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March 15, 2003
Kiss the Wind, Sea & Sky
By Arthur MacDonald
Sailing on a steady wind on a gorgeous September afternoon, inside the Breakers at Crescent Beach, an extension of Revere Beach. This is the site of the famous dance hall, Holt's Pier, extending out on top of Cherry Island Bar. Knobby piles are all that's left of the landmark Big Band era hot spot. All the swingers frequented this huge artistic hall, it was the age of swing, jitterbug, and Charleston dancing.
My ancestors loved that place along with the Old Revere Beach, but I'm more of a today and tomorrow person, having only been there for some of the past tail end pieces and not the captain's cut. I am presently reading The Islands of Boston Harbor by Edward Rowe Snow (updated version), now when I go out to the many Islands in my.Bolger/ Camell sailboat, I'll know what the heck I'm looking at! Once upon a time three years ago, I attended a teenage anti substance abuse coalition meeting and I suggested that Phil and Dave's sailboat was the best design suggested by me to suit the over all needs of the endeavor, a safe, dry, stable, simple, nicely priced, potentially feasible do all sailboat. The materials used in the construction process were frowned upon by some of the members who were unable to fathom the concept of this boat (scary). One member asked what if it pops a seam! Another asked whom will you sail with, in that this Renegade boat has no class definition!
I replied, we can sail with each other to various destinations, with actual headings (accomplishing adventures) in and around the Boston Islands. He was quiet. I think sailing around aimlessly is less exciting after a short time, but some folks are satisfied with that. I want to beach and disembark after a while of sailing and scout around a little.
The Bolger/Carnell sailboat was shot down by the coalition, so I built two of them to prove my suggestion was a valid one. Now two years later, after hard use and trailering, the boats are fine.
Now the coalition is showing some interest in using my boats and my building experience to interest the kids and parents in sailing and building this design as a kicker to the already active Sea Kayaker Program which is in its third year.
I love changing around the sail for a little discovery here and there, but so far the lateen style always proves the most desirable and the snotter will get that forward point almost parallel with the mast, allowing you to install a forward traveler and a self adjusting jib or a Genoa. However, the boat is plenty powerful with just a main. Sometimes it's overpowered so this chicken is going to install reefs. I got caught up in a September squall last year which had me damn near dismasted, had to beach on Gallops Island and the ride home after two hours on the island was hairraising under full sail; damn if I didn't need every ounce of seagoing experience. The wind and waves would have liked to give me a damn heart attack!
The 14' mast was bowed like a Ziti! Reefs please. Ground kissing thanks was appropriate if we live through this one. When I finally reached the Winthrop public launch ramp the sail was on the wrong side to execute my approach and at the last second I jibed and skidded up the ramp hollering, "look out!" A fellow on the ramp was watching in awe at my maneuvering and the boom was about to take him out. "Now that's sailing," he said. Little did he know that I was sailing to avoid death! But then again I do love the thrill, heck I'm only 51 and it's just another log on the fire.
Cruising Boston Harbor in this renegade type sailboat was an especially entertaining venture last season because the Winthrop State Ramp is very close to Logan International Airport and the sailboat sure looks international, especially to the United States Coast Guard! As I approached the radar pier and runway the big orange Zodiac full of C.G. boys had a bead on me and were on their way towards me, now I fully knew what this sailboat looked like to them. Stopping 100 yards short of this lateen sail Nile River oriented terror craft, they stalked me for about a half hour, only then realizing my innocent tactics, as I headed the other way in an effort to escape Logan Airport and the vortex of landing jet craft.
Our little plywood boat sure does attract a lot of attention in Boston Harbor, including a lot of curious picture takers and yellers. "Is that a Bolger hull," I hear from the larger sailboats and yachts. I can only answer yes, so they can relate. The big party boats go nuts picture taking, am I a show off or what!
Congrats to Phil and Dave for their expertise in design and simplification. I will be spearheading the effort in 2003 if all goes well.
