Friendship because that's what she's for - making friends.

Paul, loved sailing on your boat!

John Bigelow sailed north from Whidbey Island, Washington on his Dawn Treader, a design called Eel from William Garden.

Those who know me can guess how much this canoeyawl speaks to me. If Bill Garden ever designed a boat that was less than stellar, I'll eat my hat.

John is perfectly in tune with his craft. I think he told me he'd had this boat for thirty years.

Jealous, that's what I am.

There were two Stone Horse designs. These boats were designed by Sam Crocker.

Enough said.

For coastal cruising, you could do no better. Even if they are made of fiberglass. They have timeless lines and quality detailing - an easy boat to fall in love with. Since there are probably no more that two of these boats within 2000 miles, it's a happy coincidence that they both ended up here at the same time.

The Stone Horse with the oval portlights is James McMullen's Phoebe and I'm not sure of the name for Jamie Webb's Stone Horse, but it's the one with the rectangular portlights.

Darrell Pepper just got through refurbishing this old ChrisCraft runabout. His real love is wood carving. If he were an Internet person I could show you some of his work, but as it is, I'll have to interview him one day and take some photos. He visits First People to learn their carving crafts and has made some remarkable contacts with tribal artisans. I wear an Orca he carved for me out of mammoth tusk on my hat.

Ron Mueller has built a few boats. He used to own Wayland Marine, who manufactures the Merry Wherry. His power catamaran Just Enuf is an odd looking boat, coming from a traditional perspective but effective and efficient. This plywood EcoCat from Bernard Kohler has a king sized berth, standing headroom galley, and a private head. Ron stores two inflatable kayaks and two folding bikes in the starboard ama. Cruising speed is 10 knots with a top speed of 15 knots.

Better yet, this boat comes in a sailing design!
Now we're talkin'!

Another efficient boat is this motor skiff, designed and built by my good friend Lou Brochetti. Lou has spent a lot of time on the sea, has built many boats and knows just what he wants, which is not much more than the bare essentials. He wants to be able to stand up to put on his pants and then reach everything else he needs without taking more than a step.

Lou is my hero. Less is More, Lou!

Lou calls Kingfisher a power sharpie. She burns about a liter an hour with a 9.9hp engine. Always having been a sailor, he's adjusting to spending money on gas. This was the first outing for Kingfisher and her skipper is very happy.

Loyal readers will remember, two years ago I cruised to Sucia Island with Chuck Gottfried on his Phil Bolger Chebacco, Full Gallop.
Here you see Chuck is back and Full Gallop has a face lift. It's my fault and I feel terrible, but one day Chuck asked me if he should paint red trim on his Bristol Channel Cutter. I told him red is no color for a boat. Well...if you look back at the above link, you will see that Full Gallop was once RED. Now she's this beautiful cream color and I'm in love!
(Still guilty.)
I hope you're not mad at me Chuck - ain't she photogenic?

Last but not least is Saga, a Valgerda faering designed by William Atkin. The only drawback to owning this boat is that after a while I feel like a tourist attraction.

A slideshow for your entertainment:

Sucia Island Rendezvous 2011, Part 1

2011-07-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

Cap Sante in Anacortes, Washington is a low lying claw shaped headland with a high brow to the east which protects the harbor from all but southerly winds. The southerlies are prevalent throughout the winter and as summer progresses high pressure builds from the north and the boat basin rides easy.

When I arrived at Cap Sante Boat Haven it was late morning and the wind was already filling in from the north. My only concern was getting the boat launched before the high afternoon winds kicked in. There was a sign on the boat lift that said they would not launch boats in winds over 25 knots. In the summer, hot inland temperatures mean higher winds over the coastal landscape due to the warm air drawing cool marine air inland. If the wind was already picking up before lunch, it would likely exceed 25 knots by afternoon.

Loading and launching Saga took a while, since I had packed enough food and gear to be at sea for a month. I had no intention of touching inhabited land. The launch went flawlessly even though wind continued to build.

During the evening I reviewed the charts and my planned route to Fossil Bay, Sucia Island State Park. As I drifted off to sleep, it was apparent that the wind had not let up, which is strange after dark. I resolved to wake pre-dawn and catch a favorable tide at 5:30.

When I woke, it was still blowing and had clocked around to the southwest. This should have been warning enough. Persevering as only a doryman can, Saga and I set sail.

As soon as we rounded Cap Sante into Guemes Channel, which runs SW to NE, it was apparent this was not going to be easy. The wind opposed the tidal current and caused the whole channel to churn like a washing machine. It wasn't long before I wondered just how seaworthy my little boat was. In a normally busy, commercially trafficked lane, Saga was the only boat in sight.

