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Vol. 26, No. 4 - Traditional Small Craft Association
Ash Breeze The Journal of the Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc. Vol. 26 No. 4 Winter 2005 - $4.00 In This Issue: Apprentices Learn Traditional Sailmaking, Making Sails! The John Gardner Grant Program Documentation of Skaneateles Model #5 Delaware River Chapter Summer Activities The Douglas Oarlock—The Perfect Stroke Wooden Boats of Viet Nam Trekka Revisited at the Victoria Tall Ships Festival The Ash Breeze The Ash Breeze (ISSN 1554-5016) is the quarterly journal of the Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc. It is published at 1557 Cattle Point Road, Friday Harbor, WA 98250. Communications concerning membership or mailings should be addressed to: P.O. Box 350, Mystic, CT 06355. www.tsca.net Volume 26 Number 4 Editor Dan Drath drathmarine@rockisland.com Contributing Editor John Stratton Copy Editors Hobey DeStaebler Charles Judson Jim Lawson Editors Emeriti Richard S. Kolin Sam & Marty King David & Katherine Cockey Ralph Notaristefano Ken Steinmetz John Stratton Layout with the assistance of The Messing About Foundation The Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc. is a nonprofit, tax-exempt educational organization which works to preserve and continue the living traditions, skills, lore, and legends surrounding working and pleasure watercraft whose origins predate the marine gasoline engine. It encourages the design, construction, and use of these boats, and it embraces contemporary variants and adaptations of traditional designs. TSCA is an enjoyable yet practical link among users, designers, builders, restorers, historians, government, and maritime institutions. Copyright 2005 by The Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc. Editor’s Column In the Spring of 1997, Ben Fuller wrote on these pages, “John Gardner and others started TSCA in reaction to government regulations that were going to put traditional small craft out of business by basing capacity tests on the flat-bottom outboard model. TSCA successfully showed that a different test was needed for craft like dories that had survived winter Grand Banks fishing conditions that would have upset a flat-bottom skiff in no time. After the death of John an endowment was started to give TSCA another reason to exist. Through the endowment, TSCA would help ensure that young people grow up appreciating our small craft heritage.” These words are even more important today. In this issue you will find the statement of the Gardner Grant purpose, a summary of grants given, how to apply, and you will see a fine example of what the Grant program can help accomplish. The goal of the endowment was set at $100,000. Although the funding leveled off at about half that for a number of years, the original goal still remains. It is attainable with the help of you, our members, through contributions in the present and bequests for after you are gone. Perhaps with publicity for the program and its results, many more members will come onboard. A second important organizational issue is the consideration of nominees for the TSCA Council. Here is an opportunity to help chart the course of our organization in the coming years. There will be three vacancies beginning in June 2006. Please consider helping run your organization. There is much good in preserving, educating others about, and enjoying our lovely traditional small craft Lastly, visit our web site: www.tsca.net. It just gets better and better. Best Regards, Dan Drath Nominations are now open for the TSCA Council. See the details on page 16. Front Cover Just out messing about. Small boaters try out each others’ craft at the Delaware River Chapter’s annual Messabout in September. Left-to-right, a beautiful, American Canoe Association rigged (44 square foot high-aspect sleeved lateen sail), wooden sailing canoe, owned by Tom Ballew, Lancaster, PA, and an unidentifiable small sailing boat; an Appledore 19 double-ender, with sliding-seat rowing rig, recently restored by Tom Shephard; a Crawford Melonseed, from Cape May; Andy Anderson’s Tuckahoe Ten sailing skiff, designed by Tom Jones; the Tuckup Marion Brewington (sail #17); a brand-new Glen-L 15, built by Harold Bernard; a 20-foot cold-molded Melonseed, with experimental junk rig, built by Gary Holmes; and Dave Moreno’s glued lap Oughtred Whilly Boat. Photo by Wendy Byar. 2 _______________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005 Gardner Grants “To preserve, continue, and expand the achievements, vision and goals of John Gardner by enriching and disseminating our traditional small craft heritage.” In 1999, TSCA created the John Gardner Grant program to support projects for which sufficient funding would otherwise be unavailable. Eligible projects are those which research, document, preserve, and replicate traditional small craft, associated skills, and those who built and used them. Youth involvement is encouraged. Grants proposals are reviewed semiannually, typically in May and October. Proposals for projects ranging from $200 to $2000 are invited for consideration. The John Gardner Grants are competitive and reviewed semiannually by the John Gardner Memorial Fund Committee of TSCA. The source of funding is the John Gardner Memorial Endowment Fund, and funding available for projects will be determined annually. Eligible applicants include anyone who can demonstrate serious interest in, and knowledge of, traditional small craft. Affiliation with a museum or academic organization is not required. Projects must have tangible, enduring results which are published, exhibited, or otherwise made available to the interested public. Projects must be reported in the Ash Breeze. For program details, applications and additional information visit TSCA on the web at www.tsca.net Benefactors Samuel E. Johnson Life Members Sidney S. Whelan, Jr. Jean Gardner Bob Hicks Generous Patrons Willard A. Bradley Lee Caldwell Richard S. Kolin Michael S. Olson Richard B. Weir ...and Individual Sponsor Members Howard Mittleman Richard & Susan Geiger Rodney & Julie Agar King Mud & Queen Tule John M. Gerty Doug Aikins David J. Pape Gerald W. Gibbs Roger Allen Rex & Kathie Payne Larrick H. Glenndening Rob Barker Stephan Perloff Mr. & Mrs. R. Bruce Hammatt, Jr. Bruce Beglin W. Lee & Sibyl A. Pellum John A. Hawkinson Charles Benedict Ronald Pilling Peter Healey Howard Benedict Colin O. Hermans Michael Porter Robert C. Briscoe Gary F. Herold Ronald W. Render Edward G. Brownlee Stuart K. Hopkins Don Rich Richard A. Butz Townsend Hornor Bill & Karen Rutherford Charles Canniff John M. Karbott Philip T. Schiro Dick & Jean Anne Christie Carl B. & Ruth W. Kaufmann Richard Schubert David Cockey Stephen Kessler Paul A. Schwartz James & Lloyd Crocket Thomas E. King Karen Seo Thad Danielson Arthur B. Lawrence Michael O. Severance Stanley R. Dickstein Dan & Eileen Drath Chelcie Liu Gary L. Shirley Walter J. Simmons Frank C. Durham Jon Lovell Leslie Smith Albert Eatock James D. & Julie Maxwell F. Russell Smith, II John D. England Dean Meledones Stephen Smith Tom Etherington Charles H. Meyer, Jr. Robert W. Sparks Ben Fuller Alfred P. Minnervini Randall Spurr Zach Stewart Tom & Bonnie Stone John P. Stratton, III Robert E. (Bub) Sullivan Jackson P. Sumner George Surgent Benjamin B. Swan John E. Symons Gary Thompson Sigrid H.Trumpy Ray E. Tucker Peter T. Vermilya John L. Way Richard B. Weir John & Ellen Weiss Stephen M. Weld Larry Westlake Michael D. Wick Robert & Judith Yorke J. Myron Young The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005________________________________________________________ 3 “Only if our children are introduced to boats at an early age and grow up using them on the water will what we are doing today have any relevance for the future.” – John Gardner (former counselor, Pine Island Camp) Founded in 1902, Pine Island remains true to the simple, island life-style established by the current director’s grandfather and committed to providing an adventurous, safe summer. No electricity, an absence of competitive sports and the island setting make Pine Island unique. Ten in-camp activities offered daily, include rowing, canoeing, sailing, kayaking, swimming, workshop, archery, riflery, and tennis. Over thirty camping trips each summer, include backpacking, canoeing, kayaking and trips to the camp’s 90-acre salt water island. Campfire every night. Write or call the director for more information. Ben Swan, P.O. Box 242, Brunswick, Maine 04011 Win a TSCA T-shirt Members whose articles are published in the Ash Breeze are awarded a TSCA T-shirt. An article is a complete piece of writing that informs and educates. Anecdotes, Chapter news and reports, etc., do not qualify, although a T-shirt will be awarded to regular contributors of Chapter reports at the Editor’s discretion. How about writing that article for Ash Breeze? TSCA Chapters Join or start a chapter to enjoy the fellowship and skills which can be gained around traditional small craft Adirondack Chapter TSCA Mary Brown, 100 Cornelia St., Apt. 205, Plattsburgh, NY 12901, 518-561-1667 Annapolis Chapter TSCA Sigrid Trumpy, 12 German St., Annapolis, MD 21401, hollace@crosslink.net Barnegat Bay TSCA Patricia H. Burke, Director, Toms River Seaport Society, PO Box 1111, Toms River, NJ 08754, 732-349-9209, www.tomsriverseaport.com Connecticut River Oar and Paddle Club Jon Persson, 17 Industrial Park Road Suite 5, Centerbrook, CT 06409, 860-767-3303, jon.persson@snet.net Delaware River TSCA Tom Shephard, 482 Almond Rd, Pittsgrove, NJ 08318, tsshep41556@aol.com Down East Chapter John Silverio, 105 Proctor Rd, Lincolnville, ME 04849, work 207-763-3885, home 207-763-4652, camp: 207-763-4671, jsarch@midcoast.com Floating the Apple Mike Davis, 400 West 43rd St., 32R, New York, NY 10036, 212-564-5412, floapple@aol.com Florida Gulf Coast TSCA Roger B. Allen, Florida Gulf Coast Maritime Museum, PO Box 100, 4415 119th St W, Cortez, FL 34215, 941-708-4935 