Category: Small boats

Holmes of the Humber – a new book just in time for Christmas 2009

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Holmes of the Humber new colour

Holmes of the Humber – a new book about George Holmes

Dick Wynne of the Albert Strange Association has been in touch to say that a new book on artist, writer, sailor and boat designer George Holmes written by Tony Watts is about to burst onto the scene on the 1st December.

That’s good timing I’d say – and I’d guess this first book from the Lodestar Books imprint will be a popular item on many people’s Christmas shopping list this year.

I’ve been promised a chance to see the book in advance – so expect to hear more about Holmes of the Humber here in the next few weeks.

Click here for more information and sample pages from the Lodestar Books webpages: Holmes of the Humber.

PS – Check the Albert Strange Association website for what looks like the beginning of a heart-warming story about a boat the may have been designed by McLean Gibson.

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A new model of the Sunny skiff

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model_bow2

model_stern model_overhead2

Sunny skiff model – download both model-making and full-scale plans here

I’ve been happy today to hear from a reader who has made a model of the Sunny skiff that she has been working on and has kindly sent them over. The model maker described the little boat as ‘a thing of beauty’, so I you can probably imagine I was very chuffed indeed.

I’m always pleased to see shots of models of my designs, so if anyone else has any to share, please send them over! I’m at gmatkin@gmail.com.

This boat is designed to be built using the stitch and glue technique – if you haven’t done this before you might be interested in my book Ultrasimple Boat Building: 17 Plywood Boats Anyone Can Build or one of the other books on this topic available from Amazon.

A guide for new surfboat sweep hands

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Instructions for new sweeps

The moment of truth

Some time ago Australian surf rower Bill ‘Woofa’ Barnett wrote a manual explaining the facts of life for new sweeps – the people who steer surfboats.

Being a sweep is a highly skilled activity in which experience counts for a lot, and I gather good sweeps continue in the role for many decades.

However, for most boat users, the manual  will be an extraordinary, jaw-dropping document. It’s divided into two main sections covering coping with surf and competing in races. The first section is the one that caught my attention. Here’s a couple of quotes:

‘Going over a big greenie

‘This is spine chilling and the boat will land with a thud on the other side of this wall of water. Your job is to land well balanced, on your feet controlling the sweep oar, so that it does not slam down on the quarter bar or stroke’s head. Calm your crew and get them going again at top speed… Remember you are never safely through surf until you are atleast 100m past the regular break line.’

And:

‘Surf sense

‘Some of the greatest sweeps of all time could not swim, had no original surf sense, broke many boats and nearly killed themselves, many times. They succeeded with pure guts and determination.’

Read more at the Australian Surf Rowers League website: Sweeps Manual

After reading some of this manual, it comes as no surprise that the publishers accept no responsibility for anything that might go wrong when following these instructions. You only have to see a few photos to understand why!

My thanks to Dale for pointing this out!

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