I've never let small details deter me, though I did wait too long to put on my rain coat and my jacket was already soaked with salty spray. Every third wave came in the boat. The headland where I would turn north was visible a couple miles away and I fixed on that.

The new heading offered a great bit of relief but heaped on a new challenge. How well does a small double-ended boat surf down a choppy, trailing sea? With a lot of authority, but not much control. It was too early in the morning, on a day that felt like early spring, to be sweating this hard!

The 24 nautical miles to Sucia Island took just over four hours that day. Probably a record for an eighteen-foot displacement boat. The first two hours were not much fun, though by the time I set anchor it was warm and sunny. This was the first outing for me in the little faering, Saga and I learned to have a lot of respect for this descendant of the old Norse light displacement double-enders.

There was only about a foot of freeboard left, with all the gear I'd packed, yet the only water to ship was spray from waves off the forward quarter. Mind you, there was plenty of that at times but the faering commanded the sea as well as a boat twice her size and I soon quit worrying about her ability to take care of herself.

Fossil Bay is a special place. Black Oystercatchers, bald eagles, raccoons, otters, seals, crab and all manner of sea birds make their homes there.

On the second weekend of July, so do a dedicated group of small wooden-boat owners. The Sucia Island Rendezvous brings these mariners from near and far to commune with nature and each other for three days.

In addition to the photos seen here, a good taste of the rendezvous can be found on Joel Bergen's weblog. Joel showed up in his new Welsford Navigator, Ellie. That's Joel to the right, in the green t-shirt, at "Wine and Cheese Night".

If that is not enough, you will find photos (weather permitting) of my entire trip on Doryman's Flickr site. Click here for the slideshow.

Stay tuned. More to come!

Sucia Rendezvous, 2011

2011-07-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

At one time I was interested in endurance bicycling. Perhaps it is time to renew that interest, it’s certainly helpful for stamina in general. One thing a solo cruiser needs, is stamina.

Take a small boat such as an eighteen-foot faering, open to the weather plus Neptune’s whims and place a man in late middle age.
My friend, Webb Chiles is an older man than I, with an impressive reserve of stamina. He still calls himself a force of nature.
I’d like to think of myself in those terms.

Even with the proper vessel a skipper can not abandon concern for safety. And a vessel must prove itself worthy.

SV Saga has proven herself worthy of her heritage.

(photo by Paul Miller)

During her recent voyage into Northern waters, Saga encountered unseasonable weather conditions, yet remained well-founded. What better recommendation can a skipper desire?
Perhaps a bit less rain and a tad more warmth.

In the Canadian Gulf Islands, off the east coast of Vancouver Island, wet weather comes from the southeast. Suffice to say that during Doryman’s last few weeks on the water, the prevailing winds were from the southeast This facilitated a couple of incredible downwind sailing days, but when the boat headed southward, it was a matter of endurance.

The depth of a wave is measured from the level of static water. So, if you encounter two-foot waves, the trough between the peak and the valley between the waves is four feet. Say for instance that you find yourself in a channel between islands and perhaps the wind opposes a strong tidal current. You have timed your presence there judiciously to coincide with just such a current. But now you find your little faering bucking the standing waves described above with a frequency of a few seconds. It’s true that every seventh wave is the biggest and the crash from the top of one wave directly into the top of the next will stop an eighteen foot boat in it’s tracks. Not to mention drenching the skipper in salt water (plus fresh, if it happens to be raining).
And we call this fun?

Well, it’s no amusement park.

It’s hard to say when a challenge is fun or just challenging. Certainly honing your skills at dealing with nature can be challenging and some would call you a fool for doing so. I certainly would not agree with this acessement, although the older I get, the less confidence comes naturally.

But I am still a force of nature.

As my friend Lou would say, “You’re tougher than I am”.
Or as Jamie could be heard to mutter, “Doryman is crazy”.

All for the love of a little open boat. The Valgerda fearing as designed by William Atkin is a well-founded boat. In tune with the elements and amazingly seaworthy. The critical question is “how fit is her skipper?”

How much can he endure?

Doryman is back safe and sound. A couple weeks of inclement weather were more than enough, thank you!
In the next few days we will review the voyage, but mind you – when conditions are extreme, the camera stays in the dry-bag.

Your visit will coincide with the calm between storms.

