intheboatshed.net

Boatbuilding on Tristan da Cunha

My researches have led me to this wonderful collection of photos of Tristan da Cunha from the 60s, 70s and 80s taken by Swedish explorer and painter Roland Svensson - I’ve been thinking about remote islands quite a bit this week following my post about South Georgia a few days ago.

Do please take a look at this collection - many show the local canvas-covered longboats being built, rowed and sailed, and, in one case, used as a home.

If you look carefully, you’ll also spot one of Sven Yrvind’s Bris boats. For more intheboatshed.net posts on Yrvind, click here.

For much more on Tristan da Cunha longboats, click here.

For more on Tristan da Cunha at the Wikipedia, click here.

The Rob Roy canoe, from Practical Boat Building for Amateurs

‘To be able to build a boat well, and to his own ideas and plans, requires that the amateur should be both a designer and builder, which, in their turn require that he should be an efficient draughtsman and carpenter. No one can hope to succeed in building a boat to his own plan, unless he is fully able to design and lay down the lines and body plan of the proposed craft, and added to this in many kinds of boats, such as a small sailing boat, or a steam launch, it is necessary that he should be able to calculate the displacement and the position of the centre of buoyancy. With this knowledge at his command, an unlimited field is opened to the amateur boat-builder, as he will be able to build after his own ideas.’

Ken Hanson is about to publish a new edition of Adrian Neison’s famous book Practical Boat Building for Amateurs - as he says,  he has scanned the book, cleaned up the illustrations and then did some editing to catch the odd mistake and to re-paragraph some of the overly-Victorian sections to make them easier to read. The new layout has larger type for the same reason.

I’m delighted to say that he’s also made a pdf file of the new edition available for download from intheboatshed.net: click here to receive it.

I should warn you that this is about 10megs in size, and even with a broadband connection it’s likely to take some moments to arrive safely on your computer!

The new PBBA will be available at Amazon or through special order at any booksellers (distribution from Ingram and Blackwells) at the most attractive, Christmas stocking-filler price of $9.99 (US) and  £5.37 (UK). Click here for the book details.

For earlier posts including a full set of scans of my personal copy of Practical Boat Building for Amateurs, click here.

Low-speed wind-tunnel testing during the development of
Flica (thanks to the Fairey Collection)

Cockpit view including Fairey and Nicholson (Fairey Collection),
Flica sailing in 1932 (Beken)

Flica with Hugh Goodson at the helm (Goodson collection)

Richard Smith, owner of Flica rang the other day to say that a web page devoted to the legendary 12 Metre is now on line.

Her story began in 1928, when aviation pioneer Sir Richard Fairey and yacht designer Charles Nicholson came together to develop a new 12 Metre, based on an extensive programme of research including tank and wind low-speed wind tunnel testing.

The engineering and scientific element of the project was very advanced for its time, and eventually produced a winning yacht - from 1932, I gather, Flica became the 12 Metre yacht to beat. During 1932 she won 39 flags in 35 races and in 1933 49 flags in 55 races.

The development work continued, Flica’s performance steadily improved and Fairey hoped to challenge for the America’s Cup - but the committee behind the Auld Mug decided the battle that year should be fought between J-Class yachts, not 12 Metres. That decision put paid to Flica’s chances of an America’s Cup win, and Fairey sold the boat to Hugh Goodson, who went on to have a distinguished sailing career racing in both the 12 Metre class and the America’s Cup.

There’s a lot more to know about the stories of Flica, Fairey and Goodson, and I recommend you check out the Flica Project pages at the Americas Cup Masters website. The Flica Project itself aims to re-commission the old boat, and I believe the Flica Project will chart it’s progress, so it should be well worth visiting repeatedly over time.