The idea behind this blog is very simple, to post images and information on a 1001 boats
and while we’re at it raise a little money for charity.
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If you have details about a boat you would like to see featured please email me.
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Glenn Woodbury is skipper of this little sloop which was designed in the mid-1960's by Captain R.D. "Pete" Culler when he was working at the Concordia Company in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, USA.
Feather was built by John Graham in Sausalito, California in 1983 and now resides on Marrowstone Island in Washington state.
Glenn describes his fine vessel: "She is clinker built, 17'-8" long, 5 feet wide, and draws 18 inches with the centerboard up and 3 feet with it down. She is rigged as a gaff knockabout sloop with 172 square feet of sail, 127sq ft main and 45sq ft in the jib. There is no standing rigging and the jib is set flying. She displaces 1240 pounds with rig and anchor and carries as many as six adults. She has two sets of reef cringles in the mainsail, allowing her to sail to weather in 35 knots of wind with both reefs in and the jib set"
I have sailed in company with Feather and she is as fine a small boat as you will ever find.
While we are talking about Waldo Howland's Concordia Company, we might take a look at the most famous design to come out of that shop in Massachusetts.
The Concordia yawl was designed in 1938 by naval architect C. Raymond Hunt for Llewellyn Howland and built by Llewellyn's son Waldo.
I found this Concordia yawl preparing to hoist anchor while cruising in the San Juan Islands near the western extreme of the Canadian border with the US.
Concordia Yawl Design Specifications: Length Over All 39'-10" Length Waterline 28'-6" Beam (Extreme) 10'-3" Draft 5'-8" Ballast (Iron Keel) 7700 Lbs. Displacement 18000 Lbs. Sail Area 690 Sq. Ft. (Fore Triangle, Mainsail and Mizzen)
Construction - Oak keel, steam bent laminated oak frames, African mahogany planking, bright mahogany deck trim, canvas covered main deck and house top, bronze plank fastenings, galvanized iron keel bolts.
Rig - Hollow spars, including spinnaker pole, stainless steel rigging, galvanized tangs, bronze fittings and winches.
The Concordia yawl has won numerous prestigious races including the Newport/Bermuda Race (1954 & 1978), the Annapolis Race (1955), Cowes Week (1955) and the Marblehead-to-Halifax Race (1955 & 1997); Proving that a cruising boat can also be competitive.
Good Intent is a Bawley, another traditional craft from the English east coast.
Typically used to catch whitebait and shrimps in the Thames Estuary the Bawley is characterised by full, but relatively shallow hull lines and a transom stern very similar to that of a Thames barge in shape, giving the Bawley good sail carrying ability. The rig is typically a lose footed main with an almost vertical leech and a large topsail for catching the light airs as they made their way up the Thames.
Good Intent was lying at Woodbridge at the top of the River Deben in Suffolk a few years ago when these photographs were taken, even laid up at the quay she looked lovely.
Built in 1860 by Shrubsills of Milton at 36 feet on deck, she is registered as a Lowestoft boat - No. LO136, she fished for sprats and cod under sail until she retired from fishing in 1927.
I’ve written about this fast cruiser on Burlesdon Blog a while ago and was very taken by the design when we first saw her in the Mediterranian. Designed by French Naval Architect Jean-Pierre Villenave she is a Turbo 950.
France is one of the most exciting centers of yacht design where many small scale designers are applying lessons and technologies from racing yachts to produce fast and capable cruisers. The Turbo 9.5 is one such design, built with strip plank construction, she is light, fast and from the look of her a blast to sail.
The pilot house design and flush deck is rightly popular and highly practical for cruising combining as it does low wind-age forward with a spacious deck space for working, especially useful when at anchor.
Details like the swivel seats at the transom are a practical response to the wide stern hull shapes which gives the yacht its planning ability and speed. Compared with the complication and cost involved with the twin wheels which are so often seen on modern yachts, a comfortable outboard seat with a tiller extension is a very refreshing, not to mention low cost, low maintenance solution, something many of us strive for in a cruising boat.