(the last two photos are courtesy of Ron Mueller)

Projects on Hold at the Boat Shop

2011-07-05T21:32:00.000-07:00

First we'll stop by the Teak Lady, Che Hon. This poor old boat is so dry! We soaked her in a local man made pond for three weeks. The teak planks take-up very slowly. So we've corked the garboard seam at the keel very lightly and will set up a sprinkler inside for a few days.

There is a danger that the wide open seams will close on too much packing cotton and split the planks or crack some frames.

I put a couple coats of varnish on her topsides two days ago and she perked right up!

Next is a double paddle for my good friend Jim Ballou. In the same style as the spooned oars I made last winter. This is the rough shape, which will have to wait until I get back for polish and pretty.

Not the least is the Gloucester Gull Light Dory we're building down at the Boathouse. Rick Johnson, shipwright extraordinaire, will no doubt finish this without me - he's a bit peeved that I get a vacation and he doesn't.

Tomorrow morning DoryMan leaves, and will be back next month.

The initial stop will be the Sucia Rendezvous - three days of camaraderie with other gunkholers, then probably a few days of sailing in company, followed by a couple weeks of solo sailing.

No electronics on this trip. No laptop. No SPOT tracker. In fact, no itinerary.

The San Juan Islands are truly beautiful and the Salish Sea only gets more scenic the further north you go.

Canadian waters are the destination. I'd like to visit friends who live on Savary Island.
Anacortes, Washington is the point of departure.

Hope to see you all when I get back.
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Summer Cruise

2011-07-02T21:52:00.000-07:00

What is the most critical detail for a cruise in the Pacific Northwest?

Shelter.

In the northwestern rain forest you will find (surprise!) a lot of rain. Just because it's mid-summer means nothing. If you are cruising in an open boat, you will get wet.

Doryman is preparing for a month long cruise in the Salish Sea starting next Friday. All of the requisite gear is stacked in the boat-shed with charts and tide tables wrapped in plastic.

Saga is a completely open boat, which will afford little comfort if a Pacific storm sets in. So we've been working on converting an old boat cover into a cockpit tent for those rainy nights at anchor. The cover is made of tan canvas, which we cut in half then sewed in a wedge of sail cloth. The white sail cloth is opaque and lets in a lot of ambient light. The whole thing is supported by a frame of PVC water pipe.

A few more adjustments to the tie-downs and it will fit perfectly.

The St Ayles Project in Portland, Oregon

2011-06-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend!

Mary and I visited the design incubator ADX in Portland, Oregon last Saturday. The Wind and Oar Boat School is building a St. Ayles Skiff there and on Saturday they laid-up the two garboard planks.

We found about half the ten women team suiting up for epoxy work.

The first plank to go on was the first one ever for this team of builders, but you wouldn't know it. By the second plank they were seasoned professionals.

Talk about quick study!

Laura, Liz, Jann and Beca are pretty happy and proud - rightfully so.

The week before our visit, OPB Radio (Oregon Public Broadcasting) interviewed Laura, one of the team members and Kelly, one of the owners of ADX, about this project.
Mary has put together a video of the first garboard plank going on, with a portion of the interview as a sound track. You can get a good sense of the atmosphere and excitement. At one point, there were as many photographers as boatbuilders!

The two men in the video are Travis, who is an instructor and Peter who is the founder of the Wind & Oar Boat School.

St Alyes Skiff at the Wind & Oar Boat Building School from doryman on Vimeo.

I feel a real sense of privilege to be witness to this process. It's very difficult for me to keep my hands off the boat. Hopefully the class doesn't mind my prying and pestering.

They plan to name the boat Rosie. Portland is called the City of Roses and the women feel an affinity for Rosie the Riveter, from war time days when women carried the economy of the country at home and in the factories.

I will be gone on an adventure for most of the month of July (more on this later) and at the rate they are going, the Wind and Oar Boat School might be done with this boat by the time I get back.

Hopefully I'll make it to the launch. And if I do, so will you!

More photos here.

Toledo, Oregon Maritime Youth Project

2011-06-26T13:19:00.000-07:00

Near the Pacific coast, in Toledo, Oregon, activities with youth oriented mariners at the floating boat-shop are in full swing.

Of course when the kids showed up, they all claimed to have extensive experience at boat handling and were expert rowers.

So, after donning our lifejackets, we all loaded into the boats and hit the high seas.

Well, as you might suspect, there were no mariners in this crowd. Though none of them actually knew how to row a boat or paddle a canoe, they caught on fast.

It was a madhouse.

I thought there were twenty kids running amok, but I am told there were only twelve.

Twelve nine to eleven year-olds can seem like two dozen.