A Boat for Bike Hauling
by Fred GroenierBoating can be expensive and ecologically harmful. I wanted boating that was neither and that fit in with a lifestyle that relied on bicycles, not only for making a living, but also for transport. This required some sort of boat that could be towed or carried by bike. I live in NW Tasmania, Australia, near the sea and a number of rivers and lakes.
One of the designs considered was a catamaran, the idea being that the hull would be suspended on either side of the bike with the cross pieces sitting on the bike, one ahead, one behind the cyclist.
Another idea was a light small dory that could fit like a cap over the rear part of the bike.
I also have a tandem which I used for a mobile door to door book exchange. This tandem can carry an enormous amount and has carried small canoes angled like an aircraft carrier's deck. However, these did not seem to be solutions for cruising extensively in traffic. The solution came, of all things, during a tall ships get together in Hobart for the 1988 bicentenary of Australia, a glorious week, with hardly any sleep, of activities with large and small boats square and otherwise rigged from all over the world. The last was a grand parade of all the tall ships down the Derwent Estuary, surely one of the most beautiful of the world, and now full of boats of every size and sort imaginable.
For my purpose, a square rigger was a bit out of the question, but I could clearly see how smaller boats fared. Power boats and dinghies were out, small Hartley trailer sailers were held back by the Derwent chop, catamarans kept digging into the chop, and so on. But right up front near the leading tall ships were a couple of Kleppers. That was the solution!
At home, one of my old books, Canoes & Canoeing by Percy Blandford (1963), did have instructions and specifications for making a folding canoe (kayak). It was a book disposed of by the library, too old, etc., nobody was interstested in canoes built of wood and canvas anymore. Of the five designs, four canvas plus one plywood, the folding one, Puffin, has the rather off putting intro that it "entails ' much more work than a rigid fabric covered canoe ... metal work and fabric work as well as wood work to be done".
But I will always venerate Percy Blandford, the 19 pages of instructions, although compact, were/are meticulous, detailed, and complete. Although mostly made in sections, only one room in my cottage was suitable and large enough to test the sections together, that of course being the bedroom! Each night, when in bed, I could look at the growing frame and figure out the next stages, what bliss.
The end result was a miracle, 130 or so parts which all had to, and did, fit together. No wonder Kleppers cost several thousand dollars. As the photos show, a Puffin is halfway between a canoe and a kayak, 11'x28", the cockpit about 70"x 18" (all the internal sections have to be assembled through this opening).
Assembly, which took about 35 minutes, consisted of putting in the fore and aft sections with stringers, then the middle parts which, with its two ladder like floor sections straightened out, locked the frame parts tight against the envelope skin, and a few other pieces which completed the boat.
Even though it was a small boat, it proved adept for longish journeys and fairly big waves, its small size fit in with the waves, sailed not too bad and paddled easily, although not the fastest, could carry overnight gear and even an extra person on short, calm hops, was neutral in crosswinds, all together it was a viceless friend.
Packed up, it formed a rather large but not heavy bundle, including paddle, mast, spars, sails, leeboards, rudder, which could be carried as an oversize backpack or on the rear carrier of a bicycle.
The satisfaction of cycling to some water spot, calmly parking the bike, opening the pack, and making the contents metamorphosize into a canoe yacht, ignoring the bystanders and treating it all as a daily occurrence, carrying such a contraption to the water and paddling and sailing it, was great, the same when landing, dismantling, and cycling off.
For years I cruised on rivers, lakes, and sea. It ended only when I got lost at sea one dark night and was wrecked on cliffs. However, many more boats got built out of that Blandford book. I built another Puffin, but not a folding one, with a friend. This is such a reliable little boat that it got seven other people into boating, two of whom built two bigger boats out of the same book, two Kittywakes with which they did an 1800 km journey down the Cooper River, a river like many in Australia only sometimes filled with water.
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