wtarzia
06-27-2009, 09:59 AM
Under gray skies and occasional sprinkles I wandered the Wooden Boat Show yesterday. A fine day in any event, and a generic thanks to those people who let me lean over, stand on, poke, and lift up (to see how heavy those hollow wooden spars are really) all day long with good humor.
I met forumite Ken (Kenjamin) with his Caledonia yawl Xena and its innovative sail design and flush-Lexan-hatched fishwell and was pleased to put a living face to the name and forum postings. His was one of two Caledonia yawls (the other traditionally rigged), a design that seems to be as close to the perfect small(ish) sail boat as you can get along with a couple of other designs.
There seemed to be a lack of dories represented (excepting the usual museum Banks dories). The one exception is the new kit dory from Chesapeake Light Craft (at least I think it is or will be a kit dory. It seems to be a gunning dory -- about 17 feet LOA rounded hull but very flat, not like the fuller-bellied swampscott type. But I'm glad they have added this boat to their list. Their other dory-like boat (whose name I forget) is shorter. It ought to salve the itch for a lot of would-be dory people. I was wanting to see another strake added to deepen the hull, but then it wouldn't be a gunning dory, and a different boat. It's hard to get the swampscott type out of mind -- it has become an archetype (did Jung ever write about it?).
There were the usuall high population of skiffs (wherry/whitehall like and etc.). These are lovely and efficient and evince great building skill, but so popular and populous that I grew jaded with them and their bright varnish work declaring their membership in a well-defined social class, prim and proper. The Norseboat did stand out in this class with its survivability for expedition cruising and unique sail (whether or the curved yard produces noticeably better performance, it looks damned good).
Some of the more interesting boats were the ones built and showed by "real regular individuals", cleaned up for the show but showing the agreeable signs of happy wear. A noticeable proportion of these were sharpies. These boats catch my eye because of the individual inventions the builders grace them with. One sharpie had fold-out sections on top of its side seats (which were also storage and bouyancy tanks), converting the boat quarter by quarter into one long flat platform for camping/reclining.
I wish the Core Sound boats were being showed -- I saw the wonderful EC22 Southern Skimmer at this year's Everglades Challenge race and wanted to see more still.
I was stunned by the beautiful 27 foot sharpie "Regret" whose name brought a cloud over my girlfriend for a moment -- "How sad!" until I told her the in-joke concerning Munroe and "Egret." Still, the owner of this boat will be explaining this joke forever to people going by, and I prophesy that he/she will come to regret the joke whose wit requires the proximity of boating geek-nerds. But what a stunning boat! Makes you admit that sitting head room is not a bad thing at all. The long more traditional big sharpie next door was equally admirable, and the sitting head room under its boom tent promised simpler but livable cruising comforts. The sharpie is really a remarkable boat for all its simplicity.
Some boats I have seen for years in ads but could not ever gain a true impression of them. The Glen-L 14 seems huge in real life. I guess that's why these shows are good ;-) Some of the smaller more doable boats (cp. the proverb, "The boat that you use is the best boat") can look big enough despite the shorter lengths. Similarly, the Bluejay is a workmanlike useful boat. I did see one at the Everglades Challenge multiday race this year, and he did well in it. Chesapeake Light Craft's Pocketship of course falls into this class though with that cabin you were ready for its size. In real life it looks so huge and useful that you can well believe its need for 800 hours of work. How tempting nonetheless, especially when you live in areas where rich folk own all the damned coast and sleep-aboard is the only way for a few days adventure. If you have a boat to use while you are putting in the 800 hours, it might not be so bad.
On the topic of CLC, I was interested in their stand-up paddle board. I have missed this more recent development in recreational boating, but evidently it is an east coast phenomenon? I thought at first it was steroidal surfboard, then I thought it was a sit on top paddle board, then I saw the non-slip surface and mused about how fast that would wear a hole in my butt. I finally broke down and asked the attendant (I also hate asking for directions when lost) and he explained you stand on it and paddle with a long-ish kayak paddle. I don't know why you would want to, but of course that merely indicates I am a slave to tradition. This board was fairly thick (as in 6 inches, say) and had watertight access hatches to store stuff in the "hull." I saw under that clear screw-hatch a nylon sleeve so that you can get at your stuff without flooding the interior by pulling up the sleeves as you reach in. The CLC folk -- clever as ever.
