St Ayles Skiff, Doineann

Shortly after this blog began, almost a decade ago, I became enamored of Iain Oughtred's Ness Yawl . The Ness Yawl has taken Doryman readers through many voyages. (If you took the time to follow that link, welcome back!)
In the intervening years, Iain, who was then an internet no-show, has become possibly the most popular small boat designer in the world. And once again I find myself drooling over a new design from the Master, his beautiful sharpie, Haiku.
She's exquisite, but that's a subject for another day.

While I was writing extensively about the Ness Yawl, Iain designed the St Ayles Skiff. The Scottish Coastal Rowing Association was formed on 29 May 2010, to encourage boat building and rowing and racing of coastal rowing boats along the Scottish Coastline. Communities were encouraged to become involved in the building of new boats to be rowed, principally the St Ayles skiff.

Doryman was quick to promote this extraordinary design and though hundreds of these boats have been built globally, only two St Ayles Skiffs exist on the west coast of the US, Doryman's cruising grounds. Both were built in Portland, Oregon at the Wind and Oar Boat School .

The first boat off the molds at WOBS (Rosie) lives in Portland, rowed regularly by the team of women who built her. The second St Ayles Skiff to come out of that shop was Doineann (Irish for tempest or storm), built for her proud owner, Julius Dalzell. The following update from Julius is the answer to my suggestion that the St Ayles Skiff might make a great sail-and-oar boat, if only she had a sail rig.

"Hi Michael,

It has been sometime since our last communication. As you may recall, Doineann was the second St. Ayles skiff built by the Wind and Oar and Oar School. My wife and I decided upon retirement, in July 2014, to move to a favorable locale, in Cathlamet, Washington for a variety of reasons, not the least being the beauty and boating opportunities of the Lower Columbia River. A significant aspect of our new abode was the availability of a large shop. Today it is a home and restoration facility for small craft.

Of course Doineann is one of the permanent residents. And yes, we did proceed to design and make a sail-rig for Doineann.

Before proceeding with the story, you might be impressed to know that we have a regular crew rowing Doineann, most having little prior rowing experience. We find that performance is outstanding regardless of wind or chop. She slices through anything with little fuss. Totally enjoyable.

We started with an e-mail exchange with Iain Oughtred himself. Iain warned that the craft was designed for rowing, not sailing, and would be tender, so recommended a small lug sail, maybe something around 90 sq. ft.. Iain stated that the existing keel might be sufficient to support lateral stability with minor leeway. He wasn’t sure how she would tack because of her wide turning radius.

We decided to go low budget. After considering many sail designs, our choice was an 85 sq. ft. balanced lug.

The mast was a used item acquired from a builder. Quite the specimen, ugly but it works. A sail was ordered from Lee Sails. I insisted that the sail be mounted without use of fittings or attachments. No screws, nails, brackets or drilled holes. In other words, no intrusions that would impact the original design.

The mast partner we devised uses the kabe support at the forward rowing station, using the kabes and pins incorporated into each rowing station at the gunnel. The mast step slips into the floor boards below. So, on a fine August day, we took to the river for the first sail. In a fresh, accommodating wind, her response was beyond expectations. She went like mad with five adults aboard. The existing steering rudder, though designed for rowing, performed well.The boat was not tender, in fact quite stable regardless of wind on any quarter. We had a ball!

Tacking was a challenge. Because of the long keel, she took her time. Speed would drop off and we would be in irons, propelled in reverse. Throwing the rudder over steered her in reverse through the tack. The sail would again fill and we were off. Too much rudder did nothing but enhance the stall, acting as a brake. The answer to a successful tack was two fold - lots of speed going into the tack, and finessing the rudder. A slow tack became doable.

The materials I used for gaff and boom are too light. Currently another gaff and boom are under construction. Three strips of tight grain fir to be epoxied and shaped.

So, Michael, that is the Doineann story to date. My expectations for the craft are progressing!"

Thank you Julius for that update. It's obvious you love your boat and it's easy to see why.
Of course the St Ayles Skiff is a one-design racing machine, so Julius was careful to keep the design legal for racing. He looks forward to the day when more St Ayles are built and racing here in the US. (me too!)

Meanwhile, the Haiku is calling me. Isn't she a beauty?

Wood Cleats

So, I was talking with my friend Chuck the other day... You know Chuck, he built a Chebacco, which I have had the pleasure of cruising on, in the San Juan Islands. He also built a Ness Yawl.

But now both of those boats have been replaced by two deep draft, fixed keel cutters. Chuck loves cutters.

