70.8%

AK Ilen Restoration part three: The work

2011-12-18T18:31:00.045-05:00

Hegarty Bros. caulking tools

Gene O’Neill and Fachtna O’Sullivan supervise the AK Ilen into her new home, an old grain store on the banks of the River Ilen.

AK Ilen Hegarty’s Boatyard

Mary Johnny Joe O’Driscoll cleaning frames prior to removal, looking forward towards the bow.

Liam Hegarty removing bronze fastenings to frame No 10

Gary Mac Mahon working on the stem of the AK Ilen

Many hands working together to re attach planking to stem

Cutting stern post tenon AK Ilen Restoration, in the background is a John Hegarty punt with frame moulds and battens in place, ready for framing.

Fitting the A K Ilen stern post

Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh checking bevel angle on oak frame No 19

Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh cutting in a bevel with spokeshave

John Hegarty frame No 16 Port side

Kieran Clancy, a workshop participant, setting up frame No1

Fitting of frame No. 1 to the ketch Ilen

Framing finished, looking aft towards the stern.

Framing Out Ceremony May 2010
Br. Anthony Keane – Forester of Glenstal Abbey, Sir Cosmo Haskard – Falkland Islands Governor-General and Dr. Edward Walsh speaking about his role in the repatriation of the good ship Ilen.

Liam Hegarty Master shipwright holds a branch of an Irish Oak tree to symbolize growth and bring luck to the project and the good ship Ilen.

Looking down and forward into the AK Ilen fitting a mould / template No 21 above on the temporary deck beams used moulds are stored.

Getting clamps ready on the port side for the top sheer plank ( First new plank to be fitted on the Ilen )

After fairing the frames a spiling batten is bent and twisted into position on the hull, it is tacked to the hull adjacent to the plank you plan to fit a new plank against.

The Ilen is now much stronger again as the top of each frame had been fixed between the sheer strake (the top plank) and the beam shelf.

Ilen Bronze casting workshop

Fitting deck beams

Fitting main poop/stern deck beam.

Fitting the Breast Hook, used to strengthen the bow of the Ilen, positioned horizontally across the bow.

Paddy Hegarty and Tim Lee working on the Hanging Knees which will support the main deck mast beams.
Instructor Tim Lee is from the North West School of Wooden Boat Building, Port Townsend Washington USA, has been invited to work on the AK Ilen Project.

Under construction in the AK Ilen Wooden Boatbuilding School – 50’ wooden main mast for the good ship Ilen. This is a composite construction of high grade close grain sitka spruce – sourced in Vancouver Island Canada.
Shipwright in charge – Toby Greystone

courtesy AK Ilen Company

James Mc Laughlin’s finished carved Oak Escutcheon on the Ilen stern.

All photos an captions courtesy Kevin O'Farrell except as noted

The Ilen returned to her birthplace, the river Ilen in 1998 like a spawning salmon. She was deposited on the hard at the Hegarty Boatyard, and remained there for a decade while ownership and funding issues were negotiated. The elements took their toll on her during this time, and when, in April of 2008 she was ferried around to the old, immense corn 'shed' at Hegarty's she was in need of some tlc. A little more than that, really. She is basically being rebuilt from the keel up. The original keel and keelson have been saved, along with a few of her original frames. For the rest she is a reconstruction with new replacing the old. It's a huge project and still underway, though inching closer to completion.
The team leading the restoration are Liam and John Hegerty and Fachtna O’Sullivan, all shipwrights at the Hegeraty Boatyard, one of the last surviving traditional boatyards in Ireland.

Their work is being overseen by the Irish Department of the Marine so the Ilen can work as a Sail training ship. This gets to the heart of this project. Not just a restoration project, but one keenly oriented toward education and preservation, not just of this one boat but taking a wider view to the preservation of traditional boatbuilding and sailing skills, with an eye to the survival and perpetuation of Irish maritime heritage. One innovative way the restoration project is moving forward is through the Big Boat Build Workshops, which both help to fund the restoration and offer public access to folks who wish work on the Ilen, learning boatbuilding skills from the masters at the Hegarty Yard. Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh has been a participant. The editor of 'Traditional Boats of Ireland' has this to say about the workshops:

Big Boat Build - Participant Testimonial
"For more than a year I had promised myself a three-day excursion to Baltimore for the Ilen
workshop, Ireland’s largest wooden boat build. I have followed her progress for some time, on
one occasion spending an afternoon in the company of her one-time skipper, Falkland Islander
Terry Clifton, a wonderful man who, sadly, has since passed away. First stop was the Oldcourt
Inn where I was just in time to receive a bowl of delicious seafood chowder from Anne and to
meet the other workshop volunteers – Michael Ruane from Wexford, Eddie Cleary from
Tipperary, local man and former fisherman Bill Roycroft of Mizen Head, Dublinman Jim Murphy
and Dermot Falvey of Cork.
This motley crew had already begun work earlier in the day, so I had some catching up to do.
No problem. Outside the great venerable grain store housing the skeleton of the Ilen in
Hegarty’s Boatyard, we gathered to hear Brother Anthony describe the particular qualities that
make oak such an indispensable material in boat construction. His lucid talk veered from the
technical to the sacred as he explained oak’s strength and durability, as well as its enduring
position in Irish history and mythology.
Having been introduced to the mysteries of oak, it was then time to begin the work of cutting
and sculpting this hardy material to match the old oak frames of the Ilen. Barely audible
whispers, mutterings and body movements were being exchanged by the three experienced
shipwrights, brothers Liam and John Hegarty, and Fachtna O’Sullivan. Selecting suitable lengths
of beautiful Irish oak from which to cut the individual scantlings and futtocks was a task not to
be rushed. Fachtna disappeared repeatedly into the bowels of the old Ilen at this stage of the
process, emerging each time clutching a handful of bevels and carefully marking each massive
length of virgin timber prior to cutting it on the band saw.
Never was the saying ‘Many hands make light work’ more apt than when applied to the
rebuilding of the good ship Ilen. For there was indeed much heavy work involved in unfastening
and removing her old timbers and replacing them with new ones. What was striking though,
was the good humour of all throughout the work. I had wondered would the presence of
inexperienced men and women unnerve or annoy the shipwrights. As I tip-toed from frame to
frame, at times swaying about unsteadily, there was no rebuke from the sure-footed shipwrights.
Not at all, all three of them displayed admirable patience and good humour, pausing
occasionally to listen to a story or to exchange good-humoured banter. Before I finished up on
the Friday, I was convinced that not only did these shipwrights appreciate our assistance –
however inexpert – they enjoyed too the colour and the banter and energy we brought with us.
All of us novices were grateful too for the chance to contribute to this remarkable project, in
this extraordinary place. By Friday afternoon we had helped to complete two frames and we
were mighty pleased with ourselves. Roll on the next workshop!"
Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh
National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin
Dublin 4

The work continues today, though it's nearing completion.
I have been investigating the feasibility of organizing a group from North America to venture over to Baltimore and get in on the action, while there's time left to do it. Gary MacMahon has indicated that the AK Ilen Company would be very receptive to such a group. Any readers who think they might be interested in such an adventure should contact me via e-mail, zekeur at netzero dot net. Could be a great experience. I have no details yet, but would like to test the waters, let me know.

Next post I'll be looking at the Ak Ilen Company's origin and it's multifaceted educational, cultural and skills preservation outreach. Stay with me.

Huge thanks to Kevin O'Farrell for his beautiful photos and his answers to my questions about the 'build'.

Originally published by Thomas Armstrong in 70.8%

AK ILEN Restoration part two: Repatriation, from the Falklands to Ireland

2011-11-23T20:55:00.003-05:00

Saoirse while in Eric Ruck's ownership, hauled for caulking in Plymouth Habour, 1967.

Ilen at Port Stanley sometime in the 70's

Ilen being discharged at Alexander Basin Dublin Port 1997

Ilen motoring past the East Link Bridge Dublin to winter in the Grand Canal Basin 1997

Paddy Barry, Gary MacMahon, Padraic de Bhaldraithe, John Reen, Paul Murphy, Martin O'Neill and Pat Redmond, sailing towards Glandore, West Cork. That's Gary on the port side of mizzen mast at the wheel.

Running before a gentle breeze off Kinsale, West Cork.

Glandore Harbour Pier - Classic Regatta 1998

Crew member Johnny Moynihan - popular Irish folk singer and musician in Crookhaven, West Cork.

Ilen sailing toward Cape Clear Island, West Cork with the O'Driscoll Castle of Gold and the Fastnet Rock in the background 1998.

The Ilen sailing across Roaring Water Bay, West Cork 1998.

The Ilen tied alongside the coal store at Hegarty's Boatyard quay, Oldcourt,on the Ilen River, Summer 2000.

photos and captions courtesy Gary MacMahon and AK Ilen Co.

Shortly after losing his wife Kitty in 1936 Conor O'Brien parted with another of his loves, Saoirse. She was sold to Eric Ruck in 1940 who cared for and enjoyed her into the 1970's. She was sold again and in 1980 was lost, despite the efforts of her last owner to save her, in Negril Bay, Jamaica, grounded and succumbing to the 190mph winds of hurricane Allen. The loss of this iconic ship, (not confirmed in Ireland until the late 1980's) which had nobly served Conor while a fisheries inspector during the Irish civil war, which had carried the Irish Free State tricolour around the world, was deeply felt by the Irish sailing community, perhaps none so keenly as Gary MacMahon, a Limerick sailor who'd been drawn to Conor's story, as many others were, and are.
Feeling the sting of this loss, Gary increasingly turned his attention to her sister ship, the Auxillary Ketch Ilen. In the late 1990's Gary heard rumors that the Ilen was no longer working in the Falklands, that she had been sold and taken off to Chile. In February of '97 he contacted the harbormaster in Port Stanley and learned the Ilen was there, idle, and in the main in good health. Negotiations with the owner Paul Ellis ensued and with the help of the Hunt Museum Board in Limerick, she was purchased. She had now got to be brought back to Ireland.

From Brother Anthony Keane OSB:

In the 1990s, mariners tales of this heroic boat began to drift back to Ireland. During the Falklands War (1982) the Ilen was caught for a moment in the light of a flare and flashed through televised news clips to be instantly recognised in West Cork. Under one of the secret protocols of the Anglo-Irish Agreement, slipped in after midnight by Sean Donlon, Gary MacMahon flew out by RAF plane to Port Stanley, Falklands, to successfully negotiate her acquisition and return to Ireland.

A major hurdle was the lack of a crane in Stanley harbor large enough to lift the Ilen aboard a cargo vessell, and apparently she was in no shape to make the voyage. From the AK Ilen website:

Gary returned to Limerick and, with the assistance of Gerry Boland of Price Waterhouse Cooper, eventually resolved the difficult task of shipping the vessel. Ilen was lifted aboard the MV Angeliki in Port Stanley on 10 October 1997, using the cargo ship’s inboard crane.

She was shipped to Dublin, where she wintered over in the Grand Canal Basin. In June of 1998 the Ilen was sailed round from Dublin with a crew of eight hardy souls to Baltimore, from whence she came. After a stopover in Glandore harbor, she tied up in Baltimore "to tumultuous applause from the huge crowd gathered to witness her return home". Like a salmon returning to spawn, she eventually made her way back to the river Ilen, within sight of her birthplace, and "Liam Hegarty and his team at Oldcourt, heirs to Ireland’s traditional timber ship-building skills, nobly and generously took her in to rest awhile".

She may have rested a bit too long, more like being in a coma, stored on the hard for several years, while ownership and funding matters were worked out. Some restorative work had been done once she was pulled, but rain and time negated those gains. In October of 2008, these issues having been resolved, the AK Ilen was brought into the large grain shed at Hegarty's Boat Yard, and the restoration commenced. But that is another story.

Links:

AK Ilen Company

Big Boat Build Workshop

Deep thanks to Gary MacMahon, Kevin O'Farrell and Brother Anthony Keane OSB.

Originally published by Thomas Armstrong in 70.8%

AK Ilen Restoration part one: Conor O'Brien

2011-10-30T17:26:00.003-04:00

Conor O'Brien and his sister Margaret aboard Kelpie

courtesy Irish Military Online

Molly and Erskine Childers sailing Asgard in the Baltic,1910

courtesy Wikipedia

Molly Childers and Mary Spring Rice aboard Asgard bound for Howth

courtesy Echoes of Erin

Arklow Harbor about the time of the build of the boat on whose lines Conor based the Saoirse.

courtesy The Traditional Boats of Ireland Project

Saoirse in the late 1920's, rigged as a staysail schooner

courtesy The Traditional Boats of Ireland Project

Saoirse

courtesy Betty CK 145

Conor and wife Kitty

courtesy AK Ilen Company

Conor at the yuloh of the engineless Saoirse

courtesy The Traditional Boats of Ireland Project

The AK Ilen building at the Baltimore Fishery School, Tom Moynihan and crew.

courtesy The Traditional Boats of Ireland Project

The Ilen is launched

courtesy The Traditional Boats of Ireland Project

Conor and crew, I believe, about to leave for Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, delivering the Ilen

courtesy AK Ilen Company

The AK Ilen

courtesy AK Ilen Company

The Ilen in her new digs at the Hegarty Boatyard, Oldcourt, near Baltimore, Cork...but that's the next story.

courtesy AK Ilen Company

&
Kevin O'Farrell, photographer

I find this an absolutely magnetic story. At it's heart is a true Irish character, Conor O'Brien. Aristocrat, author, naval architect and intellectual, O'Brien was also an Irish patriot and supporter of the Irish rebellion. In 1914 O'Brien in his Kelpie, along with Molly and Erskine Childers in Asgard among others, ran guns for the rebels into Howth harbor in 1914.
Fast forward a few years to 1922 and we find Conor working with the master shipwright Tom Moynihan at the Baltimore Fishery School's boatyard to bring a vision of his to life. That vision was a cruising yacht which was a combination of the traditional and not so traditional. The hull was based on the lines of an old Arklow fishing boat O'Brien had been to sea in, but with more modern accommodations below and a rig designed for ease of handling at sea. Conor's design became Saoirse, (seershuh) gaelic for Freedom in celebration of the new Irish free state. 42' with a 12' beam he seems to have been pleased with his creation. Responding to an invitation from New Zealand, Conor set out in 1923 on a voyage that would bring him to the attention of the yachting world.

"I was invited to join a mountaineering party in the New Zealand Alps at Christmas, 1923, and having a nearly new yacht I regarded this as an excellent opportunity of finding out the merits or demerits of her design, which was of my own making."

The trip to New Zealand became the first leg of a rather bold circumnavigation, rounding the Southern Ocean before returning to Dun Loaghaire, and flying the new Irish Tricolour. Planning his voyage, O'Brien studied the logs of sailing ships from the past, helping him find his way. He made twelve ports of call on his voyage, which took almost exactly two years. This heroic voyage was chronicled by O'Brien in his 'Across Three Oceans'. The book, one of fourteen under his authorship, got the attention of the bluewater cognoscenti at the time. Don Helm, in his informative 'The Circumnavigators' says:

None other than L. Francis Herreshoff said of him: "I consider
O'Brien's books the most masterly analysis of seagoing conditions perhaps ever
written, and even if he and I do not see eye to eye in all matters pertaining to
rig and rigging well, no progress would be made if we all thought alike- but
under no circumstances would I contradict Conor O'Brien for he has had actual
experience." Quoted from the old master's instructions on how to build
Marco Polo, which ran in Rudder magazine, 1946.

