another cool design...

 Regarding the high cost of hamburger, yet another COVID cure you may want to avoid, and in the "Remind me to never eat out in Ohio" department...

I'll go on record and say that I've always liked Dudley Dix designs. Partly because he actually understands boat building (which is surprisingly rare in designers) and partly because, every once in a while he surprises me.

Like this design.

 

 

It's a design that fills a need/niche and it does so incredibly well. What impresses me the most is that it is just the sort of design most designers would avoid like the plague as being just too different.

Face it, designers are seldom rewarded for coming up with boats that do not fall into the same old same vein.

As soon as I came across this design I realized that this was a boat that would work just as well in the day charter business down here in the Caribbean as well as opening up a market that is now mostly cattlemarans and and power boats doing the "three hour tour" two step.

The design could also be used for various pursuits outside the day charter trade as its open form allows it to be just about anything you'd want to do. For example as someone who has been part of the Caribbean film community for longer than I care to admit the first thing I thought of when I saw this design is what a great camera boat it would make with the added advantage of when not working on films or commercials it could still earn it's keep fishing, day charter, or being a dive boat between gigs.

I keep hearing about "working sail" making a comeback but Fast Eddy is the sort of working sail that makes real sense where niche markets and needs are the design brief.

While I've never been a big fan of steel or alloy boat building the lapstrake method used on Fast Eddy makes all kinds of sense and has me rethinking aluminum.

You can find more about Fast Eddy on the Dix website and blog which is well worth checking out.

Listening to Attic Lights

So it goes...

Some proa prototype goodness...

The question I've been asking for the last three years, some seriously high-level stupidity, and a perfect marriage of the idiot sort...

Here's some video of the HarryProa Mini Cargo Ferry prototype looking good.

More about the Mini Cargo Ferry prototype build and project over at the HarryProa site.

Listening to some apt music for the times

So it goes...

Tom Cunliffe with a barge yacht project...

On selective empathy, some food for thought, and in the "Fucked up doesn't even begin to cover it" department...



Listening to Son Volt

So it goes...

and on the subject of downsized working sail...

Sailing Anarchy with some Russian GPS news, something important about books, and, apparently, a point that needs to be made...

Proafile points us to something new over at the Harry Proa site which is all kinds of interesting.

Need I say more?

Listening to Wyclef Jean

So it goes...

A French car company and working sail...

A good point, water rationing in Puerto Rico, and in the "Nope, no climate change it's all a hoax" department...

Yeah, working sail is coming back.

Read all about it.

Listening to Duane Betts & the Pistoleers

So it goes...

Tom Cunliffe goes sailing...

The downside of current of copyright law, pay-to-play, and talk about bad timing...



Listening to Bat Fangs

So it goes...

A cargo/ferry proa of interest...

More on the outdoor gear/firearms issue, something you may be unaware of, and in the "dumb as a bag of hammers" department...

Over at HarryProa there's a pretty interesting cargo/ferry proa concept that seems to make all kinds of sense.

Need I say more?

Listening to Maiah Wynne

So it goes...

Some sense being made...

What grown-ups do, an alternative to plastic packaging, and over in the "Scum & Villainy" department...

Over at the Proa File Michael Schacht makes the case for the Cargo Proa which is something you need to check out.

You're still here?

Listening to Metalachi and liking it.

So it goes...

An interesting test bed...

Wendig muses on the past year, reason # 8623 why I don't do facebook, and in the "Throwing rocks in glass houses" department...


Cargo + proa = Interesting.


PraoCargo 12m model from Madadh MacLaine on Vimeo.

Speaking of working sail, there's a great article in the February 2018 Practical Boat Owner as well as some interesting coverage on the newest Wharram design you may want to check out.

Listening to Las Cafeteras

So it goes...

another taste...

An interesting fact, a neat trend in media, and legalizing wage theft in tRumps America...

Listening to Shit Happening

So it goes...

Not your dad's idea of a cargo schooner...

A bit of scary reading, somewhat nervous making, and a good read about boats in the USVI in the aftermath of Irma/Maria...

I've always had a soft spot for cargo schooners and other working sailboats. As a kid growing up on an island 26 miles from Los Angeles, I remember clearly how a cargo schooner brought the first real bicycle I got for my birthday, toys for the holidays, and other assorted household goods.

Of course, when most folk think of a cargo schooner the picture that pops into their head is a salty gaff-rigged boat sporting baggywrinkle and helmed by a guy in a southwester who says aaarhh a lot.

The thing is it's 2017 going on 2018...

Perhaps it's time for something a  little different?

Michael Schacht has just the thing...

Some quick numbers...
LOA: 48-64
BOA: 24’
Hull BOA: 5’ (4’ bunks just fit)
WLB: 3.8'
Hull cross section: sharpie-like

Weight empty: 5300 lbs
Racing: 7550 (cargo schooners MUST race)
Medium: 12,100
Heavy: 17,200
SA: 700 sq. ft

I expect more to be soon coming...

Listening to Sarah Shook & the Disarmers

So it goes...

Just do it...

Post-Newtown gun legislation (not what you'd expect), Dorworth makes a point as apt for sailing as it is for skiing, and the next feeding frenzy is not for your benefit...

One of my problems in choosing the next boat is that I don't just have one true path but see a few possible avenues and I find myself torn between them. Face it, the right boat for a couple with a couple of cats and no shortage of guitars for minimalist cruising is not the same boat for the same couple (with cats and guitars) doing a floating business that involves a workshop, moving cargo from one place to another, and providing services that are in need of them in places ill-served by the current status quo... Different tasks different tools as they say.

I mention this because, over the last few decades, I've thought lots and lots about the return of commercial sail albeit in a small scale, sustainable, and profitable manner and find most of the various and sundry projects being put forth as ill conceived, over complicated, and doomed to run out of money before they even lay the keel...

A quick side note is the story about the sailing cargo/ferry boat Phil Bolger designed which was doomed when the powers that be spent more than the cost of building two boats on various feasibility studies to see whether the idea made sense or not (for those interested in more of the story it's in Phil's "Boats With an Open Mind").

Anyway, the (mostly) current thinking on commercial sail is both an exercise in over-thinking and reinventing the wheel which is sad because these bigger more expensive projects steal the thunder of smaller projects that have a much better chance of succeeding. When the big projects fail, everyone will use them as the example of how commercial sail is a losing proposition and doomed to failure.

The real beauty of small accessible projects is that folks can mainly just do it and avoid the stasis and group think of the sort that killed the Sir Joseph Banks project.

Which brings us, in a roundabout way, to the Vermont Sail Freight Project which is just the sort of working sail enterprise that actually makes sense. It's using affordable tried and tested technology (no reinventing of the wheel), has reasonable accessible goals, and is filling a real need that is only going to become bigger... Sounds like just the sort of project we should tell folks about and support!

Better yet, the project is already building and, I expect, will be launched and working long before any of those bigger projects get past their feasibility/design studies.

As it happens, they do happen to be a Kick Starter project so it is easy to help if you want to...

Just do it!

Listening to John Hiatt

So it goes...