Vol. 31, No. 2 - Traditional Small Craft Association

Ash Breeze
The
Journal of the Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc. • Volume 31, Number 2 • Summer 2010 • $4.00
In this Issue:
Message from the President • Small Craft Festival & TSCA Annual Meeting •
January Row • The Everglades Challenge • Modeling: Not Just for Kids •
The Small Yachts of Albert Strange • Lazy Leeboards • LaBrie Small Craft •
New Association Logo Proposed
The
Ash Breeze
The Ash Breeze (ISSN 1554-5016) is the
quarterly journal of the Traditional Small
Craft Association, Inc. It is published at
134 E Main St., Moorestown, NJ 08057.
Communications concerning
membership or mailings should be
addressed to:
PO Box 350, Mystic, CT 06355.
www.tsca.net
Volume 31, Number 2
Co-Editors:
Mike Wick
mikewick55@yahoo.com
Ned Asplundh
nasplundh@yahoo.com
Advertising Editor:
Mike Wick
Editors Emeriti:
Richard S. Kolin
Sam & Marty King
David & Katherine Cockey
Ralph Notaristefano
Ken Steinmetz
John Stratton
Dan Drath
The Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc. is a nonprofit, tax-exempt
educational organization that works to
preserve and continue the living traditions, skills, lore, and legends surrounding working and pleasure
watercraft with origins that 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.
©2010 by The Traditional Small Craft
Association, Inc.
2
Editor’s Column
Ned Asplundh and I have made six issues
since taking over from Dan Drath in 2009.
Our thanks go out to the loyal support from
sponsors and regular members. We are
especially grateful to outgoing-President
John Weiss; he “railroaded” through Council
an increased printing budget that allowed us
to upgrade to a color cover. (In fact, maybe it
wasn’t just coincidence that the first cover
photograph was his Nord Vinden. She is
pretty enough to be on a centerfold).
What has really made this task a pleasure for
us has been the response from all of our
contributors. Each quarter, we have had a
selection of varied entertaining articles that
quickly filled our thirty-two pages. That is
why I want to sound the call.
Summer is here and you will have lots of
activities to write about. Please remember
that as soon as you put your boat away, that is
the time to look through your pictures and
review your rough log so you can make a
submission to The Ash Breeze.
Complete instructions for format are detailed
on the inside back cover of each issue and
don’t need to be repeated here. Just imagine
your pride in seeing your byline, your article,
and your photographs helping make our
volunteer publication a continued success.
We are the eighth set of editors, since 1976,
and you might be the ninth!
On the Cover – Irwin Schuster: “I looooove this boat!”
A review of my old research moves the date of the Rushton Vesper/Argonaut design
back up to 15 years, in that the Catalog of Boats in the Adirondack Museum Collection
shows a decked Vesper of 1895, and lists an open model as between 1903 and 1906.
The catalog shows the 1903-1906 model with the “batwing” sail rig I have chosen to
portray on this Argonaut.
I illustrated this Argonaut/Vesper-type hull based on a drawing by Robert C. Allyn in
material from the Ships Plans Division of Mystic Seaport Museum. J. Henry Rushton is
considered to be a pioneer in building this kind of vessel and according to the Mystic
material, continued until about 1917. While there were “standard” models, Rushton
encouraged customization of every aspect. J. Henry was a vigorous promoter of his
company, J. H. Rushton, Inc., in Canton, NY.
Many similar canoes, rigs and hardware details are shown in the publication, Fifty
Plates From William Picard Stephens, Canoe and Boat Building, A Complete Manual for
Amateurs from Forest and Stream Publishing, NY, 1885 and 1898. There were copper
flotation tanks in some models, and watertight compartments for gear, closed by
thumbscrews, in this boat.
A few distinctive features to note are the folding centerboard, an elaborate yoke system
for steering around the aft mast, the pull-up rudder, and the sliding hiking board, in
addition to the striking batwing rig.
The patented Radix centerboard appears to have had seven or eight leaves. These
folded into a very shallow case that did not rise above the level of the floorboards,
allowing the cruiser to sleep in relative comfort. The patent was granted June 9, 1885,
to William Root and others.
These were not simple boats, and had an amazing amount of specially designed
hardware for the rigging, steering, balance and centerboard. All of the reefing lines for
this small cloud of canvas have been omitted in this rendition. You can bet that racing
one, or crossing a large lake, kept a skipper quite busy.
The Ash Breeze, Summer 2010
From the President
by John Weiss
By the time you read this, the 28th active
TSCA local group, the Saint Augustine
Lighthouse Chapter (SALC), in St.
Augustine, FL, should be officially instated.
SALC is affiliated with the Lighthouse
Maritime Archeological Program, within the
St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum. Maury
Keiser has been working on organizing the
chapter for several years now, and his efforts
have finally come to fruition. Welcome
aboard to our third Florida chapter! That’s
not all, though…. There is also a nascent
organizing effort along the “Forgotten Coast”
of Florida around Apalachicola. As I write
this in early April, there is a kickoff event in
planning for the Apalachicola Antique &
Classic Boat Show April 23-24.
There is also interest in the Raleigh, NC,
area. Dean Herring has set up a Day Sailors
group under the auspices of the Carolina
Sailing Club, and is looking for local TSCA
members and future members. Contact Dean
at dfharing@aol.com. Hopefully we’ll have
more news of these efforts next issue.
The Scajaquada Chapter has changed its
name to the Buffalo Maritime Center
Chapter
Chapter. The TSCA Chapter is taking over
the programs administration function of the
Maritime Center, which was established in
1988 at the Buffalo State College, NY. These
programs concentrate on outreach to at-risk
youth at several high schools in the Buffalo
area. Good luck to Chuck Meyer and crew!
I am pleased to announce that Paul Gray of
the Delaware River Chapter has taken over
maintenance of the TSCA web site. A new
look is on the way (if not already on line), so
drop in at www.tsca.net and see what Paul
has in store for us. You can send inputs and
comments to him at ptgray@archi-tech.com.
This will be my last column as TSCA
President. As you read this in late May, the
TSCA annual meeting (June 19, South
Haven, MI; details at right) and the end of my
Small Craft Festival and TSCA National Meeting:
Michigan Maritime Museum, June 19, 2010
The TSCA annual meeting will be held June 19, at the Michigan Maritime Museum in
South Haven, MI. It will be held in conjunction with the Museum’s 29th annual Classic
Boat Show and Small Craft Festival and the city of South Haven’s Harborfest. The
Festival is being produced again this year by the Museum’s TSCA Chapter.
Plans for this event are being formalized now, but some of the hoped-for events are a
boat parade on Friday evening — including an early 20th Century tugboat, a 1940’s
gill net fish tug, and as many small craft as we can muster. Exhibitors already committed
cover a wide range of watercraft — from a 12' solo canoe, to a mahogany Chris Craft
and steam-powered launch. As well, a great many rowed, paddled or sailed small craft
are expected; the more the merrier!
We will have a guest speaker this year: Peter Vermilya, Curator Emeritus of Small Craft,
recently retired from Mystic Seaport and a TSCA luminary, will grace us with his
presence and wisdom of the subject of small craft. The annual meeting itself will be
held Sunday morning either at the Museum or a venue near by, ending in time for
travel home (for those who must). If not, more messing about in the Harbor will be
encouraged.
Speaking of travel, South Haven can be reached by flying to Chicago or Detroit (a 2.5to-3-hour drive); Kalamazoo (“yes Virginia, there is a Kalamazoo”), a 45-minute drive;
or Grand Rapids, a one hour drive. As well, South Haven is within a one-day driving
distance of most of the Midwest for anyone who can, and should, bring boats. Lodging
and camping are available locally.
South Haven is a summertime resort town on Lake Michigan directly across the lake
from Waukegon, IL. Limited dockage is available for larger boats at our waterfront site,
as well as parking for trailered boats on our campus.
For information call 1-800-747-3810
1-800-747-3810.
