Light Trow Onawind Blue celebrates her birthday in style

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Light Trow Onawind Blue armed to the teeth for a substantial open
boat cruise along the Spanish East Coast. Photo by Ben Crawshaw

From The Invisible Workshop:

Tuesday, 24 June 2008; Onawind Blue’s birthday

‘A fitting day to leave but despite my best intentions I didn’t get going until 11am, the family waving from the beach as OB, under full sail, bore off south southwest beneath grey skies in a light, easterly breeze.

‘Blessed with a favourable wind we ran quickly down to Tarragona and then, as the wind increased—almost certainly due to the un-forecast deep, dark clouds grumbling on the western horizon, even more quickly.

‘To windward the gunmetal waters were flecked with white… ‘

Read the rest of the series here.

For more intheboatshed.net posts about the Light Trow, click here.

Light Trow Onawind Blue

Onawind Blue moored – photo by Ben Crawshaw
from his second report

Canoe Cruising and Camping, by Perry D Frazer

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TML Visual Add media: <p>CANOE CRUISING AND CAMPING<br /> by Perry D Frazer<br /> CHAPTER I<br /> I N T R O D U C T O R Y.</p> <p> \\

Canoe Cruising and Camping, by Perry D Frazer

‘The author of this book claims nothing for it as an instructor of men to whom canoe cruising and camping, and all that follow in their wake, are as an open book. It is his aim to give to the uninitiated many little hints and suggestions that are usually only learned and mastered after years of experience.

‘That which first prompted me in this work was as follows: In the cities it is a common thing to hear young men say, “I wish I had some plan of spending my leisure hours in more pleasant manner than by sitting round the house or the parks.” If asked why they do not pass holidays and vacations in fishing or hunting, they will say they cannot afford it; that a month in the woods would cost them twice or thrice as much as they can earn when at work a similar length of time; they may not care for horses or bicycles, and a sailboat or small yacht is entirely out of the question, as far as owning one is concerned.

‘When the reader has thoroughly studied the information I wish to give, I hope he can see how easily he may provide a means of enjoying leisure hours, without great expense.”

This is a great online book with some stonking old photos. Thanks to Craig O’Donnell for taking the time to scan it and put it up at his website. Read the book here.

Canoe Cruising and Camping by Frazer


An alternative folding boat

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Handy Andy folding boat plans

10ft folding dinghy plans at the Svenson free boat plans site

Attention boating enthusiasts – is this folding boat the half-forgotten answer to the eternal tender problem?

Tenders tend to be be a nuisance as we all know – the nasty rubber things cost a fortune, take ages to inflate, take up a lot of space on board and row like psychopathic milk jugs, and of course a solid tender is a can be a pain to tow.

So some people might like to consider this folding alternative, which I’ve just spotted. Plans can be downloaded at the Svenson website.

Follow this link for more free boat plans.