We know from fellow blogger Robert Wise on Boat Bits that the Orange Boat has left the Mediterranean and arrived safely in the Caribbean after crossing the Atlantic.
Jean-Pierre has designed a range of yachts many for amateur construction using ply wood as well as his smaller version the Turbo 650 meter which is a fast, low cost cruiser which would get a young family on the water and having a lot of fun.
Capt. Robert Gray is one of the unsung heroes of maritime history. He discovered the great river of the West in 1793 and named it after his ship Columbia. He discovered two important Northwest harbors: Grays Harbor in Washington State and Tillamook Bay in Oregon. He also had a number of firsts to his credit: he commanded the first American vessel to circumnavigate the globe (the Columbia), the first American vessel to visit the West Coast of North America (the Lady Washington), first to visit China, and the list goes on.
Fast forward 200 years. The Grays Harbor Historical Seaport finished building the Lady Washington, a replica of the first of Gray's historic commands. This was supposed to be just a warm up to building the much larger Columbia Rediviva. But with only a fraction of the money to build that fully-rigged ship in the construction fund, the fledgling organization punted and built, not one, but two replicas of the Columbia's longboats: the Capt. Matt Peasley and the Hewitt R. Jackson, both launched in 1993.
A ship like the Columbia would carry about four ship's boats with the longboat being the largest. One or two of the other boats would be nested inside it while the ship was underway. Longboats were as big as would fit between the foremast and the mainmast of the mother ship. On the Columbia that was 26 feet, the same size as the longboat of the HMAV Bounty, on which Capt. Bligh made his record-setting voyage.
The longboats were the workhorses of the early explorers. They would lighter cargo of everything from horses to barrels of rum from shore to ship. They also did the hard work of exploring. In fact, the Columbia's longboat entered the Columbia River before the ship did, sounding as she went, to prevent the loss of the mother ship.
These vessels were built tough with thick planking and heavy frames. The boats have so much wood in them that when the U.S. Coast Guard filled them with water to test their buoyancy they floated with their gunwales well above the surface without additional buoyancy tanks or bags and with several shivering volunteers sitting inside. Carl Brownstein, the boatwright who built the two vessels, call them "two-ton dingies." A similar longboat built to yacht scantlings in another Washington port floated so high on her lines that she had to have more than 1,000 pounds of ballast added.
These longboats are amazing vessels in their versatility, utility and beauty. They can use up to 10 oars, but move well under just two. (Six is about optimal, especially if the crew are inexperienced rowers.) They have three masts and four sails. The main and the foremast are fitted with dipping lug sails, which are all kinds of fun! Each of the thwarts has a mast step that can accommodate either the mainmast or the fore, allowing for many different sail combinations.
Oh, I almost forgot the best thing, both longboats have a swivel gun mounted on the samson post.
Soon after the first longboat was completed it won the King of Spain Cup in a rowing competition in British Columbia. The Grays Harbor Historical Seaport uses these vessels for youth training in Washington state's San Juan Islands most summers.
The early pilots of the Bristol Channel earned their living by seeking merchant vessels approaching land and using their detailed knowledge of local navigation, pilot them safely into port.
The Pilot Cutters would race westwards to meet the incoming ships. The pickings were rich if you could get them, which meant being the first out to the incoming ship, racing and outwitting other pilots. The results were unparalleled seamanship and the evolution of very fast, able boats.
The cutters were usually crewed by a skipper, a "boy" and the pilot on the outward journey. Once alongside the incoming ship the boy would row the pilot to the merchant vessel, where the pilot would scramble aboard.
Baggy Wrinkle is a British Channel Pilot Cutter built in 1982 at the Northwest School of Boat Building. Her home waters are the western US and though far from her ancestors, she is very well suited for the ravages of the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Many of you have already met Giacomo de Stefano. He's the intrepid traveler who made a self propelled trip on the river Po, Italy in a Ness Yawl. That trip was conceived to raise awareness of the environmental condition of the Po and other major industrial rivers. Giacomo's perspective, from sea-level (literally) is a very emotional one and the boat he chose reflects the spirit of the endeavor perfectly.