Exhausting.

It was a beautiful summer day on the water. When the kids come back next week, we'll see how much they remember. The first rule is to not get Doryman wet.

This parting shot tells all.

Yet another note...

At the Beale Park Boat Show in 'ol England recently, there was a "Cordless Canoe Challenge". Port-na-Storm reports on the races and some of the contraptions are pure genius.
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Stina Sailing from Sappi Islet

2011-06-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

Our good friend Jan Eerala from Makholma Finland has his beautiful sailing skiff out on the water for the summer, in the Bothnian Sea. Some of his deft camera work from last year has been featured here recently and I, for one, find it hard to stay away.

I especially love the sound that accompanies Jan's videos, which are no more than the sounds that surround him. The difficult part of capturing these images with their natural sounds is keeping still enough that your own motions don't interfere.

Stina - 21/5/2011 - is sailing again from Jan Eerala on Vimeo.

Jan offered the history of his fine craft in the comments to this post and I thought I would add them here for everyone to see:

"Between Sweden and Alandia existed for nearly one hundred years a post boat route. Farmers and fishermen had to keep the post going. It lasted from early 1800 to about 1910."

"The boat used was small, but seaworthy klinkerbuildt crafts. Stina is not a replica, but has the same design as these postboats."

"She was designed by Eskil Halldin in 1982. He built it for his own use and I was lucky to have her in 1995. LOA 5.4m, no ballast but a wooden keel of one foot. Drought is about 2.5 feet."

"There must be enough of wind to keep her going, so in lighter weather I'm mostly motoring her. But for a boat without ballast, she's keeping her sail very well and gives in any conditions a good feel of security."

"Stina has some bad planks, so it's possible she will be for some time out of sight. But if all goes as planned, she's sailing this summer intensively."

"Best regards, Jan, Finland"

Thank you, Jan!
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McKenzie River Dory

2011-06-15T22:05:00.000-07:00

The objective here on Yaquina Bay right now is to get in shape to visit Canada next month. The upcoming trip will be in the recently launched faering.

Saga and I don't really know each other yet. So far it's a marriage of convenience. There is the usual cascade of details to work out, each one seeming more important than the last.

Today I agreed to meet Brandon on the water and we would sail our own regatta and take pictures. My mooring is about two miles from the launch ramp he would use, dead into the wind and against a two knot current.

The photo above is the same course but obviously a much calmer day.

No worries! I fired up the black lung 3.5hp four-stroke and was there in just over a half-hour. The wind was blowing 15-20 knots with gusts.

We launched Brandon's boat, Ravn and tied up to the dock to watch a nearby flag flapping hard and horizontal. The wind would let up for a minute and come back stronger than before.

No sailing for us today.

We visited for a long while and I motored back. Against the tide (how does that always seem to happen?), but with the wind this time. You know what that means. A one knot current against a 25 knot wind will give you two foot standing waves.
Add a swell coming in from the ocean. You have to be careful in a double-ender with a following sea. They like to steer themselves. (Have I mentioned how dicey a jibe can be when you should have taken in a reef but decided not to?)

I spotted these fellows a couple times today. It's rare to find a drift boat on the Bay. I don't know why. These guys are crabbing and doing a nice job of it. To haul in a pot, they run the line through an oarlock and heave. They were in a nice protected spot and having better success in this little plywood dory than anyone else, in bigger and more expensive boats.

Can you believe that weather? Don't be deceived. It was only 59 degrees Fahrenheit. That's what we call summer around here.

Wind and Oar Boat Building School

2011-06-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

In Portland, Oregon there is a new wooden boat building school. The Wind and Oar Boat School is not-for-profit and community oriented. At present the school is in the middle of it's first build. The St Ayles Skiff is the boat and it is being constructed by a team of women who have never built a boat before.

I've told you about this group previously. At that time, the school was awaiting approval of it's application for non-profit status.

Now it's official and the Wind and Oar Boat School is on it's way.

Founder, Peter Crim keeps us up to date:

"The molds are all mounted and aligned using the string through the alignment holes method. The stem supports are attached. We are scraping and sanding excess epoxy from the frames we glued last Saturday so they can be mounted back on the molds."

"We built a scarfing jig for the keelson and we have a rough cut done on the first scarf. Students practiced planing yesterday on a piece of plywood.
The goal is to be planking by next Saturday."

"There's talk of a second women's boat and ADX has offered the location for it. We might start that one in August and with a youth boat build in September at OMSI, we could have a fleet by next June."