A few unusual boats -- the Paper Jet sport-racer as usual (who wouldn't want all those head sails on roller furlers, so hot you are baked back into youth as you approach the boat), and a small shallop with its extremely rounded bluff ends, built at a boating program school and clench nailed in a heavy in your face way I have not seen before -- reminded me of kids making a tree house and hammering big heavy nail ends over flat, no graceful rounding over with the clenching iron -- is this traditional too?), and so on. I really missed not seeing any sailing multihulls (last year's show had a few interesting ones) though there was a tripled hulled picnic boat (you know, related to the picnic "catamarans" on lakes made of crimped aluminum tubes with tables and awnings for shaded martinis) though this was beatifully made of wood of course, and I didn't want to see this one "boarded in the smoke" and scuttled, which is an important difference. But on the whole there seemed to be fewer of the unusual boats here this year -- but how could you beat last year's wooden submarine, the historic "Turtle"?
In recompense, the dry-docked whaleship Charles Morgan was the real eye-catcher. half the boat is always in the water, and as you walk up to it on dry land you finally gain a sense of its size.
The tour of the work shops was interesting but melancholy, because it reminded me that I will never own a re-sawing bandsaw in service since 1901, or those other bandsaws and planers which promise me that any boat I'll ever own could be built in about 6 hours if I had all that power and space ;-) , and the ultimate -- the 90 foot long spar lathe -- a weekend on that and you could turn out spars for all of your conceivable rigging variations for your sharpie -- you'd be sick of having so manty perfect spars around! Did you know that this giant spar lathe uses a Model T (or Model A? or a mixture? I forget) differential and transmisison for gear reduction? Too cool. They let us poke around, lift up plywood coverings, etc.
Ending the day with a boat rental at Mystic is always the best way. Regrettably my favorite boat I've been renting for years (the swampscott dory) was not available. The Dion dory was being used. I settled for the Whitehall and enjoyed its speed and studied its backbreaking refusal to spin on a dime like the Swampscott can; really, the Whitehall is obsessed with straight lines, someone ought to mention the subject to it, diplomatically. But we rowed under the sweet in-between beauties of small patches of blue sky on one end and thunder storms coming down on the other, and such a space, fleeting, soon to evaoprate, is best the place for absorbing and processing the world's flow of information. -- Wade
I met forumite Ken (Kenjamin) with his Caledonia yawl Xena and its innovative sail design and flush-Lexan-hatched fishwell and was pleased to put a living face to the name and forum postings. His was one of two Caledonia yawls (the other traditionally rigged), a design that seems to be as close to the perfect small(ish) sail boat as you can get along with a couple of other designs.
There seemed to be a lack of dories represented (excepting the usual museum Banks dories). The one exception is the new kit dory from Chesapeake Light Craft (at least I think it is or will be a kit dory. It seems to be a gunning dory -- about 17 feet LOA rounded hull but very flat, not like the fuller-bellied swampscott type. But I'm glad they have added this boat to their list. Their other dory-like boat (whose name I forget) is shorter. It ought to salve the itch for a lot of would-be dory people. I was wanting to see another strake added to deepen the hull, but then it wouldn't be a gunning dory, and a different boat. It's hard to get the swampscott type out of mind -- it has become an archetype (did Jung ever write about it?).
There were the usuall high population of skiffs (wherry/whitehall like and etc.). These are lovely and efficient and evince great building skill, but so popular and populous that I grew jaded with them and their bright varnish work declaring their membership in a well-defined social class, prim and proper. The Norseboat did stand out in this class with its survivability for expedition cruising and unique sail (whether or the curved yard produces noticeably better performance, it looks damned good).
Some of the more interesting boats were the ones built and showed by "real regular individuals", cleaned up for the show but showing the agreeable signs of happy wear. A noticeable proportion of these were sharpies. These boats catch my eye because of the individual inventions the builders grace them with. One sharpie had fold-out sections on top of its side seats (which were also storage and bouyancy tanks), converting the boat quarter by quarter into one long flat platform for camping/reclining.
I wish the Core Sound boats were being showed -- I saw the wonderful EC22 Southern Skimmer at this year's Everglades Challenge race and wanted to see more still.