The boat Giacomo is using for this journey is Clodia, professionally built by Roland Poltock in Venice and Villa del Conte, Italy.
Designed by Scottish designer Iain Oughtred, the boat is 19 ft.LOA(5.6m) and similar to those the Vikings once used for fishing and transport and also related to those the fisherman from the Shetland Islands still use.
Clinker built, planked with mahogany plywood, she’s light but very seaworthy and good for both rowing and sailing. She is built of 9mm okume plywood, italian oak and larch with pine for the floor boards. The beautiful tanbark sails are made by Core Sailmakers in Venice.
Clodia is designed to sail and row from London to Istanbul for a project called Man On The River, 5300 km by oar and sail, to promote the concept of a sustainable way of traveling with respect for overburdened European rivers.
Peter Duck' is a character in one of Arthur Ransome's famous children’s novels, in later life he commissioned Jack Laurence Giles to design a comfortable cruising ketch which was named after the character. The design was commissioned just after the war in 1945, built by Kings of Pin Mill in Suffolk she was completed in 1947
Ransome is alleged to have requested “a sort of marine bath-chair, a minimum of work to sail and yet provide the maximum comfort for two.” Whether Laurence Giles succeeded is not clear, but for whatever reason Ransome didn’t take to Peter Duck and sold her after only 3 years in 1950.
Although not a production boat, over 40 of these ketches were built. LOA is 28 feet 3inches long with a draught of 3 feet 6 inches and a beam of 9 feet. The original boat was fitted with a Stuart Turner engine. The detailed fit out of each is varied, but the overall design is recognised for its passage making ability even in heavy weather. The easily handled ketch rig made the boat popular with single hander sailors.
The original Peter Duck still survives, indeed flourishes under family ownership who have been custodians for much of the past 50 years.
In 1938 the South Coast boatyard in Newport Beach, California introduced the Rhodes 33, one of several narrow racing boats with deep cockpits designed by Phillip Rhodes. Features included a drop in outboard well, a two burner stove and head. Twenty Rhodes 33’s were sold before WWII and while domestic production was superseded by military during the war, twenty two more were launched immediately after.
The Rhodes racing class faced off in numerous organized challenges over the years off the coast of southern California, USA.
"This photo of the Rhodes 33 fleet off the jetty in Newport CA was taken and developed by my father in the 1950's. He had his own lab in our home. It was probably taken with his Leica with black and white film." Byron Grams
In recent years there has been an effort to revitalize the Rhodes 33 class of racing yachts in southern California, led by Ralph Rodheim who owns the beautifully restored Madness.
Who could blame Ralph for submitting Madness as his favorite boat?
Details of this delightful yawl were sent by John Weiss, however the words were written by Harry Broady who commissioned the boat and owned her for 20 years.
John bought her from Harry a few years ago when he retired from sailing at the age of 86:
For those of you that are not familiar with Nord Vinden, she is a 13'-0" x 4'-6" Canoe Yawl, developed around the Victorian period as part of the Humber Canoe Yawls. Some of those were designed by George Holme.
One evening some 20 years ago, (probably, a miserable evening weather-wise), I was reading the book "Sail and Oar" by John Leather. Fortunately I came upon the chapter describing George Holme's Ethel, and folks, that was all it took.
To shorten my story a little... I contacted William Clements Boat Builder who lives outside Boston Mass. We discussed the boat and other details and he accepted building Nord Vinden for me.
So we looked at the line drawing in the book, altered them a little to our liking and Bill made a 13-inch half-model resembling the boat. We agreed on the looks etc., and he continued developing, lofting, fairing the lines, building the molds and so on.
After about four months or so, Nord Vinden was ready for sea trials. From there on she has given me the greatest of pleasure every time I went sailing, whether there was no wind, little wind or a blustering wind. In addition, she rows well, and sculling is a joy.
The particulars of the boat are as follows:
LOA 13'-0" Beam 4'-6" Draft 6"; centerboard down 24" Sail Area 100sf. Balanced Lug rig on both sails, Main 80sf. Mizzen 20sf. Weight 350 lb.