On his return leg up the Atlantic, Conor O'Brien and Saoirse called in at the Falkland Islands for a somewhat extended stay. The stopover resulted in the Falklands Islands Company commissioning a larger version of Saoirse, which became, on Conor's return to Baltimore, the AK Ilen.
Construction began in late 1925 under the supervision of Tom Moynihan at the Fisheries school boatyard, Irelands first vocational school. Upon her completion in 1926 Conor pronounced her a 'handsomer model' than the Saoirse. He proceeded to sea trial her around Kerry and the Shannon and ransacked Saoirse for gear. He then set out for the Falklands with two 'Cape Clear' men, arriving in Port Stanley early in 1927, where the boat and crew received a warm welcome. The Ilen was subsequently put to work as a jack of all trades workboat servicing the needs of the islanders for nearly 70 years (!), "working for her living in some of the most demanding waters in the world, ferrying people, school teachers, sheep, stores and mail between the scattered island communities of the Falklands". The Ilen finally retired from worklife in the early 1990's.
In 1997, one keen Irish sailor lamenting the loss of Saoirse in 1979, focused his attention on the Ilen. That was Gary MacMahon. Gary learned the Ilen might be available and with help quickly put together the financing to secure and return her to her birthplace. He founded the AK Ilen Company with Anthony Keane and began planning the Ilen's return. But that, as they say, is another story. (there's more coming)

I'd like to thank a few folks who have been invaluable in starting this series.

First is Kevin O'Farrell, photographer, who put me on to this story and whose invaluable photos of the restoration will be seen later,

Gary MacMahon, who opened the whole can of worms and is still active as the principle of the project,

And Dr. Martin Kay, who spearheads the educational side of the Company and has been exceptionally liberal and forthcoming with information. He's working on grants for writing a book about the Ilen as well as presenting papers on this project and the educational and general status of traditional boatbuilding in Ireland to groups such as Dorna. Martin has promised to send updates as the project progresses.

And the Traditional Boats of Ireland Project, for it's extensive research and some very special photos.

Links:

AK Ilen Company

Big Boat Build Workshops

Traditional Boats of Ireland Project

Don Holm's e-book 'The Circumnavigators'

Wikipedia ConorO'Brien

Wikipedia Howth Gun Running

Wikipedia Erskine Childers

The DORNA Project

Originally published by Thomas Armstrong in 70.8%

4th Annual Philadelphia Wooden Boat Festival

2011-10-11T19:31:00.036-04:00

When I arrived at the Penn' Landing yacht basin, lots of boats werre in evidence, small, medium and large.

On the promenade fronting the boatshop I found a couple of runabouts, this one from Vintage Craft.

Gina Pickton was helping organize small boat races.

And there was John Schwarzenbach's Comet, almost fully restored, just needs working out the rigging details.

The boatshop crew and student volunteers have done a good job with her.

For comparison, her state last year.

Ned Asplundh's beautiful Joel White Marsh Cat, Frankford Yellow Jacket.

Ric Carrion's Elf

Ric doing his thing.

Paul Gray back with Quitessance. Her hull is a copy of Jarvis Newman's Dictator, a Friendship Sloop, but
Quintessance is schooner rigged. Making her one of a kind.

Paul races her in the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race. In three outings he's placed two firsts and one third in the C class. He'll be there again this year.

Roger Pritchard was back with his sweet H-28 Gwylin.

He's packing her off this winter to the Cutts and Case yard in Oxford Md for some restorative hull work, their epoxy and kevlar cord treatment.

A rowing race, here's Ron Gibbs and Barbara Munson in the Whitehall Polaris.
vs.

Pete Byar in Pete Peter's ducker Thomas Eakins
vs.

Ann & Kate in the Whitehall Culture.

Marcus Brandt, a Gazella crew, looking very salty for the occasion.

His gear was interesting, so I asked him about it. It's all homemade and mostly scavenged. Only the marlinspike and rivets for the knife handle were purchased.

The tug Jupiter down from
Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild (along with Gazela) doing double duty as stage for the serenade.

Here are Elizabeth Crampton and the aforementioned Marcus Brandt making ready the sharpie Isabel Una McKay for a sharpie race against Fish Stix.

Ned Asplundh leading Bill Covert to the start in a Delaware Tuckup race.

Shortly after the start with Bill leading.

Some 'match' racing here.

There off! Isabel Una Mckay v Fish Stix

Ned in Marion Brewington coming in far ahead of his adversary. Marion is a local TSCA boat. Top Priorty, the boat Bill Covert was in is,I believe,an ISM boat

Someone? rowed one of the Whitehalls squarely across the AJ Meerwald's bow as she was coming in. Not quite a near miss, but WHY risk it?

The Meerwald tying up.

My turn! Chis from Gazela paddlingus out from the dock in the Isabel Una for another sharpie race. His expression was a bit unsettling.

In truth, however, it was my inexperience in such a small craft which showed. Sitting on the thwart, the boom was at my elbow. Little to no wind. The gaff throat wasn't behaving correctly. I did something stupid and banged my coccyx which is only now feeling better.

Chris proved a capable helm and we did 'win' the race. Typically we finally got some wind just as we approached the dock and landed without grace, my fault. All is well, and despite some pain I enjoyed the experience.

all photos Thomas Armstrong

This years Phladelphia Wooden Boat Show exceeded expectations. More boats, from small craft to large ships, with some lovelies in between. More people, great weather, though the wind died in the afternoon. Wen Byar was the race committee, and along with Gina Pickton organized several small craft races which I am sure will become a mainstay of the fest. Sailing these older boat types is quite interesting and, in my case at least, somewhat instructive. These boats either were, or in the case of the tuckup, evolved from, traditional working boats from the 19th C. It is beautiful to see these craft come to life. The chance to get out and sail these boats is in a small way to re-experience the past and certainly gain appreciation for the skill of our forebears in working these boats. I found sailing the little sharpie in some ways more demanding and acute than the later, larger boats I am familiar with. What a generous opportunity.
Despite certain logistical difficulties having to do with being located in a major city, the ISM, under John Brady's guidance, and with the help of dedicated staff and the TSCA is moving forward and providing a rewarding experience for Philadelphia.

Mid Atlantic Small Craft Festival XXIX

2011-10-06T12:13:00.006-04:00

Barry Long's recently completed melonseed skiff Aeon.

I was drawn to the boat immediately on entering the festival grounds.

She's meticulously crafted, as is most of what Barry does.

There is a lengthy and beautifully photographed record of this build at Berry's website, Eye in Hand.
Nice commentary, as well.

Aeon is one of a pair of melonseeds Barry built simultaneously.

Here's the other:

Caesura

Well done Barry

Tom Shepard, Wen Byar et al showed up with the Marion Brewington, down from the Independence Seaport Museum.

Mike Wick brought his brand new Cortez melonseed Moogie.

photo courtesy John Guidera

She took on a little water, but Mike will soon have that remedied.

Tied up next to Mike was this smart little catspaw dingy Vairea, a Joel White design owned by Joe Manning.

Jon Harris of CLC was back with his very roomy Pocketship.

Rick Urban brought his Swampscott dory Old Spice and a very convincing canine.

Jay Eberle with his Oughtred Ness Yawl Sara and Damian Siekonic's nicely restored sea bright skiff Persephone, built by C. Hankins in 1985.

Notice the deadeyes. Damian's company Privateer Media specializes in providing all manner of support to those doing historical productions, including boats.

I haven't been able to identify these two decked sailing canoes...

but felt it a shame not to include them. Help, anyone?

Pegasus is a Sam Crocker raised deck Stone Horse.

She is a member of the CBMM's flotilla.

Here's Dale Davenport paddling his Cape Falcon F1, a skin on frame kayak designed by Brian Schultz.
You can download the free plans for this boat here.

Obadiah, a Joel White Marsh Cat

She is owned by Dr. Pete Peters,

and was built by Marc Barto. Marc is a shipwright at the museum and known for his melonseed plans.

Another Marsh Cat, named Frankford Yellow Jacket.

Owner Ned Asplundh explained that the name refers to a Philadelphia professional football team of yesteryear. Ned and Mike Wick are the co-editors of the Ash Breeze, the publication of the TSCA. The latest edition has an engaging article on the history of the MASCF.

Yet another Marsh Cat, this one is Comfort, owned by Doug Oeller

The beautifully restored and maintained Edna E Lockwood

A Chesapeake Bay bugeye, she is the last of her kind, and designated a National Historic Landmark.

Nearby was this little beauty, obviously a Chesapeake type and probably also an oyster craft, but I have yet to identify her, presumably also a CBMM boat. (John Ford wrote to me recently to inform me that the boat is an Egret Sharpie based on a Chapelle design [so not a Chesapeake type after all] and donated to the museum. She will likely be used in the museum's educational program.)

Speaking of beautifully restored and maintained, here's Ric Carrion aboard Elf. The restoration and preservation of Elf have become the nexus of Ric's life and he is passionate about her. Ric said he'd be leaving Sunday morning to begin making his way to Philadelphia and the Independence Seaport Museum's wooden boat fest, this coming weekend.

Nearest in this photo is Tim Shaw in his skin on frame outrigger canoe Al Demany Chiman.
Tim, where's that sailing rig?

A father and son pair of Canvasbacks, designed by Karl Stambaugh.

Here we are back again to Sara.

After a long chat Dale and Jay invited me to a sail. I had written about these two in my report of the first MASCF I attended back in 2008, when Dale brought his Caledonia Yawl as well. Dale recently sold that boat and is moving both to larger and smaller

Here's that lovely lug main.

Looks as though we're having fun!

A great way to end my visit, my thanks to Jay and Dale

There may be a few of these still available. Contact the museum.

all photos Thomas Armstrong with exceptions noted

The 29th Mid Atlantic Small Craft Festival took place last weekend in St. Michaels MD on the campus of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. For the first time in my four years of attendance the weather was a bit less than perfect, and while that may have contributed to there being a few less onlookers, it in no way diminished the number or enthusiasm of the participants. This is a spirited gathering of like minded folk who come together to celebrate their passion for small craft. Many of the boats are built by their owners and certainly almost all maintained by them. Hands on. It's a pleasure to be in their company and the enthusiasm is contagious. I'd also say the museum and volunteer staff are gracious and accommodating. What fun.
Mike Wick sent me the 'race' results:

MASCF 2011 Sailing Order of Finish
# Name Vessel
131 Tom Johns Sunfish
64 Al Fittipaldi Thistle
134 Harold Bernard Annalie Glen-L 15
21 George Surgent Buna-Monia , Crotch Island Pinkie
13 Pete Peters Obadiah Marshcat
104 George Loos N/N Blue Jay
67 Kevin Brennan Slip Jig Navigator
31 Lawrence Haff Red Dragon Sailing Canoe
#53B Scott Lavertue Calico Jack Coquina
32 Dennis Keener Whisper Sharpie Skiff
111 Gail Sheppard Sea Hound
26 Carl Weissinger Baguette, Sandbagger
145 John Depa N/N Sailing Canoe
112 Tom Shephard Marion Brewington, Tuckup
118 Mike Wick Moggie Cortez Melonseed
28 Jay Bliss Haiku
69 Jay Eberly SARA
43 Doug Oeller Comfort, Marshcat
87a Marie Cobb Bonito
9 Steve Layden Pigwidgeon
48 John England Hannah Banana, Sailing Sharpie
44 Ned Asplundh Frankford Yellow Jacket Marshcat
73 Reade &Molly James Faith
87b Ed & Michelle Cobb Kermit S.F. Pelicanilh.

Apparently there was a bit of a blow outside the harbor, as Mike quipped per email:

"Only the strong survived."

Looking forward to next year.

Special thanks to John Ford at the CBMM for his assistance.

Orignally posted by Thomas Armstrong via 70.8%

Battle!

2011-09-20T13:39:00.001-04:00

The Adversaries

My ship for the day, bark Gazela

AJ Meerwald

Kalmar Nyckel

Summer Wind

Our Crew

The mate Patrick Flynn instructs the crew about the days action

Capt. Scott Cointot addresses the crew

Pirates!

Getting Underway

Down the long sweep of Gazela's deck, making ready to bring in the stern lines

And doing so

Ship's boat brought aboard

Hoisting the Mainsail...

takes effort!

Up she goes

and the main staysail

and two jibs or foresails

Drawing wind

Captains confer. Scott Cointot with John Brady, acting CEO of the Seaport Museum

Beat to Quarters

Our pirate lookout

Ready for battle

Closing with the Nyckel and the Meerwald

In position to broadside the Nyckel

Fire!

Reload

Our guns were small but had quite a kick!

Battleship New Jersey salutes the battle.

The captain of the Summer Wind takes aim...

and the Pirate King is felled.

The Kalmar Nyckel raises a sail.

Days End

Jibs down

Stays'l down

And the main

A little help into our dock

Tossing the line to tie us fast.

all photos Thomas Armstrong

It was my good fortune to be invited aboard the Gazela for last Sunday's mock pirate battle on the Delaware River, part of the Independence Seaport Museum's month long Philadelphia Seaport Festival. Great fun and my first sail aboard a large ship. Fascinating. We had a beautiful day for it, as you can see. For those attending at the museum there was an announcer doing a play by play. My impression from on board was of at least a hundred or so souls enjoying from shore. This is the events first year and I'm sure it will prove popular.
Other upcoming events include the Philadelphia Cup Regatta on October 1 and the 4th Annual Philadelphia Wooden Boat Festival. The AJ Meerwald ill be attending this year and offering sails to the public. This will be my third visit to the wooden boat fest. To read about last year's click here. This festival is growing every year and a real treat. Gonna be some great boats this year.
See you there.

Pirate Days

2011-09-15T18:00:00.000-04:00

Kalmar Nyckel

courtesy Privateer 26 website

Gazela

courtesy BococaLand

A J Meerwald

courtesy Stan Zagleski

As part of a month long celebration (Sept 8 thru Oct 8), the Independence Seaport Museum is hosting Pirate week, Sept 17-24. A highlight of the week will be a mock battle involving at least the three boats pictured here and there is the opportunity to sail aboard these ships! For more info visit the Museums website.

Kalmar Nyckel is a recreation of a 17th C. Swedish ship which brought early settlers to New Sweden, today known as Wilmington, Delaware. Built in the Netherlands c. 1625 and purchased by Sweden in 1629, she was (and is) a Pinnace. The replica was designed by noted naval architect Thomas Gillmer.

Gazela is a Portuguese fishing barquentine built in 1901. She had a long and successful career fishing the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. Her last commercial voyage was in 1969 and she came to Philadelphia in 1971. She sails out of Philadelphia.

AJ Meerwald was built in 1928. She is a Delaware Bay oyster schooner. She was commandeered in 1942 under the War Powers Act and returned to the Meerwald family in 1947. she remained in commercial use into the late 70's.

If you are in the area this weekend, lots to see and experience at the Seaport!

Original post Thomas Armstrong @ 70.8%

Mingming's Return...Roger Taylor makes it to 80° N

2011-09-04T13:20:00.004-04:00

At Whitehills harbour prior to leaving

Lashed battens

Approaching southern Jan Mayen

Morning mist at Jan Mayen

Jan Mayen's southern cape

The headland Eggoya, central Jan Mayen

Fulmars at the base of Mt Beerenberg

Looking back along the east coast of Jan Mayen

Jan Mayen's North-east cape

Landfall at Spitsbergen!

