Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
This series provides a [ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]fascinating to the way the British in general saw the world a generation before my generation was born. It’s also of great interest, I guess, to anyone whose interest in boatbuilding stretches to shipbuilding, and the maritime context of the early 20th Century – which is after all the era in which many of the boats we admire and treasure were first built.
Follow this link for more Ships that Saved the Empire!
[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]
The Invisible Workshop’s Ben Crawshaw has been taking striking photographs of the beach outside his Tarragona apartment
You may have noticed the Blogroll to the right of this post. It’s meant to be a list of friendly weblogs and websites relevant to intheboatshed.net readers. And that’s exactly what it is – some of them are very old friends indeed (aren’t they Chris?), and I find they’re well worth a look whenever I feel I’m missing the water.
So tonight I’d like to draw attention to some particular gems on the intheboatshed.net Blogroll .
Ben Crawshaw of The Invisible Workshop has been taking a series of strikingly beautiful photos of his local beach in winter. Even in Spain, it’s now too cold to use the water with any pleasure, so he’s now walking, watching the sea, photographing it and, no doubt, dreaming about the spring.
Albert Strange Association webmaster Dick Wynne has been busy putting up news items, drawings and photos relating to their hero and his very attractive designs. And some of the news has been very good indeed – it seems Blue Jay has new owners, who have become members of the ASA.
Chris Perkin’s weblog Bumble of Loch Dubh currently has just one very interesting post describing how he built his first two clinker ply dinghies. It’s long and interesting, particularly because his next boat, an award-winning Iain Oughtred Macgregor sailing canoe has become something of a legend. (For more on the Macgregor, follow this link.)
Rowing for Pleasure is Chris Partridge’s wide-ranging weblog. Check out his illuminating posts about the boats of Venice, his trip round the backside of Portsea Island, the important place of the name Snarley(y)ow, and a rather sweet photo of the young Chris at the oars of a Thames Skiff long ago.
He says ‘I’ve been looking through family photo albums and discovered this pic of me rowing stroke on the Upper Thames in 1960 with Dad at bow. The boat was a beautiful mahogany double skiff called Snarleyow. Somehow, I can’t remember a single day when it rained.’
Funny that – I too can confirm that it never rained when my dad took us out on the Thames. Dads were much cleverer in those days and I sometimes think it’s a shame my kids have to deal with someone much more Pooterish.
And now for something completely different. George in Michigan is building one of Matt Layden’s distinctive little sharpies and tells us all about it at Building an Enigma 460. Many of home boat builders are intrigued by Matt’s simple and inexpensive solo and two-person micro sailing cruisers, and by his amazing sailing feats, and I’m no exception. There are still precious few designs for boats of this kind.
[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]
David Brinker unfolds and rows his Flapdoodle folding dinghy Barquita
David Brinker’s post at the wonderful Duckworks ezine and website reminded me that I’ve been meaning to post something about the Flapdoodle folding dinghy, plans for which are available from designer Bill Weller’s website.
Folding boats have obvious attractions, particularly in terms of their convenience as tenders, and I was very struck recently that one or two appeared in the wonderful photos that Jeff Cole recently sent us of racing yachts of 100 years ago. If the owners of those 40ft-plus boats of long ago found them useful, smaller boat users can find them even more so – and so I thought I should draw intheboatshed.net readers’ attention to this one, which looks good to me.
But still I worry, just a little. Would I feel secure with a folding boat underneath me? Would my children or my partner? Will I ever be able to forget my anxieties and build one? Only time can tell, if I ever give it an opportunity.