"A friend of Kelley Roy's [co-owner of ADX] has a partially finished river dory that's been sitting for many years at another community shop space and that she would like finished. Kelley has offered ADX for the project and there are people interested in working on that so we may make a boat shop of it yet."

Photos courtesy of Jann Lane.

In a recent conversation with Garner Pickering I learned that there are currently five St. Ayles Skiffs being built in the US.
Garner is the Marine Products manager at Hewes & Co., the producers of the boat kits for the entire United States.
Four more kits are on order.

Hewes & Co. are located in Blue Hill, Maine and they have arranged for Brandon Davis at Turn Point Design in Port Townsend, Washington to cut kits for interested parties on the west coast. If you'd like to get in on the action contact Garner Pickering, gardner@hewesco.com.

So far all but one of these boats are in Maine. Each of the boats in Maine is built by high school students although one of the kits on order is for an elementary school! Three St Ayles Skiffs are very close to being finished. Mt. Dessert Island High School, George Stevens Academy and Sumner High School are in a dead heat to be the first St. Ayles to be launched in the United States and are supported by WoodenBoat's BARC program.

We will keep abreast of developments concerning the splash of each new St Ayles in the US.

Stay tuned!
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Shop Time

2011-06-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

It's not always glamorous and exciting around here. But it's always rewarding.
Many of my friends are avid fishermen and women. This may not come as a surprise. The beautiful wood boats you see on these pages aren't very interesting to a work-a-day fisherman. The heritage is certainly there but about fifty years ago, fiberglass replaced wood as a favorite boat building material. Most of the time I prefer to pretend that didn't happen.

From time to time someone talks me into repairing their fishing boat made of fiberglass. If I'm lucky they will tip me with a fresh salmon or halibut.

Here in Oregon we developed a particular type of dory for running down river rapids in order to fish for salmon in the pools at the bottom of a stretch of white water. The McKenzie River Dory can be found in fiberglass, aluminum and wood. Each material has it's adherents who swear their boat is better than the other.

So, what you see here is the best river dory made. Of fiberglass.

The problem with fiberglass is it's vulnerability to ultraviolet light. This boat is forty years old and years of harsh weather had destroyed the finish and exposed the fibers imbedded in the resin. I spent the last week sanding down the rough fibers and paint (no fun at all), resealing the fiberglass with epoxy and giving the old girl new paint.
Keeping adequate footing while careening down boiling rapids is not easy, so we finished the inside bottom of the boat with pick-up truck bed liner. I hope it works as well as it looks.

Let's take a moment to make a comparison. This is what I would call a McKenzie River Dory. Isn't she a beauty? Refinishing a boat like this is a joy.

Why?

I'll leave you to decide.

By the way, this wood drift boat is also forty years old, which refutes the claim that fiberglass lasts longer and requires less maintenance.

On the way home on Thursday and Friday I stopped off at the Boathouse to see what was going on. There in the back is a skin on frame kayak. This is a new building process to me (and everyone else) so it's been very educational.

In the foreground is a strong-back for a new mold. Rick and I are building a Gloucester Light Dory. Just to the left of the ladder frame you can see the lofting board and outside the photo are the hull panels laid out on the floor waiting to be cut.

Next week we expect a flood of kids now that school is out. We have a lot more projects planned.

From left to right: Jim Reim, John Kohnen and Andrew Linn.

Charlie is sitting down and not feeling too perky. He is the lucky recipient of a new knee.

The 11th Annual Wooden Boat Festival on the Snake River

Standard Quay on Faversham Creek

2011-06-06T21:21:00.000-07:00

It appears that the shipwrights of Standard Quay will soon be out of work. Many people in Faversham think the old trades are worth saving but progress (if it can be called that) has an opposing view.
From this distance it appears that the recent development on the waterfront in Faversham considers the old Quay an eyesore. The developers see an opportunity to replace the dry docks and workshops with boutiques and restaurants.

I am not an opponent of change, nor do I revere tradition for it's own sake. But to abolish and destroy a way of life in the name of commerce is criminal. We have witnessed this transition the world over. The new bulldozes the old. If humans had always thought this way we would have no history, no culture. And if this sort of thinking continues our history and our culture will be soon buried in the dust.

I've said it before - surely the developers could have made an effort to find a way to rejuvenate the old Quay, keep it's history intact and still line their pockets!

There is still time to voice your opinion but time is running out for Standard Quay.

The Quay (work in progress) from Richard Fleury on Vimeo.