Pete Mathews
Secretary, Michigan Maritime Museum Chapter, Traditional Small Craft Association
canoenut@bciwildblue.com
continued on page 29
Volume 31, Number 2
3
4
The Ash Breeze, Summer 2010
Active
TSCA
Chapters
Adirondack Chapter
Mary Brown, 18 Hemlock Lane, Saranac
Lake, New York 12983, 518-891-2709,
mabrown214@hotmail.com
Floating the Apple
1225 Park Ave., #10C, New York, NY
10036, 212-564-5412,
floapple@aol.com
Pine Lake Small Craft Association
Sandy Bryson, Sec’y., 333 Whitehills Dr,
East Lansing, MI 48823, 517-351-5976,
sbryson@msu.edu
Florida Gulf Coast TSCA
Roger B. Allen, Florida Maritime Museum,
4415 119th St W, PO Box 100, Cortez, FL
34215, 941-708-4935 or 941-704-8598 (cell),
Roger.Allen@ManateeClerk.com
Puget Sound TSCA
Gary Powell, 15805 140th Ct. SE,
Renton, WA 98058, 425-255-5067,
powellg@amazon.com
Annapolis Chapter
Sigrid Trumpy, P.O. Box 2054, Annapolis,
MD 21404, hollace@crosslink.net
Friends of the North Carolina
Maritime Museum TSCA
Brent Creelman, 315 Front Street,
Beaufort, NC 28516, 252-728-7317,
maritime@ncmail.com
Barnegat Bay TSCA
Patricia H. Burke, Director, Toms River
Seaport Society, PO Box 1111, Toms
River, NJ 08754, 732-349-9209,
www.tomsriverseaport.com
John Gardner Chapter
Russ Smith, U of Connecticut, Avery Point
Campus, 1084 Shennecossett Road,
Groton, CT 06340, 860-536-1113,
fruzzy@hotmail.com
Buffalo Maritime Center
Charles H. Meyer, 5405 East River, Grand
Island, NY 14072, 716-773-2515,
chmsails@aol.com
Lone Star Chapter
Howard Gmelch, The Scow Schooner
Project, PO Box 1509, Anahuac, TX
77514, 409-267-4402,
scowschooner@earthlink.net
Cleveland Amateur Boatbuilding
and Boating Society (CABBS)
Hank Vincenti, 7562 Brinmore Rd,
Sagamore Hills, OH 44067, 330-4676601, quest85@windstream.net,
www.cabbs.org
Connecticut River Oar
and PPaddle
addle Club
Jon Persson, 17 Industrial Park Road,
Suite 5, Centerbrook, CT 06409, 860767-3303, jon.persson@snet.net
Crystal River Boat Builders (CRBB)
Bill Whalen, 4539 N Grass Island Ter,
Hernando, FL 34442, 352-344-5482,
wfxw1@embarqmail.com
Delaware River TSCA
Tom Shephard, 482 Almond Rd,
Pittsgrove, NJ 08318, tsshep41556
@aol.com, www.tsca.net/delriver
Down East Chapter
John Silverio, 105 Proctor Rd,
Lincolnville, ME 04849, work 207-7633885, home 207-763-4652, camp:
207-763-4671, jsarch@midcoast.com
Volume 31, Number 2
Long Island TSCA
Myron Young, PO Box 635, Laurel, NY
11948, 631-298-4512
Lost Coast Chapter—Mendocino
Stan Halvorsen, 31051 Gibney Lane,
Fort Bragg, CA 95437, 707-964-8342,
Krish@mcn.org, www.tsca.net/LostCoast
Sacramento TSCA
Todd Bloch, 122 Bemis Street, San
Francisco, CA 94131, 415-971-2844,
todd.sb@comcast.net
South Jersey TSCA
George Loos, 53 Beaver Dam Rd, Cape
May Courthouse, NJ 08210, 609-8610018, georgeowlman@aol.com
South Street Seaport Museum
John B. Putnam, 207 Front Street, New
York, NY 10038, 212-748-8600, Ext.
663 (days), www.southstseaport.org
Southern California Small Boat
Messabout Society (Scuzbums)
Annie Holmes, San Diego, CA
annieholmes@mac.com
TSCA of Wisconsin
James R. Kowall, c/o Door County
Maritime Museum, 120 N Madison Ave,
Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235, 920-743-4631
Chapters Organizing
Michigan Maritime Museum Chapter
Pete Mathews, Sec’y, PO Box 100,
Gobles, MI 49055, 269-628-4396,
canoenut@bciwildblue.com
Cape Cod
Don Chapin, PO Box 634, Pocasset, MA
02559, 774-392-1833,
Don@Coastalrower.com
North Shore TSCA
Dave Morrow, 63 Lynnfield St, Lynn, MA
01904, 781-598-6163
North Idaho
Joe Cathey, 15922 W. Hollister Hills
Drive, Hauser, ID 83854,
caadnil@roadrunner.com
Oregon Coots
John Kohnen, PO Box 24341, Eugene,
OR 97402, 541-688-2826,
jkohnen@boat-links.com
Patuxent Small Craft Guild
William Lake, 11740 Asbury Circle, Apt
1301, Solomons, MD 20688, 410-3943382, wlake@comcast.net
St. Augustine Lighthouse
and Museum Chapter
Maury Keiser, 329 Valverde L ane, St.
Augustine, FL 32086, 904-797-1508,
maurykeiser@bellsouth.net
5
6
The Ash Breeze, Summer 2010
John Gardner Grant
“ 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 (including
their construction and uses)
and the skills of those who
built and used them. Youth
involvement is encouraged.
Proposals for projects ranging
from $200 to $2000 are
invited for consideration.
Grants are awarded competitively and reviewed semiannually by the John Gardner
Memorial Fund Committee of
TSCA, typically in May and
October. The source of
funding is the John Gardner
Memorial Endowment Fund.
Funding availability is
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
Breeze.. *
Program details, applications and
additional information:
www.tsca.net/gardner.html
* Emphasis added by The Ash
Breeze editorial staff.
Life Members
Dan & Eileen Drath • Jean Gardner • Bob Hicks • Paul Reagan • Peter T. Vermilya • Sidney S. Whelan, Jr.
Benefactors
Samuel E. Johnson
Generous Patrons
Ned & Neva Asplundh • Howard Benedict • Willard A. Bradley • Richard A. Butz • Lee Caldwell • Ben Fuller
Rick L. Pettit • Richard B. Weir • John & Ellen Weiss
Sponsor Members
Rodney & Julie Agar • Capt. James Alderman • Roger Allen • Ellen & Gary Barrett • Ken Bassett • Charles Benedict
Dr. Llewellyn Bigelow • Gary Blackman • Kent & Barbara Bleakley • Todd Bloch • Robert C. Briscoe
Capt. John S. Calhoun • Charles Canniff • Dick Christie • David & Katherine Cockey • Lloyd Crocket
Stanley R. Dickstein • Dusty & Linda Dillion • William Dodge • Dick Dodson • Thomas Dugan • Frank C. Durham
David Epner • Tom Etherington • Huw Goronwy Evans • John M. Gerty • Gerald W. Gibbs • Larrick Glendenning
Max Greenwood • Mr. & Mrs. R. Bruce Hammatt, Jr. • Peter Healey • Colin O. Hermans • Kevin W. Holmes
Peter A. Jay • Michael Jones & Judith Powers • Phillip Kasten • Thomas E . King • Arthur B. Lawrence, III
Chelcie Liu • Jon Lovell • The Mariners Museum, Newport News, VA • Pete & Susan Mathews • D. Turner Matthews
Charles H. Meyer, Jr. • Alfred P. Minervini • Howard Mittleman • John S. Montague • King Mud & Queen Tule
Mason C. Myers • Rex & Kathy Payne • Tom & Susanne Regan • Ron Render • Don Rich & Sheryl Speck
Dr. John L. Roche • Bill & Karen Rutherford • Richard Schubert • Paul A. Schwartz • Karen Seo • Gary & Diane Shirley
Leslie Smith • John R. Stilgoe • John P. Stratton, III • Robert E. (Bub) Sullivan • George Surgent • Stephen M. Weld
Capt. C. S. Wetherell • Andrew P. (Andy) Wolfe • Robert & Judith Yorke • J. Myron Young • Joel Zackin • Bob Zolli
Volume 31, Number 2
7
The Downeast Chapter’s “January Row”
by Paul LaBrie
In Maine, when asked, “what do you do for
recreation during the long winter?” the reply,
“we go boating,” is always unexpected. It’s a
fun response, one which is guaranteed to
elicit further exclamations and questions!
On January 16, 2010, the Downeast Chapter
held its annual January Row in Camden
Harbor. It was a delightful day.
The event was originally scheduled for
Saturday, January 2nd, but a large storm
front (a “nor’easter” with snow and high
winds) inconveniently lodged itself over the
state for the New Year’s weekend. Not to
mind though, as our “storm date,” two weeks
later, turned out wonderfully with a slight
overcast, warm temperatures (high 30’s) and
light winds of 10 mph or so from the west.
The group of 11 boats left the public launch
in Camden Harbor and proceeded to row
beyond, and then eventually back to Curtis
Island, where we beached. Some chose to
take a short walk to the lighthouse — the
island is public land
with a marked hiking
trail — and others
chose to remain at
the landing area for
some conversation.
Upon our return, we
enjoyed a potluck
lunch and a short
meeting where Dave
Wyman presented
suggestions for this
year’s gatherings.
Our hosts that day
were Sam and Susan
Manning (loved the chili, Susan!) where we
ate the usual assortment of excellent food
(thank you to whoever brought the brownies… I ate three of them!).
The two-and-a-half mile route taken by our intrepid Downeasterners:
from the public ramp at Eaton Point, out across Camden Harbor to
the bell bouy, and return via Curtis Island.
Above: Joel Jensen makes his way across
Camden Harbor in an Arch Davis-designed
Penobscot 14 that Joel built last winter. A t
right, boats on the beach: Bolger Gloucester
Gull dory, owned by Tom Jackson; Paul
Labrie’s Matinicus 18, Red Molly
Molly; and John
and Susan Silverio’s Shearwatwer, Ocarina .
Below, the lighthouse on Curtis Island.
