My Mouseboat appears on the Wikipedia!

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Mouseboat

A Mouseboat doing what it does best – providing a light, easy to build and stable platform for a kid learning to use a boat, though it has to be said that they’re also popular with adults. This one was built by John Hellwig. I must say the skiff in the background looks very fine. Could it be a Whisp, like the one the Slipway Collective were selling recently?

My Mouseboat design for a small boat for kids has earned a mention on the Wikipedia!

This is a long way off topic for intheboatshed.net, but I had to report the news nevertheless, and who knows – a few people who drop by here might be interested in building a little stitch and glue paddler that’s eminently suitable as a first boatbuilding project and is a lot of fun to use by everyone from five or six years upwards, so long as they don’t weigh much more than 200lbs.

Small enough to be built on many people’s kitchen tables, it props out of the way under any 8ft garage roof and it’s also light enough to be carried and roofracked by an adult. She’s a plain little puppy, it has to be said, but I don’t think anyone could regret building a Mouseboat, and getting on for 200 people have done so.

There’s a rowable version also at the Yahoogroup devoted to Mouseboats, by the way, and various sailing and flat-bottomed developments.

Here’s the Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stitch_and_glue

And here’s a link for the Mouseboats Yahoogroup: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mouseboats/

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Monet’s paintings of traditional French rowing and sailing boats More photos from The Yachtsman - including a legendary actress and mistress to Royalty - racing sailing yacht Charmaine A challenge for boatbuilders: a sweet 10ft clinker-built double-ended skiff

Monet fishing boats; 100-year old racing yacht photos from The Yachtsman, and building plans for a double-ended Scottish clinker skiff

Nick Smith boats UK Home Built Boat Regatta meeting Dorma

Nick Smith’s clinker-built boats; Home Built Boat Regatta; Hillyard cruising yacht Dorma

Flying 10 Ella in Annabel Young Bristol

Uffa Fox Flying 10s at West Lancs; my daughter Ella sailing a Mirror; pilot gig Young Bristol

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Monet’s paintings of French rowing and sailing boats, and the sea

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Monet’s paintings of traditional French rowing and sailing boats

French painter Monet was clearly fascinated by both boats and the sea’s ever-changing mood and light

Monet’s paintings of traditional French rowing and sailing boats Monet’s paintings of traditional French rowing and sailing boats Monet’s paintings of traditional French rowing and sailing boats

Monet’s paintings of traditional French rowing and sailing boats Monet’s paintings of traditional French rowing and sailing boats Monet’s paintings of traditional French rowing and sailing boats

Monet’s paintings of traditional French rowing and sailing boats Monet’s paintings of traditional French rowing and sailing boats Monet’s paintings of traditional French rowing and sailing boats

Monet’s paintings of traditional French rowing and sailing boats Monet’s paintings of traditional French rowing and sailing boats

I’ve never been a great fan of the French painter Monet – I’ve often thought his work to be somehow a little unsatisfactory and even chocolate-boxy. But these images sent by my friend Ed have pretty well changed my mind. It’s difficult not to like the work of a painter so obviously fascinated by both sailing and rowing boats, but also by the moods of the sea and the light that plays upon it. Click on the images and decide for yourself…

Thanks Ed, for so painlessly changing my point of view!

Amazon offers books of Monet prints, but the one I’d recommend is the one published in conjunction with a Tate Gallery exhibition of paintings by Turner, Whistler and Monet. I went to the show, and at the time I was particularly bowled over by both the Whistler and Monet paintings of the River Thames and its ships, boats, lighters and barges of the time. And, of course, the famous Turners are even more mind-blowing in real life…

For more on boat- and ship-related culture, songs, stories, photography and art, click here: http://intheboatshed.net/category/culture-songs-stories-art/