Category: Working boats

The Working Guide to Traditional Small-Boat Sails

The Working Guide to Traditional Small-Boat Sails

The forest of Bermudan-rigged white plastic boats in every marina and creek might lead one to think that the methods of the golden age of sail are close to extinct – but so long as there are people like David L Nichols around, I don’t think there’s any need to worry just yet.

This is a nice little book that reflects the author’s long experience with traditional small boat rigs, and with the craftsmanship he has developed over the years, and includes general chapters on sails, making sails and sail-making tools, followed by more specific sections on the sliding gunter, the sprit, lug sails, the Chinese lug sail and gaff sails. Each of them are illustrated with Continue reading “The Working Guide to Traditional Small-Boat Sails”

Was the Cutty Sark dead before she burned?

Belem

Belem – the ship Adam Nicolson will never forget.
Photo via the Wikipedia Commons and taken by Georges Jansoone

There’s an interesting and highly opinionated feature article in yesterday’s The Guardian that made me stop and think, and may interest many readers of intheboatshed.net.

Article author Adam Nicolson compares the static state of Britain’s great old sailing ships – HMS Victory, HMS Warrior and of course Cutty Sark imprisoned in its dry dock at Greenwich – with the French cocoa boat Belem, which still sails regularly with the support of a substantial financial trust.

As he writes about his experience of sailing on the Belem, it’s clear that she made a huge impression on him; he says he would have wept Continue reading “Was the Cutty Sark dead before she burned?”

More on the John Smith 400 shallop

John Smith shallop detail John Smith shallop detail John Smith shallop detail

John Smith shallop detail John Smith shallop detail John Smith shallop detail

John Smith shallop detail John Smith shallop detail John Smith shallop detail

John Smith shallop detail

This collection of detail photos has kindly been sent in by our friend Ed Bachmann, a regular reader and supporter of http://intheboatshed.net, and the fella who first alerted me to the John Smith Shallop. Many thanks Ed!

For more on this boat, see A 400-year-old shallop built and sailed again

Continue reading “More on the John Smith 400 shallop”