News and Curiosities Archives | Page 2 of 2

Sydney Flying Squadron to Visit Annapolis, MD

Posted on September 12, 2017April 21, 2020 by Anne Bryant

This just in from the news ticker:

The National Sailing Hall of Fame (NSHOF) announced that sailors from the Sydney Flying Squadron, Australia’s oldest open boat sailing club, will be visiting Annapolis on September 13-17, 2017 to participate in a race regatta featuring classic American Sandbaggers and historical Australian 18-Footers. The Squadron is shipping their own fleet of historical 18-foot skiffs from Australia to Annapolis specifically for this event. They will also race their boats in the 8th Annual Classic Wooden Sailboat Rendezvous & Race on September 16-17.

The historical 18-foot skiffs, considered by many to be the fastest class of sailing skiffs, began racing on Australia’s Sydney Harbor in 1892 and later in New Zealand. They’re called “Aussie 18s” by their owners.

The 18-Footers will be launching everyday at 10:30 a.m. from the Annapolis Sailing School and will be on display to the public at 11:00 a.m. on the mornings of September 13, 14, 15 and 16 at the National Sailing Fame docks. For complete schedule of events for the boats and their crew click here.

About the boats:

ABERDARE

Skipper: John Winning
Original built: 1932
Modern build: 2000
Builder: Robert Tearne
Beam: 7′
When launched on the Brisbane River this revolutionary skiff was an instant success – Aust 18’ champion four years in a row from 1933 to 1937 (skipper Vic Vaughan). Revolutionary because she was a heel-less skiff type 18 footer with seven foot beam and a depth of only two feet.

ALRUTH

Skipper: Ian Smith
Original built: 1947
Modern build: 2001
Builder: Robert Tearne
Beam: 7′
Dedicated to and assisted by the Beashel family, who were famous 18-footer sailors. One of the key marks within Sydney Harbour is named the “Beashel Buoy“ and the name “Alruth” is a combination of Alf Beashel and his wife’s name Ruth. Their grandson, Colin, represented Australia in sailing and was Australian Team Captain and Flag Bearer at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

AUSTRALIA IV

Skipper: David Swales
Original built: 1943
Modern build: 2007
Builder: Billy Fisher, Jr.
Beam: 7′
Original built in 1943 by Bill Fisher, Sr. and his sons Tom and Jimmy. It was club champion in 1944 and 1945 and State Champion in 1945 and 1946. Replica built by Bill Fisher, Jr. as a tribute to his family, from a model owned and passed down through the generations.

Trailerable Boats to the Rescue After Harvey

Posted on August 31, 2017 by Anne Bryant

Water, most of the time, can be a blank canvas for adventure. We’ve seen the most recent demonstration that she’s also a powerful force to be reckoned with—a force with no scruples or biases—that has turned streets into riverbeds over the last week as Hurricane Harvey parked itself over the coast of Texas.

A Facebook user riding down Highway 90 the other day took this video of a long line of small boats being trailered into Houston to help with rescue efforts. If you’ve got a small-boat story related to Harvey, Small Boats Monthly wants to hear about it. If you’re one of the people who are able to help out, we wish you all the best for safety and success.

If you’re wondering what to do from afar, there are a lot of options. The Houston Food Bank will be doing a massive amount of work for years after the rain and flooding subsides, and here’s a great list of local organizations who are on the ground helping people, saving pets, and assessing homes so people can start putting their lives back together.

Stay safe out there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU_hznRUPqQ

Spokane Middle Schoolers from Marshall Islands Build for Summer Program

Posted on August 23, 2017March 20, 2025 by Anne Bryant

A sky-high view of fish lake, with canoes following the students' outrigger.

In Spokane, Washington, Shaw Middle School students launched a Marshallese-style canoe with outrigger and sailing rig after participating in a summer program with a boatbuilding focus. There is a small group of immigrants there from the Marshall Islands, and the program’s aim was to help with communication, reading, and feeling more connected to both their heritage and to their school in the hope of increasing graduation rates.

Read the whole story at The Spokesman-Review.

Students paddle their decorated outrigger.

ICYMI: Ashley Book of Knots in Public Domain

Posted on August 17, 2017April 21, 2020 by Anne Bryant

If you haven’t already heard: The Ashley Book of Knots, authoritative tome of marlinespike seamanship and compendium of the best knots to move farm animals around with, is in the public domain. First published in 1944, it spans 620 pages and covers 3,854 knots. The book was digitized and added to Archive.org a little less than a year ago so we can all enjoy it. You can find the various download options here. If you’d prefer to add a print copy of the book to your library, it’s available at the WoodenBoat Store.

Have you used The Ashley Book of Knots to complete projects aboard, add a Bristol touch to your boat, or to learn the basics? Tell us your stories in the comments.

The British Library’s Copyright Free Images

Posted on August 7, 2017April 21, 2020 by Anne Bryant

You may already know about the Library of Congress’s nearly 30,000 copyright free images available on Flickr, and if you’ve enjoyed those then you’ll definitely enjoy the British Library’s collection of Ships & Boats. Among the fully rigged ships you’ll find great examples of vernacular small boats in use, with snippets of text around them that give clues about the action in the scenes.