Becalmed off Prinz Karls Forland

Midnight sky over Spitsbergen

Glassy calm off Spitsbergen

Brunnich's guillemots off Spitsbergen

The mother of all noon positions

2AM calm in the high Arctic

Hitch-hiker 150 miles west of Norway "juvenile white wagtail"

The entrance to Whitehills Harbour 24 hours after our arrival

all photos and captions courtesy Roger Taylor

Roger Taylor aka The Simple Sailor and his lovely little Mingming have returned from yet another summer cruise. This year Roger acheived a long standing goal, reaching a position of 80° North. Bear in mind as you read Roger's comments below that Mingming is a 21' Coribee with bilge keels and a junk rig. She has been heavily modified by Roger for singlehand sailing.
Here's Roger's synopsis of the voyage:

Left Whitehills harbour on the Moray Firth at 1700H on Thursday 23rd June. Sailed north through the Fair Isle Channel, heading first for Jan Mayen. We crossed the Arctic Circle a week later. A few hours after crossing into the Arctic the stitching in two seams on the third panel started to fail, no doubt as a result of chafe against the topping lifts. One of the seams was in a very difficult position to repair so I dispensed with that panel entirely, lashing two battens together. We had covered c.550 nautical miles at the time and so sailed the remainder of the 3000 mile voyage minus one panel. This probably
disadvantaged us a little in the extremely light airs we were to encounter further north.
We met our first period of very calm weather about 80 miles south of Jan Mayen, with six days of virtually no wind. On Monday July 4th, just after midday, 65 miles south-south-east of the South Cape of Jan Mayen, a yacht, motor sailing, overtook us about a mile on our starboard beam. We reached Jan Mayen on July 7th, after two weeks at sea. As last time, had a fantastic day sailing up the east coast. I had a proper chart of the island this time, so was able to go in a lot closer. Unfortunately Mt Beerenberg, the 7000’ volcano, was once again under cloud cover, so I did not see the summit.
Headed north-east from Jan Mayen, bound for Spitsbergen. Two days later a northerly gale knocked us down quite badly. I was in my bunk at the time and felt the mast go way beyond the horizontal. A lot of chaos inside, but the only damage was bent framing on the spray hood.
We made our landfall at Spitsbergen, at Prinz Karls Forland on the
north-west coast, on Wednesday 20th July, after 26 days at sea. Sailed north up the coast, making sure to keep beyond the 12-mile limit (the regulations for yachts sailing in Svalbard waters are draconian).
Fantastic views of the Spitsbergen mountains, stretching to Albert 1 Land in the north. At one point I counted 73 peaks. Several times encountered relatively (for these days) large concentrations of whales along the continental shelf, mainly fin, with some humpback, minke and at least one sei whale. This surfaced very close and I was able to identify it from the photos I took.
I carried on north, hoping for the right wind to make a dart for 80°N. Had to be careful here, as there would have been ice to the west and north, and land and ice to the east: a potentially awkward trap. After some concernwith a hard blow from the south-west, the wind settled at west-north-west, giving me the perfect angle to sail quickly north, then south again.
Reached 80°N at midday on Sunday July 24th, after just less than 31 days at sea and nearly 1600 miles of sailing. Turned immediately south and began the long haul home. I had intended to sail a westerly route, using the East Greenland current, and giving us another look at Jan Mayen. However a week of south-westerly headwind out paid to that, forcing me to sail the direct route home, and putting us into the north-going North Atlantic current. Eleven days of strong northerlies helped break the back of the return leg, bringing us to within striking distance of Viking. The weather turned very sour, with a constant mix of calms and headwinds. As we approached the Shetlands the weather systems became increasingly unstable, with depressions springing up all round and following unusual tracks. Finally got to within 20-30 miles of Whitehills and were once more becalmed. I was very concerned,
as the forecast was for extremely strong northerly winds – not what you want when approaching the south coast of the Moray Firth. A fortuitous mix of a light easterly followed by a moderate north-westerly enabled us to cover the last few miles and get safely into harbour before the storm struck. Within less than a day of tying up in Whitehills it was blowing Force 9 to 10 straight onshore.
The voyage took 65 days (31 days out, 34 days back) and we logged just over 3000 nautical miles. This was an interesting contrast to last year’s voyage to west Greenland, in which we covered over 4000 miles in about the same time. Mingming has now sailed nearly 20,000 miles in six years, mainly in high latitudes. I am now thinking seriously about giving her a well-earned rest!

Congratlations to Roger and Mingming on another fantastic voyage, a great achievement.

Original post Thomas Armstrong @ 70.8%

Ryan Reedell and Marie Pasquariello, Boats and Bikes part 3

2011-08-31T17:53:00.002-04:00

Folk Engineered

Ryan Reedell and Marie Pasquariello

Ryan brazing a bike frame

Ryan has recently restored two brothers bicycles,the first a 1971 Raliegh International
(old)

...and new

The second restoration was a 1972 Motobecane Le Champion
(old)

...and new

Though Folk Engineered is primarily a custom shop, in 2010 they brought out an all rounder production bike.
The Marsupial,
a practical and adaptive sport touring bicycle for daily commuting, pleasure road riding, light touring, and adventure.

Family Boating

Some photos of Marie's life in boats

Teaching boatbuilding

Boat launch 2010

Some of Marie's students

Family boatbuilding

More students at work

Discovery 2011 building an Oughtred Acorn skiff

all images courtesy Folk Engineered or Marie Pasquariello

Here's an interesting couple. They have a bikebuilding business together and Marie teaches boatbuilding to kids. I first learned of this duo when Marie left a comment on my second boats and bikes post on Chris Kulczycki. Through a series of emails and facebook interactions a picture began to emerge of a rather dynamic pair. Ryan Reedell and Marie Pasquariello are Folk Engineerded Bicycles. Marie has been sailing and boating since childhood, and was kind enough to respond to some questions I posed on the business, her involvement in the boat programs and a rather romantic story about her and Ryan's relationship. I'll let her tell the story:

First, I'd like to hear a bit about your family boating experiences.

"As I told you, my grandparents had a beach house at LBI, and every summer I got to spend time by the water. We had a Sunfish, and my mom taught me to sail on that. It's the same Sunfish that my mom learned to sail on. The Sunfish was purely for adventure, and I loved sailing in the bay. My Grandad also had a small pontoon boat. The whole family (me, my 3 siblings, mom, dad, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc) would pile in and go gunk holing. We'd explore inlets. And, of course, we'd stop to find some food. Some days, this was crabbing. We were low tech crabbers, using string, a hook, and some fish carcasses. And, some days, we'd hop in and dig our feet in the gunk looking for clams. Either way, we'd usually come home with some shellfish.
When I got into my teens, my grandparents were diagnosed with cancer. Within a couple years, their beach house was sold. The Sunfish made its way to my home town, and I'd take it sailing solo in a lake nearby. I don't know where the pontoon boat went, but my uncles all got modern 20-25' fiberglass sailboats and took up the tradition of taking us gunk holing each summer by their homes. My Uncle John has a house in Maryland on the Chesapeake, my Uncle Bill is in Maryland as well, and my Uncle John has a beach house in Brick Township."

I'd also like to hear a bit more about the semester of cycling, how it led to romance and marriage and the job at the bike library, which I am assuming is a community cycling resource similar to Neighborhood Bike Works in Philly.

"I went to Rutgers College in New Brunswick, studying art and engineering at first. In my second year of college, I met Ryan at an artsy warehouse event in Philadelphia. He had long dreads and beard, was dirty and smelly, talked about the Buddha, and was amazing. Ryan had been traveling around the US for a couple years (hiking, hitchhiking, riding trains, riding bikes, etc) and was home to visit his sister, who had just had a baby. His most recent travels included a couple (of) long bike tours on the West Coat and in the Midwest, his last through the desert and ending at Burning Man. There was an immediate attraction and "world view" connection. Ryan and I spent a couple months together in New Brunswick. Then, we parted ways... well, Ryan actually rode his bike away, I waved, then drove home for Winter break. I left to study abroad in South Africa, and Ryan went out West for more adventure.
I spent 6 months studying and traveling in Africa. Ryan and I sent a couple emails back and forth, but I didn't expect to see him again. I attended the University of Pietermaritzburg and, every time I had a chance, I'd explore the region - visiting new friends' houses, doing what the locals do, hiking, camping, going to markets, horse back riding, adventures, etc. I extended my stay a couple months so I could trek around Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Botswana. My travels in Africa inspired an interest in sustainability, particularly in the US, my home. It also confused the hell out of me. What did I want to study? How did I want to contribute to my home society? You know, a normal existential college crisis.
A week before my plane ride home, I found out that Ryan was back in NJ. My goodness! But, my thinking was, who knows, he'll probably be leaving in a month anyway. I went down to New Brunswick to visit. He was on a friend's property digging a foundation (for what was supposed to be The Bike Library). We shared our adventures, slept in a van, and the connection was indeed still there.
We talked about my existential crisis and came up with a crazy idea - to go on(a) bike tour together on the west coast. This would mean I would have to drop out of school. On the other hand, it didn't mean that I wouldn't learn anything. So, I talked to a Professor at college, and we figured out I could do a research project. It was supposed to be about sustainable architecture, but evolved into sustainable transportation.
Ryan and I did a Craigslist rideshare out to California and landed in Santa Cruz. I had my backpack and me. Ryan had a bike and panniers and a trailer. Every morning we'd go to a cafe, where I'd hand sew parts of my panniers together, made from scraps from an awning store, pieces of a plastic bucket, and some hooks and straps. In the afternoon, we went to the Bike Church and I converted a too-small Trek 800 into a touring vehicle using their tool collective hours and work trade system. Ryan learned to work on bikes there (and on the road) and taught me to work on bikes there. Mind you, I'd never worked on a bike before... actually, I hadn't ridden a bike since I was 10. Thus, every evening was bicycle boot camp. Ryan would lead me all around, always having to camp at the top of the highest hill. I was tired, to say the least, but I was also getting strong. Of course, it wasn't all work... there were also farmer's markets, ice cream, family dinner experiences, etc.
After a couple weeks, we were prepared to leave. We headed north. Yea, the first couple days were painful, but we pushed on. We ended up zig-zagging all the way to Olympic Peninsula, stopping at various intentional communities and bike collectives along the way. The whole experience inspired my love for bicycles.. and made me learn to fix them. What a great way to get around. It's pretty fast and you feel great when doing it. I especially appreciated all the bicycle resources along the way and fully understood the vision for the Bike Library in New Brunswick.
When it was time to talk about coming home, again, I didn't expect Ryan to come. But, he did. That's when I knew he really liked me. At this point, we were making a decision to be together.
Upon returning to NJ, we starting volunteering a couple nights per week to keep the Bike Library open. The Bike Library is a volunteer-run bicycle tool collective... similar to Neighborhood Bike Works, but much smaller and only the co-op part. Depending on how many people are involved, it was open hours when people can come to learn to fix their bike or buy refurbished bicycles. There was always a constant flow of people during open hours. It lives in the basement of our friend Wil's house, and is yet to move to a structure built to house it.
I also changed my majors to art and math and got more research funding to do a pedal powered research project. Ryan and I worked on this together, despite the fact that Ryan wasn't in college. It was just our passion together. We designed and built about 10 function contraptions, including a food processor, recumbent trike, and kitchen trailer. I had the opportunity to take a chromoly framebuilding course at the United Bicycle Institute in Oregon. This is when we started collecting the tools we needed to build frames.
After graduation, Ryan and I worked on a small farm in upstate New York... and kept collecting tools. There, we decided we wanted to get married... some day. Then, we decided we wanted to move back to New Jersey... to the biggest city in NJ... Newark. A couple of my friends from high school lived there, so we moved in with them. Ryan was working at a machine shop and I got my job at Project U.S.E. We soon found a better place to live... a huge warehouse. It was 14,000 ft2 of communal living, work spaces, and tons of stuff.
In the warehouse in Newark, Ryan and I were able to build a shop a LOT and finally build frames. Since Ryan was working at a machine shop, he learned about precision and tool making. Our first fixtures and jigs were made there, until we finally got some machines of our own. We made our friends bikes. Then, we started getting requests from people we didn't know. It was then that we knew we had to take Folk Engineered to the next level.. and try to make frame building a livelihood.
We also got married in the warehouse on Sept 12, 2009. Ceremony in the alley behind the building, reception of the 4th floor, and celebratory bike ride to follow."

I'd like to hear about your husbands arc with cycling and the establishing of Folk Engineered and have you speak also to your involvement with the Co.

"I lot of Ryan's story is included above. But, you may like to know that Ryan was a track runner in high school. He's just naturally athletic. Thus, riding bikes.. and riding them fast.. is just a natural pleasure for him. Also, Ryan went to art school and studied printmaking... unrelated to anything he does now.
When FE started, Ryan and I shared all tasks, planning, designing, building, finances, etc. We did everything together. But, as FE grew, we had to specialize. Now, Ryan definitely leads the tool and fabrication department. He manages the shop. I definitely lead the communications and financial department. I manage the business. But, when it comes to bicycle engineering and vision, we work together... every bike is designed with both of our input. And, usually, both of us gets our hands on it in some way.
Also, the situation right now is that Ryan is able to work at FE full time. I work at Project U.S.E. and FE is my second full time job. For this reason, I don't get to do much frame building currently. We hope, in the next year or so, I can also work for FE full time and build frames."

What are the boats being built by Discovery 2011?

"We had 2 wonderful launches this year. All 6 boats floated with pride! The Discovery 2011 is a 10'2" Acorn Dinghy designed by Iain Oughtred. It has a round hull and is made with traditional lapstrake construction (albeit with marine plywood, still a lot of planing). This is my first endeavor at lapstrake... as well as the students. It was built by the Discovery Charter School in Newark, NJ and this was their 3rd boat (the first was a canoe and the second was a Salt Bay Skiff). It is named the Spodoxy. The Spodoxy is a mythological name representing the superheros at Discovery Charter School - Epoxy Girl, Sawdust Girl, Duct Tape Girl, Metal X, Sharp X, the Manager, etc. Each Boatbuilder has specific superpowers. Together, they form the Spodoxy team. Their boat, the Spodoxy, leads them to their secret lair in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Oh, and it can also fly. As you can probably infer, the Boatbuilding room was full of imagination at Discovery this year.
The 2 other boat designs you see are the 6-hour Canoe and the Salt Bay Skiff."

(Editors note: here is Marie's description of the project from2008)

"I joined Project U.S.E.'s boat building program this year. The Boat Building Project is a unique initiative by Project U.S.E. that is presented through a longterm, on-site relationship with participating schools and agencies. Students of middle- or high-school age explore the maritime history of their region and learn the science and art involved in boat building. The Project combines standard curricula, (math, physics, history, etc.) with rigorous and exciting experiential learning - a hallmark of Project U.S.E.'s programs. The Project culminates in the building and launching of wooden canoes or sailboats constructed by the students."

Where are you guys headed?

"FE plans to continue the tradition of custom bicycle building, because we believe it's our way to push the bicycle design industry. Our most challenging custom design of the year is the Oregon Manifest, designing the ultimate utility bicycle with 4th-8th grade students from a Newark charter school. This year, we came out with our first production bicycle, the Marsupial, a sport touring bike. We plan to do more manufacturing in the future, bring the tradition back to the US, and create jobs in the bike industry.
As for Project U.S.E., I'd love for the Boatbuilding Program to expand to have a Boat House facility. It would not only house our workshop but also be home base for on-water programs (paddling, navigation, community boating, etc). I am also working toï¿½start a job training / re-entry program in bicycle mechanics and frame building.
In our personal lives, we'd like to be happy, healthy, and one day have a farm (near a waterway of course) with chickens and children.
I mean, inevitably, bikes and boats will always be a part of my life, whether with FE or Project U.S.E. or nothing."

I hope you'll enjoy this story as much as I did.

Original post Thomas Armstrong @ 70.8%

'Damn the Defiant'

2011-08-25T17:48:00.012-04:00

all images Thomas Armstrong via Columbia Classics

The film 'Damn the Defiant', starring Alec Guiness and Dirk Bogarde, is what I'd call a pretty good maritime yarn. Released in 1962, directed by Lewis Gilbert, it's the story of a mutiny aboard an 18th C. British Naval ship.There is a good Wikipedia synopsis here. I was intrigued enough by the closing battle scenes to take some screen shots with a view toward abstraction. These images could become paintings, we'll see. Let me know what you think.

Ten Pound Island Book Co.

