Brancaleon

Our friend Giacomo De Stefano, most recently known as the Man on the River is preparing to continue his journey to the Black Sea, on the Danube River, after a seasonal hiatus. It's a good thing he took a break, I hear the weather was most severe on the Danube this winter.
He has plans for a new project already in the works, of which we will hear more, anon.








In the meantime, he is selling his home on the water, the fine old ketch, Brancaleon. This classic Alan Buchanan design, built in 1965, has been lovingly maintained and has a royal pedigree. She currently lies in the Mediterranean on a secure transferable mooring in Mallorca. Does it get better than that?!









She has recently undergone a thorough professional haul-out. Someone (it might be you...) is going to get a beautiful classic for a very reasonable price.








Interested parties should contact Giacomo:

Giacomo De Stefano
gi.des@me.com
www.manontheriver.com
























Some specifications and particulars:

Length overall: 43'
Length waterline: 38'
Beam: 12'
Draught: 6'

Iroko below the WL
Honduras Mahogany above the WL
Slavonian Oak frames
Teak deck 1" 2 (32 mm)

Motor: BMC Commodore 3400 cc, 56HP, Hydraulic gearbox Borg Velvet, 1964 (original engine and perfectly running) Approx. 2000 hours. Cruise speed 6 kt at 900 rpm.

Lying Mallorca, Puerto Pollenca, Spain, available with free buoy in a very protected and wonderful bay, surrounded by mountains and all facilities for yacht care (a very rare thing in the Med, with a local mariner who lives aboard 50 yards away and who can take care of her).

More photos can be found here.

A video of Brancaleon underway, made by Mario Di Filippo on a passage from Kos, Greece to Siracuse in Sicily.
Skipper; the esteemed Stefano Cordova, AKA Stefano Leon Rodrigues.

The Pirate's Apprentice from Mario Di Filippo on Vimeo.

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.

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.
.

The Ness Yawl on the Po River

Doryman received a note from a compatriot in Italy recently about his voyage up the Po river, the longest river in Italy. This two month trip in an Iain Oughtred Ness Yawl is documented by Giacomo on his blog and it's a great story!

This is his note and a link to his site, well worth the visit:

"Congratulations for your blog and your work.
My name is Giacomo De Stefano and I rowed and sail for more than 1000 km the Po river, the Italian longest.
You can see more on my blog unaltropo.com


Thank you for the kind words, Giacomo! We admire your work, too!


Post Script: Giacomo has a new project for next year. This man's heart is in the right place!---
"North Sea to Black Sea (by fair means)":

"We undertake the voyage without the pretense of trying to teach anything, but with the objective of shining a light on that which we’ve forgotten. “The river” is a metaphor for life, and the voyage is a way of clearing the useless superstructure
that weighs us down; that is, the false security of material possessions. We want
to experience, and to show others, the wonderful feeling of freedom that can be felt from being transported by the current and by using the strength of one’s own arms and the wind to move in harmony with nature."

“A journey can be a key to finding our real nature and leaving behind the heaviness
of unneeded things, of enjoying how we can give and receive,” says Giacomo. “True happiness doesn’t come from having things, but from having the knowledge of how to attract good things to us. Prosperity is really a way of living and thinking."

Giacomo's convictions:
"With the help of Roland Poltock as master shipwright, along with and some boys and girls from the local community for the disabled and school students, we will use only using only recycled wood. Electric power will be supplied by a local wind farm."

Giacomo has taken the challenge to transform the culture of consumerism and to cultivate the human spirit. A grand and worthy aspiration.
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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.

Man on the River

The latest video from Giacomo de Stefano shows tremendous progress on the Ness Yawl being built for his upcoming trip through Europe. After many months of working toward this goal, it must be thrilling to finally see the project pulling together.
Roland, Silvio and friends are working hard!

You can watch the build live via web cam. The Lago lobby where the boat is being built is in Italy, so those (like me) who live on the other side of the world have to get up very early to see any action. This is a unique opportunity to see a quality boat built by professionals live, simultaneously, over the entire planet.



Thank you Giacomo and team!



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

...more about Iain Oughtred's Ness Yawl and open boat cruising.

North Sea to Black Sea is Giacomo's new challenge. He will row and sail from London to Istanbul by going up the Rhine and down the Danube with the aim of making people aware of these rivers that are dying, and to show the possibility of living in a way that is both light and slow.
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North Sea to Black Sea

Design Conversations with Nicola Zago

"At Lago in the last few days strange things are happening.
We have always designed and built furniture. Some furniture is often very detailed, but we never expected to start building boats."

