intheboatshed.net

intheboatshed.net has been doing particularly well in the past couple of months, not least in terms of the numbers of people calling by to read our daily posts. As I write, we’ve had almost 34,000 hits, which I’m told makes us very successful for a weblog about a minority activity. While I would agree that we’re not doing too badly, I’d also suggest that perhaps the people who admire traditional boats constitute quite a large minority, as minorities go…

I’m particularly pleased today as we’ve had a delightful message of support from the great US writer and editor Peter H Spectre, as you can see at Continue Reading »

Ben’s deck-support sub frames

Well, I think it’s mysterious. First he works by lamplight. Then we see all the deck subframes in place (hoorah, by the way). Then there’s a photo of a bug so strange it’s clearly an extra from a Dr Who set. (I must say I enjoyed the Daleks’ Pig-people this week, by the way.) Then we see the boat sitting under a cafe parasol, presumably sipping a quiet daiquiri. Can anyone guess what our beach-boat-building hero Ben Crawshaw is telling us?

He’s doing a nice looking job, though, isn’t he? And, praise be, he hasn’t made any serious changes to the design that I can see. The prototype Light Trow is going to be the real thing.

Ben Crawshaw’s Invisible Workshop weblog: http://theinvisibleworkshop.blogspot.com/2007/04/some-photos.html

Download the Light Trow plans: http://www.duckworksbbs.com/plans/gavin/lighttrow/trow.zip

I sometimes think it comes as much from the books we read as children as from anything. A longstanding friend says that he already knew how to sail from reading Arthur Ransome - and that he astounded his the secondary school master who took him sailing for his first time by stepping smartly into a dinghy and sailing off without instruction. He’d learned all he needed from Continue Reading »