Her construction is of 6mm sapele mahogany plywood, epoxy coated. The hull is painted green above the waterline, and lighter green antifouling. The interior of the boat is epoxy coated and varnished. The deck is laid up strip with a covering board along the gunwale, all made from a Brazilian wood called Santa Maria, a pale light color.
The mast and spars are of Sitka Spruce, and the sails were made by Sail Rite. The centerboard was manufactured by Springfield Fan Centerboard Co. and consists of five brass plates folding within each other from 7 1/2" to 18".
Thanks to John for a heart warming story of Harry and his (now your)lovely boat.
The Delaware River, on the Atlantic coast of the United States, was first mapped by a Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609. Today it is known as a major shipping channel supplying New York and New Jersey, but at one time it was a pristine paradise and many small boats were developed in this area for hunting and fishing.
These old shallow draft, low freeboard designs proved to be very competitive sailing vessels when some brave soul decided to experiment with how much canvas they could carry.
The boats were called Hikers because ballast was crew weight and not actual ballast in sand bags. The Delaware River is relatively narrow, and in a race upwind with frequent short tacks, it wasn’t possible to shift bags often enough. Thus, the crew was required to hike way out to keep the boats upright.
Tuckups were the smallest of the classes, and their name was derived from the shape of the stern, which tucked up into a very pretty shape with a delicate twist of the planking.
Andy Wolfe, Secretary of the Traditional Small Craft Association and a resident of Buena Vista, Virginia has this to say about his favorite boat:
The attached photo is a Tuckup, class 4 hiker that I restored about 15 years ago and is now owned by the Delaware River Chapter of the TSCA. It was probably my all time favorite sailing machine. Designed in 1876, it was one of the most popular club racing designs in the Philadelphia area. All but a few of these boats were destroyed in a single wharf fire. I believe there are 8 still sailing that were built at the Philadelphia Maritime Museum and Mystic Seaport.
The Tuckup is a fifteen foot gaff rigged catboat made of cedar planking on oak or locust frames.
These Essex boats fished from the rivers Blackwater, Colne, Crouch and Orwell, north of the Thames estuary. The Smack was a gaff cutter and although built to a variety of types and sizes, they were noted for their sea worthiness, wind ward ability and speed.
During the 19th century the Essesx Smacks fell into three groups ranging from small inshore and estuary smacks of 12 tons right up to the 50 foot deep sea smacks which would fish as far afield as the Baltic and France.
Almost all the small villages along the east coast rivers had their own fleet many concentrating on a certain fishery. A hundred years ago the wharfs and river frontage of Brightlingsea, Rowhenge, West Mersea, Bradwell, Madon, Wivenhoe, Tollesbury, plus a few others I've forgotten, would be bustling with local smacks, each village could be home to as many as fifty boats.
I don't have nearly enough photographs to do justice to these legendary boats, so please enjoy the Smacks in this video by Dylan Winter with music by Cocker Freeman, who's genuine Dengie (Essex) accent and somewhat dubious lyrics are well worth seeing
In contrast to the high-tech Etoile Horizon (below), these photos depict a humble thirty foot sharpie ketch, designed and built in wood, by Ozzie Whittley. Ozzie Whittley has been designing and building boats all his life. He's eighty-two and still designing and building boats. Wizard of Oz is a junk rigged sharpie with lee boards and 18hp outboard motor. Around Australia a sailor must be able to navigate very skinny water. Built with twin cabins, dual cockpits and homemade sails, Wizard of Oz was conceived for efficient single-handing by Ozzie, as his own cruiser, when he was seventy.
Naval Architect Patrick Balta has kindly given us permission to use pictures of this unusual, high tech gaff cutter ÉTOILE HORIZON (Star Horizon).
The modern interpretation of a gaff cutter was built in 2001 to run the Transat Jacques Vabre Open 50 'class, Etoile Horizon then participated in the Route du Rhum 2002 with Bob Escoffier and holds the SNSM record in its class.
