Month: March 2008

An opportunity to support a local hospice

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Decorative Wedgwood Cutty Sark plate

Wedgwood Cutty Sark plate. As usual, click on the image for a larger view

Are you near Tonbridge, and fancy hanging a nice plate bearing the image of a clipper ship on your study wall? I found this one at the Hospice Charity Shop in Tonbridge’s High Street. I thought it was a very decent buy for £8, and I’m very happy to support a hospice when I can. I’ll never forget how the people at the Taunton one treated my mum in her last days.

When I was at the shop, I noticed they’ve got a pile of similar plates depicting a variety of clippers in different situations. So if you’re local, get down there!

All this talk of clippers reminded me to take a look at the Cutty Sark website. How about this for an example of extreme restoration?

More Bolger – this time on canoe yawls

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Bolger canoe yawl

Phil Bolger’s plywood canoe yawl

This fascinating article from the Phil Bolger describes a hard-chine deep-vee section water-ballasted canoe yawl and makes many references to Albert Strange, George Holmes, William Garden and W P Stevens. I think it’s vintage Bolger, full of his kind of explanatory logic. It’s a damn shame the drawings don’t seem to have ever been completed!

And of course it’s whetted my interest in a big way – what did Stevens’ Snickersnee look like?

Of course, many people interested in canoe yawls might also be attracted by John Welsford’s 6m Whaler. Although it could be argued that it comes from a different tradition, the Whaler has a canoe yawl-like two-stick rig and is now available with a cuddy from boatbuilders Simmons & Broome in the UK. See John’s 5m whaler page.

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Chappelle’s 14ft skiff – another candidate for the 2008 boatbuilding season?

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Chappelle’s 14ft sharpie skiff

Chappelle’s 14ft sharpie skiff has a distinctive clubbed
leg of mutton sailing rig

Talking of sharpies, I’ve just noticed this article at Duckworks. Edited by the excellent Craig O’Donnell, it provides all the drawings and information needed to build a traditional skiff of 14ft.

Chappelle called it a ‘sharpie skiff‘, and thought that the boat should be built heavily for easy maintenance. He also gave it a sizeable leg of mutton rig on its 18ft mast – though you may feel that the club at the end of the boom-sprit is aptly named, it does allow a good sized sail on relatively short spars.

Download article from Duckworksmagazine.com .

Chappelle’s 14ft sharpie skiff