8
The Ash Breeze, Summer 2010
Clockwise from above left: a view of Camden’s ice-covered launch ramp; John and Susan
Silverio double -bank their Shearwater, Ocarina
Ocarina; on the beach at Curtis Island: left-to-right,
Joel Jensen discusses his Penobscot 14 with John Silverio, as Tom Tomlinson looks on; a line
up of boats and rowers at Curtis Island: Joel Jensen’s Penobscot (Joel is heading for the
stairs), John Burgess walks between Jonathan Minott’s traditionally-built Old Town tender
and his own St. Lawrence skiff, as John and Susan Silverio stroll past, at right is a Redmond
Whisp; Johnathan’s OT tender rests on the beach as Charles Chamberlain lines up a landing
spot for his very pretty Washington County peapod, and Susan Manning waits in the
background in her classic Banks dory, Hopeful Outlook
Outlook; Betsy Miller and Jonathan Minott
stand proudly by his OT tender. All photos by Paul L aBrie.
Volume 31, Number 2
9
The Everglades Challenge
in a Michalak Laguna
by Andrew Linn, aka Krunch
Waiting for the flood tide to get off a sandbar, this shot shows the lines of the Laguna design,
as well as Mike and Andrew’s asymmetrical flotation setup.
The WaterTribe hosts several endurance race
events in America’s Southeast, primarily
Florida and North Carolina. The Everglades
Challenge is one such event, held in early
March. You can find out more about it and
other WaterTribe events at watertribe.com.
When I first heard of the Everglades
Challenge, a grueling, 300-mile race along
the west coast of Florida, I immediately
began to think “What is the perfect boat for
this?”
That’s not such an easy question to answer.
The Everglades Challenge (EC for short) was
designed, first and foremost, to be a kayak
race — a race difficult for kayakers to finish.
As the event grew, Steve Isaacs, known as
Chief in the WaterTribe, created different
classes for different types of boats. He also
designed in “filters” to mitigate some of the
larger, and perhaps, odder, boat designs.
The first filter is the environment of the
course itself. In 2006, I took a trip to the
Everglades to get an idea of the “lay of the
land” and what I found was a place as
different from my home state of Oregon as
could be imagined.
Florida is flat — flat, flat, flat. Even a mile off
shore, the water can be as thin as half a
fathom deep, something incomprehensible to
10
this Oregon boy. The bottom varies from
thigh-deep muck to smooth, limestone shelf,
and every variation in between. Once past
the condos and cell towers of civilization, the
shoreline is a monotonous, featureless,
soulless, thin line of water and mangrove
dominated islands. The Everglades are truly
a wilderness at the edge of the sea.
different from chop – except for the height, of
course.
The next filter is built into the start of the
race. It is designed to insure that the
participants have carefully considered the
rigors of the course: each boat must be able
to carry all the food, water, clothes, and gear
required to sustain the crew for eight days. To
keep things in the spirit of an expedition,
each boat — carrying everything it needs —
must be launched from behind the high water
mark with no help from anyone but the crew.
To make sure people don’t go crazy with
launch mechanisms, everything used to get
the boat to the water must be taken along
when the boat leaves the beach.
The next filter requiring consideration for
boat design are some physical, man-made
barriers along the route. There are two
bridges that can cause problems, and,
depending on your route, the possibility of a
portage.
On the way to the first checkpoint is a swing
bridge that has a maximum clearance of 13’.
While it is easy enough to raise the bridge
captain on VHF and have him swing the
structure, the next bridge is fixed and only
has a height of about 6-8’, depending on the
tide. All but the shortest of masts will have to
be stepped to reach the first checkpoint.
The waves there have a different nature than
the waves I am used to in the Pacific
Northwest. Up here, we have a fetch that is
unbroken for thousands of miles, the wind
direction is mostly
constant, the swells
are long, and the
waves rarely have a
period of anything
less than eight
seconds. In Florida,
especially in March,
the winds routinely
box the compass and
there doesn’t appear
to be any swell at
all. The shallow
basin of the Gulf
makes waves that
rarely have a period
of more than five
seconds and seem to
“The mate was a mighty sailing man, the skipper brave and sure.”
be very little
The crew of Blue Laguna
Laguna, Andrew Linn (l) and Mike Monies (r).
The Ash Breeze, Summer 2010
“weather holds,” but
those only come into
play when conditions
are truly dangerous.
My first attempt at an
EC boat was a
Medway Doble, to
be built from plans
designed by SelwayFisher. I was
Before the start of the race, Mike puts finishing touches on his
intrigued by the
Michalak-designed boat: Laguna Dos - Blue Laguna.
lines, the elegance
The requirement of a portage depends on
of the gaff rig, and the built in flotation
which route you take. Specifically, if you
afforded by the seats running fore and aft
leave Check Point Two at Chokoloskee and
down each side. My attempt at building this
go through the Everglades, you’ll need to
boat can be described as “half-assed” at best,
accomplish a portage of up to 1/4 mile, from and I quickly abandoned it as other projects
the freshwater river to the saltwater harbor,
closer to home came across my bow.
once you reach Check Point Three at
As gas prices went crazy and time became
Flamingo. The WaterTribe provides small
more important, I shelved the idea of doing
carts to help people make this portage.
the Challenge in favor of doing events a little
The final filter is time. Each checkpoint has a closer to my stomping grounds. I did the
maxim time limit, from 30 hours to reach the
inaugural Texas200, then the next one.
first checkpoint to eight days to complete the
Hooked on expedition sailing, I organized
entire course. There are some allowances for the Columbia150 and sailed my Weekender
down the longest dam-free stretch on the
mighty Columbia River.
Still, in the back of my head, the Everglades
called to me. My sailing friends would talk
about it. My boat-building friends would
discuss designs. It just wouldn’t let me go.
Ours wasn’t the only new boat in the 2010
EC; Meade Gougeon of West System Epoxy
ello Thing
was there with YYello
Thing, a boat of his own
design. Hugh Horton photo.
Volume 31, Number 2
Enter Mike Monies, a man I met while his
Bolger Cartopper was floating upside down
in Corpus Christi Bay, during the 2009
Texas200. He had lost his mast and sail
during the capsize, and my friends and I
made him new parts out of a spare sail and
spare yard. Mike used this improvised rig to
continue and finish the Texas200. I was
impressed by his tenacity (I’d have run to the
nearest marina and dropped out) and he was
impressed by my ability to innovate and
adapt.
Over the next few months, I emailed Mike
and his wife, Jackie, steadily turning a
chance encounter into a friendship. Then,
during an on-line EC discussion, Jackie sent
me this question: “If Mike were to build a
boat suitable for the Challenge, would I crew
for him?” Without hesitation, I said, “yes.”
Mike’s boat of choice is Jim Michalak’s new
Laguna design — a 23’ LOA, 5.5’ beam,
shallow drafted, double lugger. Michalak
designed the Laguna at the request of Chuck
Leinweber, owner of Duckworks Boat Supply
and organizer of the Texas200. Chuck
wanted a boat that was cheap and easy to
build, yet capable of taking the brutal
conditions of the south Texas coast without
complaint.
continued on next page
Sea Pearls at Sunrise. There were three Pearls in the 2010 Everglades Challenge. The
Brogan was crewed by Paul Meyers and Roderick Hesse.
11
The Everglades Challenge, cont’d.
points, so each sail
can be reduced to
~75% and 50%. If
conditions become
truly horrific, either
sail can be dropped
completely, giving
the skipper reduced
sail down to 25% of
the original area, on
one pole, if needed.
anticipated as
Oklahoma — and
much of the
American Southeast
— was afflicted with
the coldest winter in
decades. I had to put
March 2010 had
my trust in
some very cold
Michalak’s ability to
weather for Florida.
design robust boats
Hypothermia
and Mike’s ability to
coupled with fatigue
was a constant
build them. I didn’t
threat.
sit on my hands and
worry however. I
took it upon myself to get a thorough
understanding of the balanced lug design
and made the sails for the Laguna. Once the
sails were done, I shipped them off and
began preparing for the Challenge.
The masts and spars
are simple elegance
and functionality.
The masts are
The Laguna was designed for the shallow waters of the Texas Gulf
Coast. The shallow draft and flat bottom came in handy when we
identical, each made
needed to shove her off muddy beaches. Tom Pamprin photo.
from two 14’ long
2x4s glued together,
Michalak cogitated on the conditions of the
trimmed to a 3” square on the bottom and
event, of Chuck’s request that the boat and
from about 5’ up, tapered to 1.5” on top. The The WaterTribe has a long list of required
sails should be as cheap and easy as possible,
and recommended equipment — almost all
spars are also of equal length, made by
and of the resources available to the average
gluing two 1x2s into 11’ long lengths, square of it designed for warmth, comfort, communibackyard builder. He decided to use his 16’
cation, and safety. Since I was flying down to
in cross section.
Mayfly design as the starting point, and since
meet Mike and the boat, I had to be very
Rudder and
he was going to make it bigger, he might as
leeboard are made
well add an entire sheet of plywood to the
by laminating 1/2”
length. The sides were to be cut from three
ply and trimming to
sheets of 1/4” exterior plywood, and the
shape. These foils
bottom to be from three sheets of 1/2”
are weighted and
exterior ply. For flotation and storage, there
swing freely so they
is a large, enclosed fore deck space as well
as an enclosed area aft. The cockpit is split in require no adjusttwo, bisecting the open area into two spaces, ments as the boat
skims over the
each 6 1/2' long – large enough for the “off
shallows — perfect
watch” crewmember to stretch out and sleep
for the conditions of
comfortably.
the Texas200 and
The Laguna sports a kick-up rudder and
also for the EC.
leeboard, which enables her to skim through
I followed Mike’s
the skinniest of waters. Her hard chine and
build process via
skeg allow her to perform well to windward
without the leeboard down, but the leeboard email and photos.