Click through to an image, and you’ll find that the library posted all of the bibliography data for each, including the publication date. The real treasure might be that there are links to download full PDFs of the books in which they appear. It’s a fantastic database to mine; well organized and open to all.

Here are a few favorites:

North Pole and South Pole: Two men in a small sailing boat.

Harbor scene: Small rowing boat, slightly larger boat very round and with leeboards.

Harbor scened: large ships and small boats rowing, working pier at left.

Sailing canoe and uniformed man at the edge of the water.

Reed boat, a paddler with a double paddle and a passenger in European clothes with luggage.

A New Balmain Bug

Posted on August 2, 2017April 21, 2020 by Anne Bryant

We here at Small Boats Monthly love small, but here’s another level of wee. The Balmain Bug is a traditional Australian workboat type that was eventually used as a one-design racer, then inspired modern one-design racing skiffs.

To read the whole article, click here.

2017 Small Reach Regatta a Success

Posted on July 25, 2017April 21, 2020 by Anne Bryant

What a turnout and what a variety of boats this year at the Traditional Small Craft Association‘s Small Reach Regatta, held in Brooklin, Maine. The gathering is a labor of love for WoodenBoat Senior Editor Tom Jackson, who returned from a small boat raid in Sweden wanting to have a similar event here in Maine. They’ve been at it for 11 years now.

Here’s a look at the end of their lunch stop on Babson Island as the boats got underway:

The Downeast TSCA’s website explains, “The idea of the SRR is to gather together small sail-and-oars boats for sailing, with the same kind of camaraderie and appreciation that the ERR has established. The boats typically sail courses of 5 to 15 nautical miles on three successive days (Thursday through Saturday) starting from the waterfront anchorage each morning and returning each afternoon. There is no racing, but participants always show keen interest in how their boats perform against others. Many of the boats were built of wood by their owners themselves, and last year seven of them were even designed by their builders.”

Rocking the Boat, Rocking Manhattan

Posted on July 21, 2017April 21, 2020 by Anne Bryant

Registration is open for rowing teams to support Rocking the Boat at their Rocking Manhattan event. The 30-mile circumnavigation, planned for Saturday, September 23, is a fundraiser, and their goal is to ultimately raise $300,000 for their programs.

Rocking the Boat says they, “Empower young people from the South Bronx to develop the self-confidence to set ambitious goals and gain the skills necessary to achieve them. Students work together to build wooden boats, learn to row and sail, and restore local urban waterways, revitalizing their community while creating better lives for themselves. Kids don’t just build boats, boats build kids.” They’ve amassed a fleet of more than 50 student-built boats. Below is one of their latest, the recently launched Whitehall they named KALEIDOSCOPE.

Nisqually Tribal Canoe Journey 2017

Posted on July 19, 2017April 21, 2020 by Anne Bryant

Photographer and filmmaker Matika Wilbur is documenting the Nisqually tribe’s annual Tribal Canoe Journey that starts at Squaxin Island. The paddlers are making a demonstration of indigenous sovereignty, and it’s a spiritual journey for those involved. A full schedule of the trip is here. They’ll be traveling to about 15 different stops with only a few layovers, hosted by other tribes until they return to Squaxin August 8. Here’s the first video, which was posted yesterday:

Subscribe to the YouTube Channel for more, and follow Matika on Twitter @matikawilbur.

Voices Across the Water

Posted on June 9, 2017April 21, 2020 by [email protected]

The First Nations Culture and Tourism Association just launched a six-week project which includes the construction of four traditional indigenous watercraft including a Spruce Dugout Canoe, a Birchbark Canoe, An Inuit Skin Kayak, and a Moose Skin Boat. If you would like to learn more about this project please visit their website at www.yfnct.ca. Information on their boat project can be found under Canada 150.

Three New Books for Boatbuilding Teachers

Posted on June 1, 2017April 21, 2020 by Matt Murphy

Joe Youcha, the dynamo behind the “training the trainer” program Building to Teach, has just published three new books for boatbuilding educators. In the narrative Afternoons in the Boat Shop, twelve year old Emma helps her friend, Bill, build a skiff, and in the process takes lessons in boatbuilding and its related math. Bevin’s Guide to Boatbuilding Math (Bevin was Youcha’s beloved German shepherd) is a companion to Afternoons in the Boat Shop, and it teaches how to build a card-stock model of the 11′8″ Bevin’s Skiff—and delivers further lessons in applied math. And Framing Square Math is a visual lesson in applied math—ratios, triangles, proportions, and such—related to the humble but powerful framing square

Before founding Building to Teach, and the related Teaching with Small Boats Alliance, Youcha was the executive director of the Alexandria (Virginia) Seaport Foundation, where he developed a renowned boatbuilding program for at-risk youth—and inspired similar efforts worldwide. Order the books from Building to Teach.