Category: Locations

Black Friday at Manasquan Inlet, 1938

This is terrifying. I haven’t been able to find a report of the outcome, but it’s definitely a warning to watch the weather, folks… I do hope they all survived and recovered.

I have wondered whether trailing drogues or warps have helped but surely they would hamper steering… Have someone on the stern with a sharp, serrated knife? Or would would that be littering?

PS – Nigel – see comments – suggests staying out. I’m just glad our weather forecasts today are rarely wrong by more than a force, at least in my experience.

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.

Small sailing cruiser modelled on a Zuiderzee fishing boat

Dutch sailmaker and weblogger Frank van Zoest (see earlier posts) has sent over this rather fetching photo. Here’s what he says:

Hi Gavin,

This picture was sent by an friendly customer. The boat isbased on a fishing boat from the Zuiderzee, the Staverse Jol. It was built by Bart Jan Bats, who also builds the BJ 17, a fine lugger designed by Nigel Irens.

The customer wanted an uncluttered interior with no frames, so the boat is built with foam, glass epoxy, and the planking is oak veneer.

The builder went far into details, and even used endgrain veneer for the top of the stemhead.

The mast is carbon so the owner can easily take off the rig and use her as a motor launch.

The magazine Spiegel der Zeilvaart ran a long article about her and published a photo of her on its cover.

Thanks Frank!