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 Posted on February 16th, 2010 No, no one has invited to fly me down under to report (though I am still willing to negotiate!), but, since I know folks from the South-side check in, I wanted to make sure folks knew about this cool-sounding event: the Wooden Boat Festival, held this year in Melbourne, Australia on February 20-21. According to reader Richard Monfries, who alerted us of this event, this is the first time the event has been in Melbourne. Well worth a looksee, and sorry I won’t make it (though I would look nice in a press pass – I’m just saying).
We also want to highlight the Wooden Boat Association of Victoria, of which Richard is a member. Some nice pictures in their photo area.
Please post comments or send an email with any neat news from the events.
Posted on January 22nd, 2010
I have so engaged in designing and building that I haven’t been on the computer as much in the PMs. I have clearly been missing out on what some of our traditional boat peeps have been putting up. In case you missed it directly, here is some stuff to check out:
Indigenous Boats
Bob over at Indigenous Boats always has great stuff. No falling off as we checked in.
70.8
Tom at 70.8 has a few really nice posts: » Continue reading Catching up with the traditional boat blogosphere – recent stuff from some peers »
Posted on December 18th, 2009
Last Winter we finally read one of Tim Severin’s books, The China Voyage: Across The Pacific By Bamboo Raft and posted some reactions, all positive. One of our friends said, at the time, that if we liked that book, Severin’s The Brendan Voyage: Across the Atlantic in a Leather Boat was better still. Well, we finally read it. And we concur. It is an absolutely fantastic read.
The Brendan Voyage is also half sailing yarn and half archeological text. There is, apparently, a medieval Irish text, Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis, that tells of a voyage St. Brendan took in the North Atlantic in a leather boat, what we now call a curragh. It is, in fact, conceivable to interpret the text to say that St. Brendan and a crew of Irish monks reached Newfoundland around the sixth century, long before Leif Erikson’s boys and WAAAYYY before that poser Columbus. Scholars, of course, disagree about the extent to which it is factual or fantasy. One of the grounds for skepticism was that a leather boat could never make such a voyage. Severin set out to build a replica, using sixth-century technology, and sail it from Ireland to North America, specifically Newfoundland, Canada. Given the subtitle, I don’t think I am a spoiler to say that the crew proves the hypothesis and completes the voyage, adding evidence to support the Irish being the first Europeans to hit these shores.
Everything about the book is amazing. » Continue reading Fantastic read: Tim Severin’s “The Brendan Voyage” »
Posted on August 30th, 2009
Two quick notes on contests, one germane to this blog and one which is shameless, self-serving promotion (but a good cause nonetheless). We’ll get the latter in first. My company, Forum One Communications, has entered the Sunlight Foundation’s Apps for America 2 contest. Our entry is called DataMasher, and it lets you relate government data sets to see interesting relationships. We made the top three and need your vote to win. Please check out our instructions and learn how to vote. Thanks!
I also like to see that WoodenBoat has launched a second version of its design challenge. I posted about the first one a bit ago. The second riffs off of it, asking for a bigger boat that is equally fuel thrifty. We look forward to seeing the results of this one. I like they way WoondeBoat is moving power boating forward with these contests.
Posted on April 22nd, 2009
I noticed a while ago that our friend Gary Dierking, the Kiwi outrigger maestro, has been running a blog to compliment and promote his work. Take this as a study in how well I am doing at keeping up on this blog these days – I am just now getting to an appreciation of this resource on these amazing craft. And an appreciation it deserves, because there is some great stuff here.
I particularly enjoyed Gary’s thorough study of ama lashings, done in six parts (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, and part 6). These posts provide good pictures of the different types as well as their derivation and advantages. Now he is on to different rig types, with the most recent post giving a nice overview. We’ll certainly be watching – and learning from – this excellent blog.
Posted on April 21st, 2009
OK – its best I admit it. They say that is the first step. I am thinking about a new boat already. I want to build to my own design. I have some ideas coming together – I’ll share more when there is more to share. The key point is that every time I see a skin-on-frame boat I feel incredibly drawn to them. I think it has to do with the rawness of the medium – the boats go together by feel with pegs and lashing. Its gorgeously primal.
In the course of noodling on this idea I came across the site skinboats.org, which consists of The Skin Boat School and Spirit Line’s Skin Boat Store. The former, as it sounds, is the educational resource area, though there are some good nuggets online. The latter piece seems to be a great source for materials. I found proprietor Corey Freedman extremely willing to chat about this topic, giving me a number of ideas that I didn’t directly solicit. This is one worth keeping close at hand for the skin-on-frame medium.
Posted on April 5th, 2009
Congrats to our friends at WoodenBoat, publisher Carl Cramer in particular, for launching the new blog My Wooden Boat of the Week. It looks like it is what it sounds like. This week’s entry is on training boats used in New Zealand. Interesting little boats. We’ll keep an eye on this blog to see what else Carl puts out there. Welcome!
Posted on March 5th, 2009
 Not long ago, I noted a great article Tom Jackson of WoodenBoat did on selecting the rig for the boat he was building. A more recent issues, #205, the November/December 2008 one, includes a follow up piece that is also worthwhile. Jackson decided to make his own sails even though, in his words, “I had never so much as used a sewing machine before.” Jackson opens his hand on the trials and tribulations of this project, but ends with a nice “go for it” that those of us who wrestle with the boundaries of our creative abilities need to keep in our minds.
Posted on March 5th, 2009
 Alas, I doubt I will be able to make it – again – but other show get thee to Mystic, CT on June 26th-28th for the 2009 WoodenBoat Show. Its at Mystic Seaport, one of the better maritime museums around, so that in itself is enough reason to go, but there looks like there will be tons of special goodies there for this big event, including another I Built it Myself exhibition of home-built craft..
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