2011-08-16T17:38:00.014-04:00

Bloom, Harold. (ed.). AHAB, MAJOR LITERARY CHARACTERS. NY. 1991. 247 pp. VG in dust jacket. $28
List 204

Ashley, Clifford W. THE YANKEE WHALER. Bos. 1926. b/w and color plates. 4to. xxiv, 379 pp. First Edition, a limited edition of 1625 copies, and one of the key books on American whaling, with Ashley’s inimitable illustrations and much technical information on whaleships and whaling, as well as scrimshaw. Forster 160. A fine copy in dj with one tape repair, in original slipcase. $250
List 202

Kemp, Dixon. YACHT DESIGNING: A TREATISE ON THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES UPON WHICH IS BASED THE ART OF DESIGNING YACHTS. Lon. 1876. b/w folding plates, ills in text. Folio. x, 118 pp. Toy says, “Kemp was a central and extremely important figure in yachting and yacht designing. His work is of great historical importance.” This book precedes the more common “Yacht Architecture” by two decades, and is his first work to include the scientific principles put forth by Scott Russell and Rankine. It features XXIV (actually forty) numbered plates, most of which are folding. Toy 4761. Unlike “Yacht Architecture” which was printed on horrible paper, this volume uses higher quality materials and has held up quite well. In fact, this is an immaculate copy, clean and fresh as the day it was printed, with six original folio illustrated advertising pages bound in at back. Sturdily rebound in half blue morocco over marbled boards. $2000
List 203

Manuscript. “JOHN WILLIAMS BOOK ON BOARD THE SHIP HECTOR ON THE OFFSHORE GROUND - LAT. 05.23 S, LONG. 100.26 W. JUNE 14, 1846 - 30 MONTHS OUT 1100 BBLS SPERM.” 12mo blank book, 4 x 5 3/4 inches. 105 pp. manuscript entries. The Hector was a 225 ton bark from Warren, RI, William Martin, master. She sailed on July 8, 1845 and returned December 4, 1847. In June 1846, cruising the line off the Galapagos Islands, crewman Williams found himself with some time on his hands. He got hold of Taber’s “New Bedford and Fairhaven Signal Book,” probably not hard to find aboard a whaleship, and copied its contents into a small blank book in ink and watercolor. Not satisfied with that accomplishment, he then copied flags of maritime nations (source unknown, but probably also from a book, with some creative additions by Williams). The result, though it may not add anything to our knowledge of flags, is a stunning little piece of folk art, done aboard a whaleship. One hundred five pages of color illustrations, with captions. $2500
List 203

Manuscript. YACHTING JOURNALS OF THE WILLIAM CARTER FAMILY, ALLSTON, MASS - MONHEGAN ISLAND AND MAINE COAST, 1915 - 1915. William and Isabelle Carter and their daughter Jamie lived in a comfortable but not over-the-top Victorian house in Allston, Mass. They owned a comfortable but not over-the-top yacht (it looks to be about a 35 foot motor cruiser). In those days the Charles River was still open to traffic down as far as Allston, and they tied their boat “Isabelle” up at “Carter’s Landing” along the Charles in that city. In the summers of 1914, 1915, and possibly other years, the three of them made family trips in the Isabelle down east to Maine. If the Carters had been upper class people, these cruises would have involved yacht clubs and lots of socializing and drinking. But they were not. Their adventures centered on the natural beauty of places along the way, of humorous adventures and mishaps - they were avowed amateurs - and a few visits with friends. All this is recorded in five hand made journals measuring about 6 1/2 x 7 inches and bound in limp leather. The pages are good heavy watercolor paper, watermarked 1914. One of the voyages is recorded in mock epic style, two in rhyming couplets, one in straight narrative, one in blank verse. All have captions, sometimes humorous, to photos and drawings. Some of the drawings are elaborate double page spreads. Four of the journals are 64-76 page in length. The fifth is 35 pages long. In total they contain 177 snapshot photographs of coastal scenes from the lock in the Charles to Monhegan, passengers and the Isabelle, and 70 colored drawings (ink and watercolor) of descriptive, decorative and humorous subjects. An intimate and charming look at recreational yachting in the early 20th century $4500
List 203

Allen, Glover. THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF NEW ENGLAND. Bos. 1916. b/w gravure plates. 4to. pp 108-322. Natural history and physical description of species inhabiting New England waters, as well as sections on early whaling from various New England ports, drift whaling, shore whaling and whaling by Indians. First edition. Jenkins p. 74. Bound in original printed paper wrappers, lightly chipped, with tear on front cover. $125
List 202

Gower, Richard Hall. A NARRATIVE OF A MODE PURSUED BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT TO EFFECT IMPROVEMENTS IN NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. Lon. 1811. b/w plates. 126 (2) pp. This is essentially Gower’s proposal for a new design of a more stable and efficient vessel - a four masted barkentine, the Transit. The three engraved plates make her design elements clear. Gower’s text argues for her advantages, and advises how to sail and man her. Scott 500. First edition. Light water staining around edges of title and plates. Tidily rebound in modern buckram. Scarce $400
List 203

all photos and descriptions courtesy Greg Gibson

Ten Pound Island Book Co. is a virtual antiquarian maritime bookstore. A wonderful resource. Their prices range from about $10 to the celestial, but there is much to be learned from just perusing their lists. Ten Pound compiles monthly or so lists of new offerings and you can receive the lists via email per subscription. The website is here, where you'll also find owner Greg Gibson's blog Bookman's Log. Take a look, you won't regret it and you may find something you can't live without. Note that Ten Pound's latest list is solely items relating to Herman Melville, with many less expensive offerings.

Original post Thomas Armstrong @ 70.8%

Sgoth Niseach

2011-08-12T16:47:00.005-04:00

The Dutch three-masted schooner Oosterschelde on a visit to Stornoway for Sail Hebrides. She is being escorted out of the harbour by two traditional Hebridean fishing vessels, Jubilee in front and An Sulaire behind. These two boats were participating in a race as part of the Sail Hebrides Maritime Festival.

courtesy Donald Macleod

Jubilee arrives at the Old School site in Lionel, Ness where she remained until repairs were carried out in 2005

courtesy Falmadair

Jubilee makes a welcome return to Port of Ness, where she was originally launched in 1935

courtesy Falmadair

Stressful sailing. Onboard Jubilee

courtesy Franzi Richter

An Sulaire

courtesy sulaire

An Sulaire and crew in the inner harbour.

courtesy Donald Macleod

Aboard An Sulaire

courtesy Franzi Richter

An Sulaire

courtesy Franzi Richter

The crew hauling Mayflower up the slipway at Skigersta pier in the early 1950s. Read more about Mayflower here.

courtesy Falmadair

The 20 foot keel length Pride of Lionel was owned by Norman Campbell (Tabaidh), 6 Lionel, and registered as SY 455 on 25 May 1918.

courtesy Falmadair

Mairi MacLeod's Runag...

courtesy Mairi MacLeod

build underway...

courtesy Mairi MacLeod

at the Lyme Regis Boat Building Academy in 2009.

courtesy Mairi MacLeod

Mairi chose to build a half-size Sgoth Niseach. Full size boats were just over 30', the boat that Mairi built is 16' 6". The translation of Sgoth Niseach is 'Ness-type skiff', Ness being the northernmost part of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides where the boats were used for fishing. 'Runag', Gaelic for 'little sweetheart', was planked in Alaskan yellow cedar on oak, the planks and ribs fastened with traditional rose head copper nails.

courtesy Mairi MacLeod

Sgoth Niseach translates into English as Ness Skiff, at type of small fishing vessels which evolved in the region of Ness, northernmost part of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. They are double ended like their Norwegian ... but have a distinctive large dipping lug rig which some have likened to a lateen sail. I asked Iain Oughtred about his view of the evolution of this boat type and especially that big sail. Iain's reply:

I think the evolutionary process went from the faerings etc, with short horizontal yards, to some later Nordlandsboats, which exended the luff far forward, still with a short yard. Up to about 10-oared boats. Then the Shetland Sixareens and Yoals, which peaked up the yard – though still calling it a square sail, but by now very asymmetric. Very efficient sail, especially in the racing yoals. In Lewis, the yard got even longer, and the sail as large as could be contained within the length of the boat, which was different in being big, beamy, heavy. That yard was really a handful. They must have been giants.

These boats had nearly died out completely by mid 20th century, but some worthy restorations and new builds are keeping their heritage alive.

Jubilee was built in 1935 by John F. Macleod. By 1978 she was in need of restoration, was purchased by a group on behalf of the Ness community, funds were secured and work begun. She was re- launched in1980 at Ness Harbour. Further repairs were undertaken in 1995 to coincide with the building of a new Sgoth, An Sulaire. The 28' Jubilee is currently the ward of Falmadair, the North Lewis Maritime Society.

An Sulaire is a 'new' 30ft. sgoth, commissiond by the An Sulaire Trust, built by John Murdo Macleod, assisted by Angus Smith. Macleod is the son of John F. who built Jubilee. He is regarded as a master boatbuilder and the BBC produced a documentary of the build. She is currently in Ullapool on the Scottish mainland for some repair work.

In 2009 Mairi Macleod of Stonaway was completing her course at the Lyme Regis Boatbuilding Academy. She chose to build a half size sgoth as her final project and was helped by John Murdo Macleod. It's a beautiful boat as you can see in the above photos. After graduating other concerns intervened and the boat is still unfinished, but it back in Stornaway, awaiting Mairi's finishing touches, planned for next summer.

There's a Facebook page for these boats here.

Finally, here's a link to some closely related boats I've written about previously.

A big thanks to Iain Oughtred for his insight.

Original post Thomas Armstrong @ 70.8%

Nordlandsbåt; krumstevning

2011-07-20T12:08:00.005-04:00

All photos courtesy Iain Oughtred

In a discussion with acclaimed small boat designer Iain Oughtred about the taxonomy of certain Norwegian boat types, he casually mentioned that he was involved with a Nordlandsbåt that had recently been discovered on Skye, his home. Piqued my interest, he did. After some wrestling with google translate we more or less resolved that issue and Iain responded to my request for some info on the 'rescue operation'. It's a rather interesting story.
Iain contacted Gunnar Eldjarn in Norway to ask for help both in identifying the boat and how to proceed. Gunnar builds traditional Norwegian boats and his website is here. Gunnar identified the boat as a Krumstevning, which he elaborates a bit below. He further named it a Ranværingsboat, a boat built in the Rana area, a little more that halfway up Norway's west coast. They are dating the boat anywhere from 1840 to 1890, pending further investigation. Iain had originally envisioned a restoration, but Gunnar went on to say:

"It is a krumstevning. A treroring and has had six oars.
A small treroring like this is actually a 2 1/2 room boat with 3 rooms. This is not very special, but is a northern Norwegian specialty.
I see now that it has a very special keel, a gatakjøl which has both the keel an the keelstrake in one peace. This I have heard about, but never seen on a small boat like this.
Then, most of the strakes are probably hewn, and almost impossible to shift, at least very difficult.

I would actually be careful and keep the old boat without much repair, and also use it very little. All the old material is brittle and cant take much beating. Making a copy is a good idea. But it is not a very easy boat to build. But if the old boat is kept untouched, 100 copies may be built and used. If the old one is much repaired, the original is gone. The boat should be thoroughly documented, lots of good pictures, measurements etc.
The boat is worth a lot, not much money, but as a cultural document.
Please take care of the boat.!!!!"

The 18' x 54" boat is on the grounds of large estate in southern Skye, a district named Sleat, and the owner contacted Iain at the urging of one Fergus Walker, who I've written about before. Lucilla (said owner), Iain, and some other interested parties are in the process of securing a tent to protect the boat from the elements and commencing preservation strategies. A little more from Iain, first a portion of his reply to Gunnar:

"Many thanks for your message. It is a valuable contribution to our quest, and we are privileged to have this authoratative statement which confirms our feeling that this is a rare and special boat that deserves to be cared for properly. And measured up, recorded, photographed, drawn up as Bernhard F would do. That will be my job."

Plus this to me:

"Lucilla wants to keep her close to home, ultimately on display with all relevant information presented in English, Norwegian and Gaelic.

I have found a nice board of Scots Pine to replace the missing capping piece on the starboard gunwale. And some scraps of oak for missing and damaged bits of frames. We will have tollepinnar (thole pins) for the keip/'kabes'/oarlocks. I got the Norwegian Varnol thin penetrating oil. I hope that Mark Stockl, the boatbuilder from Ullapool, may be able to do much of this work, after setting up the cradle, which will support the hull comfortably all round. She may even need to gently settle into her rightful shape before new pieces are fitted!

I do not think the boat will actually be used. She's quite fragile. But hopefully we could just launch her and take some nice photographs." I will see if Lucilla is up for asking Gunnar about a replica that she can play with.

Iain has consented to keeping me updated on progress made good on the 'bonny wee boat' and
I'll be letting you know.

Original article posted @ 70.8% by Thomas Armstrong

A Sunday tour of the Mystic Seaport Campus, ala WoodenBoat Festival 20

2011-07-10T21:52:00.003-04:00

Jon Harris and his Chesapeake Light Craft team brought a lot of boats, including the lovely Chester Yawl above. The sail rig belongs to another boat, the Chester is purely for rowing.

The Wooden Boat Rescue Foundation had a presence. Here's a restoration in progress, the boat is a 1931 Clipper 17, an early one design sloop.

Arey's Pond Boat Yard brought this Arey's Pond Daysailer, designed by Antonio Dias.

Jada shows the innovative winged rudder Tony brought to this design.
Read about the development of this design here, in Tony's words.

Jada

The intriguing Reciproa steam launch

Owner/builder Kelly Anderson explaining her details. She burns wood and is almost entirely handmade.
Mr Anderson, I may have someone interested in purchasing your launch, please contact me via email, found in the top left corner of this weblog, just under the header.

Daniel Noyes brought one of his very sweet dories.

Gannon & Benjamin, possibly more widely known and respected for larger projects also build lots of smaller boats. This year they showed up with Minnehaha. Looks like one of their Bella's

Eventually I caught up with Tony Dias, blue shirt, and we hung out a bit. Though we have had a lot of correspondence, this is our first meeting.

It was nice to visit with Med and Mo Chandler of Ships Coy Forge again. They have successfully transitioned from PA to New Hampshire and are going strong.

Tony insisted on showing me their rigging knives. This one is Med's brother knife.

Fine detail on the back edge of the blade. These two are carving out a name for themselves in the Maritime ironmongery business.

Tony pointed out this unusual cabin top, something he'd had a hand in.

A little later we ran into Lance Lee, about to leave for home but here engaged with George Rockwood aboard George's Morning Light.

Morning Light with George, Lance and Tony aboard.

Here's WoodenBoat Senior Editor Tom Jackson opens a demonstration on rigging, one of the last demo's for the weekend.

Matt Otto, head rigger at the Seaport, led the demonstration on rigging. Many of the demo's over the weekend, collected together, gave a detailed account of the boat building process, from lofting, through planking, to rigging.

On my way out, I could not resist this charming little sailing canoe.

Butternut was designed and built by Capt. Pete Culler.

Dessert as offered up by Mystic Seaport.

Mystic opened the warehouse of over 400 boats not on public display to anyone interested.

I was, and it was a rare treat to visit the 'archives'.

all photos copyright Thomas Armstrong

That about wraps it up, hearty thanks to both WoodenBoat Magazine and Mystic Seaport. Indeed, I'd like to thank everyone whose hard work made this event possible, those who were exhibitors, those who brought boats, those who shared their expertise so freely, all who, working together, make this such a great event. See ya next year. I'd also like to specially thank John Eastman and his crew for making this a special weekend with the Icon Boats, bringing them down from Maine, and Michelle Corbeil, Public Relations Director at WoodenBoat for arranging press credentials.

I Built it Myself! and Family Boatbuilding, more from Mystic and the WoodenBoat Festival

2011-07-07T20:10:00.002-04:00

I Built it Myself!

Robert Pulsch of Port Monmouth NJ took top honors in the Concours self built category. Not hard to see why.

Roberta P is a gaff rigged catboat and an early BB Crowningsheild design.

Robert (on the left in the light green shirt and into his 80's) allows he spent about 2yrs. building her to plans obtained from Mystic Seaport.

He also admits to working on the boat right up to putting her on the trailer, a common theme with the homebuilt crowd.

Roberta P is 22'4 0n deck and 14'2 waterline. Beam is 7'9, she draws 4'6 with the board down and 1'6 with it up, carries 311 sq. ft. of sail and has a displacement of 2613. I'll hazard a guess that as of this writing, she's been baptized!

Gary Stephenson's Adirondack Guide Boat.

This was a 10yr. 1000hr. traditional build to a Dwight Grant design, using eastern white cedar planks and sawn frames, looks like white oak.

The construction method was new to me, Gary called it 'modified carvel', creating a smooth hull but employin a lap and gain as in lapstrake building, no caulking between planks. All copper fastened. Shown above are some handmade specialized tools Gary made for the build.

Sean Null is building these beautiful boards in Philadelphia, not far from me.

These boards are strip built over internal frames, so hollow. Technically a boat, an elegantly minimal one. Given Sean's proximity, you'll probably see more on this.

