Tag: boatbuilder

A well-travelled skiff

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Venus the well-travelled skiff in Victoria

Venus, a well-travelled Thames-style skiff spotted in Australia by Jeff Cole

Lest we get too doomy, and serious I’ve decided to post this photo of an 1880s single-scull Thames-style skiff hanging in a country nursery at Victoria, Australia. Jeff Cole, who spotted and photographed Venus for us, says the story is that she was imported from Scotland, and was built by the nursery owner’s great-grandfather.

It’s clearly very well-travelled for a small river boat. I wonder what the rest of the story may be – did a River Thames boatbuilder move to Scotland? Did a Scot learn boatbuilding on the banks of the Thames? Or was great-grandfather an amateur who worked from a book? Or were skiffs of this kind far more widespread in the last 19th century than we tend to think?

Whatever the answer, the boat in the photo looks very much like the one shown in this earlier intheboatshed.net post.

Once again, my thanks go to Jeff Cole. To see some earlier material he has sent us, including some mouthwatering shots of early 20th century racing yachts, click here.

For some photos of later skiffs with rather more sheer at Ruswarp on the River Esk in Yorkshire, click here.

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Award-winning designer Phil Bolger’s clever but neglected Cartopper

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Kellan Hatch’s Cartopper

 

Kellan Hatch’s Cartopper Kellan Hatch’s Cartopper

 

Kellan Hatch’s Cartopper has turned out to be a versatile little boat

It was good to read at The Chine Blog the other day that Phil Bolger has been presented with Woodenboat magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award, along with Bill Garden. Both awards are clearly well-earned, but Bolger’s is perhaps particularly pleasing because so many people think of his designs as being the boxy antithesis of what Woodenboat is all about. To my mind, those who believe this heresy have spent too long reading the Internet, and not long enough reading his intriguing and often informative books.

Most people talk of Bolger’s widely celebrated and used Light Dory, but the news reminded me that I’ve been meaning to say something about the Cartopper, which I feel is a very much neglected Bolger design. Take a look at the study plans at the Payson website, which also sells the full-sized plans for boatbuilding. What you get is a proper boat-shaped boat with its centreboard placed well forward, which provides a lot of room in an 11ft 6in boat. Bolger designed an over-sized rudder to balance the rig, but that’s actually a well-tried approach that has worked for many years in traditional centreboard craft.

Thanks to Kellan Hatch for the photos. Like me, Kellan feels that the Cartopper is a fascinating design that reflects how many people use small boats, but reports that it can be a little tender and says that it isn’t self-rescuing without added built-bouyancy because of its strongly curved sheerline.

I think the answer is obvious, at least for solo cruisers: some water or other removable ballast in the spacious centre of the boat, and boxed-in bouyancy and storage tanks fore and aft.

If you’re interested in reading Bolger’s books describing his designs, a good starting point is Boats with an Open Mind. It’s available from Amazon in the UK and from Amazon in the USA. If you’re in the USA you can also get his excellent pocket book about the merits and demerits of alternative sailing rigs 103 Rigs ‘Straight Talk’ .

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18th century-style lugger Alert back from Iceland – and for sale

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Alert at Sedisfjordur, Iceland

Alert at Sedisfjordur, Iceland

Father fishing at anchor Alert at Sedisfjordur, Iceland Alert at the Customs pontoon, Sedisfjordur

Will’s father fishing at anchor; Alert sailing in Sedisfjordur, Alert at the Customs pontoon in Sedisfjordur

Seaman Hingley collecting firewood for the Alert Alert in the Shiant Islands, with her dinghy well hauled up against rising tide Alert dried out at Tobermory

Seaman Hingley collecting driftwood to burn; Alert in the Shiant islands; Alert dried out at Tobermory

Will Stirling and his outstanding 18th century-style lugger Alert are back from their trip to Iceland. They’ve brought back some smashing photos, and some good stories. Here’s an excerpt from something he wrote about the trip that he’s been kind enough to share with http://intheboatshed.net readers:

‘Once understood, the Faeroese Tidal Atlas proved invaluable as the Atlantic squeezes through the narrow channels between the sheer sided islands at up to 10 knots.

‘At this time of year in above this latitude it didn’t really get dark. We set off from Torshaven for Iceland in the early evening. Seaman Hingley, remembering it was his birthday after three quarters of the birthday had passed, served an admirable supper just as we got sucked into overfalls whilst exiting a channel into the open sea.

‘As the evening drew on the wind increased and Alert leapt across the North Atlantic waves, making distance between the Faeroes and Iceland. The wind increased on the starboard quarter so the reefed mizzen came down. Once dropped and tied to the yard the weather helm eased. The wind continued to build until it stabilised at Force 6.

‘The reefed jib was bagged and the boat roared along under double reefed fore sail at approximately 7 knots, with the crew nervously hoping the wind wouldn’t increase further. Continue reading “18th century-style lugger Alert back from Iceland – and for sale”