Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
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We’re smiling from ear to ear after learning that Ben Crawshaw’s back to sailing and weblogging after a longish period of silence.
His latest post brings the delightful news that his little boat has featured in a children’s book illustrated by artist Elena Val. The book Benedict by author Teresa Duran examines the issue of perfection, and is available from Canadian publisher’s Groundwood.
For more about Ben’s adventures and his boat Onawind Blue built to my Light Trow design, click here.
I can’t understand more than a few words of this beautiful-sounding little song, but I’m told its about an elderly man and his old boat on the Canal du Midi. The boat’s at the end of its useful life, but somehow her skipper finds it difficult to part with her. I guess many intheboatshed.net readers probably feel much the same way as the chap in the song, as they set off each morning to work on their projects.
I hope you like it as much as we did when we met Emmanuel Pariselle at Melodeons and More, at Mendlesham in Suffolk a couple of years ago – he was teaching a group to make melodeons (he’d call them diatos, btw) and playing in a concert, while we were some way down the bill (there’s a photo to prove it!).
There’s some more of Emmanuel’s lovely music at MySpace, and via Amazon.
For more songs at intheboatshed.net, click here.
PS – It’s taken a while, but a chap called Jack Humphreys has succeeded in creating a credible English language version of this song.
Brian Smith has sent in interesting scans of the specification for the delightful Boat Racing Association A-Class One Design Dinghy, which I gather is a very close relative to the International 12. I’ll let him tell the story:
‘Hi Gav,
‘I attach drawings and specifications of the BRA 12ft dinghy as published in the Yachtsman of 12 June 1913, which could be of interest to your readers as I believe they were little changed for the International 12ft dinghy class.
‘George Cockshott [the designer of the International 12] was a frequent and sometimes successful entrant in design competitions in the Yachtsman and Yachting Monthly, although it is not certain that any of those designs were ever built. The 12ft dinghy design was the result of a competition run by the BRA. Cockshott may have been inspired by the 12ft restricted class sailed at Hoylake, West Kirby and Rhyl. The design does seem to have been influenced by the class.
‘The largest yacht designed by Cockshott appears to have been the 19 tons TM Nautilus II built by R Lathom at Crossens, near Southport in 1902.
‘Hope this is of interest,
‘Brian’
Thanks Brian – it certainly is. I love all that old-fashioned specification stuff: ‘The whole of each boat, inside and out, to be varnished four coats best yacht varnish. (Or, if desired by the owner, the bottom to be painted three coats and finished with anitfouling composition or enamel externally, and to be painted three coats internally). The name or number to be written in gold leaf and shaded, on the transom or as may be required.‘
For a post on George Cockshott’s International 12 dinghy, click here.