Here's a reportedly immaculate Goat Island Skiff which I missed, not so for Christophe Matson from whom I am borrowing this photo. Thanks Christophe! The boat was built by Paul, from CT. and finished with a bright interior and a 'jet black exterior'.

photo courtesy Christophe Matson

Family Boatbuilding

Under the big top, here's a Sassafras canoe from CLC.

There were several skin on frame kayaks being finished as well. I'm not sure what design or who led this group, can anyone enlighten me?

A Chesapeake Light Craft Sassafras Canoe

I counted 16, plus 1 still in the tent

Quite an impressive lineup.

Clint Chase came down with his Goat Island Skiff to lend support to Mik Storer and led the building of three
Echo Bay Dory Skiffs. One seen on the right. From Clint's blog: "We (myself, Christophe Matson, Eric Risch the designer of the EBDS, and Steven Bauer) had a wonderful time guiding three wonderful families through the construction of 3 beautiful Echo Bay Dory Skiffs this past Friday through Sunday." According to Clint, all three families launched on Sunday afternoon with nary a leak!

In the parking lot, next to my car, one of the kayaks being loaded for the trip home.

all photos copyright Thomas Armstrong unless noted otherwise

These two events, for me at least, represent the heart of the festival and what makes it great, real participation on an individual level by non professional boat lovers.
Interestingly, every I Built it Myself! exhibitor I spoke with said they had been working on their craft right up to the minute they left for Mystic. Devoted. Sadly, I did not speak with any of the family boatbuilders, but one can easily imagine and assume their pride and delight. More to follow, this is always a very full weekend.

Lance Lee Tribute at the WoodenBoat Festival, Mystic Seaport

2011-07-05T19:20:00.015-04:00

Lance Lee Tribute

Carl Cramer begins the Tribute

In the center, Jon Wilson and Matt Murphy. Jon is the founder of WoodenBoat Magazine and Matt is Editor.

Bruce Halabisky, more below...

Eric Stockinger, Executive Director of the Apprenticeshop

Peter Neill

Carl Cramer and Lance Lee

Lance

Icon Boats

Loyaute

Loyaute is one of the 72 Bantry Bay gigs currently participating in the Atlantic Challenge

Rowing stations and stowed rig

Loyaute showed up in my campground the next morning.

Norwegian type, built at the Apprenticeshop about 25 years ago, quite the beauty.

Daniel Bennett and Miriam Feinstein bring her in.

A lovely Sognabåt

Trem, a scaled down Tremolino

Tremolino was Joseph Conrad's choice for smuggling arms into Catalonia.

Conrad wrote a book about this enterprise, titled Tremolino.

Trem

Lestabåt Varin

Varin is Norwegian type, a square rigged fishing boat with obvious Viking longboat influence evident.

Madigan is a Gil Smith Long Island catboat, and seemingly Carl Cramers' most adored.

Lancing Madura is a traditional Indonesian fishing vessel, a Gole'an.

all photos copyright Thomas Armstrong

I would be remiss not to mention John Eastman (ex apprentice who helps Lance in various ways)
and his great crew of folks who ferried down the various 'Icon Boats' from Maine to Mystic. These folks graciously gave of their time and cash to get the boats down, had to pay their way in, were denied their promised dinner until later in the evening and really only were given scant recognition for their efforts, no doubt this was all due to miscommunication. I was privileged to get to know this crew as we waited for proceedings to begin, and indeed they are fine lot. Thanks to you all!

First of all, let me apologize for the poor quality of the photos inside the tent at the tribute dinner. I am a flash snob. I dislike the way flash flattens and distorts, and I did not have my tripod, so the images are rather grainy. It shouldn't matter though, as the experience of Lance's tribute is more about substance than aesthetics.
Lance Lee is a legendary figure in the wooden boat revival and the implementation of boat building as a tool to involve youth in experiential education. He's the founder and original driving force of both the Apprenticeshop in ME, and the Atlantic Challenge with it's global appeal. There's also the Tremolino Project. Lance is what I would call a practical visionary, a man of great vision able to turn his visionary ideals into real, effective projects. His life and accomplishments are staggering, and there's a wealth of information on the web. His guiding lights have nominally been the work and life of Kurt Hahn and the works and philosophy of Joseph Conrad, to which I would add his experiences growing up in the Bahamas, on Man O' War Island. Surrounded by boatbuilding and living from the land and the sea, Lance learned a work ethic that has served him well to this day. His life story is intriguing, extraordinary and inspiring, but also well outside the scope of this blog post. It is a rich spider web of globally interconnected initiatives yielding far reaching results. I'll likely explore this man's life further in the future with multiple posts, but for now will limit myself to the proceedings last week at Mystic and some words about the Icon boats, it was quite a night.
First of all, the evening was steered by an exuberant and enthusiastic Carl Cramer, publisher of WoodenBoat. There were several introductions by various folk who'd been touched in one way or another by Lance's life and adventures, including a cousin. Most interesting for me was Bruce Haibisky, Apprenticeshop grad and co-author with Lance of "Twice Around the Loggerhead", an investigation of the whaling culture in the Azores and beautifully illustrated by Yvon LeCorre.
Bruce has been involved with Lance for the last 20 yrs. plus, over half his life. He's been involved with the Atlantic Challenge, the Tremolino Project among other things and says that the underlying philosophy of all Lances projects 'reveals whats good in us". Bruce is currently completing a circumnavigation in his 1950 John Atkin Vixen. Eric Stocking also attended the Apprenticeshop and is now the executive officer for them. He reported that the shop had launched six vessells in the week prior to the tribute and manages to get 150 kids on the water every summer. Lee Scarbrough pointed out that due to the success of the Atlantic Challenge there are at least 72 Bantry Bay gigs worldwide representing over 200,000 hours of building and learning, experiential education. Peter Neill, Director of Ocean Classroom spoke passionately about Lance and his initiatives. His key phrase for Lee is as an enabler. Citing a project in the Azores that built 12 Azorean Whaleboats, Peter said this project had enabled thousands of Azorean kids to grasp their heritage in a very real way and went on to declare that Lance's education model emphasized competence, work, ability and service. He labeled Lance Lee a 'unique enabler' shaping 'truly able hands'.

Then Lance. Sputtering, charismatic, a joy to behold, a tour de force. Early in his ramble Mr Lee made reference to how he's been told you can't 'put those two possums in the same sack', meaning the natural world and philosophy. For the rest of the evening he pointed to how he'd done just that. I don't have a transcript of his talk but will illustrate the gist of it by sharing several key phrases or epithets. First Lance noted the need to avoid 'the Tyranny of the Boat', which I interpret as meaning the 'Icon' boats as incubators for building not just boats but incorporating the experience into an 'apprenticeship to life'. From Kurt Hahn came the statement 'training through the sea'. Lance admonishes us to 'get out, go deep, come back and help', and to 'make it or repair it, don't buy it.' He says he's endeavoring to create 'young turks', which fits. Lance Lee sums it all up in a typically terse utterance, priorities are 'aquisition of experience and aquisition of knowledge.
IconBoats came about during a project in Leningrad, a reference to the spiritually significant small paintings. I'm assuming that's likewise for the boats, that these are boats having a spiritual resonance for Lee. It's not too difficult to see why. In order, above from top to bottom they are:

Loyaute, a Bantry Bay gig, the ttpe of boat used in the Atlantic Challenge

A small Scandinavian type built at the Apprenticeshop about 25 years ago. Daniel Bennett called her a Sonjiasbat, but I cannot confirm this. Most likely a type of Faering.

Trem, a scaled down Temolino

Varin, a Lestabåt: There's a great article on sailing this square sail replica in WB 95.

Madigan, a Gil Smith catboat

Lanceng Madura, an Indonesian Gole'an

On Sunday, in the company of my friend Antonio Dias I had the chance to ask Lance about one of my 'Icon' boats, Eliboubane, owned and sailed by Yvon LeCorre, drawn by Francois Vivier. A French sardine boat. Lance's reply was 'meeting that boat changed my life, completely'. Hopefully we'll discover how and why soon.

Enjoy, sorry about the delay but I've had some personal issues which stood in the way of a more timely post.

A special thanks to Ben Fuller for pointing to certain errors and omissions. Thanks Ben.
Ben Fuller is currently the curator at the Penobscot Marine Museum after serving as the head curator for Mystic Seaport for 13 years.

Just recieved from Lin Pardy this text of a letter the Pardy's sent to Lance on the ocassion of his tribute. Carl Cramer read this out at the beginning of the tribute but I didn't have it, so wrote to Lin who sent it on to me. Thanks Lin and Larry.

Tribute – Lance Lee

The people who have been taught by Lance Lee may never build their own boat, nor voyage across oceans. But each of them have been empowered by realizing that everything that man has built started out first as a dream, then became a plan. The guiding force that turned the plan into a reality was the greatest tool of all – the human hand. That is why we say, when you teach a person how to use simple tools, you give them the gift of their hands. When you then take them out on the water in a boat they helped create, you give them the gift of dreams.

Our congratulations to Lance, he has opened many doors for young people. I bet they tell their children and their grandchildren about the skills they learned from Lance and about the first time they got a wood plane, chisel or hammer to do exactly what they wanted it to do.

Larry and Lin Pardey
From Kawau Island,
New Zealand
www.landlpardey.com

Roger Taylor and Mingming prepare for their summer cruise

2011-06-16T19:02:00.011-04:00

Mingming and Roger

Approaching Jan Mayen

Jan Mayen Island

Whales!

Roger and Mingming arrive at Praia da Vitoria, Azores, in the 2008 Jester Challenge

all photos courtesy Roger Taylor

Those of you familiar with this blog will recognize Roger and Mingming. For those new to70.8%, you'll find some background here and here. I knew Roger would be preparing for his annual cruise and hoped I hadn't waited to long to write. I wrote him a couple of days to ask what he's planning for this summer and here's his reply:

"Hi Thomas
Just caught me in time! I leave with Mingming for Scotland, by road, on Sunday, bound once more for Whitehills on the Moray Firth. Another northern voyage this year, the target being 80°N, to the north-west of Spitsbergen. On the way I intend to visit Jan Mayen once again, with the hope that I might be able to catch the island in clear weather and get a proper view of the 7000’ volcano Mt Beerenberg. If things go well I should have plenty of time in hand, and may also nose around the islands of south-east Svalbard and stick my nose into the Barents Sea.

The other main news is that both my books are coming out soon in Russian. Voyages of a Simple Sailor is now at the printers, and the Russian translation of the second book is almost complete. I’ve had great fun working with the translator, a retired Russian merchant master mariner (fortunately I am reasonably fluent in Russian). Looks too as if both books will be published in French before long.

Have a good summer (I should be back mid-August)."

Roger's boat, Mingming is a tiny vessel for the enormously ambitious cruises he undertakes. His ability to cruise to such destinations and come back safely is a testament both to the seaworthiness of Mingming as he has modified her and his consummate seamanship, won at great cost. Look for a lengthy report on this summer's cruise around the end of August.

Luck be with him.

Roger's website is here.

Jack Tar #5

2011-06-11T23:13:00.007-04:00

Cold Is The Sea provided cover art for this edition

all images courtesy Jack Tar Magazine

Kim Carver, editor of Jack Tar Magazine sent me an email alerting me to the fact that the 5th issue of her magazine has been published. It's available as a free pdf download here. There is also a print version but at $100.00 a copy I declined, though it will likely accrue value as a collectors item in the future for those who can spare the funds now. So, if you can, do and support this worthy endeavor. Here's an excerpt of Kim's editorial:

"Six years ago I created this magazine to educate green hands and entertain maritime enthusiasts of all ages. Stephanie Robb and I were encouraging more dialogue between sail training crews around the country, and Samantha Levens took it upon herself to write a thorough article on mariner rights. Without being inspired by these two passionate women I would have never started 'Jack Tar'.

Several folks did not like the name, and others did not like that I had no plans to focus solely on "tall" ships, where the bulk of my friends and experience lay. But what is the purpose of sail training? Certainly not to support thousands of young sailors to become captains of schooners and barques. Sail training exists to encourage teamwork, communication, and community and a good work ethic. For those who choose a career in the maritime industry, traditional sail training vessels provide the very best platform where one can learn enough navigation, meteorology, bosunry, basic diesel engine maintenance and general operations to set them on a course toward any maritime career. For hundreds of years, anyone could find a berth on a sailing vessel somewhere in the world. No money, no college degree, and often skills were necessary. This still holds true today; many vessels welcome green hands who are working their way up the hawse, and the use of these boats as easily accessible trade schools for future merchant mariners is invaluable. I encourage every American sail training organization to put up fliers at high schools, Job Corp campuses, community colleges and youth centers around the nation. Take on at least one green volunteer per season that might benefit more than most from the communal and educational experience a sail training vessel can provide.

Jack Tar continues to exist for these purposes:
Informing mariners about educational and employment opportunities
Promoting women and diversity in the maritime industry
Bridging the gap between different maritime subcultures (research, sail-training, leisure, shipping, building, etc.)
Documenting modern maritime culture, and serving as a forum where those in love with the sea can share their creativity with others"

There's more of Kim's inspired and passionate editorial to be found at Jack Tar. Download it and contribute as you are able. If you can spread the word or make a monetary contribution it'll help keep this valuable resource 'afloat'.

Chesapeake Light Craft, an interview with John C Harris

2011-05-30T23:36:00.006-04:00

John Harris looking happy at the helm of his PocketShip

"Not bad for an 8-year-old, though of course it this was not a flight article...

The concept worked better as a kite."

"This was the kind of thing going through my head in high school."

"I'm really fussy with CAD drafting."

"I built this lacy rendition of a Bolger Teal as a 16-year-old."

"The very early days: O'Connell's Wooden Boat Shop."

"I once designed and built a 15-foot electric launch in my living room."

"Kayak design testing, invariably in big waves and cold water."

Mill Creek 13 with a balanced lug rig
found on the Canoe Sailing Resources page

courtesy Craig O'Donnell

CLC’s current sail rig, very similar to mine, can be built from plans or a kit. At first my aka design and CLC’s were very different from each other, and different from what we both ended up with in the end. Over the years I changed mine and they changed theirs and now, when I look at pictures on their website, it seems to me like we both ended up with a very similar design.

courtesy Small Trimarans

Eric's John's Sharpie attracted a LOT of lookers!
Cedar Key Small Boat Meet,April 30th - May 2nd, 2010

I asked John about this design, as I had admired it at the MASCF in St Michaels, his response:
"I designed that boat to win the traditional boat race at MASCF. Its beguiling good looks were meant to look right on the St. Michael's waterfront, but conceal the speed of a racing dinghy. I was 23, and it was a good 23-year-old's boat. I like that it's hard to find an angle from which the proportions don't look good. It's got razor-sharp handling upwind and down. Unfortunately, you get the bad with the good---John's Sharpie is wicked fast but also cranky and wet. It was a good design lesson, including that two tall masts weigh twice as much as one tall mast. I'm not the only skipper to have capsized one. Many builders soon shipped a pair of sandbags either side of the daggerboard trunk to settle her down. "

Courtesy Cedar Key

"A favorite photo: testing my Skerry design."

John's altered design for the Skerry that John Guider is sailing on his Great Loop quest, The River Inside

John Guider's CLC Skerry

photo courtesy John Guider

CLC Noreaster dories building at a class held at the Wooden Boat Foundation last fall.
The boat without clamps is a Pete Culler design and not associated with Chesapeake Light Craft

John Harris shows us around the CLC building shop

courtesy Geezersgosouth

"The CLC showroom circa 2008."

Pete and Donna work out on the Wherry. Matapeake Park Okoume Fest May 14 2011

courtesy Building a Northeaster Dory

CLC Skerry

no attribution

John Pollard and Eric aboard CLC PocketShip

Courtesy David D.