Mike and Jackie live
helps her pivot quickly during tacking. She
in Oklahoma and
also has a motorwell in the stern that can be
even if I were
built to accommodate either a long or short
competent enough
shaft outboard, but as the EC is a nonto offer assistance,
motorized competition, the well became a
there was no way I
handy anchor locker.
could take any direct
To my eyes, the most intriguing aspect of the
action. The build
Laguna design is her two masts and identical,
took a few months
If there was the slightest wind, she’d scoot along at a couple of
76sqft lug sails. You just don’t see a double
knots. When the wind picked up, she’d really move, often clocking
longer than
lugger every day. Each sail has two reef
over seven knots.
12
The Ash Breeze, Summer 2010
At 23’ LOA and 5’5” beam, the L agunas have a lot of room for
comfort.
careful with the quantity and quality of gear I
was taking. I was also designated as
navigator, so I had to find and order charts
for places I had never been, using landmarks
I had never heard of. John Welsford, small
boat designer from New Zealand had this bit
of sage advice for getting appropriate maps:
“Charts are primarily designed for boats over
40’ in length, while fishing maps are
designed for smaller craft and often have
more information where the depths tend to
be less than a fathom.”
Sitting in the comfort of my home in Oregon,
I carefully read all the accounts of past
Everglades Challenges and laid out a course.
Since, at 23’ LOA, we were a rather large
sailboat, I plotted our course to run mostly
outside the Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW) in
the Gulf of Mexico. I carefully noted each
landmark and buoy, as well as every break in
the barrier islands where we could re-enter
the safety of the ICW should conditions
dictate. With no direct knowledge of the
area, it was a little like reading a book to
learn how to ride a
bike. People who
had competed in
prior EC events were
very forthcoming
with advice and
suggestions. Mike
and I will be forever
in the debt of Gary
Blankenship as he
gave us GPS
waypoints, routes
and the benefit of his
local knowledge.
And finally, the day arrived. I loaded up my
gear and boarded the plane to Tampa Bay.
Mike had set out from his frozen home in
Oklahoma the week before and had met
Gary at Tallahassee, where they put the boat
in the water and rigged her for sail for the
first time. It was there they had the naming
ceremony, christening her L aguna Dos Blue Laguna.
Mike had gotten in a few hours at the helm
and was confident in the boat and her
capabilities. I had hoped to get some practice
time in as well, but when I arrived, it was
bitterly cold and the wind was blowing like
stink from the Southeast. Mike and I thought
it would be prudent to stay on shore.
When race day came, there we were: Mike
and I standing on an alien shore, neither of
us ever having set foot there before. We had
a boat of such recent construction that the
paint was barely dry, only the second one of
her design ever to have touched water. Boat
and captain had a scant few hours to learn
each other’s peculiarities, and neither had
gotten a chance to learn about me.
The Everglades Challenge is billed as an
endurance race designed to test each competitor to the limits of his or her capabilities,
with a route that has been carefully planned
to maximize stress on both boat and crew
while still allowing for successful, and safe,
completion. I can testify that it lives up to its
billing.
Mike Monies at the helm during a lively day
of wind and sea as we beat our way across
Florida Bay.
Volume 31, Number 2
40 boats left the beach on March 6, 2010,
each with the intent of reaching Key Largo
With her two masts and lug sails, Blue
Laguna was a sight to see. We had
strangers, people unassociated with the EC,
sail over just to say “hello.”
before noon on Sunday March 13. There
were equipment failures, hypothermia, and
even a couple of capsizes. Of the 40 that left
the line, only 24 made it to the finish.
Laguna Dos - Blue Laguna was one of
those, the 17th to land, to be exact. To reach
our goal, we had to battle 15kt winds and
five-foot following seas one day; sit becalmed, covering a scant nine miles in 13
hours the next; and 20kt headwinds the day
after. We sailed over water so thin I could
reach my hand over and touch the bottom.
We had two sessions that lasted over 27 hours
and one session that lasted 19.
By the time we got to the finish, we had been
excited, frustrated, exhausted, and elated.
We suffered cold and heat, blinding sunshine
and moonless nights. Through a land of
snakes, giant reptiles and sea cows, where
even the trees can be poisonous, our boat
carried us 300 miles. Wind and wave, day
and dark, she carried on without complaint,
without concern, and without a single failure.
I am no naval architect, nor am I an expert
sailor, but I can say this with authority: Jim
Michalak’s Laguna is a solid design: simple,
quick, and easy to build. She has lovely lines
and her double lugger rig will draw admirers
and comments from across the harbor or
across the lake. She sure did right by me.
Unless indicated, photos by Andrew Linn.
13
look into past
maritime sociological and economic
importance.
Before naval forces
could rule the seas
ships had to be built
and models were the
way to show
royalties and
admiralties what
they were investing
in. The models not
only helped with
financing but, more
importantly, with
their construction.
Modeling:
Not Just for Kids
by Steve Brookman
The old saw that says the only difference
between men and boys is the size of their
toys doesn’t hold true when it comes to boats.
Like many, I built models growing up, some
from kits, some pretty crude from scrap wood
which had unique sailing characteristics,
provided they floated long enough to
demonstrate them. My boats got bigger as I
got older. My first “real” boat was a 32' very
used, former charter boat which also served
as my home for a couple of years. Over the
years my boats have gotten progressively
smaller, but no less enjoyable.
The last boat I built was but 30 inches long.
The building cost was negligible as I used
small pieces of wood left over from other
projects and the only expense was for glue
and a few fittings that I couldn’t make myself.
Of course we’re talking about modeling.
Modeling has been a part of boating since
the first boat was launched and possibly even
before that.
Archaeologists have discovered ship and boat
models from ancient times throughout the
world. These early models most likely had
religious significance and were used for
blessings or burial votives. Probably as now
some served as art items or toys. These
artifacts provide us with valuable information
regarding historic seafaring technology and a
14
Sailors held captive
for years in prisons
or on long voyages
sought relief from boredom by cleverly
building model ships out of any material at
hand: bone, ivory, human hair. Some of these
models were amazingly intricate and a
commercial market developed for them as an
art form.
I’ve always been impressed with ships in a
bottle, partly because of the amount of skill
involved in making them so small, and partly
because I couldn’t imagine the amount of
time and patience required. I saw one of Old
Ironsides that was so small it had to be
viewed with a magnifying glass! As I gazed in
wonder, I muttered something about “can you
imagine taking that much time to build
something that tiny?” The man standing next
to me said it was his model. I told him that it
was a very nice one.
We’ve all seen half
hull models
decorating the walls
of offices and
museums. Before
there were CAD
programs or even
drawing boards half
hull models were
used to design, sell
and then construct a
boat. Modern day
models still serve a purpose, from tank testing
super tankers and high end racing yachts, to
what really benefits us small boat builders,
seeing how all the parts go together and
what they’ll look like when they are
assembled.
A few years ago, I got the boat building bug
after reading a WoodenBoat article featuring
sharpies showing off their simple, clean lines
and mentioning how easy they are to build.
After some research I ordered plans for the
19' Ohio Sharpie from Reuel Parker. Just as I
was about to start, the next issue of Wooden
Boat arrived, with a section on building the
Peace Canoe, a weekend project (oh, sure!).
Since it was plywood-over-frames, much like
the sharpie, I decided to build it as a warm
up. First, I built a model as practice for the
practice boat and to see if bending plywood
panels over attached seats would really end
up looking like a canoe. Well it did, so I built
the full-sized one. It took a bit more than a
weekend but the extra time spent coating it
with xynole-polyester and epoxy like the
sharpie called for (more practice.) So now I
had a battleship of a canoe, more of a
pirogue, and was ready for the sharpie build.
Parker’s plans didn’t have step by step
instructions (not sure how many plans do), so
building a model was almost essential. It is
much better to trash a 12” piece of scrap
wood rather than 12' of expensive lumber.
The model helps you figure how to install
parts, like it sure would have been easier to
put that thwart in if the deck wasn’t in the
way! And to see how paint schemes (black
hull or white) and trim will look. I experimented by adding a dog house not called for
in the plans (it really would provide shelter
Priscilla’s lines.
The Ash Breeze, Summer 2010
If it weren’t for the
scale of the tools
near this bare hull,
you’d think a fullscale Tuckup was
under construction.
All photos by Steve
Brookman.
for our dogs) to see if it would fit the design.
After seeing it on the model I think it would if
it were built a little shorter and had wood
trim along the top edge.
I never expected the building process to be
so enjoyable. I found myself referencing the
model often and while it helped prevent
some missteps I found many other ones to
make. But that didn’t dampen my enthusiasm,
for when the sharpie left the shop I was on
the Internet and thumbing through old
boating magazines and design books
searching for just the right next build.