We'll get into the details about his cutters another day. I'm scheduled to crew for Chuck on a 400 mile open ocean trip, north from Newport, Oregon to the Salish Sea, in July. Unless we get side-tracked to Hawaii or something.

Suffice to say, each of these boats is traditionally built and could, by all appearances, be among the relics of the nineteenth century. Chuck is also a keeper of history.

Because I'm known to have a stash of old, hard to find hardware, and because I'm selling the stuff off, Chuck called me and asked if I have a matched set of Herreshoff cleats. As a life-long scavenger / recycler of old boats and boat parts, I can tell you, this is a difficult request. To top it off, he wants them in polished bronze.

Now we're talking about pure gold.

I know he has his heart set, so I didn't mention the wood cleats I've been making recently. But to me, these varnished, handmade hardwood accessories are more salty than a casting.

The one I really like is a tiny thumb cleat I was asked to make as a duplicate of an old original, the belay cleat for a sprit sail. It's made of a hardwood called Appeton, which has a lot of natural oil and is strong and durable. It's just two inches long and appropriately sized for 1/4" to 3/8" line.

Try it yourself - it's very therapeutic.

Ness Yawl, Otter

By now it must be apparent that Doryman loves a double-ended sea boat. Then, it comes as no surprise that at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival last month, a particular boat stood out. Now, to claim you have a favorite boat at such an event is very hard to say. Impossible, in fact.

So, let's just say that Dan and Mette's Ness Yawl Otter was one of the finalists on Doryman's list. Iain Oughtred designed this fine sea boat on the lines of the Shetland Yoals. In days of yore, these boats were imported to the Shetland Islands from Norway, and then assembled by local builders. They were of lapstrake construction dating to the Vikings.

In the years since the development of the Ness Yawl, many similar boats have been built to it's capable sea qualities, including several new designs by Iain himself.

The popularity of the open double-ender was apparent at the PT Festival, with several examples tied along the same dock, all rigged for open water sail-and-oar gunkholing.

Otter was moored at the end of the dock, amid a jumble of small boats and the activity of a cul-de-sac, but Doryman has a discerning eye for a well crafted boat.

Dan confessed he was not a professional boat builder though he's a fine woodworker, there is no doubt.
His new Ness Yawl is beautiful.

Congratulations Dan and Mette! A fine vessel. May she provide you with many pleasant hours on the water.

The proud builder. He looks mighty pleased, and well he should.

Doesn't get better than this.

If you would like to see what a Ness Yawl can do, please visit the Man on the River, for Giacomo de Stefano's fabulous trip across Europe in Clodia.

For a very good example of how a Viking might build a boat like this, visit Adrian Morgan.

Man on the River, Voyaging with the Ness Yawl Clodia

Speaking of travelers, Giacomo De Stefano has resumed his journey from North Sea to Black Sea.
As winter set in on the Danube last year, Giacomo was obliged to put his Ness Yawl, Clodia up in storage in Budapest, Hungary.
Giacomo is committed to life as a nomad, drawing together people of like mind to create a new paradigm - life more in harmony with our water planet. This is not just an eco-vacation. Giacomo delves deep into the culture of the river communities he visits.

I doubt that Giacomo realized how much of his life would be consumed by this venture. Three years ago he attempted to launch from London only to be stymied by pneumonia, the silent thief.

Last year he fared better, rowing and sailing along the canals of Europe, making his way uphill through lock after lock on the Rhine. Along the way, he has met and introduced us to many people and multiple cultures. You could spend a lifetime making a journey such as this!







But the goal is Istanbul and Giacomo, with renewed energy, is on the downhill leg. We'll follow him as he makes his way downriver on the Danube over the next few months because we are part of the community that is the Man on the River.



Fair winds, Giacomo!

This voyage can also be followed on Facebook.

North Sea to Black Sea

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!

From England to France in a Ness Yawl

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.

Man on the River

My compatriot and citizen of the world, Giacomo de Stefano has announced that he will resume the journey he was forced to abandon last year due to ill health.

For those who don't yet know Giacomo, he is the person who rowed and sailed the Po river in Italy as a demonstration of how travel and commerce could be accomplished with minimal impact. Along the way he discovered that cultural exchange was part of the process. He met and shared his passion for protecting the river from the ravages of industry with so many like-minded people that the journey became a cultural event.

I met Giacomo here on DoryMan. His boat for the Po river trip was a Ness Yawl, designed by Iain Oughtred and I was fascinated by the versatility of that seaworthy vessel inspired by the ancient designs from Norway. Giacomo's use of such a design is not far removed from the original. The simple, beautiful and ultimately utilitarian lapstrake double-enders were the sole transportation from one community to another for centuries and Giacomo was determined to show that they could be useful once more, not just an attractive anachronism.