or Cell 941-704-8598 Roger.Allen@ManateeClerk.com Friends of the North Carolina Maritime Museum TSCA John Gardner Chapter Russ Smith, Univ of Connecticut, Avery Point Campus, 1084 Shennecossett Road, Groton, CT 06340, 860-536-1113, fruzzy@hotmail.com Sacramento TSCA Daphne Lagios, 172 Angelita Avenue, Pacifica, CA 94044, 650-557-0113, dlagios@smace.org, www.tsca.net/ Sacramento Lone Star Chapter Scajaquada TSCA Howard Gmelch, The Scow Schooner Project, POBox 1509, Anahuac, TX 77514, 409-267-4402, scowschooner@earthlink.net Charles H. Meyer, 5405 East River, Grand Island, NY 14072, 716-773-2515, chmsails@aol.com Long Island TSCA Myron Young, PO Box 635, Laurel, NY 11948, 631-298-4512 Lost Coast Chapter - Mendocino Dusty Dillon, PO Box 1028, Willits, CA 95490, 707-459-1735, plasgal@saber.net North Shore TSCA Dave Morrow, 63 Lynnfield Str, Lynn, MA 01904, 781-598-6163 Oregon TSCA Sam Johnson, 1449 Southwest Davenport, Portland, OR 97201, 503-223-4772, sjboats@comcast.net Patuxent Small Craft Guild William Lake, 11740 Asbury Circle, Apt 1301, Solomons, MD 20688 410-394-3382, wlake@comcast.net Pine Lake Small Craft Assoc. Sandy Bryson, Sec., 333 Whitehills Dr, East Lansing, MI 48823, 517-351-5976, sbryson@msu.edu Puget Sound TSCA Al Gunther, President, 34718 Pilot Point Road NE, Kingston, WA 98346, 360-638-1088, a_gunther@mac.com SE Michigan John Van Slembrouck, Stoney Creek Wooden Boat Shop, 1058 East Tienken Road, Rochester Hills, MI 48306 stoneycreek@stoneycreekboatshop.com South Jersey TSCA George Loos, 53 Beaver Dam Rd, Cape May Courthouse, NJ 08210, 609-861-0018, georgeloos@hotmail.com South Street Seaport Museum John B. Putnam, 207 Front Street, New York, NY 10038, 212-748-8600, Ext. 663 days, www.southstseaport.org TSCA of Wisconsin James R. Kowall, c/o Door County Maritime Museum, 120 N Madison Ave, Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235, 920-743-4631 Organizing Dallas/Forth Worth Area Mark “Stik” Stikkel, 621 Madeline Ct, Azle, TX 76020, 817-444-3082, mark78jeanann@wmconnect.com Inactive Chapters Maury River Chapter Potomac TSCA Upper Chesapeake TSCA William Prentice, 315 Front Street, Beaufort, NC 28516, 252-728-7317, maritime@ncmail.com 4 _______________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005 Boatshop, and assisted the project throughout. He also volunteered to be an unofficial apprentice—having, himself, long nurtured By Stuart Hopkins an interest in Boatbuilding apprentices at the Chesa- sailmaking. We adopted peake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels, MD, recently got an introduc- E m i l i a n o tion to small-craft sailmaking, and ended Marino’s the week-long course by lofting, sewing, e x c e l l e n t and hand-finishing sails for their recently “ S a i l m a k e r ’s completed Eastern Shore Stick Up Skiff. Apprentice” as Bob Savage, Museum staffer who helps our text, pracTom Kindling turns the crank as CBMM staffer Bob Savage holds manage the CBMM apprentice program, ticed theory and up the nearly completed mainsail as it comes out of the machine (to conceived the idea of adding sailmaking art on the Tyvek keep it off the Boatshop’s dirt floor!). to apprentices’ boatbuilding skills, and for a few days, invited me to conduct what he called a and then I some time in my loft as an “intern,” to “master class,” to include sharing all the turned the nine apprentices loose on the reinforce and refine his skills. Acquisition skills needed to design and make tradi- real stuff. of a suitable sewing machine and the necUsing their newly-learned rules of tional Bermudian, sprit, sprit-boomed, essary furniture and hand-tools is underthumb and techniques, with minimal gaff, lug and gunter sails. way. This seemed like a big order—the ex- coaching from me, they produced very We aren’t sure, but the CBMM may be perience would be new to both of us. But creditable sails for the “Unicorn” skiff. the first such institution to make after noodling up a course outline, I loaded Their work included every step of the prosailmaking a regular part of the my van with a hand-crank sewing ma- cess—designing, determining edge rounds boatbuilding agenda. It certainly seems chine, faux (Tyvek) and real (Oceanus) and broad seams, lofting, cutting up the logical—the apprentices learn the full sailcloth, plus the tools and furniture used cloth, machine sewing up the panels and natural sequence of building and sailing daily in my loft, and presented myself for patches, hand-sewing corner rings, and the Boatshop’s projects. And no longer duty last August. Bob helped me organize working the rope beckets to take the sprit outsourcing sails to lofts like mine will an impromptu “loft” in the Museum’s tips. They even scouted out embroidered soon pay for the investment in loft equipMuseum logos to ment and materials. sew at the tacks! Turn to page 14 to see the finished prodFinally, they all got uct under sail. a chance to sail the skiff, and study About the Author their handiwork. The author is an ex-journalist who sailed This all went off away from Chicago via the Mississippi so well, and creRiver many years ago. He cruised here and ated so much enthere on a little ketch during his middle thusiasm, that the life, with occasional gigs “apprenticing” Museum is curin a Florida sail loft. After he and his wife rently moving tobuilt their own home on the shores of the ward establishing Chesapeake Bay, he opened a one-man loft the program on a specializing in traditional small craft sails. permanent basis— not with an invited Photos by Dr. John Hawkinson and the “traveling master,” Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum but led by a staff member. At this Apprentices Iris Lavery in foreground and Tom Kindling attack writing, Bob Savthe hand sewn corner rings in the otherwise finished mainsail. age is due to spend Apprentices Learn Traditional Sailmaking, Making Sails! The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005________________________________________________________ 5 interest in and knowledge of traditional small craft. No affiliation with a museum or other academic organization is required. Awarded funds may only be spent on direct costs, including materials, supplies, heritage specialists, services, publication fees, and travel. Funds may not be used to supplant staff salaries. Overhead costs are not eligible for reimbursement. the grant period, including published materials. A summary report must also be furnished which is suitable for publication in the Ash Breeze, quarterly journal of TSCA. Periodic progress reports are Purpose strongly encouraged. To preserve, continue, and expand the Recipients must acknowledge the supachievements, vision and goals of John port of the John Gardner Memorial EnGardner by enriching and disseminating dowment Fund in all publications, printed our traditional small craft heritage. programs and signage. Recipients may be required to demonRequirements Scope strate satisfactory insurance coverage as Projects must be centered around or determined by the John Gardner Advisory The John Gardner Grants are designed to support projects that broaden our tradi- very strongly related to traditional small Committee. Insurance requirements will tional small craft heritage, and for which craft. be determined on a casesufficient funding would by-case basis. Recipients otherwise be unavailable. must comply with all apEligible projects are propriate federal, state those which research, and local regulations, orTotal: $12,400 document, preserve, and dinances, statutes and Awardee Award Year replicate traditional small laws governing the sponJuliet Brown Peapod Project $1,000 2000 craft, associated skills sored project. Robert Wolfertz canoe documentation $700 2000 (including their construcDocumentation of the San Juan Boating Club: Island Star trailer $600 2000 tion and uses) and the use of John Gardner Hull Life Saving Museum: youth event support $500 2000 skills of those who built Grant funds must be Philadelphia Wooden Boat Factory: program tools $200 2000 and used them. Youth inmaintained and furvolvement is encouraged. nished upon request. A Lake Champlain Maritime Museum: The John Gardner summary of the use of the Youth Event Support $500 2001 Grants are competitive grant funds must be reCWB Davis Boat and Shoalwater documentation $1,350 2001 and reviewed semi-annuported at the conclusion ally by the John Gardner of the grant period. No awards 2002 Memorial Fund Committee of the Traditional Application Sigrid Trumpy Mathis skiff documentation $1,200 2003 Small Craft Association. Completed applicaCenter for Wooden Boats Nootka canoe $1,350 2003 The source of funding is tions (available in HTML Waterford Public School youth boat building $1,200 2003 the John Gardner Memoor PDF format are subGrant return ($700) rial Endowment Fund, mitted to the John Gardand funding available for ner Memorial Fund Pine Lake Chapter TSCA documentation $1,000 2004 projects will be deterCommittee of the TradiCWB youth training boat design $700 2004 mined annually. The tional Small Craft Assofunding for an individual ciation, P.O. Box 350, Sunshine Coast documentation $800 2005 project is estimated to be Mystic, CT 06355. Moore documentation $1,000 2005 $200 to $2000. The deadlines for the Center for Wooden Boats documentation $1,000 2005 Multiple grants will semi-annual reviews are not be awarded to an inApril 15 and October 15, dividual or organization with announcements in Projects must have tangible, enduring June and December. in a single year. results which are published, exhibited, or otherwise made available to the interested Review Criteria Eligibility Eligible applicants include historians, public. These results may include (but are Expected results, both tangible and inauthors, boatbuilders, naval architects, de- not limited to) boats, written and graphi- tangible signers, small craft specialists, archeolo- cal documentation (including boat plans), Planned dissemination of results and gists, maritime heritage