Tag: Ben Crawshaw

Onawind Blue arrives in Ibiza after crossing 68 miles of open Mediterranean sea

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Onawind Blue with her new sails back in April. Hopefully we’ll be able to replace this with a shot from Ibiza shortly!

I’ve just heard that Ben Crawshaw sailing his Light Trow named Onawind Blue has arrived in Ibiza after leaving Javea on the Spanish mainland at 1am on Monday morning.

With favourable southerly winds she covered the 68 nautical miles from Javea to to Talamanca Bay on the east side of the island in 19 hours. I seem to remember I originally designed this little boat for sheltered waters, but Ben’s steady progress in adapting it to his purposes has been impressive. Well done Ben!

For more and to leave your congratulations in his comments, go to Ben’s weblog The Invisible Workshop.

Onawind Blue becomes a Costa Brava celebrity

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I can’t resist showing readers these photos of Ben Crawshaw’s Onawind Blue at the centenary celebrations of the term Costa Brava.

They were taken by Spanish boating weblogger Amiga Atlántica, who I gather writes in a mixture of Castillian Spanish, with bits of of Galician. Certainly if you try to use the Babelfish translator on what she writes the results can be quite interesting. Ben, we learn, is some kind of horseradish – try it for yourself.

Spain’s sailing community seems to be taking Ben and his brave little boat to their hearts – though Ben is adamant that it’s OB they admire, not him!

I also rather liked his remark about the event too: ‘I’m knackered and happy and OB’s ego is pumped up like a balloon from all the compliments she’s received.’ Any sailor back from a trip would be delighted to be able to say as much.

As always, Ben’s weblog entries about the event are interesting and amusing. Read them here and here.

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Ben Crawshaw looks at the traditional boats of the Spanish coast

Top: barque de mitjana Sant Isidre at Barcelona. Bottom the intriguing hull
of a polbeiro at a boat exhibition. Photos by Ben Crawshaw

Ben Crawshaw of the Invisible Workshop has been putting up some splendid posts about the exotic-looking boats he encounters along Spain’s coasts.

As usual, it’s best to read weblog posts in order – in reverse order to the way they’re presented. So I’d recommend looking at this one on the history of the heavily built boats of Catalonia first. They seem to be built for the grandchildren, in the local saying.

Then turn to this introduction to the polbeiro (just look at that rig and the astonishing tiller!, and this post on the cross-oared rowing technique, which also shows its interesting hull form. I’d say it shows some potential that could be exploited by today’s plywood boat designers.

The next instalment takes us to Barcelona, where Ben runs into the skipper of the Sant Isidre, who he met some time ago while cruising in his Light Trow, Onawind Blue. And finally, he tells something of the astonishing and complicated story of this 1925-built lateen-rigged barque de mitjana, which has done service as sail-powered fishing boat, been used for smuggling, pressed into service as a POUM gunboat during the Spanish Civil War, been used for diving and was finally restored and given her old rig back in 1993.

Finally, you might by now be ready for this whimsical piece about nice old boats that have been used as a kind of garnish for roundabouts. Thanks for this entertaining, informative stuff Ben!