Since then the boat has been completely refurbished and is operated as a charter yacht
ÉTOILE HORIZON may be a gaff cutter, but she takes full advantage of modern technology. Hi-tech sails combined with carbon blocks, winches and running rigging for maximum efficiency. Built in Cedar epoxy, the spars are surprisingly of aluminium, overall she is a bit heavier than a carbon hull/rig combination. But Etoile Horizon is still a fast cruising boat and one which doesn't disappoint, she can sail at 11 knots upwind and over 15 knots on a reach.
Designed by Nigel Irens more famous for ocean racing catamarans, Roxane is a high performance/high tech traditional cruising yacht.
Her design uses carbon spars and a fully battened lug rig on a efficient and shallow draft hull (with centre board). Seen here is Mischief leading the way in the Solent Old Gaffers race a few years ago - she finished second.
Roxane is a boat Nigel designed and built for himself at just under 30 feet, there is a smaller sister ship Romilly at 22 feet.
MaZu was the last Teak Lady built and was completed in February 1958 by Ah King Slipway in Hong Kong. Though she is a production boat, she looks and sails like a thoroughbred and sports the detailing of a petite yacht, built entirely of teak with durable bronze hardware.
The original Teak Lady was designed by Ted Kilkenny for his nephew in the mid-1930's and resembled the 23-foot San Francisco Bay Bear Boat but 6 feet shorter and proportionately heavier, with a deeper full keel and a taller rig.
The Teak Lady proved herself so well against other Bay boats that soon outside orders were placed. A brightly varnished Teak Lady was displayed at the 1937 World Expo/Fair on Treasure Island, and before the fair closed, fourteen new Teak Ladies were ordered. By 1940 the 17' 3" Teak Lady was an official San Francisco Bay racing class.
More fame came to the Teak Lady class in the 1940's. A young couple sailed from Monterey, California to Hawaii, then to the South Pacific, logging 8,000 nautical miles. At that time she was the smallest boat to cross the Pacific Ocean.
David Keenan, a former owner of MaZu sailed her in all kinds of weather in San Francisco and San Pablo Bays. He tells me that in one 55-knot winter gale, there was concern at the Vallejo Yacht Club when they noticed MaZu driving hard to weather with the ports submerged. But after noticing through the yacht club binoculars that both captain and crew were sporting ear to ear grins, they decided the rescue party could be called off.
MaZu is currently moored on the northwest coast of the US, in Toledo, Oregon. She sports her colors at local boat shows where families line up for free sailing lessons.
This very pretty little Westmacott yacht is called Elfin, she was based on the Hamble for many years, now berthed in Dartmouth. Thanks again to Peter from Wooden Ships for the pictures and details - fans of traditional wooden boats could do worse than browse Peter's brokerage listings and dream.
Designed by Alfred Westmacott and built in his Woodnutts Yard on the Isle of Wight in 1930 for a lady sailor. She was the largest of 3 built to a similar design and proved to be a perfect small cruising yacht.
Bermudian cutter 28’3” x 22’3”wl x 7’10” x 3’8” + 3’ bowsprit. 5TM
A chunky, long keeled yacht, her significant features are her pointed canoe stern and her nicely proportioned varnished teak coach-roof with a marked camber to the roof.
Planked in full length pitch-pine, 16 strakes per side with varnished teak rubbing strakes and toe rails and a cove line cut into the sheer strake, all copper fastened to 55 pairs of Canadian Rock elm steamed timbers on an oak back-bone. Approx 2 ton external lead ballast keel secured with bronze bolts through 12 heavy grown oak floors.
"Form follows function" was the guiding principal behind the modernist movement as practised by the great designers and architects of the early 20th century.
But the fact is that traditional boat builders had understood that principal for centuries and it was perhaps reflected best in rowing craft which had to be fast, easily driven, carry a heavy load while at the same time be safe and stable.
Above is a delightful boat from the English west country, you can look at those lines and know she will run cleanly through the water, yet she's able enough for the sometimes choppy waters of the estuary where she was built to work.
Closer to home this slightly neglected yacht tender resembles a local punt or working boat; stable and designed to carry a heavy load.