So, I joined the effort to promote Giacomo's new adventure - the ambitious navigation of Europe by rivers and canals that he initially called North Sea to Black Sea. As the project grew, he found sponsors and volunteers to build another Ness Yawl (his first one was borrowed from his friend Roland). Many people in Italy became enamored of the project and as it grew, it became Man on the River, a journey from London to Istanbul by fair means.














But as Giacomo and his friend Jacopo left London and headed down the Thames he began to feel weak and listless. As fate would have it, pneumonia gripped Giacomo in a life struggle and the journey was canceled.





Back in Venice, Giacomo has spent the last year recovering from his illness, but his dream never died. His Ness Yawl, Clodia, moored patiently in Ramsgate, waits for his return.


Once again, like a phoenix, the Man on the River cultural project is underway. I am concerned that Giacomo is not yet well enough to tackle a six month journey of such proportion but he is the judge of that. I do know that he needs our support. The Man on the River is not about just one man, but about the future for all of us. Can we find the courage to live in harmony with our environment and with each other?


















That is the simple, yet intricate message of this endeavor. To build a global community around a paradigm of a world much more loving and supportive than the one we live in today.

You may say this is utopian, but I say it's possible if we want it bad enough.

I invite you to join us as we travel with the Man on the River.
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Bach’s Suite for Cello

From the North Sea to the Black Sea, across Europe in a human powered boat. For the last year Giacomo de Stefano has been planning this trip to highlight his concern for the degradation of water. It's not the first time he has made such a statement.

He has told me several times that the message is so important that it will have a life of it's own and a community of concerned citizens will grow from the effort.

And so it seems.

Two nights ago, an event was held at the art house, Antiruggine in Castelfranco, Veneto, where a four hundred year old cello played by Mario Brunello created some incredible music from inside the Ness Yawl, Clodia.



Is it art, or politics? Yes, and yes. Has it caused you to ponder the destiny of this water planet? Certainly hope so...

If all goes well, the Ness Yawl Clodia is scheduled to leave London on the fifteenth of April on it's six month journey to Istanbul.

Will you be on-board?







The Clodia and Giacomo de Stefano will participate in the International Boat Show of Venice from the 18th to the 21st of March.

For more information visit Man on the River.

Yawlboat Tillers

There has been some talk lately, here at DoryMan, about steering systems for yawls. That pesky mizzen mast creates some problems for tiller design and there are many effective solutions.


We'll take as examples a handful of double ended yawl boats profiled here in the last year.
The subject came up as a reference to the Ness Yawl currently being built in Italy for a journey across Europe. Shipwright Roland Poltock is building the boat Giacomo de Stefano will use on this trip and although we have not yet seen the tiller arrangement, we'll assume for the sake of this discussion that it is similar to the tiller Roland designed for the Ness Yawl Giacomo used for his last trip, on the river Po.
Simple and graceful.







On Selkie, Chuck Gottfried used an articulating tiller extension on a tiller that fastens to the rudder perpendicular to the centerline of the boat. Chuck would say "why make it harder than it needs to be?"
















Another traditional solution to the conflict of tiller and mizzenmast is a yoke on the mizzenmast. Kees Prins developed a pivoting tie rod arrangement for Laingdon Schmitt's Sparrow. The pivot on the mizzen became a bronze mast partner.








Less simple but oh, so elegant.





















Bernie Arnell's Avocet uses a bow shaped yoke made of wood. The boat is steered with a symmetrical yoke on the head of the rudder post, from which runs a loop of line that circumscribes the boat. The line is tied to the ends of the rudder yoke, runs along the gunwale and loops around a pulley forward of the main mast.



This allows him to adjust the rudder directly at the yoke, or using the line, from any location in the boat - which is useful when single-handing.























Bernie just sent in photos of details for his Avocet and was spurred by the news about Giacomo's build. We've waited all winter for news of Bernie's finish work. One clever detail is his adjustable oarlock base.


A lot of love went into building all of these boats and the marriage of form and function is the proof.

London to Istanbul

Building the Ness Yawl


Boat turning. A reason to celebrate. Raise a toast to Man on the River!
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Tools of the Trade

Giacomo puts up more every day on his Man on the River site. Today I was looking at his Flicker uploads and there are some very good shots of the building process for the Ness Yawl being built in Italy and close-ups of the tools Roland is using.
The wooden clamps are a detail that Iain Oughtred worked out and included in the plans for this boat. A very simple and clever method for holding the planks while the glue dries.


















If you haven't already - be sure to see the previous post below...