Category: Adventures

Howard Rice, off down the Straits of Magellan in a 12ft boat…

Hmmm… Howard Rice is about to sail an 11ft 11in Scamp sailing boat south through the Strait of Magellan from Punta Arenas down to the remote Southwest Islands of Tierra del Fuego…

He’s supposed to be setting off today. Great, good luck to him!

I hope he won’t mind my borrowing some of his photos of the loading process.  He’ll be carrying three months’ food and who knows how much water, along with everything else.

The boat is designed by John Welsford: the main change to the original design that I can see is that he’s got a two-stick rig. Well you would want a very controllable rig going down to pennyweight sails, wouldn’t you?

Howard’s done this before, as his Wikipedia page shows – that time he rounded the Horn in a sailing canoe equipped with a storm sail measuring only 2sqft – this time he’s got a storm sail of 5sqft.

Follow his progress on John’s weblog, on Howard’s weblog,  Howard’s Facebook page, on the  Scamp Sailboat Facebook page and doubtless quite a few other places as well.

Read about Scamp and get plans here.

PS – Listen to this interview with Howard on Boat Radio.

A stunning idea: a fast sailing ocean ferry for the 21st Century

The market for this won’t be huge – but it wouldn’t take many interested people with a sense of adventure to make it a success. Fair winds Ross…

12ft Bevins Skiffs in a 60-mile sponsored sail

bevins-skiffs

My American buddy Shawn Payment has been been working with the Lowcountry Maritime Society, local organisation that uses boat-building as a means of teach grade-school students maths and technology through hands-on learning. The projects have included coaching a group of 6th-8th graders at Simmons-Pinckney Middle School through building four 12ft Bevin’s Skiffs.

Right this minute, half a dozen of the adults involved in the programme are sailing those little 12ft boats about 60 miles from Charleston to Georgetown South Carolina, just in time for the Georgetown Wooden Boat Festival (warning – turn your speakers down a bit or you could be in for an surprise).

Why? To bring attention to the programme and perhaps raise a few dollars to keep the boatbuilding programme going in the future.

Shawn’s carrying a SPOT satellite tracker, so if you would like to follow his progress up the coast, click here.

Each skipper is trying to raise as much as possible, including Shawn. He asks that you go to PayPal and send a donation to spayment800@gmail.com. All proceeds will be forwarded to the Lowcountry Maritime Society.