I was pleased to see that American Rivers has a new blog, Blue Trails Guide, focused on helping communities make better recreational use of their waterways. Rock on, folks!

• 16’6” to 18’6” overall length, stem to stern (transom)
• 25-hp maximum power
• Must burn less than 2 gallons per hour while maintaining a 15-knot cruising speed and carrying 650 lbs (four adults or equivalent)
• Trailerable weight (with engine) must be less than 2,700 lbs
• Must be able to safely (if not comfortably) get home against a steady 15-knot breeze with higher gusts, and a 2' to 3' chop

An open contest like this, with a focus on solutions to a noted issue, is incredibly cool. There will definitely be more and better ideas to emerge from this casting of a wide net. It will be exciting to see what innovation comes out of this.

Pirogue from Mozambique

Pirogues from Madagascar

Incidentally, if you want more of a flavor of Fogo Island - or, in fact, if you are in the Chine bLog mindset at all - you MUST go grab yourself a copy of the song "A Boat Like Gideon Brown" off Newfoundland band Great Big Sea's great album "Sea of No Cares." Just do it. You will not regret it unless you only like death metal.

I recently read "Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II", by Robert Kurson. It is a well-known book at this point and you may have read it. If not, you really ought to - it is fantastic. It tells the true story of a group of American wreck divers who discover a U-Boat sunk off the coast of New Jersey where no U-boat ought to be. Two men in particular pursue its identity and the story follows their tumultuous multi-year effort to prove their case. Great stuff.

A while ago I tried to create a dynamic map with traditional boats plotted according to their origin. I quickly ran into technical difficulties and scrapped it. Now, thanks to new functionality from our friends at Google Maps, I have again plotted traditional boats on an interactive map, linking each to relevant posts on Chine bLog and elsewhere. Please let me know if you have one to add. Enjoy!

I am adding this after the fact in response to a question that is going around my head (especially since I hit the US and UK): what constitutes "traditional" for purposes of this project? My (loose) working definition is that I want to show "designs" that are a) small, b) roughly a century old or more (to the origin of the "design" or "class"), and c) originally utilitarian (i.e., I am generally avoiding yachts). Reproductions are cool if they are very true to the original "design" / "class" as stated above. This is where I am today, anyway...

I have mentioned the presence of one of Iain Oughtred's Caledonia Yawls at the festival. I had previously only seen the design in pictures and it was a thrill to get a up-close-and-personal with the boat, one of my favorite designs. This one is REBECCA ANN, built by Geoff Kerr in 2002 and owned by Dale Davenport of Linville, VA. Some observations:

• The Caledonia is much bigger in real life than she seems on paper or screen. That isn't a bad thing at all - she seems more substantial for cruising or going out in a little weather than I expected.
• She looks even better up close. I guess many boats look better in the water with sails flying, but she was exceptionally so to my eye.
• The interior layout just screams adventure. This is a boat you could load up and go somewhere with a few people. She could take you into shallow-draft waters and out across some open water.
• I need one.

If interested, the web site The Caledonia Yawl Crazybird has Dale's story of coming to own the boat, as well as his and other cruising stories.

The Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival is pretty contained, but there are a number of boats to see, so it took me a bit before I wandered over to the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association tent. This seems like a cool organization. Their site has a master list of canoe plans, a suppliers directory, and historical info about Old Town canoes. This organization is definitely worth checking out.

They had a few well-restored cedar-and-canvas canoes there, including this one. Pretty boat - someone took care on this one - it looks like there is a substantial amount of original wood in her. She looks nice on the water as well...

The Wood Duck is a pretty little kayak (the hybrid refers to it being part stitch-and-glue and part strip-built). It is too small and short for my taste (I do too many longer trips and want better tracking), but for a light, easy-to-manage boat, it is a nice option. It is way, WAY nicer-looking than I lot of light recreational boats.

The Chester Yawl surprised me - pleasantly - with its rowing capability. It is attractive, but not stunning, to my eye, but I liked its performance. It also has a really clean, flexible layout that strikes me as useful across a range of purposes. The center sent and foot stretchers are designed to hook into the floor-boards, basically allowing a myriad of configurations for different preferences. Very nice touch.

And then the Wherry. It is gorgeous and it rows extremely well and I made an absolute hash of rowing it. Complete embarrassment. I know it has been a while since I skulled, but geez... If I wanted a really nice rowing boat, though, I would definitely look at this boat.

One more thing...

I got to talk to Chesapeake Light Craft's principal and designer, John Harris. I asked him about the rig for the Skerry, which always seemed too small to me. His fascinating response: a) everyone says that and b) everyone is surprised when they actually sail it. As-is, it has the same sail area / displacement as a Laser. Huh. Apparently they are pretty peppy with this rig and any more would be dicey (though a bigger Bermuda sloop rig exists). Shows what I know.

One thing I can tell from here: Phil Bolger's lovely Light Schooner is a nice pick for such a race. I am looking at one out there and it is doing well.