specialists, monographs, preservation of artifacts, ex- educational impact students, museums, educational programs, hibits, etc. Does the project cover new ground Recipients must furnish a report on the relative to traditional small craft? non-profit organizations, community based groups and anyone else with demonstrated results of the project at the conclusion of Urgency: Will an opportunity be lost? The John Gardner Grant Program Gardner Grant Award History 6 _______________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005 The Gardner Endowment Crew Endowment through September 2005— $48,333.16 Minimum Goal— $100,000 The Antique Boat Museum Rodney W. & Dorothy J. Agar Peter Balcziunas Rob Barker Bruce Beglin Howard Benedict & Patty Stratton Marcia Bicknell in memory of Joseph Bicknell John & Barbara Blaiklock Karen Brainard in memory of Les Gould Mary A. Brown Calvert Marine Museum Charles B. Catlin David & Katherine Cockey Geof Conklin William B. Coolidge Gerald A. David Delaware River TSCA Dan & Eileen Drath John O. Duncan David Epner Robert D. Ertl Peter & Cricket Evans Charles Ewers LtC. Dennis J. Fleming Ben Fuller Jean Gardner Ron Ginger Toby Goodrich William Newton Hale Mary E. Hallock Bart M. Hauthaway Peter Healey Walter H. Heckler Guy Hermann The Hewson Family Impact: Will the project have a lasting impact? Project quality: How effectively will the project preserve and expand the achievements, vision and goals of John Gardner? Does the project broaden our traditional small craft heritage? Feasibility: Is the project well conceived and articulate? Is the applicant’s experience relevant and sufficient? Relevant experience of major Robert B. Hicks Harry S. Holcomb III, MD William H. Hollinshead, III Townsend Hornor Samuel E. Johnson John M. Karbott George B. Kelley Samuel & Marty King Richard S. Kolin Jack Krolak Robert A. Kugler Robert C. Lea, Jr. Lance R. Lee Paul Lipke Sam & Susan Manning Robert T. McElroy Michael McMahon Dean Meledones & Mary Slaughter Andrew Menkart Daniel J. Miller Alfred P. Minervini John Mullen Angus Murdoch Paul J. O’Pecko William S. O’Sullivan M&M Norman G. Packer William C. Page Muriel H. Parry Patuxent Small Craft Guild W. Lee & Sibyl A. Pellum Pfizer Corporation (courtesy John P Stratton, III) John Phelan James A. Piver Jr. Michael Porter Joe Reisner Ronald W Render participant(s): Those who will be executing the project, as well as those overseeing the project. Youth involvement Partnership: Will other sources of support be utilized? Will there be additional participants? Will a museum, school, community organization or other not-forprofit organization be involved? Other funding: Will other sources provide a significant portion of the funds re- Dr. John L. Roche Ted Rosenberg Peter Schmid Richard Schubert Maurice C. Seager Ed Slattery Leslie Smith Peter H. Spectre E. Zell Steever Edgar Z. Steever Ken Steinmetz John R. Stilgoe & Family John P. Stratton, III Robert Sullivan John Summers R. Terwilliger Ellen Mulvey Thayer Rollin Thurlow James Tomkins Eugene E Trainor Joe J. Tribulato Ray E. Tucker Peter T. Vermilya Dick Wagner Eleanor & Edward Watson John & Ellen Weiss Captain C. S. Wetherell Sidney S. Whelan, Jr. Chris & Virginia White Jay Whittle Ms Patricia G. Wilbur Andrew P. Wolfe Winslow Womack Betsy Woodward WoodenBoat Magazine Joseph Youcha J. Myron Young quired? (Matching is not required but highly desirable.) Schedule: Is the proposed schedule realistic? Budget: Income, both cash and in-kind. Why not join the Gardner Endowment Crew? The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005________________________________________________________ 7 Documentation of Skaneateles Model #5 A St. Lawrence Skiff Or Double End Row Boat By John Wilson Skaneateles Model #5 Row Boat The following information comes from 1922 and 1930 catalogs found in the Skaneateles Historical Society files: Name: St. Lawrence Skiff*, or Double End Row Boat. Maker: Skaneateles Boat and Canoe Company, established 1893, Skaneateles, New York. Located on Jordan Street of the Village. 18 miles southwest of Syracuse, New York, on Route 20 at the head of Skaneateles Lake. Their Motto: “Builders of Boats That Will Last.” Date of Boat: The boat No. 5186 is the possession of John Wilson of Charlotte, Michigan, and has been in his family since the days of their vacation cottage on Otisco Lake, seven miles east of Skaneateles. So far no company records have been found to give the actual date within the period 1900 to 1930. Model #5: Made in two versions: l4' x 42" and l5' x 42"** both 15" depth. The existing one is the 15' version and cost $85 in 1930, including oars. Scantlings: Hull planking 5/16"** white cedar. Copper fastened. Red elm ribs, white oak stem, keel, gunwales, and breasthooks. Three cypress seats and a circle seat of white cedar in the stem. Galvanized fittings. 7-1/2' spruce, straight blade oars with optional feathering oar locks. Finish: Marine spar varnish outside and inside above seats. Below seats inside painted buff. *In its general usage the term skiff applies to any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person. The phrase, “a St. Lawrence skiff or double end row boat” used in these plans comes from the 1922 catalog of The Skaneateles Boat Company. While there is certainly no dispute over the suitability of calling it a double end row boat, the term St. Lawrence skiff today brings to mind a somewhat different type of double end boat. This Model #5 is known locally as a Skaneateles skiff, although similar boats were made in the Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River region. When I was a child growing up with this boat 60 years ago, it was unceremoniously called “the row boat.” **This description comes from the company catalog. Boat #5186 has 3/8" planking, instead of the advertised 5/16" and is 14’10-1/2" LOA. The breasthooks are mahogany. Skaneateles Boat & Canoe Co. and the Model #5 Origins of the company go back to the early 1880s when a boat factory was established under the name of Bowdish & Co. They made rowboats, steam launches, and various sailing craft. This was in the village of Skaneateles, New York, located at the head of one of central New York’s finger lakes, long, deep glacial lakes; this one being 22 miles long and two miles wide. The Skaneateles Boat and Canoe Co. was formed in 1893 by two boatbuilders formerly employed by the Bowdish firm. The firm was widely recognized for its building of small craft, as evidenced by a major order from members of the party of the famous yachtsman Sir Thomas Lipton in his 1920 challenge for the America’s Cup. An order for 100 boats, sail, canoes, cruisers, and yacht tenders was placed with the lake village industry. After the 1929 stock market crash the market base changed. The new emphasis was on one-design small sailboats. In addition to rowboats and canoes, they made Stars, Comets, Mowers, Snipes, International Dinghies, Sea Gulls, and Roustabouts. In 1938, the first Lightning was built to a design commissioned from Sparkman and Stephens. During WWII, production was shifted to various Navy, Marine and Coast Guard craft. By 1950 the boat works were a thing of the past. I recall my father taking me to see the boat works in the late 1940s when I was eight or nine years old. We spent our summers on the adjacent lake to the east, Otisco Lake. We owned a rowboat that was used daily in getting about the lake, as our family was not one of the motor boat set. We were proud of our sailboat, canoe, and rowboat. The double ended rowboat with feathering oarlocks and a handsome pair of spoon oars was the only one around our part of the lake. It would take us across the 3/4-mile stretch of water to the village of Amber with a minimum of fuss. With a boat like that, who needed power? Discovery of Original Boat Lines Floor Boards Don’t Lie (“It is impossible to take off too much data.” D.W. Dillion, Boats, A Manual for their documentation) Taking the lines off a century old boat turned out to be a five-year search. It reads like a script from a TV documentary or a 8 _______________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005 detective mystery, where an apparently simple job turned more complex and blind alleys and the search for clues were found along the way. Otisco Lake is the easternmost of the finger lakes in central New York State. At seven miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide it is the smallest of the lakes occupying the region’s long glacial valleys. My family vacationed at the town of Amber by taking the trolley from Syracuse to the end of the line at Marcellus and hiring a carriage to take them the remaining ten miles. There they built a cottage at the edge of the lake. In 1904 a new dam was built to increase the size of the lake used as a reservoir for growing cities and for maintaining levels in the Erie Canal. This dam would flood the property on which their cottage was so recently built. So in the winter before closing the sluices, they had the cottage moved to the other side of the lake on the ice. My grandfather was fortunate that Otisco was near the town of Skaneateles. Boats were built there, good boats, a boat that could row the distance to Amber and back with ease. In fact, it was a trip considerably easier and faster than horse and cart could travel around the head of the lake. Forty years later in 1945, this rowboat was still very much in service when I was a boy enjoying summers at the family cottage. I watched my father caulk and paint and waited the few days for the boat to tighten up in the water to be of service again for another year. I have happy memories of fishing and rowing to Amber for ice cream. There was also the practical, if less environmentally correct, task of sinking the cans and glass. I can still finger the scar in my hand left by a broken jar used as a projectile in a game of sink-the-floating-ship, where the ship was another object better put into the recycling bin today. It was also the boat to accompany