Which looks to have rather amazing interior space for a 14' 10" LOA boat. Her's John Harris looking rathe comfortable. I respond to the plumb bow, workboat look of this seemingly very versatile pocket cruiser

This is the "Squid" a Mbuli class proa designed by John Harris of CLC boats, and built by David Howie of New Zealand. It's a fast powerful design and was impressive at the recent New Zealand Proa Congress.

caption and photo courtesy Gary Dierking/Outrigger Sailing Canoes

"The rollout of the proa "Madness," last week."
You can track the proa build on CLC's blog

All photos and captions courtesy John Harris/CLC unless otherwise noted

I met John Harris last summer at the WoodenBoat Show in Mystic, just walked up and introduced myself. John was helping a group of participants building lapstrake ply canoes, seems at least 20, maybe more. I found him affable, communicative and intelligent, but he basically came off as a regular guy, no airs. But John is no regular guy, though it's to his credit that he approaches people he meets that way, it may be a component of his success. He agreed to an interview, and as a follow through after my interesting talk with Chris Kulczycki, founder of CLC, I give you this interview:

First, of course, I'd like to hear about your early life relating to boats, what got you hooked?

My father, an accomplished engineer, is a really keen sailor and took me sailing in dinghies as a toddler. I grew up on inland lakes in Aiken, SC; most of that story is told here. It's difficult to understate how besotted I was with boats from the earliest age. I was a nerdy, loner kid with bad grades in school who could turn out striking 3D renderings of boats and airplanes. I spent most of my waking hours drawing boats and airplanes and trying to build them. (I have a great photo of an attempted full-scale glider, about age 9.) There was an entrepreneurial streak. My dad bought me a Dremel scroll saw at age 7, and at age 8 I was cutting out toy guns and selling them to my schoolmates---on the playground, no less. So, if I'd been born in the age of Zero Tolerance, I'd have been incarcerated rather than studying to be a boatbuilder.
The first "real" boat was a 16-foot rowing shell, which I designed and built at age 14. It was awful, but it floated and worked. I later cut up the boat so no one would drown in it, but I keep the bow on a shelf in my office here. By that age I was sure I wanted to be a boatbuilder. We had moved to suburban Wilmington, DE, and I was basically on my own to chart a course as a boatbuilder because there wasn't any kind of local scene.
I wanted to go to a two-year apprenticeship boatbuilding program, but my parents opposed this. This was a really painful episode. With my sullen complicity, they picked out a small liberal arts college in rural Maryland, where I got a music degree. (Music was, and is, a second love.) My mom's gone now, but I hope my dad knows how valuable it was that they won that argument. I can't think of a more perfect education for a kid who would go on to run a boatbuilding business. At Washington College, with its heavy core curriculum, I really learned how to think and to write, and I established deep networks. I might have been building boats for a living more quickly coming out of an apprenticeship, but at that age I wouldn't have had the foundation to be an entrepreneur. And no matter; during summers and breaks I built up an excellent boatbuilding portfolio, everything from big workboats to racing dinghies to kayaks.
The April of my senior year in college, I got a job at a traditional boatbuilding shop in Chestertown, MD, and was working full time a day or two after I graduated, in May of 1994. In the corner of that shop was a subcontracted project to make kits for a fledgling company called Chesapeake Light Craft.

How did you persuade Chris (Kulczycki ) to take you on? Give us a vignette of the early days at CLC, before Chris left.

O'Connell's Wooden Boat Shop, in Chestertown, MD, built traditional small craft and repaired larger wooden boats. It would have been a dream job for a boat nut, but we were so broke we could barely pay the power bill, and rent was only fifty bucks a month. The proprietor was and is a talented craftsman but he didn't have much fire as a businessman. I looked at what we were doing and thought, "I'm going to be broke and out of work presently." I was keeping the books, though, and I noticed that the little side job making kayak kits for Chris, who was still working out of his basement at that time, was not only profitable but was growing quickly.
In March of 1995 I got laid off, because there just wasn't any money in the till and the owner was tired of my impertinent suggestions about how to run the business. There were plenty of CLC kayak kits on order, but the money we needed to buy plywood had vanished. I was furious. I got in my car and drove the two hours to Chris's house in Arlington. "This shop you've got making your kits....I can do a lot better," I told him. I proposed to set up my own shop manufacturing his kits and building prototypes. Chris made a counteroffer: "How about you come to work for CLC, instead. I'll set up a shop, and you'll be the shop manager."
Even a guy with a music degree could perceive the better deal, and CLC in its current format was born in that conversation. We had a peculiar challenge: there was no shop. We picked Annapolis, which was halfway between Chestertown and Arlington, and rented the shop that, many years later, is now our showroom. Unfortunately, it would be almost two months before the shop was ready. Meanwhile, the kit orders were stacking up fast back at O'Connell's Wooden Boat Shop.
After a short furlough, I went back to work at O'Connell's so that the kits got shipped. Covertly, I drove over to Annapolis in the evenings to build work benches and assemble the specialized equipment we needed. When everything was ready, I gave notice, and Chris canceled the contract with O'Connell's. On Friday, April 28th, 1995, I slapped shipping labels on the last kits at O'Connell's and loaded them on the FedEx truck. On May 1st we started making kits at the new shop in Annapolis.
Chris's timing was uncanny, and he has a gift for marketing. Sea kayaks, pretty much all we sold in the early days, were the Next Big Thing in the 1990's. The business grew really quickly. Chris's wife Annette joined as the business manager; she was a very steady hand at the helm. I think Annette and I gave Chris the ability to spend all his time on marketing. It was potent chemistry for building a small business.
By the summer of 1997, we had four router tables going at once to keep up. Cutting kit parts accurately using patterns and a router is a tricky business, and slow. That summer one of the college kids we had cutting parts ran his thumb into a router, and within about five minutes we had decided to buy a CNC machine. That was a big move for a small business, and allowed us to expand the product line a lot more quickly and manage the demand. We doubled between 1997 and 1998.
Chris is a smart, driven, Type-A engineer and business sort. I'm an arty, right-brained boatbuilder and illustrator. Under one roof, Chris and I were most productive when we retreated to our respective corners. The one thing we agreed on without reservation was to run CLC like a business, rather than like an artisan's shop. I've nothing against artisans---I'm an artisan myself. And what we do---small wooden boats---is incredibly artisanal. But my experience at O'Connell's was really fresh in my mind. A factory approach to wooden boats, with steady orders12 months of the year and factory-like efficiencies, creates the kind of cash flow that allows you and your staff to settle in and grow. And play with cool boats.

Tell me about your takeover of CLC, how was that accomplished, did you have to leverage a buyout and how. What convinced you to do this? You obviously had a vision...

Chris offered to sell me CLC a few times in the 1990's, but I wasn't ready, psychologically or financially. He got serious about selling the business in the spring of 1999. I was by then the general manager, and I knew that if he sold the company, it was likely that I'd be sacked by the new owners in favor of their own hand-picked GM. I loved my job, especially the fact that I could spend all my free time experimenting with small boats in a big, modern shop. I was really living it. So I got serious about buying the company.
CLC was then, and is now, a valuable company. I had just turned 27 and I had about $4000 in my checking account. I was going to need some heavies to pull it off. I did what any young entrepreneur should do when they start raising capital: call a sailmaker. Sailmakers, at least the ones involved in racing, know all the rich guys in town. I took the sailmaker out to lunch, and a few days later he showed up at the shop with a private banking type out of Washington, DC. It was a classic "elevator pitch" moment. I had about 15 minutes' notice; I was wearing torn jeans and a T-shirt. I made my pitch, and a half hour later I had my first investor. He'd do most of it, but I had to raise the rest of the capital myself. A friend had a Piper Cherokee and flew me down to Norfolk to meet the father of a college roommate, also a banker. It was my own miniature low-rent version of the Silicon Valley pre-IPO dance. My old roommate's dad came in, and brought his uncle, too. That gave me most of the dough, and I leveraged the rest.

That was the easy part.

As the ink was drying on the documents at the end of 1999, there were massive challenges for CLC. The internet was pouring gasoline on our sales, but it was bringing big trouble, too. We had a stable of boat kit designs that were sophisticated and smart, but their step-by-step instruction manuals were thin, underbaked, and getting outdated fast. Some of them were just 14 or 15 pages. And a boat kit company lives and dies by its manuals and documentation and tech support. In 1995, our typical kit customer was a first-time boatbuilder, but invariably brought at least a little carpentry skill to the project. Thanks to the internet, though, by 2000 we were bringing in thousands of boatbuilders who had never picked up a tool in their life.
On one hand, this is a dream situation: CLC is THE portal for so many beginner boatbuilders. But if you've ever tried to write an instruction manual for anything, much less a wooden boat, you know that it can turn you inside out. I made it clear to my new board of directors that there was no way forward without the best boatbuilding manuals ever written. That was probably the most ambitious undertaking of the whole enterprise, though it wasn't the kind of thing we sent press releases about. I hired a full-time graphic designer and a technical writer and created pen-and-ink illustrations night and day for two years. For my investors, this was all terribly frustrating. The exercise cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, took too long, and by the time we had the new batch of 120-page manuals done, it was time to revise them again. We fought like animals over it. It comes back to what the internet was doing: CLC was easy to find on the web when folks had a good experience with their boat kit, but if they had a bad experience, that was easy to read about on the web, too. And you'd just get crucified. Deservedly.

That's pretty much how it went for five years. I spent all of our profits polishing our kits, documentation, and tech support, and filming a boatbuilding DVD and developing a "tips" section on our website. Are all of our manuals and plan sets perfect now? Christ, no. There are still a few 90's-era manuals floating around awaiting their turn. But by 2005 we had gotten ahead of it and fallen into a system of producing manuals of consistently high quality. It was still terribly hard work, but it no longer broke us. And at that point we could sell a lapstrake pulling boat kit to an absolute beginner and have perfect confidence that they would enjoy the project. The effort has paid off, because so much of our business is from repeat customers.
I bought out the investors at the end of 2004, retired the board of directors, and paid off the remaining loans in 2009.

In the intervening years you have expanded and built the business dramatically, continually adding more kits and larger projects, with the
current project proa at about 30' Do you see this trend continuing?

In 1999 we had 22 kit models; now we have over 70. Many of those came along when we merged with Shearwater Boats and Guillemot Kayaks. Don't get me started on the instruction manuals again, but that's really the barrier to growth. That, and the simple problem of managing all of that inventory. In 1999, we made kits to order as they came in. Now we ship from inventory most of the time. It's been a struggle to develop strategies to handle the variety of parts and the amount of CNC cutting involved. We finally had to buy a 24-foot-long CNC machine with two tables on it, so we could be unloading one table while the robot is at work on the other.
We'll be adding a lot of kits in coming years, but not larger ones like the proa. Small boats are what I love, and they're what can be kitted out and shipped through the mail affordably. Special "one-off" projects like the proa are important for CLC. They allow me to stretch out as a designer. Special projects let us experiment with what's possible in a build-it-yourself format. The proa is just stitch-and-glue plywood, all cut on the CNC machine and assembled exactly like one of our small boats. So the proa is a technology demonstrator, and it'll be making the rounds promoting CLC's mission. But mostly the proa is just for fun. The market for large build-it-yourself kits in general (and proas in particular) is vanishingly small, yet the cost of designing, prototyping, and documenting big boats varies as the cube of length. So there are practical barriers to getting into larger boats.
The biggest thing we have on the drawing table right now is an 18'7" electric motor launch based on the Northeaster Dory. That's bumping up hard against the limit of what we can package and ship through the mail, and shipping ain't getting any cheaper.
That said, a big part of CLC's business is custom CNC cutting. We just did a 45-foot ketch for someone, and a 26-foot trimaran. The one-offs fill in gaps in the production schedule and are just fun to do. The audience for proas is tiny, but not zero. Maybe I'll sell a few kits, and I'll be making up a nice set of plans and instructions for scratch-builders. But I'll never cover the cost of building it.

Your success attests to the tremendous popularity of CLC kits...how has your business model morphed over the years to encourage and accommodate this growth? What in your background enables your business acumen, did you attend business school or is this native instinct?

Hah! I have zero credentials, other than a music degree. I started reading my dad's business mags as a teenager and I always read the best of the business books. I think that was the nucleus of the woodenboat-shop-as-a-business-rather-than-as-art-studio thing. I think just having that attitude about wooden boats has allowed me to get paid for my hobby.
That, and a genuine terror of going out of business. CLC is a retail outfit like a million others, and a small one, too, and you're never more than one or two ugly shocks away from the abyss. You have to have a lot of stamina and you have to be willing to sweat the details every single day. There were years where I paid myself $32k/year and worked 30 days straight if necessary. To this day, I still answer a majority of the tech emails, six days a week, because it keeps me really close to the customers.

Are you the sole designer of the boats or do you have a design team? How are your days spent?

My dream is to be able to spend ALL of my time designing boats. At CLC, design duties for new boats are split pretty evenly between Eric Schade, Nick Schade, and myself. I'd be happy designing kayaks, but it's the rowing and sailing craft that seem to fall to me mostly. Which is wonderful. These days, it's really rare that I'm able to execute the ENTIRE design, which means the usual architectural drawings but also the plywood panel expansions, bulkheads, and prep work for the CNC machine. More often, I create an extremely accurate and detailed 3-view and rendering of the boat, then turn it over to a CAD draftsman to be fleshed out. No matter whose design it is, at least four or five CLC people have their hands on the design before it's a kit.
I'm really obsessive about the details----the shapes of lightening holes in bulkheads, the curves on frames, even the line weights and shading on the architectural drawings. Different designers have different thresholds about what they call a "design." Some sign their names to a napkin drawing; for me you're just a co-designer unless you include every visible detail in your drawings.

Kayak kits seem to be or have been the foundation CLC has built on. Have you considered offering skin on frame kits, based on traditional or modified designs?

I designed and built some skin boats in high school and college. I love everything about them. We'll definitely do something with skin-on-frame kits eventually, though I've nothing on the horizon right now.

In response to one of my posts, you sent a drawing of a traditional boat, any thoughts of kits more firmly based on traditional historic models, similar to Selway Fisher design/plan offerings, for example?

Anything like that would fall in the same category as the proa. Maybe if we someday have a division that just does boat plans or even fiberglass production boats, I could see it. The logistics of shipping a kit that weighs more than a few hundred pounds is the main filter on what we're doing right now. There are exceptions; PocketShip has been ecstatically popular even though we have to ship the kit on a freight truck. But there's still the filter of development costs. I have no idea how much PocketShip really cost by the time I designed it, had one built and photographed, wrote its 286-page manual, and did a little marketing. Maybe $50,000? That would have been a psychotic business decision, except that PocketShip was a personal "fun" project like the proa. It just happened to get popular, so we did a proper manual. For a company our size, that's too much money to risk in the marketplace under normal circumstances.

I read somewhere, probably your website, that you are the largest supplier of kits worldwide. Tell us about ome of the more surprising or far flung/exotic places you've sent kits.

We've had some shipping adventures. I think the current count is 63 countries. A number of yachtsmen have built kits while living aboard in far-flung spots around the world. One of my sailboats was built in a 15th-floor apartment in South Korea. There's at least one kit in Kyrgyz. There are a lot of them in Alaska, and we had a Northern Exposure-type experience shipping a kit to some bush radio station, who then radioed to the builder to mush in to retrieve the kit. Quite a few have been built aboard Navy ships.

I think you've just moved into a new facility, (photos?) tell me where you are going, what's next, what's your vision for clc for the next decade or so?

As we're sorting out the inventory and instruction manual challenges, it's getting easier to add new boats. We'll keep new things coming, and we'll keep updating the older boats. Our boatbuilding classes are getting bigger and bigger, and we keep getting smarter about running those---it's taken 15 years and hundreds of classes to refine that formula. We just expanded our space by about 20% so we could increase the size of our classroom and build new administrative offices. In ten years, we might look like Chris Craft in the 1950's, or we might just be a design office. I have no idea.
We're building a kit out of bamboo right now, which is really exciting for me. Bamboo plywood isn't really "green"---yet. It takes a lot of energy to make it, and it's shipped from Asia, so the carbon footprint is ugly. But we're learning a lot about how to work with the stuff, and we're going to be in a leadership position on fast-renewable materials in wooden boats. Somebody has to jump into the pool and get the suppliers interested in making this stuff, so that the costs come down and solutions to the carbon issues evolve. Might as well be CLC.