The end is approaching rapidly for many of those who have built their working lives around Standard Quay. Meanwhile Swale Borough Council is seeking public opinions on its latest consultant’s report which recommends:
1. Allowing developers to turn quay buildings currently occupied by maritime industries to be turned into shops, restaurants and potentially housing.
2. Downgrading flood designation to make Creekside land more attractive to developers.
3. Ruling out the use of a Compulsory Purchase Order to put quayside land into community or trust ownership.
4. Writing off any chance of reopening the creek sluice gates and making the Creek Basin accessible for large vessels.

If you disagree with these proposals, please write to Swale Borough Council and express your views BEFORE THE 24 JUNE DEADLINE (Coincidentally, this is also the day many of the quay’s maritime businesses leave the site).

Photos courtesy of Giacomo de Stefano
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The St Ayles Project comes to Portland

2011-06-01T21:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a homework assignment for you. If you haven't been following the progress of the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project you have a lot to catch up on.

The concept of building the St Ayles skiff as a community effort is best described as an epidemic. If you have the time, please follow the links here and here to see what I mean.

The Scottish Coastal Rowing Project was adopted last year by WoodenBoat magazine with a new west Atlantic project called BARC or "Boat Building and Rowing Challenge".

Now - if you haven't drowned in internet links - behold, the newest St Ayles skiff - built in Portland Oregon!

One third of the globe away from it's birth, this project has incubated into an enthusiastic community project.

Peter Crim is the spark plug for this effort and it was my pleasure last winter to host him and some friends at our local Boathouse Youth Maritime Project to talk about the St. Ayles skiff and community boat building.

Mary and I visited the St. Ayles Project in Portland last weekend and we were mightily impressed. This project is unique in that it is the first St Ayles built entirely by women. The crew, recruited by Jann Lane is possibly the most enthusiastic group of boatbuilders I have ever encountered.

The pre-cut kits come from Hewes and Company in the US, on contract through Alec Jordan in the UK.
I've never built a boat from a kit cut on a CNC machine but the advantages are obvious. Every piece necessary to build this boat comes precision pre-cut, including wooden clamps, framing molds and plank scarf joints.

The teachers of this build are volunteers trained at the WoodenBoat School. If you want to learn to build a boat, how much better can it get?

I asked Peter how he got to this point and it was an interesting story:

"The idea for a school has developed over a six-year period. It started with a concept for a gap year school where students would live aboard a large sailing vessel for about nine months and they would learn everything from diesel maintenance to marlinspike seamanship, including biology, ecology, literature, ship repair and building a small gig. I did a lot of research on other similar programs but somehow it just didn't seem right at the time and it was probably fortunate that I didn't go there, given subsequent economic developments."

"My long-term goal was to go to the WoodenBoat School in Maine. In June of 2010, I called WB on a Thursday and by Saturday I was on a plane east. The first class was a two week course in small boat repair where we did major fixes on a Beetle Cat, a Herreshoff 12.5 and a Joel White Haven 12.5. I then took one week off and hung around various other classes. It happened to be a week in which Iain Oughtred was in residence so I spent a bit of time with him - a truly amazing and unique person."

"The next class was a design class taught by Graham Byrnes, who had just been awarded a prize for best design in WoodenBoat Magazine's design contest. It was in this class that I met Travis. He told me that he and his girlfriend were moving to Portland." [Travis is a volunteer teacher on this project. ed.]

"By the time I was done, I had become a friend with most of Brooklin, ME and the people at WoodenBoat. The atmosphere they create is transformational and watching week after week of students metamorphose from anxious city folk into a community of like minded maritime aficionados was inspiring."

It is obvious that Peter is interested in re-creating this transformational experience in his hometown. He has partnered with a new design studio, termed ADX, for space to build the St Ayles and the women are hard at work.

Doryman will be anxiously following this project and keep you posted.

I can't express how excited I am about this process and it's intrinsic impact. Anyone who has taught a group of former neophytes to realize their potential as boat builders will understand the satisfaction of witnessing the transformation. Imagine the impact of such community building on a global scale!?

The design space ADX Portland deserves mention. This is a private enterprise that promotes creative individual exploration.

New kids on the block, they have set up shop area for metal shop activities, a wood shop and a digital media station. The focus is on creative construction and teaching with an emphasis on design creativity, coupled with production.
Imagine a shop class for geeks.
There is no hype here. I felt perfectly at ease while visiting ADX. No one tried to sell me anything, yet I bought the whole truck load.

People in the Portland, Oregon area owe it to themselves to visit the old warehouse at 417 SE 11th Avenue.

Please tell them Doryman sent you.

St Ayles Skiff in Portland, Oregon from doryman on Vimeo.