me on a swim across the lake, a rite of passage for a boy of ten in my family. Thirty years later in 1975, the annual maintenance ritual was no longer able to recommission the rowboat. It would take more than ordinary skills to keep the planks tight. Also, the will to do so had waned, in the boating world of aluminum and fiberglass and outboard motors. When I returned on a visit I was told that the boat was beyond repair and that plans were for making her a flower pot. Top soil and petunias! My home was then in Michigan, 500 miles away. I calculated how the 15' boat weighing 130 lbs would car top were I to have proper roof racks. I imposed upon the rest of my clan to set aside their flower pot plans and store the boat one more winter until I could return to take her home. And so a rowboat came to hang from cross bars on the ceiling of my wood shop in Michigan. Twenty five years later, in 2000, a new appreciation for the small boat heritage of the past represented on the pages of WoodenBoat and the organizational efforts of the Traditional Small Craft Association gave me a new vision for this boat of my boyhood. Nostalgia had been the main motivation for saving her as well as the hope that repair was feasible. What I appreciated now was a boat representing a fine example of boatbuilding from an era when the need for good water transport was paramount and skilled craftsmen with the desire to fashion unusually good boats found people willing to buy their work. This boat deserved documentation. Nostalgia was replaced by a sense of stewardship. Inquiries to maritime museums had turned up no remaining plans after the fire of 1930 at the Skaneateles Boat and Canoe Co. So we made a day for our local Pine Lake TSCA Chapter to take off lines. My shop was cleared. The boat was set center stage. The members came, gathered data, and one member skilled in drafting summarized the day’s work. This was published in Ash Breeze, Vol. 22, No. 2, Spring-Summer 2001, pp 9-12. The problems with this effort were several. We were inexperienced and not ready for the challenge of being accurate scribes. We did not check our work before publication. Most significantly, the boat, now a hundred years old, presented significant changes in shape that needed to be factored into an accurate representation of what she was in her prime. Fortunately, time was available to rectify these deficiencies. The Skaneateles Model #5 Double End Rowboat deserves a better job of documentation than a day’s educational outing of the TSCA chapter could give. Four of us came together to set the record straight. The first step was to incorporate methods suggested by Walt Simmons in Lines, Lofting, and Half-Models to recover accurate points to the inside of the hull at each station. This assured accuracy of the scribe. Important as this was, what we should have done first was to re-examine our assumptions, namely that the hull was symmetrical fore and aft, which is what she looked like, and that changes in shape had not occurred even though she looked fine now. Both assumptions were false. From hindsight I wonder now at how these The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005________________________________________________________ 9 two assumptions could have persisted in our work so long. It is certainly testimony to the power of an assumption to cloud one’s vision. I know now where to make simple measurements to determine symmetry and age change, but earlier on we did not know. Experience provides the knowledge needed to be accurate and experience we did not have. The first thing to change our view was to accurately examine the keel. This showed that 7/16" of hog (upward curve) existed in the keel. “Changes occurring slowly over a long time and those resulting from poor storage methods are difficult to deal with and require extra thought” (D.W. Dillion in Paul Lipke, et al., Boats, A Manual for their Documentation, p. 58). Boy, isn’t that the truth. The history of boat documentation points out that keels are straight or slightly rockered, not hogged. We had one piece of data to restore our lines to original shape. When a keel hogs, the portion across the bottom flattens out and the turn of the bilge bows out. To recover the shape of the cross section means restoring the proper depth to the keel (eliminating the amount of hog) and pulling in the sagged sides much like a plastic surgeon lifts and tucks the sagging frame of his patients. The process begins with the ability to accurately record data, but equally important is a trained eye to expect changes that happen over time and look for clues to the original shapes. How is one to know what it should be? Eliminating the hog in our drawings was only the first step. What came to be significant were the floor boards. “Small details offer strong clues” (D.W. Dillion, Boats, p. 58). In this boat the floor was a single unit made of five narrow boards attached by five sawn cross cleats. Originally the shape of the floor unit fitted the shape of the hull. We could aid our drawing of the shape of the cross sections by making them fit the contour of the floors. Since floor boards are not subject to the stress that changes the hull, they are still original. Hence, floor boards don’t lie. Small details offer strong clues. When all this was nearly done, inconsistencies persisted that made me suspect that the hull was not symmetrical. We had marked out the center of the boat and stations at one foot intervals both fore and aft. When a seat prevented lines from being easily recorded aft of the middle, we went forward. Our eye’s first glance had led us to make a wrong assumption. True, the height of the sheer made a single easy sweep that was equal in both directions. True, the turn of the planking as they shaped the sides was the same fore and aft. What was not true was the beam. Measurements at each station showed that an inch was added to the beam at aft stations. This made for a finer entry forward and more buoyancy to carry loads aft. This added size was so evenly worked into the boat from an increase in the width of the keel to the 1/2" wider breast hook in the stem that our eye was fooled. What is Skaneateles Model #5 Double End 15' Rowboat Prices For Plans & CD Plans show the 15' version of the Skaneateles Model #5 double ended rowboat made by the Skaneateles Boat and Canoe Co, Skaneateles, New York, between 1906 and 1930. The plans drawn by John Wilson on four 24"x36" sheets show: #1 Profile and plan views; #2 Half-breadths and heights for 13 stations with full scale drawings of each station; #3 Stem and breasthook plans full scale; and #4 Details of planking, seats, and floorboards full scale. Photographs enhance the drawings at each stage. The Standard Package of four 24"x36" sheets folded to 9"xl2" with eight pages of notes giving history and documentation process is $40 +$3 S&H. Plans with notes, rolled in mailing tube is $40 + $8 S&H. CD of plans with notes is $40 + $3 S&H. Plans (folded), notes, and CD are $60 + $3 S&H. Study plans are $10. Published by The Home Shop Books & Videos 406 E. Broadway Hwy Charlotte, MI 48813 tel: 517-543-5325 9-5, M-F Eastern Time equally true is that the craftsmen were no fools. The outstanding performance of Model #5 was by design. Fortunately, time has allowed us to honor the good work of earlier boat builders rather than bury it beneath top soil and petunias or, what is perhaps even less excusable, to gloss over it in presenting a documentation based on poor recording and wrong assumptions. The lines published in Ash Breeze, Vol. 22 No. 2 must be ignored, written off as a poor first attempt by well intended enthusiasts. To return to Dave Dillon’s words: “A structure’s present shape can be very different from its original shape and there may be little or no evidence that it has changed.” Perhaps we can be forgiven our 10 _______________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005 original oversights after all. However, “the boat was built true and fair” and “small details offer strong clues” (p. 58). Floor boards don’t lie. Acknowledgment I wish to thank Sandy Bryson who caught the spirit of the enterprise originally and sustained it throughout; members of the Pine Lake Chapter of TSCA, especially Bill Lang who drafted the first attempt; Tom Jarosch, Steve Stier, and Sandy Bryson who labored into the late hours after an already full day to set the record straight; David Bates and the Skaneateles Historical Society for background materials: the John Gardner Memorial Fund Committee, especially Ben Fuller, for their endorsement of the worth of the project with support to distribute the document plans; Mason Smith and boat builders like him familiar with the type for helpful suggestions; and of course, to those craftsmen of a century ago who gave us the boat to begin with. About the Author John first canoed in upstate New York as a Boy Scout. He has taught woodworking and boat building at Lansing Community College in Michigan and has been on the program of the WoodenBoat School in Maine. He teaches classes in boatbuilding and a variety of woodworking skills at his business, The Home Shop. Visit: www.ShakerOvalBox.com. This article also appeared in messing about in Boats, October 15, 2005. Documentation of Skanateales Model#5 A St Lawrence Skiff or Double End Boat A review by Jim Lawson This package contains a highly detailed set of plans for the St. Lawrence Skiff or Double End boat, a historically significant 14' 10" rowing boat, a Notes and Study Plan booklet, and a CD that contains the major points. My response is that this is what scholarship is for. When I was an English major, I saw so much research done on increasingly minuscule topics, as most of the good stuff had been snatched up generations ago, that I have come to suspect the entire enterprise. But here is solid research and clear documentation, in the unselfish service of preserving the lines and plan of this double-ended 14' 10 1/2" rowing craft. In addition