It was in WP Stephens’ Canoe and Boat
Building, a somewhat-crude reprint of an
1898 Forest and Stream publication, that I
stumbled upon line drawings for Priscilla
Priscilla. I
loved her lines and it was the size boat I was
thinking about. She was a Delaware River
Tuckup, a boat I’d never heard of. We live a
few miles from the Delaware River, so the
local historic aspect added to the appeal.
Through the wonders of the Internet (how did
we ever survive without it?) and a few clicks
of the mouse I had pages of information on
the design. A few more mouse clicks and I
was in contact with someone who had built
and researched them.
some paint and varnish on to see what she
could look like.
The lapstrake construction and especially the
“tucked up” stern will make this design much
more difficult to build than the sharpie. That
some have called it an insane design due to
her overpowering sail plan and tendency to
capsize or otherwise abuse her crew would
make this a challenge to sail as well.
Undeterred, I ordered the plans and began
lofting from Priscilla
Priscilla’s lines and offsets as
published in Stephens’ book.
The rigging was fairly simple since she only
has one stay and a couple of halyards. But it
was enough to convince me that I don’t need
to ever consider rigging a model of a tall
ship. My wife kindly offered to sew the sail
out of some muslin she had. I added a few
reef points, bent it on, hoisted it with the little
halyards and that about finished her. The fact
that it seems like any little breeze would
knock her off her stand gives me an idea of
her sailing stability.
One great thing about northern winters is
that they give you the opportunity to devote
time to indoor activities such as modeling. So
I braved the cold of my workshop to quickly
rip some wood to size and began a 2” scale
model. I had calculated the optimum plank
widths using Iain Oughtred’s formula, but the
reality of getting these small pieces of wood
to fit, and stay glued in place, plus the dread
of going to that cold shop, made building
difficult. I have to admit that the hull got
done, but not very well. It was a learning
process, and I will learn to do better in full
scale.
It’s always fascinating to see the form of a
boat take shape. Each stage of construction
has its own challenges and rewards. In
scratch modeling the challenges usually
revolve around finding or making a part or
fitting that fits the scale. I don’t have any
metal working equipment so I really had to
improvise on the
fittings. Some, like
the miniature blocks
and turnbuckle, I
ordered from a
hobby shop, but for
the rest it was cutting
thin pieces of brass,
snipping parts of
safety pins, even
using some PVC
pipe. Though the
purpose of the
model is practice for
the real thing you
can’t resist throwing
A closeup of the interior shows Steve’s painstaking attention to
detail.
Volume 31, Number 2
There is a small problem. It’s still snowing as
I write this and that stupid groundhog says we
have another six weeks of winter. Is that
enough time to do another model? I’m
thinking radio control for the next one with
servos and transmitters. Now we’re talking
toys!
About the Author: Steve is a former Navy
pilot, and has been flying for a major airline
for 27 years. He’s also sailed most of his life,
lived aboard for a few years in the Virgin
Islands and on the US east coast. Now
landlocked in beautiful western NJ, Steve
built Vika
Vika, a19' Parker sharpie, last year, and
is planning to start building a full-size tuckup
this summer. He maintains the website:
www.tuckups.com.
MIKE WICK
BASEMENT
BOATYARD
134 E Main St.
Moorestown, NJ 08057
856-222-1216
mikewick55@yahoo.com
15
The Small Yachts
of Albert Strange
At left, Albert
Strange, the elder
statesman of yacht
design, helms his
Cherub III design.
by Thad Danielson
Albert Strange was an artist best known to
the world as a boat designer. W. P. Stevens
wrote about him in Field and Stream, preserved many of his design drawings (now
available from Mystic Seaport Museum), and
was especially enthusiastic about the canoe yawl and the stern
sections as Albert Strange drew them.
cutter, 21’ x 7’ 3”, the drawings of which
have since been lost. Sailing out of Scarborough and getting to know the waters and
boats in the vicinity, he also got to know
George Holmes who introduced him to the
Humber Yawl Club in 1891. Strange often sailed with him, around
Britain, and in North Sea and Baltic European waters.
Widespread interest in small boat cruising developed after the 1866
publication of John MacGregor’s A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy
Canoe, and canoe clubs sprouted thereafter.
The design of a typical Humber canoe yawl (pictured below) was
drawn in 1891, the year Albert joined the club, and is his design
number four, a “Single -Hand Cruiser,” 16’ on the waterline, 18’ on
deck, with a hinged cabin top typical for the small cruisers of the time.
As a teen, Albert Strange sailed out of the Thames Estuary, in an old
fisherman’s shrimper, and on large yachts, with the fisherman going as
pilot. With his fisherman friend, Albert salvaged an old Peterboat, a
double-ended, lapstrake, spritsail-rigged fishing boat that he fit out
for cruising.
Studying at the Slade School of Art, he got his Masters Certificate. He
also studied at the Leicester College of Arts and Crafts until 1878. At
age 25, he got a job teaching art in Liverpool. After three years in
Liverpool, in 1882, and now married, he got the job he held for the
rest of his life as Director of the Scarborough Art School in Yorkshire,
north of the Humber River.
The Humber Yawl Club was founded in 1883, the year Albert Strange
had his first design built for himself, Cherub
Cherub, a double-centerplate
16
Three years later, Albert designed the 22’ Cherub II for himself
(opposite page, top and middle), similar in concept but differing in
many ways, with an outboard mounted rudder, a more built-down
hull, lead ballast inside and out, and the mizzen stepped well aft to
starboard of center, requiring boomkin and curved tiller. With her
fully-battened lug main and batwing gunter mizzen, Cherub II was
an altogether more powerful vessel. This boat was double-planked,
with calico between the diagonal inner, and fore-and-aft outer, skins
on longitudinal stringers.
Albert Strange kept Cherub II for four years, writing a few articles
published in the Yachting Monthly, under his moniker “Cherub,”
about cruises in the boat that he described as his “most beloved.”
The Ash Breeze, Summer 2010
In 1895, he designed the Humber Canoe
Yawl (below left) that incorporated design
features of the earlier Humber type, as well
as those seen in Cherub IIII.
Three years later, Otter (design number 40;
page18, upper right) added a trunk cabin to
a canoe yawl much like the previous designs.
At 24’9” x 7’8”, this is a bigger boat. With
size and cabin space, Otter offered significantly more comfort and capability. She
carried 1050# of iron outside on the keel
against the 600 shown on the earlier design.
So far, Albert’s designs are all double-ender
centerboard boats, but a progression was
becoming clear: most of the Strange designs,
after the turn of the 20th Century, were keel
boats, with counter and transom stern boats
among the canoe types.
In 1903, Albert Strange drew design number
70, Sheila
Sheila, for his friend and fellow artist
Robert Groves. Drawn as a 25’ x 6’ 9” sloop,
she was originally rigged as a gaff topsail
yawl, and is so now, as the pictures at the top
of page 19 show, though sailing without
topsail in both these shots. The sail plan she
had and has is very like that drawn in 1910
for another 25- footer, Thorn (page 20, top).
In 1898, Strange had drawn the full keel
Birdie, a transom stern gaff cutter, but after
Birdie
Sheila (1905) more and more of his boats
were full keel and outside-ballasted.
Between 1888 and 1903, his design numbers
indicate 69 designs, of which we have plans
or details for only 14, and only Birdie having
continued on next page
Volume 31, Number 2
17
Small Yachts, cont’d.
a fixed keel. Between 1903 and 1917, the
design numbers total 94 with only 22 being
centerboard types.
In 1911, Albert Strange designed and had
built Cherub III for himself, 28’ 6” x 8’ 1” x
3’ 9”, shown in the middle of page 20. She
was designed with a ladies cabin to
accommodate his wife, Julia. Unfortunately
he was never to cruise this boat; a heart
attack had left him weakened and his doctor
advised him to sell the boat.
This didn’t stop him thinking or working at his
art, boat design included. Most of these
designs are still one- or two- person cruising
boats, but there are a few daysailers and
some significant larger vessels, like Tern III for Claud Worth and
Betty
Betty, which, as Tally Ho
Ho, won the Fastnet race against an Alden
schooner that was the only other boat to finish the stormy event.
With his doctors permission, in 1914, Strange designed a transom
cutter Bee (bottom of page 20) for himself: a sweet design, 21’ 6” by
7’ 7’, drawing 2’ 9”. However, it was never built.
18
When Albert Strange died in 1917, with influenza on top of his heart
condition, he left the design for Venture
enture, 29 1/2’ x 7 1/4’, incomplete on his board, with only lines and sail plan done. Four boats
were built for the Suffling family based on this design between 1919
and 1937, all of which still exist. I don’t know of any of the older
centerplate boats still sailing but maybe forty of his keel boats are still
sailing. WoodenBoat commissioned Phil Bolger to draw construction
The Ash Breeze, Summer 2010
plans for the 1899 Wenda
enda, a keel centerplate design, leading to at
least a half dozen new Strange boats of this type. A new Cloud
Cloud, a 39’
gaff yawl, is being built in England now. With the hundred or so plans
available of Albert Strange design, we can hope to see more of these
beautiful sailing boats cruising our coasts for years to come.