If you are interested in how well these skiffs perform in heavy weather, visit the Scottish Coastal Rowing site for photos of last weekend's Regatta at Anstruther. Racing in force 4-5 winds!
Those skiffs are truly amazing ocean boats.
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Sailing the Valgerda

2011-05-30T21:28:00.000-07:00

Been anticipating this for a long time, it seems. A little over a year.

The Valgerda, Saga, restored to more than her former self proudly spreads her wings. (Follow the previous link to see the development of this project and more.)

There is a good bit of serendipity in the recreation of this design by William Atkin. A former owner added an extension to the design keel and Doryman redesigned the sail rig, so successful engineering was potentially compromised by too many cooks in the broth.

But I'm happy to report that Saga sails all points with grace. The balanced lug is new for me, so I'm still struggling with it's vagaries. Each tack has it's unique quirks. The boat has a sensitive and responsive helm, even in light airs and points much higher to windward than I expected, a fact I attribute to my friend Lynne Fabricant and her exceptional sail-making skills. The helm is in perfect balance on 8-12 knot breeze. What more could a Doryman ask?

My good friend John Kohnen, who sold me this fine old boat, is appalled at the keel extension and even calls it an "abomination". Sorry John, the keel stays as it is. Couldn't be happier.

Why mess with perfection?

There are still some details to adjust but that is half the fun. The Norse faering, Saga, promises to feature in many future adventures here on DoryMan.

Saga under Sail from doryman on Vimeo.

Photos on Flickr.
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The Man on the River and the Riqueval Tunnel

2011-05-29T20:03:00.000-07:00

The Riqueval Tunnel (5670 meters) is located near the town of Bellicourt, passing under the villages of Bony and Bellicourt.
Built on the Canal Saint-Quentin between 1801 and 1810 by order of Napoleon it is, along with the tunnel at Mauvages on the Canal de la Marne au Rhin, the only place where the system of towing barges with a chain still exists.

The length of the underground Riqueval does not allow enough air exchange to evacuate exhaust from combustion engines on transport barges. They are required to be towed by a towboat that pulls a string of barges and/or other boats with a winch and chain.

Rougaillou, the first towboat in the Riqueval used horses arranged in a carousel on its deck to drive a winch and the succeeding towboat was propelled by steam.
From 1906, the problem of smoke in the vault has been solved with an electric towboat. Its hourly average speed is 2.5 mph, so the trip takes just over two hours. The towboat hauls on a chain 8km long, which lies at the bottom of the channel.

Fortunately for the Man on the River, the towing at Riqueval is still in service. Traffic on the Canal Saint-Quentin has declined from 100 boats per day to ten, due to the opening of the Canal du Nord. The Waterways of France have considered installing mechanical ventilation that would allow boats to use their engines in the tunnel.

We must ask Giacomo and Friends if they would prefer to row the 5670 meters in darkness amid the rumble of cargo barges, or be towed silently by an electric towboat.

What an adventure on a man-made underground river in France!
Be sure to follow the links above for a more comprehensive story.

Tunnels aren’t the only obstacles on the Canal Saint-Quentin. The main mast on Clodia must be struck often to clear overhead bridges. Fortunately for the Man on the River, this is a simple task.

Ciao, Bruno and Giacomo!

Portland Wooden Boat Festival

2011-05-22T20:33:00.000-07:00

Be sure to put the Portland, Oregon Wooden Boat Festival on your calendar for July.

The Willamette Sailing Club is joined by the Oregon Maritime Museum and Rivers West Small Craft Center in sponsoring a waterfront boat show, July 10th and family boat building July 8th, 9th and 10th.

The family boat building will be held July 8,9-10 at the Willamette Sailing Club, in conjunction with the WSC, the Oregon Maritime Museum, and the Antique Classic Boat Society.

Pictures from last years boat building event can be seen on the Rivers West Small Craft Center's photo gallery page.

Families can apply on the WSC website for the opportunity to build one of ten 12 foot Salt Bay Skiffs. If you are interested in participating, working as a volunteer or have other questions, please contact Chuck Stuckey poolstuckey(at)aol.com.

Oregon Maritime Museum and RiversWest Family Boat Build from Chris Runge on Vimeo.

Activities also include classic wooden power and sailboats on display, waterfront history provided by Oregon Maritime Museum, music and food!

Blue and White

2011-05-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

In the Gulf of Bothnia between Sweden and Finland, summer comes suddenly with an overnight transformation. Ice which has formed over the last winter breaks up with vibrant violence and suddenly it is sailing season.