to its historical value, there is a good case for building this boat today. If you decide to get the plans, I think that you will start clearing space in the shop. There are two things that give me confidence in Mr. Wilson’s intentions and integrity. The boat had been measured previously by the author and associates, but Mr. Wilson remained skeptical, and went back in a far more painstaking manner, and not only corrected his earlier impressions, but admitted he was wrong, and how that happened. And this is such a reasonable set of mistakes, all logically related, that it causes me to wonder about other historical measurements—it could happen to anyone, because our observations are based on assumptions. So the second thing that Mr. Wilson does is to examine the entire issue of how assumptions underlie our observations. I think that very often we see only what we are prepared to see, and it is crucial to all our thinking to examine the assumptions we are making. It’s not only good history, it’s good critical thinking, and this section of the booklet is worth reading just for this point. I recommend that anyone who is going to measure an existing boat should study this section carefully. The plans themselves are on four 24"x36" sheets, with every building element inked in. There is no step-by-step order of procedure for the building process. I don’t know if this is much of a hindrance to most readers of this magazine; the plans have enough detail that it’s clear what has to be done first, then second. And there are lots of pretty good building manuals around. Judging from the tone of Mr. Wilson’s writing, he would probably answer questions. This what I mean by tone; here is his note on the first page of the plans: “By this mark, I place these plans in the Public Domain. Right is given to reproduce in any form. No one shall limit this Right of the Public. Receipt of a John Gardner Grant for dissemination of our traditional small craft heritage is gratefully acknowledged.” I like this guy already. WebSite of Interest Submitted by John Weiss A friend just sent me a link to this Dutch boat kit builder. The Lobster 12.5 looks like a beautiful boat! http://www.houten-botenbouw.nl/ The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005________________________________________________________ 11 Delaware River Chapter Summer Activities Photos by Wendy Byar, Captions by Wendy Byar and Net Asphlundh Background: Wherever we go, whatever we do, the Delaware River Chapter of the TSCA tends to make a strong showing. In 2005, we were out in force for five major events: the John Gardner Small Craft Weekend, at a small boat festival held at historic St. Mary’s City, MD where we successfully defended the Tuckup Cup in a three-lap contest against Blackberry Seeds (owned by John and Vera England, Urbanna, VA) Marion Day, named for the club’s Tuckup, Marion Brewington; the Chapter’s annual Messabout Day; and the Middle Atlantic Small Craft Festival, at St. Michael’s, to wrap up the sailing season. Both Marion Day and the Messabout are hosted on our “home waters” at Union Lake, near Millville, NJ. Marion Day, held each August, is generally restricted to club boats built from traditional designs native to the Delaware River area: Tuckups, Duckers and Melonseeds. The Messabout, usually held on the first or second Saturday after Labor Day, is open to all small craft powered by sail, oar or paddle. We cordially invite current or potential TSCA members from around the country (or the world!) to our next Messabout in September 2006. Here are some scenes from this year’s activities: Melonseeds at the Messabout. Becalmed at the race’s start, John Gudera in the center between two Crawford boats (dark sails) and a traditionally-built Melonseed from North Jersey look for air. John’s boat was built by Tuckahoe Tom Jones. It was a goodly number rounding the weather mark at the same time. Marion in full glory! The Chapter-owned Delaware Tuckup wears her racing rig, flying from the new hollow birdsmouth mast described in a recent issue of Ash Breeze. In the background, left-to-right is Sugar, a Shellback Dinghy, built by Frank Stauss; Thomas Eakins, a glued-plywood lapstrake Ducker owned by Pete Peters, and Ned Asplundh’s unnamed cedar-planked Ducker. . A crowd of Melonseeds head for the mark during the Messabout sailing race. Sandwiched between two Crawford boats is John Guidera’s glued-lap Melonseed, built by Thomas Firth Jones and featured in his book, New Plywood Boats. For the past several years, Melonseeds have turned out in force at the Chapter’s Messabout; racing for the prized half-model trophy, donated by Roger Crawford. Great-looking Gaffer: Marion Brewington heads out during Marion Day. Tom Shephard is at the helm, with Ron Gibbs on mainsheet and Rick Lathrop, board man and chief bailer. Marion carries about 190 sq ft of sail. 12 _______________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005 On the beach: Boats and boaters wait out a Marion Day rain shower. Foreground-to-background: Sugar, a Shellback dinghy, the Andy Wolfe double-paddle canoe, the Ducker Thomas Eakins with brailed sail, another Ducker which partially hides the Chapter’s railbird skiff. Chapter members struggle to get Marion’s racing rig doused at the end of the line. Marion Day is an annual Chapter get-together.. Readying for the Rematch: Fore-to-aft, Wendy Byar, Bill Covert and Tom Shephard prepare Marion Brewington for another defence of the Tuckup Cup. The three Delaware Valley Chapter members added authenticity to the race by dressing in period costume and recreating a historic Tuckup photo from the 19th Century. Looking good: Mike Wick in bowler at the Shanty Sing. Delaware Valley TSCA presented a program of sea shanties led by various group members. Seeking shelter from the storm: Ron Gibbs heads in during a brief Marion Day squall in his 10.5' Andy Wolfe canoe. Just for fun and braggin’ rights: Men’s rowing race at the Messabout. Foreground: Three Sisters, a six-hour canoe; a Delaware Ducker. Background, left-to-right: Appledore 19, Gloucester Gull dory, Tuckahoe Ten, an Andy Wolfe, 10.5 ft To the Victors go the Champagne Spoils: Left-to-right, double paddle canoe, the Ducker Thomas Eakins, and a Delaware River Chapter sailors Tom Shephard and Pete Peters Melonseed. George Loos, of the Cape May TSCA Chapter, won claim a successful defense of the Tuckup Cup, against challengers the men’s rowing in a Bolger Gloucester Gull dory. Vera and John England, with crewman Ron Gibbs The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005________________________________________________________ 13 Letters to the Editor Apprentice Program in Charleston, SC Dear Ed: My husband and I operate a wooden boat building company outside of Charleston, South Carolina. We have been thinking about starting an apprentice program and were wondering if you offered anything for your students of that nature. We would love to talk with you about the details of your program and what we could possibly do here with students still attending or just finishing school and looking for experience. I can be contacted at any of the following numbers: 843-559-0794 (home), 843-889-9153 (yard). Thank you, Frank Middleton, Jr. Middleton Boatworks, Inc. 4210 Hwy. 165 Yonges Island, SC 29449 www.middletonboatworks.net frank@middletonboatworks.net Boat for Sale My capable Swampscott dory is offered for sale. The boat is in excellent functional condition. It is ready for a new owner's choice of hull and inside paint. Varnish work needs cosmetic refinishing. In a few weekends of work the boat will be ready to cruise Puget Sound and the Inside Passage. There are more details in the attached files. The boat is appraised at $4000. All offers will be considered. Please pass this information on to someone who wants to cruise and row a classic dory without bearing the $10,000 plus replacement cost for a sound, exciting boat. Contact: Archie Conn at archieconn@msn.com or call 425-355-4753 Continued from page 5, Apprentices Learn Traditional Sailmaking... BookletChart™ for Recreational Boaters Submitted by John Stratton This innovative product will enable recreational boaters to print charts at home for no charge. It has been created to help recreational boaters better navigate and practice safer transportation on the water. The BookletChart™ is a form of nautical chart that has been reduced in scale and divided into a series of pages for convenience, but retains all the information of the full-scale nautical chart. Currently, Chesapeake Bay BookletCharts™ are available for evaluation at http:// www.nauticalcharts.gov/bookletcharts/. If the test pilot is successful, BookletCharts™ will be available via the Internet as Adobe Acrobat files. For more information, contact Dave Enabit. Help Wanted This winter, the Apprenticeshop has designed a series of evening and weekend workshops in lofting, boatbuilding, and woodworking. We would like to offer these short courses to the local community, but before we can do so, we need to find an instructor! If you have experience in traditional wooden boatbuilding and design, like to work with adult students, and are interested in a dynamic part-time job, please call Meredith Currier at 207-594-1800 for details. Courses would begin October 22nd and run until May 7th. The position would require approximately 15 hours per week. Pay is competitive, and all time for course preparation is paid. Atlantic Challenge—Craftsmanship · Seamanship—Community 643 Main Street Rockland, ME 04841 tel: 207-594-1800 fax: 207-594-5056 Please visit our website: www.atlanticchallenge.com Just before the Mid Atlantic Small Craft event at St. Michaels. That “jib” is way too small for the 7 oz Oceanus Ship’s Cloth, but gravity helps offset the fact. Jeff Hubbard at the helm, Tom Kindling crew. Both were boatbuilding apprentices at the CBMM. 14 _______________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005 The Douglas Oarlock The Perfect Stroke By Bill