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.

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 .

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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