I was stunned by the beautiful 27 foot sharpie "Regret" whose name brought a cloud over my girlfriend for a moment -- "How sad!" until I told her the in-joke concerning Munroe and "Egret." Still, the owner of this boat will be explaining this joke forever to people going by, and I prophesy that he/she will come to regret the joke whose wit requires the proximity of boating geek-nerds. But what a stunning boat! Makes you admit that sitting head room is not a bad thing at all. The long more traditional big sharpie next door was equally admirable, and the sitting head room under its boom tent promised simpler but livable cruising comforts. The sharpie is really a remarkable boat for all its simplicity.
Some boats I have seen for years in ads but could not ever gain a true impression of them. The Glen-L 14 seems huge in real life. I guess that's why these shows are good ;-) Some of the smaller more doable boats (cp. the proverb, "The boat that you use is the best boat") can look big enough despite the shorter lengths. Similarly, the Bluejay is a workmanlike useful boat. I did see one at the Everglades Challenge multiday race this year, and he did well in it. Chesapeake Light Craft's Pocketship of course falls into this class though with that cabin you were ready for its size. In real life it looks so huge and useful that you can well believe its need for 800 hours of work. How tempting nonetheless, especially when you live in areas where rich folk own all the damned coast and sleep-aboard is the only way for a few days adventure. If you have a boat to use while you are putting in the 800 hours, it might not be so bad.
On the topic of CLC, I was interested in their stand-up paddle board. I have missed this more recent development in recreational boating, but evidently it is an east coast phenomenon? I thought at first it was steroidal surfboard, then I thought it was a sit on top paddle board, then I saw the non-slip surface and mused about how fast that would wear a hole in my butt. I finally broke down and asked the attendant (I also hate asking for directions when lost) and he explained you stand on it and paddle with a long-ish kayak paddle. I don't know why you would want to, but of course that merely indicates I am a slave to tradition. This board was fairly thick (as in 6 inches, say) and had watertight access hatches to store stuff in the "hull." I saw under that clear screw-hatch a nylon sleeve so that you can get at your stuff without flooding the interior by pulling up the sleeves as you reach in. The CLC folk -- clever as ever.
A few unusual boats -- the Paper Jet sport-racer as usual (who wouldn't want all those head sails on roller furlers, so hot you are baked back into youth as you approach the boat), and a small shallop with its extremely rounded bluff ends, built at a boating program school and clench nailed in a heavy in your face way I have not seen before -- reminded me of kids making a tree house and hammering big heavy nail ends over flat, no graceful rounding over with the clenching iron -- is this traditional too?), and so on. I really missed not seeing any sailing multihulls (last year's show had a few interesting ones) though there was a tripled hulled picnic boat (you know, related to the picnic "catamarans" on lakes made of crimped aluminum tubes with tables and awnings for shaded martinis) though this was beatifully made of wood of course, and I didn't want to see this one "boarded in the smoke" and scuttled, which is an important difference. But on the whole there seemed to be fewer of the unusual boats here this year -- but how could you beat last year's wooden submarine, the historic "Turtle"?
In recompense, the dry-docked whaleship Charles Morgan was the real eye-catcher. half the boat is always in the water, and as you walk up to it on dry land you finally gain a sense of its size.
The tour of the work shops was interesting but melancholy, because it reminded me that I will never own a re-sawing bandsaw in service since 1901, or those other bandsaws and planers which promise me that any boat I'll ever own could be built in about 6 hours if I had all that power and space ;-) , and the ultimate -- the 90 foot long spar lathe -- a weekend on that and you could turn out spars for all of your conceivable rigging variations for your sharpie -- you'd be sick of having so manty perfect spars around! Did you know that this giant spar lathe uses a Model T (or Model A? or a mixture? I forget) differential and transmisison for gear reduction? Too cool. They let us poke around, lift up plywood coverings, etc.
Ending the day with a boat rental at Mystic is always the best way. Regrettably my favorite boat I've been renting for years (the swampscott dory) was not available. The Dion dory was being used. I settled for the Whitehall and enjoyed its speed and studied its backbreaking refusal to spin on a dime like the Swampscott can; really, the Whitehall is obsessed with straight lines, someone ought to mention the subject to it, diplomatically. But we rowed under the sweet in-between beauties of small patches of blue sky on one end and thunder storms coming down on the other, and such a space, fleeting, soon to evaoprate, is best the place for absorbing and processing the world's flow of information. -- Wade