More information on these subjects can be got from books on Albert
Strange published by the Albert Strange Association, one by John
Leather and one by Jamie Clay and Mark Miller, and from the ASA
website, www.albertstrange.org.
continued on next page
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Volume 31, Number 2
19
Small Yachts, cont’d.
About the Author: In addition to running
his boatbuilding business in Marblehead, MA,
Redd’s Pond Boatworks, Thad is North
American secretary of the Albert Strange
Association and sails the Strange yawl, Sea
Harmony
Harmony.
20
The Ash Breeze, Summer 2010
Lazy Leeboards
from Foam Wings
laminated foam cores. I reasoned if I only
had such cores, it would appear to be a
simple job.
by Larry Haff
Reprinted from The Canoe Sailor #35,
published by the ACA National Sailing
Committee
I’ve always had a fascination with leeboards;
not sure why. I’m not convinced that the
design of a leeboard is extremely important
to performance of sailing canoes since the
variety of shapes and sizes of leeboards used
by the winning boats doesn’t seem to have a
consistent theme. However, I’ve been discouraged by how much work it requires to
make a decent leeboard. One of the greatest
men of the 20th century, Sir Winston
Churchill, was once asked, late in life, to
what he contributed his success? His reply:
“Conservation of energy, young man,
conservation of energy.” So in my hopes of
emulating that great man, I have dedicated
some of my time to the art of minimizing the
labor of leeboard construction.
Lots of great minds have already contributed
their time and efforts to this endeavor. I had
evolved to preferring the technique of
shaping either solid planks of cedar or
roughly airfoil-shaped laminated layers of
marine plywood with a power plane and belt
Above, author Larry Haff holds the new ACAclass Sugar Island Trophy.
sander. These generally end up being one to
two six-pack jobs with giant piles of sawdust.
My disappointment in this approach has been
the difficulty of obtaining a perfect, consistent, symmetrical airfoil shape, since it
depends upon eyeballing the curve with a
reference template. An alternative approach,
using a router with a custom jig, sounds
appealing (Langford, “Another Approach to
Shaping Foils,” Duckworks, 2009; and
“Using A Router to Make a Leeboard” by
James Schroeder, Canoe Sailor #15, June
1998), but still seems to involve a lot of
energy and more sawdust than should be
strictly necessary.
Google to the rescue! Since leeboards and
centerboards are simply airfoils (wings), I
Googled “foam wings.” Up popped
flyingfoam.com; Flying Foam is a company
that makes foam wings for model aircraft.
These wings are cut, not molded, using a
computerized control hot wire. They can
make any shape up within the maximum size
of the block their cutter can hold. Flying
Foam makes custom foam airfoils up to 52” in
chord (width) and 96” long. These airfoils are
cut from several different types of foam; the
ones most relevant to boaters are EPS
(expanded polystyrene) and surfboard foam,
and in different weights, from one to two
pounds per cubic foot.
An e-mail exchange with Flying Foam
indicated that they have made some foam foil
centerboards, for example, the International
Swift Solo Class and recommended making
the boards from the foils made with surfboard
foam.
continued on next page
Commercial
leeboards, centerboards, and rudders
often use fiberglass-
Figure 1 shows a schematic of Flying Foil cross-section as received.
(note: “mold” contours actually exactly match the foil contours).
Volume 31, Number 2
21
Lazy Leeboards, cont’d.
For smaller boats such as sailing canoes, the
more-interesting foils are probably ones that
can be purchased “stock,” rather than
“custom,” since stock airfoils are less
expensive and delivered quicker. “Stock”
includes 26 different airfoil shapes in
different thicknesses, up to 12” in chord and
up to 36” in length (i.e., an order for 72” gets
you two 36” pieces). So if you only need 36”
of length, the 72” order will get you two full
length foils. If you want longer, you will have
to order custom or butt two stock sections
together. The stock foils also include tapered
sections. If you wanted a 48” long tapered
leeboard, and only wanted to order “stock”
sections, you would probably need to order a
non-tapered section for the top part, and a
non-tapered section for the bottom part of
the leeboard. Surfboard foam airfoils are not
available as “stock,” so I ordered EPS foam
instead, as two 24” pieces (48” total) of
constant chord 1.3 lb. EPS NCAA 0008
symmetrical airfoil (8% of chord maximum
22
Figure 2
thickness). EPS is less rigid than the surfboard
foam, but I reasoned that all the strength
would reside in the fiberglass laminations,
not the core, so there was little gained by
spending more on a more-rigid custom core.
a layer of fiberglass. I used 10 ounce per
square yard fiberglass cloth, which was
flexible enough to wrap completely around
the core so that both sides could be glassed
at the same time.
Three days after ordering the cores off the
Web, they arrived. Surprisingly, one obtains
the foil sandwiched between the remaining
upper and lower pieces left over from the
solid block from which is was cut, which for
the lack of a better term I call the upper and
lower “molds” (see Figure 2, above). The
left-over “molds” turn out to be quite useful.
First, the two halves of the bottom sections of
the “mold” were taped together and placed
over a sheet of waxed or parchment paper.
Waxed paper was then put into the bottom
section of the mold to prevent the fiber
glassed foil from bonding to it. One side of
each of the two sections of the foam foil was
then coated with epoxy, covered with
fiberglass cloth, saturated with resin and put
into the mold abutting each other. The mold
acted as a jig to hold the two sections of the
Since I wanted a 48’ long leeboard, it was
necessary to join the two 24” sections by
butting them lengthwise, by encasing both in
The Ash Breeze, Summer 2010
foam foil together and to keep them perfectly
aligned. The fiberglass was then brought up
around the leading edge of the foil to cover
the upper layer of the foil and saturated with
resin. After removing any excess epoxy, the
upper layer was covered with another sheet
of wax paper and the upper mold was added
to sandwich the foam core between them,
and allowed to cure. After curing, the molds
were removed and excess epoxy removed
with sharp scissors, a Surform tool, and
sandpaper.
After the first layer had cured, the foam core
was pretty rigid and the molds don’t have to
be used any more, although laying the foam
core in the bottom mold (don’t forget the wax
paper) is convenient. After the first layer, I
added one, then two additional layers of
fiberglass layers at a time to just one side at a
time. It is convenient to cut off the excess
fiberglass when partially cured with scissors,
otherwise if completely cured a sharp knife is
needed. Four layers of 10 ounce/square yard
fiberglass cloth on each side appeared to
Mikesboat Yawl:
designed by
Jim Michalak,
built by
Tim Fox.
give adequate strength and rigidity (time will
tell). An additional few layers of thick
fiberglass mat were layered at the top eight
inches of the board to supply additional
strength at the point where the leeboard bolt
is to hold the board, to prevent it becoming
crushed under load. The trailing edge of the
layup was then trimmed back about 1/4” with
the Surform tool to provide a slightly
squared-off edge. The layup was finished by
applying two coats of epoxy resin with 10%
graphite (optional) using a plastic edger
instead of a brush to give a smooth slippery
finish, and sanding after cured as needed to
remove any remaining lumps. For appearance sake, graphite, epoxy color, or paint are
recommended.
Since at this point the bottom and top ends of
the foil have exposed foam on the ends, I
deemed it a good idea to cap the bottom of
the foil with wood for abrasion resistance. I
traced out and cut a 1/2” thick piece of white
oak to the shape of the foil and bonded it
onto the foil with epoxy thickened with
colloidal silica. After curing, this was then
shaped as desired with a sander. The top was
capped similarly solely for appearance sake.
A 5/8” hole was bored and a sleeve of 1/2”
(i.d.) aluminum tubing was inserted and
bonded with colloidal silica thickened epoxy,
to provide a bearing for the 1/2” leeboard
bolt, and the leeboard was finished.
Because the graphite is slippery, red rubber is
advised between the leeboard and leeboard
bracket to provide adequate friction to hold
the board at the desired position. A handle
can be added to the board, which I skipped
because I find handles aren’t needed and
tend to foul the mainsheet.
So now I have a leeboard with a perfect
airfoil shape without doing any shaping and
very little sanding! A fair amount of fiberglass
lamination was needed, but this involved
mostly waiting for it to cure. Note that for
those who want to try them, you could also
order asymmetrical airfoils. This approach
continued on next page
Why not come
and build
your
own
boat?
C FFox
ox W
ood Boats:
Wood
Building Custom W
ood Boats
Wood
Wooden Boatbuilding School
16320 Red Pine Drive
Kent City, MI 49330
Phone (616)675-3188
www.cfoxwoodboats.com
Volume 31, Number 2
23
Lazy Leeboards, cont’d.
allows for very easy experimentation in airfoil shape, thickness,
tapering etc. due to the wide variety of foil shapes available. The
tapered foils would be good for rudders.
I also tried a second approach of converting the leftover “molds” into
real molds by fiberglassing the foam and coating it with wax and mold
release compound. I was successful in applying five layers of
fiberglass cloth saturated with graphite/epoxy mixture. I concluded
that this approach is a lot more laborious and doesn’t make sense
unless one wants to make a lot of leeboards from a single mold. I
haven’t tried yet laminating both halves together.