Graham To get a perfect rowing stroke the oar can’t have too much forward pitch or it will dive. If you have too much rearward pitch the oar won’t lock on the water; either way the oar and boat performance suffer. For the oar to be its most efficient it should be held at a 6 degree pitch. The way to achieve this pitch is with flat forward bearing surface oarlocks and “D” shaped oars or oars with flat sided sleeves. Racing oars and oarlocks have always had controlled pitch for maximum performance. Occasionally rowers with more traditional boats have adopted the technology but it wasn’t a pretty sight. Now we have a better solution, a 6 degree pitch, “424” manganese bronze oarlocks that will fit in standard quarter inch oarlock sockets. The Douglas Oarlock was designed by boat designer and sculptor Doug Martin to produce perfect 6 degree pitch and to be beautiful. Traditional oars usually have two shaft shapes where they fit into the oarlock, round or D-shaped. The D-shaped oar can be used with no modification other than a plastic sleeve to protect the shaft of the Spoon oars with Latanzo sleeves. The Douglas Oarlock. oar from wear and the addition of buttons to hold the oars at their proper extension. Round oars of 1-¾ inch diameter can be equipped with flat sided sleeves and buttons to achieve that flat stroking surface for 6 degree pitch. For additional information contact Bill Graham at 978-356-3623. the coast of New England in places and at times I shouldn’t have. Soon after building the Kittery I went to see Arthur Martin, designer of the Alden Ocean Shell in Kittery Point Maine. We rowed together, which resulted in my becoming a dealer for Alden Boats 24 years ago. I’ve taught over a thousand people to row sliding seat boats and still enjoy that the most. When Alden stopped supporting the “Oarmaster 1” I bought up all the parts available and started building parts to keep these sliding seat, drop in units rowing. I recently obtained the rights to the “Douglas Oarlock” a wonderful bronze oarlock designed by Doug Martin. I think the Douglas will be a revolution for traditional fixed seat small boat rowers. It provides controlled oar placement at the perfect stroking angle. They are being cast here in New England at Norell Foundry in Franklin, New Hampshire and I sell them through my website Rowingsport.com. About the Author I began my boating life as most people do, fishing with my Dad in a rented skiff. The idea appealed so much I talked him into buying our own skiff when Marcia Mullins rowing using Douglas oarlocks with I was about 10 years old. I Barkley Sound round-loomed oars and Dreher sleeves learned how to sail while I and buttons. was in college and a major escalation of my love for boating occurred. In the mid 1970s while sailing out of Marblehead, MA I saw my first Alden Ocean shell. It looked so cool I jumped in my dinghy to chase the boat and ask questions, but never caught him. I finally ended up building my first boat a “Kittery Skiff” which took a sliding seat unit. With a pair of borrowed oars I Douglas Oarlocks on a Whitehall. Photos by the author. rowed that 16 wherry off The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005________________________________________________________ 15 Douglas Oarlocks A Review By Bob Dunshee My wife, Marcia, and I row a 17' Whitehall. I prefer square oarlocks, the kind used on racing shells, which allow the loom of the oars to fall into just the right position on the stroke and recovery. Marcia uses the usual horn shaped oarlocks and oars with round looms and leather sleeves. She seems to prefer them. However, it’s necessary to know that she adjusts very well to what many people would think of as an inconvenience. To me, for instance. As nearly as I can tell, none of the racing shell oarlocks will fit on the gunnels of traditional boats; they are designed to fit on outriggers. Several years ago, I bought a pair of “Douglas oarlocks” from Bill Graham at Rowing Sport in Maine. They were a design used with Alden rowing shells, but Alden seems to have switched to the style of oarlocks now used with outriggers. Bill, however, had a pair or two left. This year, I bought Bill’s last pair, but now he has acquired from Alden the molds for casting them and is selling them again. I don’t think that they are available anywhere else. You can view them on his website: http:// www.douglasoarlock.rowingsport.com/ These oarlocks will fit into standard ½" sockets which attach to gunnels. Using square oarlocks is especially useful if one has a rower aboard who is not used to rowing; the blades are kept at the correct angle to the water, so the oars don’t dive or rise out of the water on the stroke. A novice rower who has a good experience comes back to enjoy rowing again. On the recovery, when feathering the blade, the forward edge is just slightly higher than the aft edge; if one wants to, one can plane the blade across the water without “catching a crab.” Because one of the “horns” of the oarlock has a slight hook, the oars will not pry out of the oarlocks as sometimes happens when one tries to “jam” or back stroke in order to stop the boat suddenly. Of course the oarlock should be secured in the socket. My one problem is not with the oarlocks: it’s with the hard plastic sleeves that adapt round looms to square oarlocks: they are somewhat noisy. I use “Dreher STS” sleeves and buttons sold by Durham Boat Company. The sleeves cost $8.70 each and the buttons (which Durham calls collars) cost $7.50 each. If one used D shaped looms and leather sleeves, the sound would not be a problem. And it’s not a severe problem—we are not engaged in smuggling rum at this time. Perhaps someone will figure out a way to muffle the sound of plastic sleeves? Call for Nominations for TSCA Council Nominations for TSCA Council Class of 2006 are open. Three seats will be open for the 2006-2009 term beginning at the conclusion of the annual meeting in June 2006. Any TSCA member is good standing may serve on the Council. Self nominations are allowed and encouraged. Send your nomination to the Secretary via US Mail or email. Include a brief biographical sketch of the candidate and a statement of the candidate’s willingness to serve if elected. Election ballots will be distributed in the Spring 2006 Ash Breeze or mailed separately in April. If you are interested in helping to steer the future of your Association, contact the President and/or the Secretary. Mike Wick, Secretary petedempsey@worldnet.att.net or US Mail: POBox 350, Mystic, CT 06355 Wooden Boat Center Possibility for San Juan Island Reprinted with permission from the San Juan Islander, the Island’s daily news source. A $350,000 to $500,000 grant may be coming to San Juan County, WA for a Wooden Boat Center. Commissioner Kevin Ranker said preliminary plans call for the center to be placed at Roche Harbor Resort. BC & J architecture firm contributed drawings of the proposed facility. Preliminary plans call for vocational classes for high school students and programs for adults and visitors. Ranker said there are 18 shipwrights living in the county who could possible teach for a week or two at the center. The money will be appropriated by the Washington State Legislature next year. The funding is coming from a fund set up for legislators’ projects. Ranker had to obtain support from Rep. Dave Quall, Rep. Jeff Morris and Senator Harriet Spanel. In the Shop Another Adirondack Guideboat! By Ralph Merriman It is official: My next (now current) project is the 13 foot Parsons Brothers Guideboat. I know this because I am working on it, and Tricia’s boat bookcase Continued at the right 16 _______________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005 is out of the shop and set up in my living room. I have completed the fairing of all the forms. Everything is taped for stripping. I have stripped in the bottom, and have the edges of the bottom 90% faired to receive the strips. I have a ‘fancy’ pinstripe strip of mahogany/spruce/mahogany glued up, which will go a couple of inches below the gunwale. In general I want the lighter color strips to be at the top (near the gunwale) shading darker toward the bottom of the boat. I do not have a huge variation in color, but that is my intent. The gunwales will be spruce, because first, it is light weight and second, I have it. I had to do very little fairing, I think because I was very careful with all my work on paper and when cutting the forms. I am also glad I chose the form spacing I did. The original frames (hence the offsets) were spaced at 5-3/8". I chose to leave out every other and put forms at (roughly) 11". I could probably have gone further (17" spacing, leaving out 2 of 3) but I did not want to have ‘wayward strip’ problems. I did add perhaps an inch more rocker at the bow (all in the first 3 feet), so it is no longer a true double ender. Help Wanted Advertising Manager/Coordinator for the Ash Breeze. Duties: Maintain the status of member’s advertisements. Contact members when their ads are nearing the expiration date, coordinate with the Treasurer on the collection of ad revenue, seek new advertisers, report to the Council on the status of our ad pages twice a year. Estimated time required 2 hours/month. Computer skills would be very helpful. Email access is essential. Rewards? There are many, talking with nice people who are interested in traditional small craft, helping our worthy organization to name two. Direct inquiries to the Editor at drathmarine@rockisland.com Occasionally an item of interest to traditional boatbuilders comes up on the eBay auction block. Perhaps it is worth surfing over there once and a while. Ed. eBay Boat Auction An Alert from Kim Apel Shallow Draft Project Sailboat Model: Vacationer Length (Feet): 21.0 Beam (Feet): 8.0 Hull Material: Wood Rigging:Sloop/Cutter Stevenson Projects sailboat model Vacationer. Boat is built using stressed plywood box construction. Visit www.stevensonprojects.com to see details. Outer hull is