Bad karma day...

Taibbi on some Wall Street hijinks, something everyone needs to make themselves aware of, and this is both interesting as well as a little scary...

Of late my wifi situation, which is never very good, has become a lot worse and when combined with Blogger just getting to be a serious pain in the posterior I'm beginning to think that my karma situation is such that I may have actually been someone truly heinous in a past life. Maybe someone like Vlad the impaler deserves the wifi from hell and Blogger idiocy...

Well, maybe not, I just don't see myself with that sort of moustache but the hat kinda rocks...

Listening to The Old Crow Medicine Show

So it goes...

Short lists and Strat clones...

It's not that I'm paranoid it's just  that I read the news, this will surprise you, and, it would appear, we're in a really bad place...

So, about that short list...

The other day it came to me that current guitar fashion and boat design have an awful lot in common... And yes, the operative word in that sentence is "awful". In the current guitar market there is a cornucopia of guitars but, when you look at them closely, it really boils down to mostly clones of the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul with maybe 10% something a bit different. What that means in real terms is you have a real bugger all chance of any real innovation creeping into the mix.

Been to a boat show lately? Last time I crawled around boats at a show I found myself often wondering what boat I was actually on as they were all so very much of the same design brief you really couldn't tell and the best you could ascertain was that you were on a 30-foot something or other. An experience not unlike going to a guitar store and picking up a Strat clone off the rack and playing it. It might be a very good guitar but, when all is said and done, it is simply a rehashed copy of a guitar that Leo Fender cobbled together in his garage in the 50's...

Which, I guess, is the world we live in.

That said, there are a few exceptions which give me hope like the Souriceau and Aviateur designs by Eric Henseval which seem to be doing quite well both as home buildable designs (there are already finished home built boats sailing and more in the pipeline) or a boat you can buy ready to go at the boat show.

Which brings us around to the short list and the idea of a scow design (bet you thought I'd never get here) because every time I think about the scow in my head, I keep coming back to the interior of the Souriceau.

Which, I expect, is as far away from anything you'd expect if someone whispered scow schooner in your ear...

Listening to Dolapdere Big Gang cover the Animals

So it goes...

and I've got just the space for it on deck...

My favorite bike blog making sense, in the we are so screwed department, and how about this for a fun frolicsome project...

For those keeping track, I've finally got my dinghy plans from Bermuda (from island to island is never a speedy process) and I'm looking forward to getting the current crop of projects done so I can get into the new chameleon project.

Which is not to say I don't like the stretched Bolger Tortoise but since I regularly row to windward into current/swell I thought an extra couple of feet would be no bad thing. The bonus is that Danny Greene's chameleon, being nesting, takes up even less room on deck.

More about this soonish...

Listening to Joe Jackson

So it goes...

there goes the neighborhood...

It seems to me there just might be a better way than this, about the car/bike thing, and guess what I'm reading today...

As everyone knows (I do go on don't I), I want to build a shoal draft modern scow of the VolksCruiser sort of easily built, adaptable, and affordable to folks of the blue collar sort...

You know the sort of people who actually work for a living!

The sort of thing that rich yachty type would turn their noses up in outrage and lock their daughters up because anyone in a scow, schooner or otherwise, would threaten the status quo.

Of course, now that the Mini was slam dunked by a scow and a rich dude is currently building a TransPac-beater scow, all of a sudden scows are starting to get hip...

You might want to check out the thinking behind these babies!

The good news is that all of the uber-rich scow penciling I'm seeing are not shoal draft so there is still hope for the VolkCruiser scow concept... But, some more about that later!

Listening to the Dolapdere Big Gang and seriously digging it! 

So it goes...

A small boat...

Some good stuff on the great Harlan Ellison, Donkey Mountain makes a good point, and just take a look at what Webb Chiles has up his sleeve...

Speaking of Webb Chiles and his current choice of ride for a circumnavigation... You might want to check out Moore Sailboats for the specs and video on the Moore 24.

Very cool boat!

Listening to Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

So it goes....

the quest continues....

A little food for thought over at Mountain Gazette, something of a must read, and a book well worth reading...

I've been looking for a six or preferably a twelve string banjo for quite a while. The six strings I come across just don't appeal and the twelve strings are as rare as an honest politician. That said, this Fender is an instrument I'd like to sit down with for a couple of hours and spend some quality time with.

But if any readers come across an old Framus 12-string banjo (no doubt nestled between a double digit Fender Broadcaster and a Martin 000-28 in pristine condition) in some junk or pawn shop, do let me know...

Listening to Rickie Lee Jones

So it goes...

A Sunday note...

One wonders (well, at least I do) why some folks feel the need to steal rather than win an election, Brazil might be on to something (sort of beats our perpetual war all to hell), and these folk (really just check out their machete) should be building boats...

I had a good day yesterday... Did the glass work, went for a swim, and then went and did some needful errands. Life could be a whole lot worse...

Yesterday I also had some time to peruse some designs over at the Wooden Boat Magazine website that were not actually designed for wooden construction (has anyone else noticed that we've apparently been gobbled up by some alternate reality?)...

That said, there were a few cool designs and you'd not be wasting your time checking some of them out...

Listening to Girlyman

So it goes...

I'll just focus on the swim later...

This makes me real nervous, not exactly surprising but scary none the less, and Sarah has something to say...



It's hot and I have some fiberglassing to do today... Not always a great combination in my experience. Of course, I could wait till tomorrow or Monday to do it but then it would, more than likely, rain. Which in my experience is worse than it being hot.

Such are needful jobs on a boat... There always seems to be a fly in the ointment of one sort or another. On the other hand, when I finish doing the glass work I can simply jump overboard and cool off with a swim which tends to even things out...

Listening to Little Feat

So it goes...

Just my little slice of excitement...

Uruguay does something smart, an interview worth watching, and in the breaking bad department...

I was sitting on the deck of "So It Goes" yesterday watching turtles. There were several in the bay doing their thing...

You might say I'm easily amused.

The cats, on the other hand, prefer to watch the fish feeding around the boat as the splashes and other fish frenzy/mayhem tend to be a whole lot more exciting than a turtle coming to the surface, taking a breath, and looking around.

I expect around 5:30 this evening I'll be sitting on the foredeck doing the same thing as well...

Life could be so very much worse.

Listening to the great Alan Price

So it goes...

No more rain in the berth...

For those paying attention this is really important, on waking up 75, and about those pesky walking dead...

So... The old put off again and again project of new hatches for "So It Goes" is now a pretty much done deal and the Lewmar hatches are now someone else's problem. For the moment, I'll just say that it is more than nice to wake up to the sound of rain without a soaking.

The next project involves moving the 48V battery bank to a slightly more accessible location to improve balance and add more storage space to the boat. The downside is that I also have to relocate the galley to its original location (in hindsight where it should have been all along) and, as long as we're at it, might as well redo the dinette too... In truth, a lot less work than it sounds like but at least a few days of serious mayhem as once I start ripping stuff out I'm committed till it's done.

Listening to The Pretenders (somewhat apt as it happens..)

So it goes...