One technical difficulty I haven’t fully solved yet is what material to
use to fill the voids of the two halves. I tried using slow cure epoxy, but
even the slow cure went “off ” due to heat generation. Maybe
someone else would like to try. If you do this approach, keep in mind
that in using molds, the mold defines the maximum, outer thickness of
the leeboard, while when using the foil the fiberglass makes the foil
thicker. Keep this in mind when you specify the thickness of the foil
you want to order.
Bill of Materials:
Foam core ordered from flyingfoam.com
For
Sale:
Ducktrap
Wherry,
$5900
14’ LOA x 48" beam, approx. 135 lbs.
Occume (6mm) epoxied lapstrake. White oak stem, keel,
transom knee; hackmatack thwart knees; African mahogany
breasthook and transom knees; mahogany curved transom,
thwarts, inwale, outwale, and bottom guard rail.
Tom Walz Machinery Co., Inc.
One Roundabout Lane
Cape Elizabeth, ME 04107
tomw@whsawmills.com
207-741-2519
Epoxy and hardener (i.e. WEST System)
Graphite powder (optional; i.e. WEST Type 423)
Colloidal Silica thickening agent (i.e. WEST Type 406)
Fiberglass cloth, 10
ounce per square
yard or heavier
Aluminum tubing or
nylon bushing, 1/2”
inside diameter
SIRI
18' canoe yawl
for glued lapstrake,
traditional, or cold
molded construction
Heavy fiberglass
cloth or mat for
leeboard thwart
area (optional)
Epoxy plastic
spreader
• Designs for power, sail, oars, and electric drive
• Custom designs for amateur or professional builders
Surform rasp
• Kits and bare hulls available for COQUINA and BEACH PEA
Sander
Hardwood for cap(s)
Wax paper or
parchment paper
Seaworthy Small Ships
Dept A, POBox 2863
Prince Frederick, MD 20678
800-533-9030
Catalog Available $1.00
D. N. Hylan & Associates
53 Benjamin River Drive
Brooklin, ME 04616
207-359-9807
web site: www.dhylanboats.com
email: doug@dhylanboats.com
IT ’S A GOOD TIME TTO
O DO IT Y
O URSELF
...WE C
AN HELP
YO
URSELF...WE
CAN
24
The Ash Breeze, Summer 2010
Introducing LaBrie
Small Craft
by
by Paul
Paul LaBrie
LaBrie
Origins
In 2007, I started LaBrie Small Craft as a
micro-business, after taking a long-planned,
and oft dreamed-of, early retirement at age
55. Until that time, I’d had a 20+ year career
in computer technology in academia and had
spent much of my spare time building and
repairing boats on the side. As to my early
background, I was very fortunate to have
grown up in Maine and to have spent
boyhood summers on the water, surrounded
by a motley collection of small craft. It was a
great start!
Why and How W
Wee Build What W
Wee Build
My shop specializes in the construction of
traditionally-based wooden sail and oars
boats, with special emphasis on doubleenders. I do not, however, build traditionally,
preferring instead to use the wood-epoxy
At left, Johnathan Minott takes Paul’s
Matinucus 18 prototype, Red Molly
Molly, for a
test sail.
composite techniques of glued-lap ply or
strip-building with epoxy/glass sheathing (the
latter method is my favorite for the strong,
light boats it produces). The TSCA’s mission
statement inclusion about “contemporary
variants and adaptations of traditional
designs” rings true with me.
I strongly feel that traditional design has
much to offer recreational boaters. Some of
my favorite traditional boat designers
include, but are not limited to, Gartside,
Oughtred, Vivier, Dias, Gardner, Atkin and
Culler. Howard Chapelle’s American Small
Sailing Craft and the Smithsonian is a gold
mine, as is the Ships Plans department of
Mystic Seaport. I could go on and on…so
many fascinating boats, so little time!
Within these parameters, I build strictly to a
designer’s and customer’s specifications,
although my personal preference is to shy
away from imported woods and to recommend domestic wood whenever possible (the
continued on next page
Duck Soup Inn
50 Duck Soup Lane
Friday Harbor, WA 98250
360-378-4878
Fine Dining for Sailors
Les Gunther
Volume 31, Number 2
25
LaBrie Small Craft, cont’d.
shop land, for starters, is covered by a large
stand of northern white cedar. Milled cedar,
ash and pine are readily available in our
area of central Maine).
new shop. My reason for selecting the first
two designs was only that it be a boat design
that I would like for my own use. I purposely
did not consider whether the finished boat
would be “marketable” or not, hoping,
instead, that the market would validate my
ideas. Happily, it did.
Startup and First Boats
Boat #1 was a L.F. Herreshoff Carpenter
built in glued lap plywood (adapted from
plans purchased at Mystic Seaport). Since
seeing this design long ago in Herreshoff’s
I built the first two boats on spec; a great way Sensible Cruising Designs, I wanted to build
and sail one. It was a good foray into
to immediately get busy when starting up a
adapting traditional
design to wood/
Below, Paul’s Carpenter slips easily along under oars.
epoxy construction
methods and I was
very happy with the
outcome. This same
boat was eventually
written up by Jenny
Bennett in Wooden
Boat’s 2008 edition
of Small Boats:
A short discussion of our first boats might
offer the best hint of what LaBrie Small Craft
is about.
Above, Paul and Sweet PPee aa’s new owner
head out for a shakedown sail in the
Gartside peapod.
“Carpenter: A Beach-Explorer Tender with a
Design Pedigree.” Jenny’s article provided a
very good boost for my then-new shop.
Carpenter was purchased by an experienced
small-craft sailor who summers on the coast
of Maine. The boat made an appearance in
last year’s Small Reach Regatta, a photo of
which found its way into a recent issue of Ash
Breeze!
The Design Works
9101 Eton Road, Silver Spring MD 20901
301-589-9391 or toll free 877-637-7464
www.messingabout.com
ROB BARKER
Wooden Boat Building
and Repair
Museum Quality
Wherries, Canoes and Cabin Cruisers
54442 Pinetree Lane, North Fork, CA 93643
559-877-8879 trapskifjim@netptc.net
26
615 MOYERS LANE
EASTON, PA 18042
The Ash Breeze, Summer 2010
L.F. Herreshoff had a wonderful eye for
design and Carpenter is one of my favorite
boats.
The second boat built, again on spec, was a
Gartside 147, a delightful sailing/rowing
peapod design by Paul Gartside. I truly
enjoyed sailing this boat. It was quickly
purchased by a Belfast, ME woman who grew
up with boats on the Maine coast. She
wanted an easily managed boat for recreational rowing and sailing. She and a friend
won first place in their category in a Belfast
Harbor rowing contest using the 147, which
she has named Sweet PPee aa!
Maine peapods are perhaps my favorite type
of all. They are amazing boats.
Repairs and Composites W
ork
Work
Since our startup we have gone on to build
more boats and have developed a growing
repair and restoration business, which kept
me happily busy last year. It truly seems that
people have a renewed interest in taking
care of their boats since the recession.
I have also been involved in occasional
composites work using vacuum-bagging
techniques, the largest of which was the
fabrication of four vacuum-bagged aka
fairing shells for a 28’ Newick trimaran
design.
Long
ong--Term Plan and the Matinicus 18
Although I continue to accept commissions
for boatbuilding and repairs, the long-term
plan for LaBrie Small Craft is to build and sell
to just one boat design; a design exclusive to
our shop. That design is now initially
complete, the prototype is built and testing
has begun in earnest. That boat is the
Matinicus 18
18, the profile of which (shown
above right) has become part of our stock ad.
The Matinicus design was influenced by
Manly Hardy’s large birchbark ocean-going
canoe – once used for porpoise hunting off
the coast of Maine – now on display in the
Maine State Museum. The other two
influences were Herreshoff ’s Carpenter and
John Gardner’s Matinicus peapod (after
which this boat is named). The overriding
goal was to create a traditionally-based
(read: Maine peapod) capable boat, of
usable size, which would be extremely easy
to trailer, launch and rig, sail or row, and
then retrieve. She would also need to be
shoal draft and be easily beached, like
Carpenter.
continued on next page
10% TSCA Member Discount!
Aeromarine Non-Blushing Epoxy
John Greer
Aeromarine Products, Inc.
4128 Napier St.
San Diego, CA 92110
877-342-8860 or www.jgreer.com
for full product line info
Phone Orders Only for 10% TSCA Discount —
give Jennifer the account name: WOODWIND
drathmarine
http://drathmarine.com
1557 Cattle Point Road
Friday Harbor, WA 98250
JAN NIELSEN 361-8547C
PO Box 2250, Sidney
656-0848/1-800-667-2275P BC, Canada V8L 3S8
Mole got it right...
Volume 31, Number 2
27
LaBrie Small Craft, cont’d.
I have written much detail about this boat,
which can be found on our website:
www.labriesmallcraft.com
I am very pleased with early results, and the
second boat is now being built (the first one,
which we named Red Molly is not for sale.
Molly will remain our platform for testing
new ideas). I am also working with a nautical
Above, the Matinicus 18 under strip-plank
construction. Lines are lofted on the board at
right.