complete but internal cockpit and cabin are not finished. Includes plans, video, unused building materials (wood, epoxy, fiberglass cloth, etc.) Sold for $188. Nominations for the TSCA Council are now open. Bruce Thurston 1946—2005 Bruce Thurston died at the age of 60 on June 24, 2005 at his home in Cutchogue, NY. He is survived by two sisters. His mother died six weeks later. Bruce was a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society of New York for 32 years until his retirement in 2003. He was a charter member of TSCA and served several terms on the Council and was our adviser on insurance matters for many years. He often helped man the TSCA booth at meets and boat shows on the East Coast, often with his parrot on his shoulder. Bruce was an avid collector of small boats and anything to do with them. Over the years, he bought, used, and sold many boats, and at his death had about 25 in his collection. He also had several motorcycles, old guns, books and anything else that struck his fancy. He will be remembered for his knowledge of boats in general and on many items considered collectable. He was a good story teller and always had an interesting yarn to relate. He will be missed by all of us in TSCA. Myron Young CROPC and Groton Maritime Academy Submitted by John Stratton CROPC and the Groton Maritime Academy joined forces for the 4th year in a weekend program. Some 20 youth in the program enjoyed (and learned from) CROPC’s three-station Freshet and Perigee, the two-station A-17 Solstice, and a Persson dinghy, all under management of Geoff Conklin, Rod Oakes, and John Stratton. John Gardner Chapter was ably represented by Andy Strode with an Adirondack guideboat. The Groton Town Police and Park and Rec extended their thanks to us for managing the watery part of the fine day. The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005________________________________________________________ 17 Wooden Boats of Viet Nam Text and photos by Rick Mitchel and Sarah Masters Left: The local slipway at a small fishing village on an island just off Nha Trang. Middle left: The round boats made of woven split bamboo and pitch are the all-purpose tenders of the central coast of Viet Nam, about four feet in diameter. They are remarkably stable and capable of comfortably carrying four adults. They are tied up to a floating fish farm, where live crayfish, squid and fish are kept until they go to market. Bottom left: The local slipway workers have just physically pushed this boat down the rails into the water after a little maintenance. Just prior to this the owner had paid the yard boss. The “no cash, no splash” principle is universal. This article appeared in the spring issue of Watercraft published by the Wooden Boat Association Victoria Inc, Glenhuntly, Victoria, Australia. Watercraft represents the interests of WBA Victoria Inc, WBA NSW Inc, WBA Queensland, The Traditional Boat Squadron of Australia, Inc ACT, WBA North Queensland, WBA Cairns, and The Wooden Boat Build of Tasmania Inc. For further information contact: Stephen Burnham,GPO Box 55A, Melbourne 3001, or email burnham@netspace.net.au. The article appears with permission of Watercraft. 18 _______________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005 This panorama is of a fishing village just north of Nha Trang — one of many such villages along the coast. All the boats are wooden. More boats at Nha Trang in the harbour. The logs in the water are at the bottom of the slip next to the bandsaw, clearly the next boat in kit form. Hoi An, a 30ft local fishing boat. Hoi An slipway bandsaw, set horizontal and on tracks, positioned right next to the slip. The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005________________________________________________________ 19 yawl that was built in Victoria in 1954 and sailed around the world by John Guzzwell back when 20 feet 6 inches was the By Clifford and Marian Cain smallest boat to Victoria, British Columbia; that far, far have done so. Towest city stuck out on Vancouver Island, is day, you would have a city with one of the more favored sites to be under 12 feet around for holding Tall Ship Festivals, and to set any records. June 23-26, 2005, that is exactly what they Later, the boat was did. bought by Clifford What sets Victoria apart is their Inner and Marian Cain Harbor. Sailing in from the Strait of Juan who also circumde Fuca, you first enter the Outer Harbor navigated. SubseLooking into the Inner Harbour. Trekka in the foreground. area, an extensive body of water heavily quent to that, the indented and, from there, pass through a boat ended up in the Victoria Maritime cadets on them, teaches shipwright skills narrow and somewhat shallow passage into Museum in the late 70s and finally we and in general, breathes life into the the confines of the Inner Harbour. Sur- get to the heart of the story. wooden boat aficionados of Victoria and rounded on three sides by downtown The Victoria Maritime Museum’s di- the Pacific Northwest. Two of the jewels Victoria, the space is dominated by the rector is Greg Evans, a man of uncom- that have come off the ways at their yard Parliament Building on the right and dead mon energy, imagination and I would are the Pacific Grace (138 feet) and the center, the magnificent Victorian Empress have to say, audacity. Back a year or so Pacific Swift (111 feet), two topsail schooHotel, a two block long facade of opulence ago when the Tall Ships Festival was still ners of uncommon beauty. SALT was from another era. Immediately in front of just an idea on the back of a restaurant willing to underwrite the refit and a more the Empress, across a wide boulevard and table napkin, Greg had his moment of competent yard could not have been found. seafront promenade that would do any city epiphany; why not take Trekka out of the They managed to find most of the missproud is a huge municipal floating marina museum, have her refitted to seaworthi- ing pieces and when they couldn’t, they of a size to accommodate 20 of the 29 Tall ness and let her lead in the Tall Ships as just built a new one. The new mizzen was Ships in attendance and oh yes, Trekka, they enter the Inner Harbour? Why not a work of art, the bright work on deck was because Trekka is what this story is all indeed? After all she had only been out immaculate and even two picky former about. of the water for nearly 30 years. She had owners could find little to fault. For those regular Ash Breeze readers this been stripped of masts, keel, rudder and Probably more difficult was fitting Trekis sort of a continuation of the dinghy res- skeg, life lines and stanchions, even ka into the choreography of bringing 29 toration story of the Spring Issue, 2005. winches and deck fittings and this gear ships into the Inner Harbour, avoiding For new readers, Trekka is a 20 foot 6 inch was scattered in a dozen storage rooms chaos and satisfying the hopes and aspiand warehouses. The two rations of the various factions. There were angle iron pieces (galva- the First Nation folks; the Historical Renized) that held on the enactment group; the SALT delegation keel were totally missing and finally the Victoria Maritime Museum as was the mizzen mast. with Trekka, all keen to be first among A formidable task; put- equals. The final plan that emerged was roughly ting her back together that the Pacific Swift and Trekka would again. Greg had one ace up enter first with the First Nation longboat his sleeve that gave him setting out from shore to meet the Swift. hope of success. Victoria With thousands lining the shoreline, piers, was home to the SALT wharfs and Promenade, we made our enboat yard. SALT stands try and once in, a stream of ships entered for Sailing and Life at fifteen minute intervals the rest of the Training Society and is afternoon. Greg’s easiest task was rounding up the the title of an organizaTrekka comes to the dock. Clifford is on the foredeck tion that builds wooden original crews for the Trekka. He only boats, sails them, trains needed to ask once if we would like to sail and Government Street in the background. Trekka Revisited at the Victoria Tall Ships Festival 20 _______________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005 involved in sailing her came back easy enough; it was getting our arthritic old bodies into the right places at the right time that gave us some trouble. But it was a joy and we had about an hour and one-half to tack back and forth with the Tall Ships out in the roads. Finally, the time to sail in came and we took our places as we enJohn Guzzwell relaxes at the exhibition. tered the Inner again on our beloved Trekka. I think that Harbour. Wind conditions were just right people who have owned boats that have for our approach to the wharf. We bagged carried them long distances, survived a few the mizzen and jib and brought her into trying conditions and demonstrated a cer- the dock under mainsail on a starboard tain resilience, can understand how easy reach. A perfectly sedate and even stately it is to credit one’s boat with more than a approach. Messing up with an audience few anthropomorphic qualities. We tried of that size was not an option. Having gotten Trekka back into the wato stop short of actually talking to her (Trekka), especially if anyone else was ter, the Victoria Maritime Museum has around, and of course, we didn’t actually some great plans for her future. The idea expect her to answer, but we were pretty at present is to let her live an amphibious sure we could read her moods. Acting a existence. In between public appearances, bit balky or ill-humored if the sails weren’t she will live on the hard at SALT. For drawing properly or we had too much or events such as the coming Port Townsend too little sail up. So three years of that Boat Festival, she will be put into the walevel of intimacy and you suffer a few ter and sailed and displayed. Her edgepangs of withdrawal when the separation glued strip planking covered with fibre comes. Then along comes