"On Monday a carpenter's bench and tools appeared in our reception area where the shipwright Roland Poltock and his loyal friend Silvio began to shape a boat of 5 meters." (A Ness Yawl from the pen of Iain Oughtred. DM)



"Of course as you know, our reception area has now become the famous "Art Waiting Room" where we host live installations and performances, but until now we have never seen anything like this."

"Everything stems from a journey that Giacomo de Stefano plans to take in the coming months from London to Istanbul first rowing the Thames, crossing the Channel, then navigating the Rhine and Danube rivers to the Black Sea using only sails, oars, the energy of the sun and the aid of people met during a trip of 5-6 months. A true journey of zero impact. The journey involves no competition or sports, but hopes to build a dialogue with the land and the people about sustainability, respect of water and the real needs of Man at a time when these things have been forgotten."


"Giacomo is no stranger to these journeys. In 2008, in the same way and with the same tenacity he went up the Po, from Venice to Turin, discovering the hidden aspects of a river, perhaps overlooked but still with much to say. His whole journey is the site: unaltropo.com"

"As you can see from the pictures the boat is already on site. We will also have a site dedicated to streaming live video and when the time comes we will follow this journey of over 5200 km."

Nicola Zago

Translation from Italian by Doryman.

The Ness Yawl being built for North Sea to Black Sea is the same design Giacomo employed for his trip on the river Po and this boat is being built by his friend Roland Poltock, who also built his first Ness Yawl.

Be sure to check out the live stream video of the lobby at Lago. Maybe you can catch the boat building in progress!

Those who might want to join Giacomo, for encouragement or just to row a little can leave a comment below or contact him at unaltropo.com.

Here is a map of the proposed route:


Visualizza Man on The River, by fair means in una mappa di dimensioni maggiori

Volta Mallorca

A brief interruption in our story to catch up on some important news.....

While your friend Doryman has been out of touch with the technical world, great events are happening. No, you will not be hearing about some pointless election or an even more pointless war - we have more poignant things to think about.


You remember our good friend and environmental campaigner Giacomo de Stefano? He, of the voyage by sail and oar from London to Istanbul? Well, after a winter of skiing (no, he was not on vacation, Giacomo is no tourist) he has teamed up with none other than our friend David Oliver, the  owner of the New Catalina, a llaüt, in Mallorca. The llaüt is a beautiful traditional sailing vessel once used in the fishing industry, now all but extinct, due to to the proliferation of industrial fishing and a popular boating culture focused more on how much money can be spent than on true interaction with nature.

Well, you all know my prejudices about the abuse of nature. And, if you don't already know, Giacomo and David share my views. They are currently on a voyage circumnavigating the beautiful, but exploited, island of Mallorca. As you might imagine, their vessel is David's gorgeous, motor-less llaüt.

No need for me to go to length, explaining this project any further. Please visit Giacomo and David on their voyage around Mallorca and their effort to promote more with less.

This is no anachronism, or gimmick. The intention is to demonstrate a future in concert with nature, using the best technology humans have ever conceived.

Many thanks to project photographer, Dragan Miletic for bringing this effort to my attention. The following photos are courtesy of Dragan and the Volta Mallorca project. The photo at the top of this post is courtesy of David Oliver.

Be Water My Friends!

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!

Giacomo is in Istanbul!

Our good friend and fellow voyager, Giacomo de Stefano has arrived in Istanbul. After three years of planning, setbacks from sickness, waiting and effort, the journey is complete.

I doubt the man can believe it himself. I'm sure when he conceived this trip, he had no idea how much an epic it would become. 5400 kilometers across Europe by sail and oar, building community all along the way.

We applaud the Man on the River. Congratulations Giacomo, you have made us all stronger.

You can read all about this fabulous journey on Man on the River - London to Istanbul .

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.

Rowing in Venice

Our friend Giacomo de Stefano sent me a video link today of a mid-winter row in Venice and on the Lagoon, to Sant'Erasmo Island and back.




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






Note the rowing style. The oar never leaves the water and the feathering is very subtle. Stefano's wrists hardly seem to move. The oarlock is called a forcola and has a long history going back to the 1300's. The craftsman's guild (called remèri) who made forcole then are still making oars and forcola today. I highly recommend following the link above to learn more about these lovely, functional works of art.










Thank you once again, Giacomo. You inspire us.