Above left, rowing the brailed-up Matinicus on a still Maine lake. Above right, Red Molly
undergoes stability testing.
architect member of our local Downeast
TSCA to fine-tune the design, the results of
which will eventually make it to the shop
website. I’m giving the production Matinicus
a bit more pronounced sheer, for starters!
We welcome visitors to the shop and are
open Monday-Friday, 8am to 5pm and at
other times by calling me at 207-570-2300.
Thank you for your interest!
There has been
much interest in this
concept/design and I
look forward to a
happy future with
this boat. There is a
very good chance
that it will sail in this
year’s Small Reach
Regatta in late July
(perhaps a good
chance for a test sail,
if you should be
there?)
GACO oarlock snaps onto the oar for
semi-permanent capture. Made from
hardened 316 stainless and UV proof
polypropylene. Kind to oars, its carefully
angled shape cuts out friction and wear.
Cost: $35 for two oarlocks, two sockets
and sleeves from Jamestown Distributors.
28
The Ash Breeze, Summer 2010
Redd’s Pond Boatworks
New Association Logo Proposed
At the annual meeting in Philadelphia, last June, several people in
the audience voiced the opinion that the old logo, shown on the front
cover and elsewhere, is dated, and its use — along with the full or
abbreviated name of the organization — has been inconsistent.
Council commissioned a study to research and come up with a
“branding” recommendation, which would provide a consistent
identity to help promote the Association: locally, nationally and
internationally. Andy Wolfe and Todd Bloch volunteered to form that
study committee.
Their logo recommendation is shown above, in black-and-white, and
in color on the back cover of this issue. The proposed logo is currently
in use, in a full-color ad now printing in Small Craft A dvisor, and in
Messing About in Boats, in black-and-white. The old logo still
appears on the pages of Ash Breeze, as a black-and-white line
drawing, and in color on various wares: hats, stickers, patches, etc.
Members are encouraged to submit comments, suggestions or
opinions to Ned Asplundh at nasplundh@yahoo.com. Snail-mail
comments should be sent to 2400 Ayresdon Ave., Huntingdon Valley,
Y 1 or AFTER OCT
OBER 1
PA, 19006, BEFORE JUL
JULY
OCTOBER
1. Snail-mail
comments between these dates should be mailed to 80152 Linden
Hills St., Covert, MI 49043. Results will be compiled and forwarded to
TSCA Council for further action.
From the President, cont’d.
second term (June 30) are fast approaching. TSCA bylaws limit the
President to two consecutive terms. Since I have one year remaining
in my term on the Council, I will remain active and assist the new
officers in the turnover.
The past two years have brought a modest increase in TSCA national
membership, four new active chapters, financial stability, a new event
insurance program, a colorful Ash Breeze, and on-line membership
applications and renewals. Most of these accomplishments are due
largely to the efforts of a relative handful of dedicated volunteers. I
thank you all for your continuing support of all our boating endeavors,
and encourage you to volunteer to take on just a little bit more to help
the Association thrive.
Volume 31, Number 2
Thad Danielson
1 Norman Street
Marblehead, MA 01945
thaddanielson@comcast.net
781-631-3443—888-686-3443
www.reddspondboatworks.com
ALBERT’S WOODEN BOATS INC.
• Double ended lapstrake
• Marine ply potted in Epoxy
• Rowboats – 15' & fast 17'
• Electric Launches – 15' & 18'
A. Eatock, 211 Bonnell Rd.
Bracebridge, ONT. CANADA P1L 1W9
705-645-7494 alsboats@sympatico.ca
Richard Kolin
Custom wooden traditional small craft
designed and built
Boatbuilding and maritime skills instruction
Oars and marine carving
360-659-5591
4107-77th Place NW
Marysville, WA 98271
kolin1@tulalipbroadband.net
Fine Traditional Rowing
& Sailing Craft
NORTH
RIVER
BO
A TWORKS
OA
RESTORATIONS
741 Hampton Ave.
Schenectady, NY 12309
518-377-9882
29
SPECIALIZING IN
SMALL-CRAFT SAILS
www
.dabblersails.com
www.dabblersails.com
dab@crosslink.net
Ph/fax 804-580-8723
PO Box 235, Wicomico Church, VA 22579
Stuart K. Hopkins, Sole Prop.
PINE ISLAND CAMP
Founded in 1902, Pine Island is a boys’ camp that focuses on
worthwhile outdoor activities. We have 13 wooden boats in use
daily. No electricity on our island in Belgrade Lakes, Maine.
Contact Ben Swan: benswan@pineisland.org
260 Dyckman Avenue
South Haven, MI 49090
269.637.8078
800.747.3810
michiganmaritimemuseum.org
Ad sponsored by Ned & Neva Asplundh
Damaged Copy?
If your copy of Ash Breeze gets damaged in the
mail, please let us know and we’ll gladly send a
replacement. E-mail: mikewick55@yahoo.com or
nasplundh@yahoo.com
Address Changes
If you notify ONL
ONLYY the US Postal Service of an
address change, that will not be enough to
keep your copies of The Ash Breeze, and any
other class of mail, other than First, arriving at the
right place at the right time. To help us reduce
postage costs and ensure that you don’t miss an
issue, please send your new or forwarding address
— 90 days in advance of your move — to
the TSCA Secretary, PO Box 350, Mystic, CT
06355.
TSCA MEMBERSHIP FORM
New Membership
Membership Renewal/Upgrade
Change of Address
Individual/Family: $20 annually
Sponsor: $50 annually
Sponsor with ad: $60 annually
Corporate Sponsor with ad: see below
Patron: $100 annually
Canada or Mexico: Airmail, $25 annually
Other Foreign: Airmail, $30 annually
Enclosed is my check for $ ______________________ made payable to TSCA.
Chapter member?
Yes
No
Which Chapter? __________________________________________________________________________
Name _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Address _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
City ______________________________________ State/Prov. _________ Zip/Postal Code _____________ Country ___________________________
E-mail ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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.
The Ash Breeze
Summer 2010, volume 31, number 3
Editorial Deadline: July 1, 2010
Articles:
The Ash Breeze is a member-supported
publication; members are welcome to
contribute. We strongly encourage you to
send material electronically. Send text in an
e-mail message, or as an MSWord attachment. Send photos as e-mail attachments, in
TIFF or JPG formats, as large or as highresolution as possible. Please give captions
naming people, places, and to whom photo
credit should be given. You may also submit
photographic prints, clean line drawings or
typewritten material by US Mail. Please
contact us IN ADVANCE if you must
submit handwritten text, or material in
another word processing or image
format. E-mail to: mikewick55@yahoo.com
or nasplundh@yahoo.com
Advertising Rates:
Effective March, 2006
2006, the following are
yearly rates, four issues per year:
Sponsor: No Ad $50
Sponsor with ad: 1/8 page $60
Corporate Sponsor: 1/4 page $125
Corporate Sponsor: 1/2 page $250
Corporate Sponsor: full page $350
Corporate Sponsors with full page ads will
be named as sponsors of a TSCA-related
event and will be mentioned in the ad for
that event.
Members’ Exchange:
Text only: 50 words or less, free to members.
$10 additional, per photo.
TSCA Wares
Back Issues: Original/duplicated back
issues are available for $4 each plus
postage.
V olume
Year
Issue
Newsletter .......... 1975-1977 ...... 1,2,3,4
1 ........................ 1978 ............... 1,2,3,4
2 ........................ 1979 ............... 1
3 ........................ 1979-1981 ...... 1-9
4-5 ..................... 1982-1983 ...... 1,2,3,4
6 ........................ 1984 ............... 1,2,4
7-19 ................... 1985-1997 ...... 1,2,3,4
20 ...................... 1998-1999 ...... 1,2,3
21 ...................... 1999-2000 ...... 1,2,3,4
22 ...................... 2001 ............... 1,2,3
23 ...................... 2002 ............... 1,2,3
24-29 ................. 2003-2008 ...... 1,2,3,4
30 ...................... 2009 ................ 1,2,3,4
31 ...................... 2010 ................ 1
Contact Flat Hammock Press for backissue ordering details.
Flat Hammock Press
5 Church Street, Mystic, CT 06355
860-572-2722
steve@flathammockpress.com
Caps
Caps: Pre-washed 100% cotton, slate
blue with TSCA logo in yellow and white.
Adjustable leather strap and snap/buckle.
$20. ($18 to members if purchased at
TSCA meets.)
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. $25
postpaid.
Visit: www
.tsca.net/wares.html
www.tsca.net/wares.html
for ordering information.
Time to renew?
Help us save time and postage by updating your membership before
we send you a renewal request. Cut out or photocopy the membership
form at the top of this page
page, complete it and return it with your renewal payment to the Secretary, PO Box 350, Mystic, CT 06355. Or, you
may send the address portion of the back cover with your payment.
Ash Breeze
The
The Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc.
PO Box 350, Mystic, CT 06355
Address Service Requested
Non-Profit Org.
US Postage
PAID
Providence, RI
Permit No. 1899
New Association Logo Proposed
A possible new look for the TSCA logo is shown above. Details on
how the design came about, as well as a black-and-white rendering,
can be seen on page 29. Take a look, then give us your feedback.
Comments will be tabulated and circulated for Council consideration.