Category: Boating, boats, ships and the sea

Would you like to see your project here?

Forest & Stream skiff

Just about everyone who comes to these pages is some kind of boat nut, and I’m a boat nut too. I’d like to make this weblog as interesting and useful to us all as possible, and I want to fill it with news and photographs about:

•Projects about old boats, historic boats, traditionally-built boats, and traditionally-derived boats.

•Boating history and traditions.

•The skills involved, the craftsmen and the available training.

So, whether you own these kinds of boats, work on them, sell them, build them, paint or photograph them, write about their history, design them, run a club or organise events, or collect old songs and stories connected with them – if you would like to bring your projects to the attention of a wider public, email me now at gmatkin@gmail.com!

A great little magazine for boat lovers

I’ve been looking at the latest issue of the fortnightly US boating magazine Messing About in Boats, and I’m inspired to tell you gentle readers what a great little magazine it is.

Each issue of MAIB is packed full of comment, news, stories and explanations about a wide variety of small- to medium-sized boats, usually with more than a dash of the traditional about them. Where they’re not so traditional, they’re usually built or buildable by hobbyists and amateurs.

If you live in the US the annual sub is just $32, or $1.40 per issue, which seems to me to be extraordinarily good value.

In other parts of the world a subscription becomes a little expensive (24-times a year overseas postage doesn’t come cheap), but we can still enjoy the option of subscribing to the downloadable pdf version, which is nearly as good once printed out on a standard 600 by 600 printer.

The latest issue includes a reprint of an old Weston Farmer article about the Mabel (from Billy Atkin’s drawing board, I think), a story from a reader who nearly bought the elegant double-ended bilge keeler seen under the Forth Bridge on the cover but did buy a Folkboat, and articles from both John Welsford and Phil Bolger. To a European, even the adverts are a fascinating insight into how different are the kinds of boats people use in the USA compared with our own.

This is the link for the paper subscription:
http://www.duckworksbbs.com/media/maib/index.htm

And this is the link for the downloadable pdf version:
http://www.duckworksbbs.com/media/maibonline/index.htm

MAIB

For hire – freelance writer and editor

Who is behind intheboatshed.net? My name is Gavin Atkin, and I’m a boating enthusiast who has spent half a lifetime working on trade magazines as an editor, writer and journalist. I’m now working as a freelance and would be particularly pleased to hear from anyone who needs professional editorial help with magazine articles, newsletters, weblogs, copywriting and so on. I’m nuts about boats and boating, but I’m happy to work on material relating to a range of topics, especially human health and healthcare. I can be reached by email at gmatkin@gmail.com or by phone on 07985 522734.