Clint Chase in Maine is about to make a batch of oars that are suitable for Storerboats. They are nicely balanced with the right amount of spring.
He needs to do a batch to make it cost effective, so if you are interested in some handcrafted oars contact him to see which sizes he will be making first.
Perttu is building his Quick Canoe in almost impossible conditions.
The middle of the Finnish Winter.
But the boat is going together well. He is building it very cheaply out of ply and polyester resin.
Winter has been really harsh in North America.
It has even been snowing in Texas – and not just a little bit.
Kenny and family (more north than Texas) are really active on the PDRacer front but like many others are getting cabin fever from being icebound inside their houses.
So during one of the better days … there was boating to be done – but not boating as we know it, Jim.
Fast building was part of the aim of this plan! Also to keep the expense down. Rick surprised me – I was thinking it would take a couple of weekends. The Quick canoe is very simple to build and comes out of three plywood sheets. A very simple plywood canoe It has been designed to be as easy to build as possible while keeping some of the qualities of a good paddling canoe – in particular the ability to track.
Tom has built his MSD Rowboat in Brisbane.
I met up with him recently and we drove down to the coast towing the rowboat to the river at Nudgee. A bit of wind and a lot of current because of all the rain.
Tom has trimmed down the skeg to get the boat to balance nicely in all directions. Before the modification the bow used to blow around – now it behaves nicely.
I took quite a few pictures.
Fiona Harbison and friends have just launched their new Handy Punt for fishing and family outings.
Fiona is the sister of Helen (hope I have that right) who built a Nutshell pram in a number of the Duck Flat spring or autumn boatbuilding schools.
It is called Farnark, which will strike a chord with Australians and New Zealanders through the work of John Clarke. There is a picture of the boat and a clip of John Clarke reprising his farnarkling spiel.
I was sitting in Chuck’s car as we were driving to the Lake Conroe Messabout. I knew that he had some plans for the Texas 200 event – to extend the concept and starting a new small boat festival on the Texas coast in a couple of years.
This is a podcast of that interview.
This podcast/mp3 talks about why Australian (and New Zealand) wooden boatbuilding is different from the rest of the world..
Click to listen to the talk. This is the third of three.
This is the second of my talks in the USA. It focuses a bit more on construction and some of the methods that can be used to keep a boat light and simple, but very strong and stiff.
It also discusses how there is a “creep” in boatbuilding and design that increases the weight of boats way over what is really needed for a strong structure.
This talk is the first hour of my exposition on boat building and design. There are two more parts to come. This covers some of the background and design issues. The second is more on the building side and the last is a bit more about why the Australian (and New Zealand) wooden boat tradition is different from the Northern Hemisphere.
You can stream the talks over your internet connection or download them as a podcast.
Thorne (aka David Luckhardt) is well known in both wooden boating and historical recreation circles (particularly those involving gunpowder).
He normally lurks around San Francisco, but on this occasion had driven up to Timothy Lake underneath the summit of Mount Hood.
I had the chance to interview him while sailing on Lake Timothy in Oregon.
Invitation to a Talk by Boat Designer Michael Storer
At Clint Chase Boatbuilder, 25 Deblois Street, Portland, Maine
Sunday Nov 1st @ 11am-1pm, Bring Boats and Questions
After some food and chat, Michael will talk to us about making our boats better…
More paddling on Lake Powell, Utah, part of the Colorado River.
Remember that I am not a real Canoeist. I have paddled quite a range of different boats at some time or another, I do know basic strokes, I have used canoes to do several day tours (Noosa River, Hawkesbury River) but this trip was to much more remote areas. Closest towns 50 or so kilometres away, we were likely to be pretty well the only people on that area of water after the weekend, we had to carry everything including food as there are no shops.
People as far away as Texas, California and Australia (me). Not a huge number, this cruise works well with up to around 12 to 15 boats. A huge thanks to Jim Thayer who thought up the event.
Before we look at the boats and meet the people the scale of the area has to be seen to be believed.
I am sleeping on rock (using an air bed) but the rock is incredibly beautiful – it is part of the ancient ocean floor even though the elevation here is around 3500ft. Pushed up by volcanic action. There are other patterns in many different places. Boating up the Colorado River in Canoes and other small boats tomorrow
Yesterday spent the day traipsing around Central Oregon With Andrew Linn. We had a canoe on the roof and a boat behind.
The boat behind was a delivery – Andrew had sold a Laser look alike – a now defunct class.
And was pretty nice to get foot mobile and do some short bushwalks.