Greg and the glass allows this regimen. A conventional Maritime Museum with an offer to restore hull would complain at all that wetting those old bonds and we jumped at the and drying and probably sink. It was an extraordinary event for us and chance. The reunion was ever bit as poiwe are still a little surprised to find that gnant and happy as anticipated. Once those first misty eyed moments out of all those circumnavigators and their were over though, the next job was to ac- boats, we are lucky enough to not only tually sail this baby. That original trip was have Trekka still around but in good in 1955 for John Guzzwell at the ripe old enough shape to let us revisit probably the age of 22 and Marian and I sailed in 1967 most notable three years of our lives. at ages 36 and 39. John and I were now 74 and 75 and getting about that tiny deck Center for Wooden Boats was a lesson in humility and later, some Lake Union, Seattle agony. It didn’t help that the one piece of unfinished deck work by SALT was getCourses will be offered throughout 2006 ting the stanchions and life lines on. John in Building Skiffs, Paddle Making, Caand I agreed that our absolute worst case noe Restoration, Lofting, Oar Making, scenario would be for one of us to trip and Cold Molded Construction, Tool Making, fall overboard. We were very, very cau- Sail Making, Caulking, Bronze Casting, tious. Nameboard Carving, Knot Tying, Rope We were both relieved to find the moves Fender and Historic Navigation. Small Craft Events Connecticut River Oar and Paddle Club December 3 or 10: Christmas Party at Maritime Education Network, potluck and BYOB January 1, 2006: Annual New Year’s Row Puget Sound Chapter December 10: Annual Meeting — at the Center for Wooden Boats, Seattle Contact Al Gunther, 360-638-1088 with your suggestions for events. Sacramento Chapter November 26: Wet Turkey Row, Tomales Bay, Jim Lawson For additional information: dlagios@smace.org www.tsca.net/Sacramento Delaware River Chapter Check the Mainsheet our monthly newsletter available at www.tsca.net JGTSCA Chapter A few members of the club continue to row each Sunday morning. This is an informal activity. Plan for a two hour row with a stop for coffee. Bring a boat and have some fun! Meetings at the Boathouse at Avery Point will be Sundays at 1:30 PM: November 6 and December 4. San Francisco Maritime Historic Park San Francisco Maritime NHP Building E, Fort Mason Center San Francisco, CA 94123 The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005________________________________________________________ 21 S P O N S O R / M E M B E R S 22 drathmarine http://drathmarine.com 1557 Cattle Point Road Friday Harbor, WA 98250 Mole got it right... ALBERT’S WOODEN BOATS INC. • Double ended lapstrake • Marine ply potted in Epoxy • Rowboats – 15' & fast 17' • Electric Launches – 15' & 18' A. Eatock, RR #2, 211 Bonnell Rd. Bracebridge, ONT. CANADA PIL 1W9 705 645 7494 alsboats@surenet.net Samuel Johnson BOATBUILDER 1449 S.W. Davenport Street Portland, Oregon 97201 (503) 223-4772 E-mail: sjboats@comcast.net Museum Quality Wherries, Canoes and Cabin Cruisers 54442 Pinetree Lane, North Fork, CA 93643 559-877-8879 trapskiffjim@sti.net Richard Kolin Custom wooden traditional small craft designed and built Boatbuilding and maritime skills instruction Oars and marine carving 360-659-5591 kolin1@gte.net 4107-77th Place NW Marysville, WA 98271 We thank our Sponsor Members for their support and urge all members to consider using their services. Fine Traditional Rowing & Sailing Craft NORTH RIVER BOATWORKS RESTORATIONS 741 Hampton Ave. Schenectady, NY 12309 518-377-9882 BOATS PLANS BOOKS TOOLS Specializing in traditional small craft since 1970. ROB BARKER Wooden Boat Building and Repair 615 MOYERS LANE EASTON, PA 18042 Duck Trap Woodworking www.duck-trap.com We thank our Sponsor Members for their support and urge all members to consider using their services. S P O N S O R / M E M B E R S 23 S P O N S O R / M E M B E R S 24 Redd’s Pond Boatworks 1 Norman Street Marblehead, MA 01945 Thad Danielson (781) 631-3443 R. K. Payne Boats http://homepage.mac.com/ rkpayneboats JAN NIELSEN 361-8547C 656-0848/1-800-667-2275 P 250-656-9663 F Rex & Kathie Payne 3494 SR 135 North Nashville, IN 47448 Ph 812-988-0427 P.O.Box 2250, Sidney BC Canada V8L 3S8 westwind@islandnet.com We thank our Sponsor Members for their support and urge all members to consider using their services. The Mathis/Trumpy Skiff a 12' flat bottom skiff designed by John Trumpy, c. 1930 find the official builder of the Mathis/Trumpy Skiff at www.traditionalboatworks.com *see the skiff in the Collection of the Annapolis Maritime Museum* full set of numbered plans available for $40 Sigrid Trumpy, POBox 2054 Annapolis, MD 21404 410-267-0318 or hollace@crosslink.net We thank our Sponsor Members for their support and urge all members to consider using their services. S P O N S O R / M E M B E R S 25 Seaworthy Small Ships Dept A, POBox 2863 Prince Frederick, MD 20678 800-533-9030 Catalog Available $1.00 www.seaworthysmallships.com Damaged Journal? If your Ash Breeze is missing pages or gets beaten up in the mail, let the editor know. Support TSCA Become a Sponsor/Member of TSCA and your ad will appear in four issues of this journal for only $125 a year. Ad size is 2-3/8" H by 3-3/8" W. Photos should be scanned at 200 dpi grayscale, or send camera-ready copy. Ed. 26 _______________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Winter 2005 Copy Deadline, Format, and Ads Deadlines v27#1, Spring 2006, January 1 Articles The Ash Breeze is a member-supported publication. Members are welcome to contribute. We encourage you to send material electronically. Text may be sent in the body of an e-mail message or, alternatively, as MSWord attachments. Send photos by US mail or as e-mail attachments in jpg or tif format. Typewritten material or material submitted on computer disk will be accepted too. Please give captions for photographs (naming people and places) and photo credits. E-mail to: drathmarine@rockisland.com Advertising Rates Effective July 1, 2003 Yearly rates, 4 issues/year Individual Sponsor - No Ad $50 Corporate Sponsor - 1/8 page $125 Corporate Sponsor - 1/4 page $250 Corporate Sponsor - 1/2 page $500 Corporate Sponsor - 1 page $750 Corporate Sponsors with 1 page ads will be named as sponsors of a TSCA related event and will be mentioned in the ad for that event. Members’ Exchange 50 words or less. Free to members except $10 if photo is included. TSCA WARES Back Issues Caps Original or duplicated back issues are available for $4 each plus postage. Contact Flat Hammock Press for ordering details. Pre-washed 100% cotton, slate blue with TSCA logo in yellow and white. Adjustable leather strap and snap/buckle. $15. ($14 to members if purchased at TSCA meets.) Volume Year Issue Newsletter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 1975-77 1978 1979 1979,0,1 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998/99 1999/00 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1 1-9 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3 1,2,3,4 1,2,3 1,2,3 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3 Flat Hammock Press 5 Church Street, Mystic, CT 06355 860-572-2722 steve@flathammockpress.com T-shirts 100% cotton, light gray with the TSCA logo. $15.00 postpaid for sizes M, L, and XL and $16.00 for XXL. Patches 3 inches in diameter featuring our logo with a white sail and a golden spar and oar on a light-blue background. Black lettering and a dark-blue border. $3.00 Please send a SASE with your order. Decals Mylar-surfaced weatherproof decals similar to the patches except the border is black. Self-sticking back. $1. Please send a SASE with your order. Burgees 12" x 18" pennant with royal blue field and TSCA logo sewn in white and gold. Finest construction. $30 postpaid. Visit the TSCA web site for ordering information. www.tsca.net/wares.html TSCA MEMBERSHIP FORM I wish to: Join Renew Change my address Individual Membership ($20 annually) Patron Membership ($100 annually) Family Membership ($20 annually) Canadian Membership with Airmail Mailing ($25 annually) Sponsor/Membership ($50 annually) Other foreign Membership with Airmail Mailing ($30 annually) Enclosed is my check for $____________________________________ made payable to TSCA. Chapter member? Yes No (circle) Which Chapter? _________________________________ Name Address Town E-mail ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________State_______ Zip Code________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Mail to: Secretary, Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc., P. O. Box 350, Mystic, CT 06355. Note: Individual and Family Memberships qualify for one vote and one copy of each TSCA mailing. Family Memberships qualify all members of the immediate family to participate in all other TSCA activities. Cardboard boat races. The kids at Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival constructed four watercraft from duct tape and cardboard. Each group raced to the end of the pier and back. A home style kayak with a strong paddler spearheaded the winning group, while a very nice double paddle canoe followed with minor squabbles about who was steering. The “box” boat was a good secure solution but the square frontal surface impeded forward progress. The trimaran was extremely stable but there wasn’t much room to actually get the paddle in the water. Picture at the right shows the joyful but somewhat sodden end to the trimaran, with all builders getting a good dunking. I think even some of the grown ups would like to try this event next year, if only we could turn back the clock. Photos and caption by Wendy Byar. The Ash Breeze Non-Profit Org. US Postage PAID Providence, RI Permit No. 1899 The Secretary, TSCA PO Box 350 Mystic, CT 06355 Address Service Requested Time to Renew? Help us save postage by photocopying the membership form on the inside back cover and renewing before we send you a renewal request.
