Mystic Seaport/WoodenBoat Show Pt. 1

Avast ye intrepid readers!

I just spent the past weekend at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut helping Clint Chase Boatbuilder assemble three Echo Bay Dory Skiffs for a Family Boatbuilding event at the 20th annual WoodenBoat Magazine Boat Show!  It was a great event, lots of great boats, lots of great people, and despite some threatening moments, great weather.  I had a fantastic time, it was not only a good learning opportunity, it was also a boat droolfest.

Let's start somewhere important and logical: Paul from Connecticut's beautifully finished Goat Island Skiff!  Baloney, I forget the name... Elizabeth Anne?  Maybe Paul can chime and remind me.  ***KATHLEEN MARIE*** thanks to Dave in NJ!  Anyway, beautiful varnish work with a jet-black exterior.  This is the real deal.  The boat is ready to row, and Paul is still working on the spars, but to say the boat is striking is an understatement!  Nice job Paul!

This was not the only Goat Island Skiff in attendance, Clint Chase Boatbuilder's perpetually unfinished Goat was also on display, near our Family Boatbuilding tent.  (I'd like to make it clear that this is Clint's personal Goat, unfinished as he is quite busy on his business end and customers take priority!)  These two boat generated significant interest from spectators, and there were enough Mik Storer aficionados on hand to answer questions and get people stoked.  The Goat Island Skiff is entering the sailing world's consciousness.  I love it.  I love it.   Preach it!

In a similar vein to the Goat Island Skiff I found this sharpie (trying to figure out what kind of sharpie it is, ideas?  Mik told me, I forgot)  wedged between two buildings.  

Plumb bow, hard chine, flat bottom, and a massive centerboard.  Massive.  Mik Storer had some great things to say about huge centerboards and how many have strayed to small boards because "there's some crazy number floating on the internet on how big a centerboard needs to be and it's completely wrong."  Beautiful boat.

Some others...

Trem, 1/3 copy of Joseph Conrad's Tremolino

Drool Catboats....

Dipping lug long boat

My rudder stock is lacking, in comparison.  I need some protective demons!

WOWZER

And now a little bit of a departure from sailing boats... this little steam powered launch was a heart-string-puller without a doubt:

The best part of this launch is that it's SILENT.  Steam is silent.  Silence is beautiful.  It could look like a turd, and if it's silent I would love it.

Below is B & B Yacht Design's Amanda/Mandy which was a cutie and another crowd pleaser.  It had a great solution to keeping the board down, the bungee through a piece of rubber hose, and it worked well.  I'm always looking for good ways to keep my board down and this looks like a very viable solution.

Finally, no visit to Mystic Seaport is complete with checking out the Charles W Morgan, America's last wooden Whaling Ship.  She's on the hard for a real restoration, and she blocks out the sky.  I haven't seen her in years.

Wall of Wood

Mystic Seaport from the Morgan

And finally most importantly, most epic-ly, I present the defining moment of the Show.  Intrepid readers, I present to you your Intrepid Author-Hero and Michael Storer mugging for the paparazzi (my arm). HUZZAH!

Hero and Genius in one frame-- Goat Island Skiff Proud

Oh yeah! There was obviously much much more to the show, this is but a small representation.  Part 2 to follow with Family Boatbuilding!

Sailing/Camping Season Begins! Squam Lake.

AHOY Intrepid reader!

I Am Zinea, Pterodactylus has risen again and spread her canvas-y wing(s) and sailed forth inaugurating a new summer of adventure!  Over the past weekend my trusty Goat Island Skiff and my lovely wife sallied forth under dark skies and sheets of downpouring rain in the company of Peteloaf, his spouse, and his Eureka Canoe.  Our destination was Bowman Island in Squam Lake where we intended to stay the weekend in quiet repose on these silky waters of this most beautiful of New Hampshire lakes.

The weather was beyond crappy, but that did not deter our heroes, whose hearts are made of Granite and whose souls sing the songs of silent years past, when Men were Men and the Rain trembled to hear our names whispered on the wind!

Anchors Aweigh!

The Group minus the Author with TWO Storer Boats adventuring!

An O'Day Daysailor joined us as well-- two sailboats are better!

Goat, Flag, Loon... America is this.

I am a hero.  Subtract points for fender.

A quiet moment, I can add repetitive pictures all I want.

I am going to sum this trip up in a few sentences:  It rained.  I almost ran aground at high speed but saw the rocks loom out of the murky depths (actually the water is crystal clear) and hoisted the board up just in the nick of time.  The Squam Lakes Association does not staff their building on weekends apparently, so I didn't get a chart of the notoriously rocky waters.  It rained some more.  There was some more rain.  I got bit by a dog.  We brought lots of food and burned lots of wood.  There was some mist, and before we knew it, we were heading back home!

************************************************************

In other Goat Island Skiff news:

I have glassed the front end of my Goat with 4oz cloth.  I wish I did this last year.  If you look at the picture in full size, you'll notice lots of white dots.  That is where rocks pounded the veneers inward and the paint from the bottom is in the well.  The dark areas in the plywood are water intrusion which occurred before I could get epoxy in them to seal them up.  My bow skid (not in plans) took some huge hits last year.  IF I could do it over I would have widened the two main skids (which are installed to plans on my GIS) widen them outwards just a bit and carried them much more forward, eliminated the bow skid, and made sure the first 3 feet of the boat had 4oz cloth for abrasion resistance.  This area gets abused on beaches and rocky shores, there is no way getting around it.  Might as well beef it up.

This is normal for me

This picture is my Quick Canoe after a capsize.  Basically, impossible to right and empty solo when in water above one's head without installed buoyancy-- either built in tanks or strapped in bags or foam.  Great way to cool off on a hot day though!