Do you cycle? (Chris Kulczycki, founder of CLC went on to create Velo Orange, a business which imports, manufactures, creates and sells some wonderful bicycles and related accoutrement. ed)

I do not. I take my exercise in small boats, especially rowing craft. I manage to get out rowing a few times a week. There are some genius pedal-driven light craft out there, which I'm coveting. I drive a Mini Cooper S.

Whats your biggest seller, what's your personal favorite design (if that's possible).

The recreational Wood Duck kayak designs have edged into first place. I know it's a cliche, but it really is true that whatever I'm working on today is my favorite design. Abandoned along with the board of directors was the focus group approach to CLC designs, and nowadays we don't do any boats here that I'm not personally in love with. When it comes to what designs we work on next, I rule with a tyranny that would make Stalin blush.

John, thanks for a voluble and candid interview, best wishes to you and yours.

thomas

contact info:

John C. Harris
Chesapeake Light Craft
"The Best Boats You Can Build"
http://www.clcboats.com
http://www.facebook.com/chesapeakelightcraft

MotR: Clodia, Giacomo & Co. Cross the Channel

2011-05-10T23:49:00.016-04:00

Clodia in Ramsgate prior to the crossing

Giacomo sailing out

crew Bruno rowing out of Ramsgate

Giacomo amidst the Channel

video and all photos courtesy Man on the River/Giacomo De Stefano

Our Man is back on the River, rather, this time on the sea. After a hiatus from his ambitious project, Giacomo De Stefano has triumphantly resumed his adventure after a bout with a rare and potentially deadly virus. High congratulations are in order. Giacomo and his crew Bruno Porto successfuly navigated the English channel in about 9 hours, sailing from Ramsgate Uk to Gravelines France aboard their 19' Ian Oughtred designed Ness Yawl, Clodia.

Here is Giacomo's report of the crossing:

"We did it!

Crossing the English Channel is something special:
To make it real we had to rely on many friends and on our best commitment and effort. Not to mention lots of luck.
I thought to all those people who lost their lives in these cold and troubled waters, even in the best weather conditions as we were so fortunate fo find yesterday.
Streams, sea beds,shallows, big ferries and commercial ships: A lot to worry about for a nutshell like Clodia.

We could never have done it without the help of Chalky, a sailor friend, who escorted us all the way from Ramsgate to Gravelines.

A support boat is required by maritime regulations to cross the Channel for a small boat, engine free, like our Ness Yawl.

This is the report of our day: We leave from Ramsgate at 6 o’clock after a rainy night that didn’t seem like a good omen. Chalky already offered us a good coffee.

We get out of the harbour by rowing, under a bright sun: In the meantime Paolo is filming us from the top of the pier.

To cross the shipping lanes at 90°, Chalky asks to tow us, because the wind is contrary and he wants to get to Gravelines before 4.30 p.m. for the high tide. We can’t turn his offer down, even if it doesn’t stick to our values: We could have easily made it without any help, but not following the regulamentary 90°.

We need to get out quickly from the routes of the big ships, that need many miles to stop, so we accept to get towed for what is strictly needed.

When the shipping lanes are at our back, the wind calms down. The green power of Bruno comes very handy and we row for a couple of nautical miles: Then, when we have to cope with an opposite stream of nearly 2.5 knot (faster than us!), the wind comes to our help at about 12-16 knot, keeping constant for the following hours.

We can now swiftly sail for hours: The day is beautiful and Clodia doesn’t seem to care much about the sea, running fast toward the French coast.
The last 12 miles are fantastic: We literally fly over the waves caused by streams and shallows, and by a stronger wind, reaching 6.3 knot speed.

We enter the canal of Grand Fort Philippe al 4 p.m. local time, after 9 hours and 35 nautical miles of navigation from Ramsgate. A little thrill: The gaff jumps over the peak of the mast, hit by a naughty wave. I quickly turn down the mainsail and leave the rope, avoiding any further trouble. Everything goes well, but it could have been very dangerous.

The access to the channel leading to Gravelines is a bit difficult, but we enter quite well, then we sail for the last 3 miles and dock in the wonderful Marine. Fantastic!

Gravelines welcomes us with all its peace and beauty. The fortress of Vauban is very nice.
We also discovered a 57 metres vessel, replica of the 18th century original, under construction: Impressive! Here you can find more info.

Thanks to all of you for support and help, we felt your presence every time. We dedicate a special thought to Roland, Silvio and Jacopo that should have been aboard with us.
Shortly, we’ll set sails to Saint Omer. A big hug.

Giacomo and Bruno"

You'll find map of the crossing, more on the project, and full documentation with a link to the project Flickr site at Man on the River.

See previous posts on the adventure here.

Giacomo, it's lovely to see your triumphant return, welcome back and my deepest congratulations on the successful crossing!

thomas

Chris Kulczycki, Chesapeake Light Craft and Velo ORANGE: Boats and Bikes part two.

2011-05-06T23:50:00.006-04:00

Chris and son Alec out in a folding kayak recently

Chesapeake Light Craft

Chris' first CLC boat, built in his garage.

A host of CLC demo boats

An early CLC kayak kit

Showroom and warehouse at the CLC under Chris' tenure

Mill Creek kayak with a reef in

John's Sharpie

Chris at the CLC showroom last weekend

Velo ORANGE

Most cyclists don't race, yet they ride uncomfortable racing bikes and try to go too fast and so miss much of the world around them. Our emphasis is on a more relaxed and comfortable style of riding, and on refined bikes that are comfortable on a century ride, an inn-to-inn tour, or even on a ramble down your favorite dirt road.

For many years some of the wonderful parts and accessories once produced by small firms in Europe for the cyclo-tourist and randonneur have been unavailable, or outrageously expensive. So I started Velo Orange to find and sell these remaining items, and to produce those that were no longer available.

Happy riding,
Chris
Founder & President (from the introduction to the Velo ORANGE website)

Chris with his VO Passhunter. VO no longer offers this frame design. It was a custom design and Chris is no longer offering custom designs, due to the great amount of time it takes. It's my impression, however, that his production frames at least approach the quality of a custom or equal it. See here an early post from Chris on Pass Hunting
and here the consideration for such a bike, which was eventually acted on.

VO Gentleman's bike,VO showroom as backdrop. This was also a custom bike, not available at present.
VO is currently offering very high quality production frames, and build kits of components to kit them out with matching gear.

The 'Gentleman's Bike' aka 'The City Bike'

The first VO Randonneur outfitted with the very best classic French components

Blue Randonneuse

Chris' favorite bike is this Passhunter. Nice color.

VO randonneur front rack, quite handsome. Note the small red oval on the rim indicating Super Champion rims.

An array of quill stems, I am particularly interested in the center one

Fender production at the renowned Honjo in Japan. VO offers Honjo fenders as well as their own.

Chris Kulczycki is another rather interesting figure involved very deeply in both bikes and boats. Formerly an engineer, his genius is entrepreneurial. He has created out of whole cloth two rather successful companies, Chesapeake Light Craft, a supplier of wooden boat kits for homebuilders, and his latest venture, Velo Orange, a supplier of bicycle frames and components inspired by the glory days of the French Constructeur.

Chris steered CLC for ten years, I think from 1989 to 1999 when he passed off the business to his first mate, John Harris.

I have been aware of Chesapeake Light Craft for decades and met John C Harris, the current owner, last summer at the WoodenBoat show at Mystic Seaport, and had been trying to find the time to get to Annapolis for an interview and some photos.

Completely unrelated to that, I have recently been building a bicycle from the ground up. While doing research to find components for my new bike, I ran across Velo ORANGE and was pleasantly surprised to find them offering just the kind of components and accessories I needed to kit out my bicycle in the way I envisioned, and at reasonable prices. I was delighted and have already purchased a crankset and other items from VO. I am even more delighted to learn that the owner and creator of VO is also the originator of CLC! A flurry of emails ensued, culminating in this interview:

What was the genesis of CLC, how and why did that happen?

CLC was an accidental company. I was working in civil engineering, but had been moonlighting as a freelance writer for various boating and woodworking magazines. I wrote an article for Sea Kayaker Magazine about a kayak I'd designed and built for myself. And I offered plans for sale, thinking I might sell a dozen or so. The weekend the issue came out I was crewing on sailboat going from Chesapeake Bay to New England. I called my wife when we arrived and she said that 11 orders for plans arrived over the four days we were sailing. Maybe there was a real business in this?

A friend who had recently opened a small marine woodworking business in Annapolis offered to make kits for the kayaks. We outgrew his shop in 6 months. Another acquaintance had a larger shop and we outgrew that shop in about as many months.

John Harris, who had worked at that second shop, suggested that I hire him and simply open my own manufacturing facility. So I did. CLC grew and grew. Soon my wife quit her job to join the company and we hired several more employees.

Why the transition to Velo?

I sold CLC and we retired for about six years. I was, frankly, burned out. We traveled, sailed, cycle-toured and enjoyed time spent with our young son. Eventually I got a bit bored and decided to start a little company to sell some of the cycling components and accessories I liked, but were very hard to find in the USA. The plan was to have a little part-time business. I guess I got carried away because now, 5 year later, we have hundreds of our own products and sell to over 400 shops and custom builders in a dozen countries, as well as through our own e-store. We've outgrown our offices and warehouse twice and today have a staff of 11.

Any inspiration from Rivendell?

Not really. I knew that Rivendell existed and even considered getting a Riv frame once. But the fancy lugs, two-tone paint, tweedy aesthetic are just not my style. Most of the bikes I've owned have been French, or French-inspired like my Ebisu. So that's the sort of bikes I was drawn to. The French custom builders, or constructeurs, developed the most comfortable and advanced randonneuring and light-touring bikes of all time, and that's what inspires VO

Are you still sailing, paddling, riding?

We sold our big boat a few years ago, though we still have a Dyer “Daysailer.” I only go paddling occasionally. I often enjoy cycling, particularly long leisurely rides in the countryside. And I'm flailing away at becoming a competent longboard surfer.

Your business trajectory brings to mind Yvon Chouinard. Any influence there?

My main sport from the age of 16 into my late 20s was climbing, rock, big wall, ice, alpine. So I first heard of Yvon as a climber, even met him a couple of times. I also used his pitons, nuts, ice axes, and other climbing gear. Even today at least half the clothes in my closet have Patagonia labels. So, yes, I've followed Great Pacific Iron Works and Patagonia for decades and been greatly influenced by them.

What are your feelings on the current CLC?

I like what they are doing. John Harris, the current owner, was the shop manager at CLC since the very beginning. He is a skilled builder, but more importantly a supremely talented designer. I like his new boats a lot and drop by the CLC shop every few weeks to see what's new.

Whats next?

After two companies (three if you count VO Imports, our wholesale distribution company) I'd like to share some of the lessons I've learned with entrepreneurs in emerging economies. An organization like SCORE, but in developing countries, might be of use.

I really enjoy building companies and developing products, but running the day-to-day operations of a company is not something I find exciting. So I'll eventually look into selling or merging VO with a bigger company. But for now we are still growing and having fun.

Orange seems very clean, spare and direct (to the point). How'd it get that way?

That is simply the style that we like. Our web designer, Kyle, deserves most of the credit for translating our desire for a simple, but elegant, aesthetic into HTML.

Do you randonnuer?

No, at least not in organized events. A few years ago we went touring in France and we realized that we most enjoyed riding no more than 50 miles or so a day. And we like to stop for a long lunch at a nice restaurant, and visit some of the art shops and harbors and vineyards we pass. It's probably a sign of impending old age. So I stopped doing organized rides, save for the occasional local charity event.

What do you ride, sail, paddle?

I most often ride a custom VO Pass Hunter built by Ahren Rodgers, though I also have access to various VO prototype and production bikes. As for sailing, we have the Dyer “Daysailer”, but are considering buying another cruising boat. We also enjoy our two Klepper folding kayaks.

What did you learn during the CLC years that carried over to Velo Orange?

We learned that it was crucial to communicate with our customers and to be sure that information flows both ways. We learn a lot from the folks who use our products, often making improvements and developing new products based on their suggestions and observations. At VO this has become very easy with the blog.

Another valuable lesson is to hire the best employees; try to hire people that are smarter and more talented than you are.

And we learned to continually improve our products. It drives the factories that make our components batty, but almost every production run has some tiny improvement.

Whats your take on the symbiosis between cycling and sailing?

I'm not sure I know, but here are two observations. First, traveling relatively slowly in a pleasant environment is what I most enjoy, be it in a boat, on cross-country skis, on a bike, or on foot. That is the way that the countryside or the ocean are best appreciated.

A special part of cycling is the rhythmic effort, not only pedals spinning, but enjoying how your effort is in tune with the terrain. It's also low-stress exercise that, with time, becomes almost like meditation. Cross country skiing and sliding-seat rowing are the only other sports where I experience this as fully. Sailing also has a certain rhythm, but it's quite different.

VO and especially Grand Cru, and the CLC boats belie a sensitive, developed aesthetic. Where did that come from?

It's important to study the masters that came before you. Study the best effort of great boat designers or bicycle designers and try to incorporate the lessons you learn. I don't mean copying technical details, but rather trying to emulate the beauty in their designs. I've long believed that, all else being equal, the prettier boat will sail better. Perhaps it's only because her crew appreciates her and tries harder. A similar lesson probably applies to bicycles.

At CLC and at VO we spend a lot of time, an awful lot of time, considering not only if something works as it should, but also if it looks right.

Thanks to Chris for this interview:

Pertinent websites are:

Chesapeake Light Craft

Velo ORANGE

and Chris' Blog and Tweets @ Velo ORANGE

and a generous offering of photos via PicasaWeb

Stay tuned for an interview with John C Harris.

Guilty Pleasures/Books

2011-04-27T23:47:00.003-04:00

Cover, Sennen crabbers picking up moorings in 'Pol-an-da' , the anchorage of Sennen Cove, from a painting by Allan J Hook 91853-c 1895) (Courtesy the Royal
Exchange Art Gallery).

Frontspiece: Scottish fishing craft off
Great Yarmouth (NMM, neg no P75443)

The Maldon smack Joseph T MN9

Sheringham crabbers

The lines, construction drawings and sail plan of the Sheringham crab boat Star of Peace.

all material courtesy Seaforth Publishing

I must confess to a penchant for buying many books, especially on the history of working craft and small boats. Sometimes they are bargains, sometimes they exceed my budget. One of my favorites in the last year was Twice Around the Loggerhead, a beautifully produced volume on the whaleboats of the Azores, with Lance Lee and Yvon LeCorre, among others (available in my bokstore). This new (to me) book, Inshore Craft, just arrived from Canada, and it's a treat. Not unlike Edgar March's two volume set on the same subject, but with a more recent feel, more photos and line drawings. Very coherent headings and subheadings break it down into easily understood categories. Instructive and a delight, the book is the work of a real collective of British scholars. I only recently became aware of it and I have the impression that it's a bit obscure, though I think WoodenBoat did offer it. Still in print, I think. It's also large format, hence my inability to capture it all with my scanner. I'd love to hear from readers who also make purchases of interesting books beyond their budget.

Nomadness, an interview with Steven K Roberts: Boats and Bikes part one.

2011-04-20T23:22:00.052-04:00

Steven K Roberts

S/V Nomadness somewhere in Washington state.

S/V Nomadness

Pilothouse/control center

Not all of the on-board systems are electronic

This ER grade medical kit is the latest offering from Nomadic Research Labs. Steve is here addressing a perceived need.

Land based mobile laboratory. This is in the process of moving aboard.

Microship, in all her solar panel glory

Wordplay, predecessor to Microship

Steve's biotelemetrick helmet for his bike journeys, which included a head operated mouse.

BEHEMOTH

Here is BEHEMOTH's new display in the Computer History Museum - it's part of the permanent exhibit that just opened this month: “Revolution: the first 2000 Years of Computing." I'm working on the combined book of my three bike epochs, and this might be the wrap-up image... it's a fitting long-term home for this machine that took me 17,000 miles. (Thanks to the museum for the photo!)

