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January 1, 2000 Issue
Experiential Maritime Educational, Vocational And Recreational
Opportunities On the Erie, Pennsylvania Waterfront
We would like the opportunity to introduce to the readers of Messing About in Boats the Bayfront Center for Maritime Studies (BCMS). We are a non-profit, community based organization located in Erie, PA. We are making good use of the former berthing place of the reconstructed US Brig Niagara.
Our mission is to create and implement unique, experiential maritime educational, vocational and recreational opportunities for the entire community. Our primary focus has been inner city, disadvantaged and at-risk young people. We have been in operation for just over a year now, and we have worked with over thirteen hundred area young people and we have just completed our twenty fourth boat.
Most of our students have been from inner city Erie and many of them are in some sort of juvenile placement as they have run afoul of the law. We use the Six-hour Canoe as an introductory project and it is amazing how these kids from such tough environments blossom with just a little sunshine in our BoatShop, We also take the show on the road and build the canoe in a traditional school setting with what we call (not very clever, but effective) BoatShop on the Road. To date, we have built fifteen canoes with area young people.
We also have successfully re-launched the Friendship sloop Momentum (exDirigo). Momentum is a 42' Lash-built Friendship sloop. Several of the groups that we work with took time from their busy canoe building schedules to sand, paint, caulk, sand and sand, paint, varnish, sand (you know the routine).
BCMS is also restoring a 38* wooden workboat originally launched May 12, 1930 tight here in Erie. The Bureau of'Water, as she is named, was built by Lund Boat Works of Erie, and served the local Water Bureau as a crew transport. We will introduce boat restoration to a new generation as we employ Erie area young people in the process of bringing this grand old boat back. We are striving to have her back in the water for her sevemyth anniversary.
Richard Eisenberg, Director of Boat Building, Batfront Center for Maritime studies, oot of holland St., Erie, PA 16507, (814) 456-4077, eriesailing@botmail.com -- http://www.goerie.com/bcms
Above fight: The relaunched Friendship sloop Momentum. Below: Erie middle school kids undertake boatbiulding with instructor Richard Eisenberg.
January 15, 2000
Commentary -- Pedal Powered Boats
Bob Hicks, Editor
I think I've alluded at times on this page to my growing involvement in bicycling, ranging from off-road mountain biking to recumbent road biking, and from this into developing a recumbent hand-pedaled trike with a quadraplegic friend. The topic is not germane to this magazine, but when the mail brought me yet another one of those publicity packets boldly headed "For Immediate Release" all about pedal powered boats, I took a closer look.
We've had articles from time to time on pedal powered small boats. Back in the '80s they turned up at the Small Boat Show in Newport, Rhode Island, topped by a California proa design which was fast indeed, having set race speed records for human power in the open ocean Catalina Island races. Also at that time, Gary Hoyt, the innovative and controversial naval architect proponent of making boats more user friendly for the general public, showed off a pedal powered fully enclosed sort of egg-shaped craft, one he could pedal across Narragansett Bay on a windy winter day in his street clothing, dry and secure. And west coast naval architect Phil Thiel has from time to time reported on his pedal powered canal/ houseboat concept he designed, built and uses.
But, pedal powered boats are just not mainstream. So the "news release" we received from the International Water Cycle Association consisted of a low budget packet of four photocopy sheets, two pages extolling "Get a Great Workout Water Cycling", a page listing no less than 12 member firms, and a fourth page photocopy of a montage of photos of the variety of pedal powered craft these firms offer. Obviously not a lot of funding behind this communal effort, pedal boats are still small boats in business as well as in size.
This lack of glitz, coupled with my personal infatuation with pedal power on land in its more exotic forms, soon had me studying the photos, as the text was typical generic boosterism for the activity.
Aha, here was today's version of Gary Hoyt's concept. And here were a couple of catamaran concepts, solo and doubles (not tandems as in bicycling, but side-by-side setups). Also I found sit-on-top kayaks with recumbent pedalling arrangements, as well as a rather conventional looking skiff one might row if it had oarlocks. There was even a sort of bicycle on a water ski arrangement that looked rather precariously top heavy to me. On land you put a foot down when you stop for balance, but on water?
My involvement this year on our handicap handcycle project predisposed me to really look at a small photo in a lower comer showing a happy paraplegic hand pedaling. The boat itself wasn't visible, only his upper body and the handpedals and sprocket, but it was tucked alongside a photo of a sort of sea sled type hull with a recumbent pedaler aboard.
Maybe there's something here I should look into more deeply. My quad friend Charlie, who has kayaked with me in my double and does pretty well despite lack of any handgrip strength (he wedges his hands under straps on the kayak paddle handle so he can push and pull on it) was stoked about a couple of the prospects, which go right along with our low rider recumbent land trike project.
I concluded that the recumbent pedaling kayak style boats made the most sense to me, and maybe that sea sled type. As on my bicycles, low is good, much more stable, more comfortable, more powerful ergonomically. In bicycling I have found that the conventional bicyclist on his 100 year old diamond frame design doesn't have a clue about how much more efficient and comfortable the recumbent style is, and I found that those of comparable fitness to me cannot understand how the old guy can ride off from them into the distance so easily. They think I'm some sort of superfit geezer. It's the bike, guys.
And so it must be with these pedal boats. The tall designs that more closely miniic the conventional bicycle just cannot possibly provide the experience the low rider recumbent can. The allure of pedal propulsion is addictive. It has been pointed out that the bicycle is the most efficient personal land transportation device ever built in terms of distance travelled for energy expended. Should apply to small boats I would think. I'll have to find out come spring.
If this topic elicits a spark of interest you might want to request your own copy of the International Water Cycling Association publicity, from which you could then pursue it further, if you were so inspired, directly to the listed manufacturers. Contact the International Water Cycling Association at 265 Santa Helena, Suite 110, Solana Beach, CA 92075-1538, (619) 259-8972, .
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