2,000 K

My, my. It's 2015, can you believe it? We weathered the crossing, we have survived well into the 21st century. Who would have thought?

Having spent much of my life on a lee shore, it amazes me, to have lived to see this day. I thank all of you, my friends, for your love and support here on DoryMan, for the last eight years. Looking through the statistics recently, I was pleasantly surprised to find that these pages and their companion photo archives have garnered over two million visits. That's a lot of time spent together, you and I.

My best wishes go out, around the world to the DoryMan community, and for now, I leave you with
Mark Seymore and his daughter, Hannah, covering the Pogue's Lorelei.

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.

A Doryman's Legacy

"...as a young merchant seaman, I was on wheel watch one night on my first trip when the captain, a skipper of dory schooners and an oral poet, came up on deck from the cabin.

He checked the compass and said, 'Young fella mind the course, steady as she goes, steer small.' Then after a pause he added, 'Face the storms and shoals of adversity square on. Remember, one hand for the vessel first, then one hand for yourself.'

'When, as they sometimes will, danger and death loom over the horizon and stand upon you, don't panic. Meet them with your dorymate and shipmates; stand well braced and fend them off.'

'Go joyously into the dory; whatever job or work there be, give it the finest and the best that is in you. Be good to your dorymate and your shipmates, speak no ill of them.'

'If you go aground, work yourself off. Cast off all self-pity and beat to windward again and again, so that in the fullness of your years, you can come about and run downwind free and easy with the tide. If life gives you more baitings than most, share those extra rations with your dorymate and shipmates and them who have not been so lucky as you.'"

Doryman's Day by R. Berry Fisher

Do you get my drift?
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Sanpierotta

I am fascinated with an ancient fishing vessel, the Sanpierotta. It's a beautiful design from the days of working sailboats.
Research has produced little, however. But I thought I'd share a site I found, called Arzana. The site is still under construction, but what there is, you may find interesting.
In addition to the Sanpierota, there is a work boat named Sandolo. These boats were originally powered by sail and apparently built dory fashion.

The oarlocks (Forcole or "crutch") for these boats are a work of art, made for a standing rower who faces forward. There are also some very unique oars, each different from the other.

Hopefully, I will find more about these traditional fishing boats from Venice.

Functional Utility

Transcending our growth fetish, we must move beyond our consumerism and hyperventilating lifestyles. In the modern environmental era, there has been too little focus on consumption. The reluctance to challenge consumption has been a big mistake, given the global environmental and social costs of American extravagance and wastefulness.

Commitment to economic growth is consuming environmental and social capital, with a net loss, wherein quality of life is sacrificed to the GDP. The drive to grow the economy undermines families, jobs, communities, the environment, and national security. The misapplied policies of market capitalism have led to deep structural maladies. We need a new social narrative.

Confront consumerism. Engage environmental sustainability. Demand political accountability. Practice sufficiency.

Deep River Blues

Nothing today is more important than refusing to pay federal tax for war, no matter who is president. The best way to avoid paying taxes is to live simply, that is, below the taxable level.
Last year, a single person under the age of 65 must have earned more than $8,750 to be required to file a federal income tax return. Many in the world live on less. There are those who analyze, curse and protest the American empire, while continually feeding it their income as tax dollars. Addicted to the loot of the empire even as they condemn the blood. The loot always comes drenched in blood.
The spoils of taxation enable the United States to rob, and murder and make refugees of people at home and nations abroad. Demanding peace, while paying for war is like driving polluting vehicles while protesting high gas prices and environmental degradation.
To commit to drive less (or none), or to refuse to pay federal income tax toward war, is nonviolent revolution. Talk the talk and walk the walk. Personal responsibility and individual accountability are the solution, no matter what the question.