Last ice on a calm and sunny day outside Sappi Island near the coast of the Bothnian Sea - May 5th, 2011 - An exploratory excursion by Jan Eerala, Makholma Finland.

Blue and white - 8/5/2011 - Bothnian Sea from Jan Eerala on Vimeo.

Heikki, a man of about 70 living alone in the old house near the lighthouse, tells how the sound from the big ice formations were heard from the lighthouse a mile away when they crashed.

And by May 15th, the ice is gone.

Ice gone - 15/5/2011 - Sapin Ulkolasku from Jan Eerala on Vimeo.

This is the Voyage Ethereal.

Once again we thank Jan for his poetic sensibilities.
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From England to France in a Ness Yawl

2011-05-15T11:25:00.000-07:00

A nice day for crossing the Channel in a small boat. Giacomo and Bruno in Clodia.

My good friend, Max, comments at the end of this post that the video doesn't capture the level of commercial traffic on this body of water. This is exactly the contrast that Giacomo and Bruno have set out to demonstrate. The speed and power of modern maritime commerce actually creates a hazardous environment for smaller boats, besides being one of the major polluters of our water planet.

It will appear absurd to many to suggest that we could provide the world's needs using a less invasive technology. But Giacomo and Bruno have just shown that what most people think is not necessarily so. Yes, perhaps it is absurd to imagine the English Channel littered with thousands of tiny boats the size of Clodia, bringing goods to market. This example is all the more powerful because of that symbolism.

The technology propounded here could be expanded to accommodate a grander scale. At the same time, a new paradigm involving reduced needless consumption would mitigate the megalithic need for monster container ships and tankers.

Bruno and Giacomo will spend the next few months demonstrating how a web of physically interactive humanity can supplant the market driven economy with an economy based on respect, responsibility and caring. A world where we all win, rather than a race for winner takes all.

Perhaps then, the poisonous red petrochemical haze we see on the horizon in the video above will disappear forever.

Toledo Maritime Youth Project

2011-05-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

Near the Pacific coast in Toledo, Oregon, support for the new youth oriented activities at the floating boat-shop grows. You will remember that a beautiful fixed keel boat made entirely of teak was donated to this project a year ago. That boat is a Teak Lady built in Hong Kong in 1958. You might have read about MaZu here.

As fate might have it, one of Mazu's older sisters has now found a home alongside her.

Teak Lady #11, Che Hon, was built at the Ah King Slipways, Hong Kong in 1939.

Bob and Claire McDonald acquired this boat in 1964 while living in San Francisco, California, their native city. Bob had seen the original Teak Lady at the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939, held at San Francisco’s Treasure Island and when he saw Che Hon, he knew immediately that he must own that boat.

Bob and Claire have been married for 63 years and have been active in the outdoors all their lives. Bob was a Sea Scout as a teenager until his active service in the Navy during WWII. He was trained as a naval architect, but after the war was unable to get a job in the maritime industry, so went to work as an engineer for the Bell Telephone Company. There he met Claire (who was a drafter) and found they shared a passion for hiking, mountain climbing and sailing. They joined the emerging California Sierra Club, known today as the Sierra Club. As members of the CSC, they have visited countries all over the world to climb with other enthusiasts.

They retired from Bell Telephone when the company was divested in the mid-1980’s, since they had accumulated over 30 years of service and were eligible for early retirement. Soon after, they moved to Spokane, Washington and have lived there for the last 20 years. Claire and Bob believe that nurturing young people is the key to a vibrant, healthy society. They are supporters of Whitworth University in Spokane and have actively supported the rowing club for Gonzaga University, also in Spokane.

This hearty couple own a tandem rowing shell and often join the rowing club at dawn on the Spokane River for sculling practice.

Che Hon was transported to Pend Oreille Lake in northern Idaho where the McDonalds sailed her after they moved to Spokane. In recent years, she was moved to covered storage on a boat trailer. She dried out below the waterline and her seams opened up. With the boat needing repair and restoration work, Bob and Claire decided perhaps their days of maintaining a wood boat were over. They were excited to find news that the Port of Toledo had acquired a sister Teak Lady and were convinced they had found a worthy home for the boat they had loved for 47 years.

Bob wrote to Doryman saying that if the kids would undertake restoration he would donate her to the Port of Toledo Youth Boathouse Program. Along with the Teak Lady, the McDonalds have generously donated a treasure of nautical equipment to the Port’s program. It is their hope that by doing so, young people will share the experiences that have enriched their own lives.

Thank you, Claire and Bob McDonald!