Many hobbyists used the newly introduced microprocessor to create their own personal computers. Steve Roberts’ microcomputer used the Intel 8008 chip. Roberts was known later for BEHEMOTH, a bicycle that was a portable computing platform.
1974-10-31 © Mark Richards

all photos courtesy Steven K Roberts unless otherwise noted

To say Steve Roberts is interesting is inadequate, he is astonishing. Steve first came to notice and notoriety during his 11 year sojourn across America aboard his computerized recumbent bicycles, pioneering a nomadic lifestyle. Sort of a modern day John Steinbeck traveling the countryside but also working as a technical writer and consultant, making a living while moving around the country aboard an innovative and outlandish series of sophisticated contraptions. Steve increasingly adapted his vehicular home with more and more technological innovations which eventually led to the establishing of his Nomadic Research Labs. Like many nomads, ancient and modern, Steve Roberts eventually heard the call of the sea and has been working toward transitioning his entire enterprise to a floating home and laboratory. There is a personal connection here. Steve grew up in suburban Louisville near my own homeplace. A close friend of his, Dave Wright has long been a friend of my brother, Rand Armstrong. Rand had met Steve during a visit to Dave on the west Coast and hearing about that I recalled reading about Steve , I think in a Whole Earth publication. I recently interviewed Steve by phone and email to get a check on his trajectory and recent activities. There are tons of information on Steve's websites and blogs to allow you to fill in the blanks in my overview. Steve is what I'd have to name a geek encrusted visionary renaissance man.

Here's the interview:

What is the significance of Homebrew? I have partially answered that question with the entry from the computer museum, but if you'd care to elaborate on that, please do.

I think that I recall from the phonecall that you're referring to my 8008 system (1974) not more recent homebrew projects. It was very early in the game and I was a lone wolf-geek and I didn't make any attempt to market it. In retrospect...Oh well.

How's the book doing?

Which one? The most recent is Reaching Escape Velocity, which folks really seem to enjoy...though it is a somewhat specialized market (people who want to create insanely audacious markets and need to leverage sponsors, media and teams of volunteers...sort of a Martial Arts Geek Expressionism). My better known book, Computing Across America, is in the process of being edited and folded into a large combined volume that includes it's unpublished sequel as well as a host of gizmological goodies (especially about BEHEMOTH)

Why the transition to sea?

Ah so many reasons. Freedom, self sufficiency, the noise of the road, open space, global range...and new conceptual territory. My Microship project was a direct human scale spin-off of BEHEMOTH and it kept evolving over a decade until I had to admit that I needed something bigger than a pedal /solar/sail micro trimaran.

I hope someone needs one, however. It's sitting here in my lab. Know any technomadlings with a yen for adventure and (access to) Deep Pockets?

Any cruises on the horizon? Would you say sail out to the Marshall's and spend a year or two? What areas interest you?

Initially my own waters; so far I've single-handed my previous boat (Corsair 36 tri) up to Desolation Sound, and the aboard Amazon 44' explored Puget Sound, San Juans and Gulf Islands with my ex. Now it's time to head further north...the boat can take it...and is perfect for this environment. Steel hull, stout rig, wood stove and lots of self sufficiency tools.

Anyway, once I've had some larger adventure on this coast, it will be a natural thing to head out the Strait and turn left. South Pacific, Aus/NZ and Europe including Scandinavia are all inviting.

Are you completely transitioned or or you still somewhat land based?

About 50/50 now, with the boat gradually becoming home. The weekly forays to the home base facilities gives me the space for business, working and spending time with my partner, and tonnage reduction...and boat projects are warming up with the weather and the completion of my mobile lab (now parked inside a building, about 2 blocks from Nomadness)

What is the next product project?

We've just started producing a much-needed line of "Expedition Medical Chests," with ER grade supplies in gasketed Lexan cases. See here.

I'm also starting a publication series ("design packages") that document various interesting boat projects, and not just geeky ones. All are detailed enough to serve as a full how-to, though of course boat contexts differ widely and they're probably more likely to be used as resources more than blueprints. Still, having a working system in hand is hugely helpful. Some will have associated kits.

You are consulting a bit, what is the nature of your consulting?

A very common problem in industry is a lack of writing skills...some amazing engineering comes with such unreadable documentation (or none) that companies stay busy with more hand holding than is necessary. I'm on the other side of this now, in fact.

Something I've been doing freelancer for about 30 years is acting as a translator...it's unglamorous but really necessary. It's also kind of fun, giving me a short but intense learning curve.

I'd like a statement of the big picture from you, what's this all about? I mean a lot of that is self evident from your material, but what's the vision, where are you going?

Well, I usually just quip, "It's fun", since that's such a big question. A somewhat more precise answer is that I find the most rewarding lifestyle to be one that incorporates all my passions into a self-sufficient enterprise...not with any emphasis on business, but with that as a sort of automatic nickel generating component that burbles along in the wake of whatever I find most interesting.

What I find interesting at the moment is a layer of intelligence on the boat that provides a deep situation awareness (both ship internals and the outside world). This should not be misunderstood as a complicated system that will lead to even more breakdowns, I would never trust a microprocessor to turn on my nav lights. But a toolset that allows me to observe trends, do failure analysis, and otherwise overlay a sort of industrial-control environment onto the boat...now that's fun stuff. It also creates a system context into which it is easy to integrate other things of interest: a piano studio, 3D printing capability for parts creation, video production, efficient power management, robust communication tools and so on.

Why a sailboat? A tug like Stewart Brand's might be easier to negotiate, what's the allure, statement made/goal. Non petroleum?

Heh...years ago when I did the Phil Donahue show, he asked me, "Why not a Harley?"

I'm not a purist, though of course the ability to move with a minimum of expensive fuel is increasingly worthwhile. A lot of it is just my personal sense of aesthetics, though I do sigh with envy at the space inside some trawlers. Really it goes back to my general desire to blend passions: interesting stuff happens at the boundaries between specialties, and if those a seemingly divergent (sailing vs distributed control networks...or bicycling vs on-board computers back in the '80s) then it's intrinsically entertaining and door opening.

I look forward to being the only guy in the anchorage who can crank out a toner-transfer printed circuit board or a custom 3D printed plastic part. Geek pleasures, mixed with the languid pace of the traditional nautical life and the time-honored practice of barter.

Personals/Dave Wright/College or self taught/How did you get here?

Self taught, which is really just another way to say that passion is a much stronger motivator than fear of tests. I've spent my life doing whatever is most interesting, and that automatically causes education. The more I learn the more I find things I would like to know...and the more I am attracted to people who have related and highly varied expertise (that's why I've always found Dave Wright so interesting). I used to have a vague sense that I had missed something by skipping out of engineering school, especially with the obvious holes in my education...but I got over that when I spent a couple of years teaching a senior projects course at a large university. I was glad not to have been defined by such an environment, though of course some folks can just extract the good bits and not be damaged by the process.

Being self employed is not easy, though-I have terrible work habits and only get away with it because my interests keep me moving in the same general direction for a long time. Sometimes interesting things emerge.

Please add anything I may have overlooked or that you feel is relevant.

The biggest challenge is that my fantasies of what can be done keep on evolving faster than my abilities to actually build the stuff...and that can be deadly. Dave once said, "You're staggered by your own imagination". That sounds like a compliment but it's actually a rather accurate assessment...I need to freeze a specification and get 'er done. Recently I've been getting a little better at that, since I am annoyingly aware of being finite. The average completion time of a homebuilt boat is 137 years, and even though my boat is already "built", it's easy to see how projects can just never end. Here there be dragons...you see them all the time in the marinas.

Good project management skills help with this, keeping focus on what I call CDT's (Clearly Defined Tasks). When working on the boat, I try not to get lost in blue sky brainstorming, or the next version will seduce me long before the current one is done enough to enjoy.

You can access far more of Steve's technomadic brilliance at these sites:

Nomadic Research Labs

Nomadness weblog

Behemoth

Store

And others pursuing a technomadic lifestyle here.

Raz de Sein

2011-04-03T20:09:00.015-04:00

Raz de Sein and the three lighthouses

courtesy
Amoureux de la Bretagne

courtesy John Ushant

courtesy Jean Guichard via Pulgatorio de Tevennec

Ar-men Lighthouse

Courtesy Purgatario de Tevennec

Caprice FLOTS
In 2601
AD 184855
troller built in 1966 in Douarnenez
Site Jean Marie Tanguy
Skippper: Paul Milliner - Ile de Sein
main features;length:6.87 m Width: m GRT: 5.41 tx engine: 41 hp MWM
Incorporated by Eric Losq Plogoff, it was then registered in district of Douarnenez. He is now finishing his life quietly in the cemetery of boats Locquéran
in the port of Breast with Vagabond Islands (photo G) and with Hope in God (photo D)
the bar in the Raz

courtesy Audiernnes les Dundees

cyclone: CYCLONE
In 2666
Ad 279097
potters / long liner / shell built in 1970 to Freight
Construction Stipon
Skipper: Follic François (François Cyclone) - Ile de Sein
main features; length: 9 mwidth: 3.58 m GRT: 7.97 tx engine: 90 hp Baudouin
During a campaign Jacques scallops in the harbor of Brest, "Cyclone" hook a former anchor in the middle of the pool shell and sink. It will then be salvaged and sold to La Rochelle.
Follic Francois (Francois said cyclone, named after his old boat) has long been the patron of the "City of Paris" SNSM the canoe from the island of Sein
the bar in the "Trouziard" also said the Torpedo channel (Raz de Sein in the Old)
A Breast is not only a tradition to name the boat to his boss, it's almost a necessity as many surnames are identical (Spinec, Guilcher, Follic, Milliner, Fouquet ...). Jos Fouquet told me that at one point there were 17 Joseph Fouquet on the island ...
After the accident in the harbor of Brest, "Cyclone" will turn to the districts of Saint Brieuc and then Sables d 'Olonne under the name "Candy" and then to La Rochelle in 2005 still under the same namPhoto taken shortly after the accident at the port entrance channel. The boat was towed to the level of ASM to clear the password input port where it presented a danger

courtesy Audiernnes les Dundees

Cyclone fishing in the Raz. Note the birds. This is how the fishermen hand or longlining for sea bass know where to go.

courtesy Audiernnes les Dundees

Tevennec lighthouse is located at the tip of Raz in Brittany. The transition from the tip of the island Raz de Sein, presents enormous difficulties and dangers, in part to the destructive force of the water.
Crossing these waters at night is suicide .

Courtesy Purgatario de Tevennec

The French Raz de Sein translates literally in English as 'storm within'. How apt. It's a treacherous, infamous stretch of water at the confluence of at least two opposing currents off the coast of Brittany that can be a nightmare for mariners. It's also been and is a favorite for adventurous and hardy fishermen attracted to the bountiful sea life there. Sea bass is the draw, apparently sustainably harvested, at least recently. The contemporary practice of fishing in this fabled area is written about in Maritme Life # 34, a sadly defunct publication which was a joint effort between WoodenBoat and Chasse Maree.
here's what Wikipedia has to say about the Raz de Sein:

"The Raz de Sein is a stretch of water located between the Isle of Sein and the Pointe du Raz, in Finistère, in the Brittany region of France.

This tidal water is an essential passage for vessels wishing to pass between the Atlantic and the English Channel because further west, at high tide, the Isle of Sein and its embankment stretch for more than thirty miles.

This is a very dangerous zone for navigation, due to the violent sea currents from the tides (up to six knots during the spring tides). The current causes the sea to rise quickly, and it is recommended that heavy vessels should only attempt to cross this strait at still water during calmer conditions.

The Raz de Sein is bounded by the La Vieille and Petite Vieille lighthouses, and by the shoreline of the île de Sein.

Maritime disasters:

On May 26, 2006, Édouard Michelin died while fishing for sea bass on his ship Liberté. The skipper of the boat, Guillaume Normant, also lost his life in the accident. The boat was found two days later with no apparent damage, roughly 15 km from the Île de Sein."

And Yachting Monthly had this as an introduction to the video below:

"Off the NW tip of Brittany lies the Raz de Sein. Few other stretches of water have such a fearsome reputation: the tide can rip through at 6 knots at Springs, and when an Atlantic storm hits, the result is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Pity the lighthouse keepers of old. The Ar-Men lighthouse, the most westerly of those marking the shoals around the Île de Sein, was nicknamed the 'Hell of Hells' by its former keepers. Closer inshore, the square tower of La Vieille lighthouse was the second last in France to be automated, due to the protests of the live-in keepers. It took until 1995 for the light to be automated and the keepers to depart."

kayak extrem dans le raz de sein by wavestar

Douarnenez, 1912. Photos of Charles L'Hermitage

2011-03-13T12:37:00.000-04:00

Douarnenez Harbor c. 1912

bateaux dans le port à marée basse

voilier dans le port

bord de mer avec voilier

bateaux dans le port

vue du port

Caulking seams, other repairs

calfats bretons réparant une coque de bateau

calfats bretons réparant la coque d'un bateau

calfat breton sur la plage

calfats bretons réparant la coque d'un bateau

calfats bretons nettoyant la coque d'un bateau

calfat breton nettoyant la coque d'un bateau

calfats bretons nettoyant la coque d'un bateau

calfat breton brûlant du goudron

calfat breton réparant un bateau

calfats bretons réparant la coque d'un bateau

calfat breton réparant un bateau

calfat breton nettoyant une voile

calfats bretons

calfats bretons réparant un bateau

calfat breton immatriculant un bateau

calfats bretons brûlant du goudron

calfat breton réparant la coque d'un bateau

calfats bretons réparant un bateau

calfat breton nettoyant la coque d'une barque

Bretagnie

Paysage de Bretagne

Douarnenez : breton dans son intérieur

Auteur :
Lhermitte Charles Augustin (1881-1945)
all photos

(C) Droits réservés
Crédit photographique :
(C) RMN (Musée d'Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
Période :
20e siècle
Date :
1912
Localisation :
Paris, musée d'Orsay

Charles Augustin Lhermitte, French, (1881-1945) was the son of the realist painter Lèon Lhermitte (1844-1925) and worked in photography for about twenty years, stopping in the 1920s.

Although a member of the pictorialist movement, he remained somewhat of a novice to the technique, and was probably influenced more by naturalism, which he inherited from his father, than by symbolism and impressionism. His work is generally characterized by a clear definition rather than the soft focus. (courtesy Wikipedia)

I found this archive and several others via a facebook friend, Pierre-Yves Decosse. Pierre seems to share my love of maritime history and particularly the smaller inshore craft of the local fisherman. The portion of the L'Hermitte archive presented here is minuscule, the archive runs to 500 images.

Douarnenez is still an active fishing port and host to a traditional maritime festiva l every other
year.

Thanks to the folks at RMN

Whaleboats for the CW Morgan

2011-03-09T22:55:00.006-05:00

A quick post to announce a new weblog I am hosting at the behest of John Brady, lead boatbuilder at the Workshop on the Water, the very active boatshop at the Independence Seaport Museum. Wow and Rocking the Boat in NYC have been commissioned to build a whaleboat each, with the goal of fitting out the restoration of the CW Morgan at Mystic Seaport in grand style. These boats will be built in a traditional manner, a combination of lapstrake and carvel planking, lap for the top few strakes and carvel lower down. Originally built all lapstrake, traditional builders and the whalermen themselves came to prefer the quieter carvel planked construction because it was less likely to alert a whale to it's impending demise. The boats will allow for 5 or 6 crew with rowing stations and gunter rigged sailplans. After their completion, they may be allowed to play a bit before joining the Morgan for her first voyage, to New Bedford, MA.
John will be leading the team in Philadelphia. The lofting is complete and we should have a post by Wendy Byar soon on that. The plan is next to build two sets of molds for the boat in Philadelphia with one set being sent to NY. That work is expected to commence in a week or two.
The build in NY will be led by Geoff McKonly, late of Philadelphia where he was the head of the Philadelphia Wooden Boat Factory for many years. Other institutions may also get involved with builds of their own.
This should be a rewarding couple of builds to follow, and I hope to keep it up at least to the first voyage of the Morgan to New Bedford, we will see what happens after that. I hope you'll stay with us.

And please will some one of my loyal readers have the grace to christen the new weblog, not with champagne but a comment?

Here's the link, Whaleboats for the CW Morgan