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I heard one last night - a cranky, annoyed voice that says "Ring, ring, ring. Answer your -bleep- phone!" Had me chuckling for ages.

Another wonderful place to eat is Dock 503 on Harbour Road in Sidney. It's in the heart of boatbuilding land surrounded by marinas without locked gates. It is expensive but amazing. Lunch is not...

Brooklin also has one of the planet's loveliest small libraries, endowed by Mr. & Mrs. E.B. White (Joel's parents). A very beautiful piece of our precious planet.

Happy Birthday Margo! Wishing you wonderful things in this coming year.

Barbara

I have a copy of a book that is potentially a real help to those "tormented by wind", as you say, Warren. Unfortunately it really needs a good editor. It makes me even crazier than I am already to...

So your sail was sort of streaming out like a flag in the wind. Makes a lot of noise, but at that point you may have depowered it. Next time, on your own, and preferably with less wind, you could...

I was wondering if you were going pretty fast on your reach (wind from starboard)and then when you tried to come up into the wind (turning to starboard, toward land) you went even faster. That would...

Thank you all, for all these great suggestions. The family library is about to get a real boost. Barb

Thank you Kermit. We will get those ones for sure.

My grandson is a good reader, avid, but he still enjoys being read to. He and my daughter just finished the Philip Pullman trilogy, _His Dark...

Thank you Rick! We'll have a look.
Barb

Thank you all.

John B. - one of our family members also found the S&A series a bit much, and maybe for similar reasons to your daughter. He prefers logs of real voyages. We'll bring one of...

Swallows and Amazons, of course. There is a new book called Brother XII's Letter about kids cruising and camping and solving puzzles in the Nanaimo BC area. Needs a little bit more careful editing,...

Another thought for those of you who might be starting from scratch: If you make your sheer strake out of yellow cedar you can varnish your cove stripe just as it is routed. It looks surprisingly...

Another thought for those of you who might be starting from scratch: If you make your sheer strake out of yellow cedar you can varnish your cove stripe just as it is routed. It looks surprisingly...

Another thought for those of you who might be starting from scratch: If you make your sheer strake out of yellow cedar you can varnish your cove stripe just as it is routed. It looks surprisingly...

Winds are more frustrating when the weather is gorgeous, usually. For a glass-half-full sort of person, that means we either get beautiful weather or great sailing. How can you lose? And if anyone...

Thank you Dutch. I didn't realise that if you bought full size plans some folks would send those instead of lines and offsets.

What a concept!

Dutch: Study plans are sold so people can get an idea of what the boat is like, in more detail than a tiny profile sketch can show. They are a fraction of the cost of a full set, and do not include...

That is a really interesting concept!

Are you thinking of being able to row and pedal simultaneously? Since oars give you bursts of propulsion, and pedals work steadily... It doesn't sound very...

That Bald-Pated Wood-Butcher (BPWB) is a pretty smart bird, he is.

Barb

Hello Two Davids,

Frank Fredette's daughter lives near us. I have asked her permission (via answering machine) to post her contact info on the Forum. Soon as I hear back from her I will post...

It's a walkable distance - about 1/2 hour if I remember rightly, but usually people are on their way from meal to class or sailing and don't want to spend the time walking. It's a great place to be....

Being the owner of a sailboat without an engine, living in an area with frequent calms, I have an idea why Jolly Boat designs are not plentiful on the market these days. Ship's boats were used by...

Brains can get addled by fear no matter what color the hair growing above them.

Congratulations, Wayne! We look forward to seeing you in these waters one day. If you put in around Seattle and head north you can have a Puget Sound, Georgia Strait, Inside Passage Elbow Bending...

For those admiring John R. Smith's black Sou'Wester, Defender is where their replacement ones came from. The brims are a little wider than the one in his signature photo, but they'll do.

Barbara Frum

Peter Gzowski.

I have read of an eagle dive bombing a bear cub as it walked a ridge behind its mother and another cub. The eagle knocked it off the ridge and the fall killed it. I trusted the source but can't...

Replying to John B.'s post about the pecked-in staysail on Spartan: You are correct, that's an either/or configuration. The staysail is for use with the reefed main. The jib is on a furler so you...

A real machine shop and stainless! Wowie!

And we do use both staysail and jib at the same time, on reaches or beating. Running, or ghosting as in that photo above, main and tops'l, or if we're...

If I may add a little bit here:

One of the nifty things about gaff rig is that you can make many of the bits yourself. It takes time, but from the look of the builder while he was doing it, it...

Strewth.

How come they don't sell gnomes like that in garden centres around here?

'Strilia really is a world class centre of culture, innit?

Sigh... Back to boring old Canadian culture.
...

Yep it was the Ghan. I read it on the BBC world service internet site, Paul heard it on CBC radio, but it wasn't news in the territories, I guess!

I'm not sure I quite get the answer to "why",...

Shane, you are the most eloquent of our members, and 'stremely 'Strine. I also used to be 'Strine once, but I left there at a very tender and naive age, so I never got to understand That Bit of the...

The people who have bought steam launch plans from us usually belonged to clubs for steam enthusiasts. You could google for clubs in your area, or even not in your area. I believe there is an...

Way to go, Ed and Finbar! We should all be so lucky to have such a boatyard supervisor as Finbar.

Keep up the good work!

Barbara

Last summer I found Slickers, a store in Prince Rupert that only sells rain gear. PR has really serious rain. Anyway I got the Helly Hansen three-part deal: polypro unders, thick polyester pile...

The death penalty is an odd threat to a mortal race, no? None of us gets outa here alive.

Speaking of Canadian place names, my fave is Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.

For more info, see www.head-smashed-in.com

Congratulations, you three! May you have many wonderful times.

Just had a call from a Newfoundland boatbuilder suggesting that it might be worth calling the City of Halifax clean-up crews to see what was happening to the downed oaks from Point Pleasant Park. ...

Just had a call from a Newfoundland boatbuilder suggesting that it might be worth calling the City of Halifax clean-up crews to see what was happening to the downed oaks from Point Pleasant Park. ...

Just had a call from a Newfoundland boatbuilder suggesting that it might be worth calling the City of Halifax clean-up crews to see what was happening to the downed oaks from Point Pleasant Park. ...

Who/what is she?

Barbara

Well said, Ken!

Barb

Ian, is this the same woman who not very long ago at all had surgery for a meningioma?

If so, Gor Blimey! We should all have such surgery!

Barb

Good on both of you!

Barb

I don't think you're crazy. When you sailed in 1978 was it as easy and automatic as riding a bike? And - not to be nosy, but how big and how agile are you? Do you have enough weight to keep a...

I believe John Guzzwell's boat Endangered Species is made of spruce instead of WRC because he developed an allergy to it.