Category: Canoes

Canoes, kayaks, sailin canoes, open canoes, paddles, skin on frame canoes, canoe plans

Century-old photos of Russian boats

Russian photos from a century ago, including boats Russian photos from a century ago, including boats

Russian photos from a century ago, including boats Russian photos from a century ago, including boats

These century-old colour photographs from Russia are held in the Prokudin-Gorskii Collection at the US Library of Congress.

It includes quite a number of shots including boats of various kinds: try these links to the collection using the search ‘boats’ and ‘sailor’.

To my mind, there’s something very still and a little eerie about these shots – still because of the photographic technology involved, and eerie because most of us really don’t expect photos of this age to be anything but black and white. The colour seems to give them a memory-like quality, yet they’re utterly strange to most of us.

What I think is also striking about these photos is how long, lean and slippery all the hulls are. It’s a powerful reminder of how much the internal combustion engine has changed the craft we use.

My thanks to John Adams and David Luckhardt for tipping me off about this collection.

Photographer Matthew Atkin in the Phi-Phi Islands of Thailand

Matt Atkin photographs long-tail boats in the Phi-Phi Islands of Thailand

Matt Atkin photographs long-tail boats in the Phi-Phi Islands of Thailand Matt Atkin photographs long-tail boats in the Phi-Phi Islands of Thailand Matt Atkin photographs long-tail boats in the Phi-Phi Islands of Thailand

Matt Atkin photographs long-tail boats in the Phi-Phi Islands of Thailand Matt Atkin photographs long-tail boats in the Phi-Phi Islands of Thailand

These long-tailed boats in the Phi-Phi Islands are of Thailand were photographed by my Far-East based brother Matthew Atkin a little while ago. Lovely work once again Matt – thanks!

The boats are interesting with their proud bows, canoe-like form and brightly coloured cloth charms – I bet they go well – and because they are the predominant local form of transport on islands with few motor vehicles. So here we have wood-built craft carrying people and goods by sea, and for me at least it’s a powerful reminder of a time in our own islands in the UK that we can only read about in the history books.

Dylan sails his Duck Punt for the first time – and loves it

Keep Turning Left sailor and film-maker Dylan Winter has launched and successfully sailed his new Duck Punt for the first time.

He’s absolutely delighted with the little sailing canoe, which slips along as nicely as those made by earlier Duck Punters on the Essex coast. And there is the added bonus that he seems to be able to sail and film at the same time without falling in – which I’m pretty sure is what would happen to me if I tried the same trick.

Here on the upper floors of Intheboatshed.net Towers, we’re cheering for several reasons.

It’s always great when someone successfully builds a little boat and enjoys it on the water, and the news seems even better when the builder is in the UK. Round here, amateur boatbuilding projects are nothing like so frequent as they should be, given how much water we have to play with.

I’m pleased, too, that the little Duck Punt shows clearly how effective narrow, flat-bottomed boats can be. The British tend to believe all boats must be round bottomed to be any good, and that therefore building a boat is just too complicated to be worth considering. Dylan’s little punt gives the lie to that myth, just as did all the other duck punts that came before it.

Still more than all this, the project is a tremendous example of cheap and simple sailing.

Here’s Dylan’s page linking to his Duck Punt film; links to John Milgate’s original plans are also available on his website.

PS – Fans of Dylan’s adventures should bag a copy of the latest issue of PBO magazine, which includes an excellent feature-length article by the man himself.