Chine bLog

So once more, for now, to the Center for Wooden Boats, getting back the the livery service, from which I got a nice sail in the Cape Ann dory Q'ONA. The service offers both oar- and sail-powered boats in a variety of sizes. I few more I liked:

Lake Oswego Boat
The original 60-year-old boat was found in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Built by a Finnish boatbuilder in Portland as a stock boat, it was made using a half model which a customer brought to the builder. It became a popular boat at Skunk Lake, Oregon (which later became known as Lake Oswego). It may be a copy of the Rangely boat, a sporting boat developed on the Rangely Lakes of Maine about 100 years ago. The unique features (i.e. a flat-bottom plank in place of a keel and a two-part stem with inner and outer pieces) make the boat relatively fast to build. The current CWB Lake Oswego boat was built by students of Eric Hvalsoe.

Love the sheer on this one. I definitely want to take this for a spin on another trip...

Unless I can gather some friends, I'll just look at the gig.

Pilot Gig DAN
This 21’ rowing boat was designed and partially built by the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Townsend, Washington. The school's founder, Bob Prothero, donated the unfinished boat to The Center for Wooden Boats in memory of Dan Dygert, a charter member of CWB. The boat was completed through donations in memory of Dan Dygert. The type is similar to the pilot gigs in the 18th and 19th centuries where fast and seaworthy rowing boats were used to carry ship's pilots to vessels about to enter a port. The planking is red cedar, frames are white oak, fastenings are copper. The Dan is regularly used and maintained by a group of CWB rowers. It also has been used in traditional boat competitions. This type of boat also utilized by rowing clubs in Shelton, Olympia, and Anacortes.

Finally, this one, SILKIE, is for advanced sailors (I'll have to pull together my credentials):

My very first finding at the Center for Wooden Boats, even before my Cape Ann dory sail and my close-up with Haida dugout canoes, was the biggest surprise. I walked into the Center and was immediately confronted by a few folks working away on some skin-on-frame Aleut baidarkas. It sure looked like a class, and indeed it was. Holy smokes, I thought, this place runs boatbuilding classes too? It does offer boatbuilding classes - lots - and a bunch of other kinds of classes too.

It seems they have run this class before, as there were a few finished baidarkas on the floats. I found these to be really lovely kayaks. I confess I am much more a fan of other forms of kayaks - some baidarkas just look funny to me - but these ones worked really well. The class was doing a fantastic job too. They were building the boats entirely with pegs and lashing and the details were great. I was particularly struck by the bows.

It seems that the various classes run the mix from being day or weekend classes to full-week ones, like this baidarka one. This would be a great destination. We haven't even touched on Puget Sound beyond...

Hopefully you enjoyed my last post on my first rental experience at the the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle. Let me now step back to some of the other treasures I saw there.

I thought they might have a Haida dugout canoe there, and I was itching to see a real one. They do not, though, have one. They have two and quarter. Behold.

They had one in the water; I am not sure if it is open for rent (though I will be asking next time). It is one fine-looking chunk of cedar, though, eh? I find these boats beautiful, not just for the lines, but also for the artwork. Native Northwest art is incredible, and seeing it on a boat is seeing it in a truly natural form.

The second canoe was up on land; not sure what its status is. Her artwork is well displayed, though:

I was in Seattle for business last week, which allowed me to make a pilgrimage to the Center for Wooden Boats, a place so cool I cannot contain it to a single post, nor even two. In fact, friends, a roughly two-and-a half-hour visit gave me four interesting posts to lay out for you. This place is everything I expected and then a bunch more.

Here's the overview, for those not familiar. The Center for Wooden Boats is, on the surface, a museum of small, classic boats that happens, unlike others of its type, to be set smack in the middle of a major American city. Right away, that gives it some cache. The thing that first drew me to the place, however, and I have known of it for a couple years, was the fact that this museum has a livery service. In short, for many of the boats, you can not only touch them, you can use them. At a very reasonable cost, too. Brilliant concept, and I have been itching to check it out. Thursday, 6/12, was the big day.

After looking around a bit, I found my way to the livery shack, where the manager, Zach, gave me a going-over on my sailing chops before letting me free on Lake Union. There were some nice options: a few Beetle cats (never actually sailed one), some small prams (seemed a bit tame), some knockabouts (a bit much for single-handing, first time out). Then something a little different caught my eye: the boat I was to come to know as the Cape Ann dory Q-ONA. Now she was the ticket.

It has been an exciting few weeks for anyone interested in the origins of boats and boating, as we are here at Chine bLog. It turns out that humans may have discovered the ways of the maritime life long before science generally believed. First, I read a great article in the next to last issue of Discover Magazine titled "Did Humans Colonize the World by Boat? Research suggests our ancestors traveled the oceans 70,000 years ago." You can imagine me sitting upright when I flipped to this piece. It follows the research of Jon Erlandson, an archaeologist with the University of Oregon, who has identified dart heads along the California coast dating to 12,000 years ago. They are similar to others found along the Northern Pacific Rim, the oldest being from 15,600 years ago in Japan. They seem designed for hunting marine prey. Erlandson is building a case that the earliest Americans arrived here by boat, hopping along the coast and kelp forests. Wow.

It gets better. Other research suggests older maritime migrations in Southeast Asia (30,000 years ago) and Australia (50,000 years ago). Early humans may have even crossed the Red Sea coming out of Africa 70,000 years ago. Much of the research also uses projected maps of ancient coastlines. It turns out that, even with lower sea levels during the Ice Age, there were several significant straits to navigate to get form Southeast Asia to Australia. We have known ancestors of the current Aborigines were there 50,000 years ago. It always struck me that they must have gotten there by boat - I mean could the sea levels really be so low? It turns out my naive intuition may not have been far off.

While still chewing on this delicious piece of research, I struck, literally days later, a posting by "aqlunafoo" in the Proa_File Yahoo! Group. It references additional research, reported on Science Daily, pointing to a dramatic reworking of Southeast Asian settlement. Scientists had thought humans migrated to Southeast Asian islands from Taiwan 4,000 years ago. DNA studies, however, indicate that Island Southeast Asia was populated 10,000 years earlier than this and that, in fact, migration into Taiwan from these islands may have been the case. "aqlunafoo" suggests the trimaran is the original boat that sailed to Taiwan, and the proa was developed somewhere between Taiwan, the Bismarks and Santa Cruz." Good stuff.

And there's more...