Winter at the Boathouse

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.....

New Working Boathouse in Toledo

Toledo, Oregon is the home port for Doryman's Mistral and an epicenter of wooden boat activity every August. This little coastal mill town has a lot of civic pride and many community efforts are driven by cadres of volunteers.









Such is the nascent community boat building project recently launched by the Port of Toledo. Not long ago, within living memory, Toledo had a thriving waterfront business community. Not so today. With the decline of the fishing and timber industries, small towns up and down the Oregon coast find themselves reinventing their business model, often spawning efforts that mirror entrepreneurial exploits of the past.





The new boat house will be a working commercial shop under lease to local shipwright, Rick Johnson. It will also be the epicenter of a community outreach program involving boat building and maritime arts, currently spearheaded by Andrew Linn. Here's one of Andrew's charges coming back from exploring the neighboring slough...



...Volunteers are the catalyst.

Below; Andrew Linn is giving Josh some boating tips and local Port of Toledo management is in the background assessing progress.







In the interior shot we see a group of volunteers (some Coots stopped by) installing wiring to the finished building. (yes, the temporary lighting is a string of Christmas lights!)
That's Rick in the foreground.







Tools are beginning to show up, donated by local well wishers. A number of boats have been donated to the project already, some of them needing restoration or repair.
Tomorrow, Doryman will be visiting the storage sheds to survey and make assessments of potential restorations.




We hope to get local parents and their children involved in the coming months so we will get a chance to build some new boats and teach some old fashioned maritime skills that have all but disappeared from this old waterfront town.

Toledo Maritime Youth Project

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!

Toledo Wooden Boat Show 2017

Family Boat Build, Solar Eclipse, Garibaldi Coast Guard.

What do these all have in common? Please stay tuned...

During the Toledo Wooden Boat Show this year, the popular Family Boat Build featured the Tango Stand-Up-Paddleboard.

We built three SUPs in four days, a new design for everyone involved. Anyone familiar with building wood airplanes would recognize the method - the boards even resemble a wing.

The builders ranged from a local shipwright and his niece, to a group of Job Corps teens, to the new Toledo City Manager, who confessed he had very little wood-working experience.

That's the challenge that makes this weekend project so much fun. Everyone walks away with a unique creation they can use with pride.

Definitely one of the highlights of Doryman's year.

The show was very intimate this year. Being one of the very first geological locations in the USA to experience the recent total eclipse of the sun, we all expected a deluge of tourists, but the Oregon coast was very quiet, considering the moment. You know I like it that way - quality over quantity is the Doryman way. By now, you've all heard eclipse stories. My only observation - it's very strange to see twilight approach, with the sun in the east.

And, oh yes... in the tiny coastal town of Garibaldi, Oregon, there is an old boathouse at the end of a long finger pier, which once housed a United States Coast Guard Lifeboat station. A local group has formed the Garibaldi Cultural Heritage Initiative, to preserve this historical maritime asset. How cool is that?

As it turns out, these fine folks have many ambitious plans to enliven the structure as an asset for the community, which currently include building five kayaks to be used by visitors and the community at large. Serendipity brought the Garibaldi Cultural Initiative to these pages, and Doryman is privileged to have been asked to mentor the build. To say this is an honor is an understatement. I made a quick stop in Garibaldi to see the site yesterday.
I'm very excited. What a week it's been.

Expect to hear more about the Garibaldi Cultural Initiative and Pier's End in the next couple months.

Toledo, Oregon Wooden Boat Show, 2013

Whew! Just recovering from a long weekend at the annual boat show in my home port. This show happens every third weekend in August and it's always a lot of fun in the sun, on the water. Of course there are the boats, many of which were created by their owners. The live music is excellent, the food is very good, there are activities for kids, demonstrations of kayak skills and paper boat races. The last is completely insane. Toledo is a mill town and the paper used in making the boats is a water resistant packing material donated by the mill. The rest is up to the imagination. I'm afraid that to get the full effect, you have to visit the show.

My cruising dory, Mistral was in the thick of the action, at her usual mooring and I talked myself hoarse in three days, visiting friends from near and far. Our Teak Lady sailboats were in action, giving rides up and down the slough and the Toledo Community Boathouse provided rowing and paddling craft for free, to all comers.

I asked some friends to help take photos, which you can find on Doryman's Flickr site. You will recognise many boats from previous years as well as newcomers to the fleet (some of us just can't quit building).

Speaking of building, a real highlight of this show is the Family Boat Build. Starting on Friday, each group begins their boat, which was a  kayak this year. By Sunday afternoon, the boats are launched and tested by the proud owners. This little fifteen foot kayak is so appealing, I'm going to build one myself. The hull is already begun. It will be the annual winter boat build, here on Doryman, so stay tuned

Electric Tug from doryman on Vimeo.

Family Boatbuilding

For the third year running, The Toledo, Oregon, Wooden Boat Show hosted a kayak build for it's family boatbuilding event. I was there to mentor the builders and what a great group we had. None of the participants had ever built a boat before, though they must have had transferable skills because all of the kayaks turned out very nice.

This design by Leo Newberg is simple yet elegant. We do not provide kits for this build so the entrants learn basic skills such as spiling off a mold and fairing a plank. The lofting and building jig are done before-hand so the builders can start early Friday before the show. We constructed four kayaks this year, down from the overwhelming six we turned out last year. This allowed Gus Loomis, Rick Johnson and me to provide more in depth instruction to a very receptive group.

In a video interview with the local high school, I was asked why I'm involved with this volunteer effort. Over the past forty years as a boat builder, I have had the good fortune to learn from some truly amazing artists, a process that continues to this day. I think of an opportunity such as this as a chance to give back to the community of builders and designers that have given me so much.

Perhaps some of the participants will take away a new passion along with fresh skills.

Rick and Gus are exemplary boat builders who share my love of building. It's a joy to work with two such talented artisans. Thanks to them and the Port of Toledo for inviting me to participate in this event.

Next to us was a group of kids along with their parents building Phil Bolger's Elegant Punt, from Dynamite Payson's book, Instant Boats. I've often admired the simple utility of these tenders.

Waiting for the first launch.

A neighboring paper mill produces waterproof packing cardboard and sponsors a design/build contest and race. My favorite was an entry from local ribs and burgers restaurant, Pig Feathers.

Pig Boat swims!
Photo by Ralph Grutzmacher.

My good friend Darrell touts himself as a ship's carver. This year I bought a carving of a seahorse to add to my collection from this eclectic artist.

Next, I'd like to own this beautiful rendition of a sea turtle. Darrell has studied with Northwest First Nation carvers for inspiration in his work. Saving up my pennies for this one!






More photos of this event can be found at Andy Linn's Toledo Community Boathouse.