more old photos, a new book and a close finish

The post below called "the boat" is another little gallery of old photos - just about all published here somewhere on the blog - that will be found on the right side of the page under "some photographs". Now I've got some of my favorite storm, calm and boat photos easily accessible for me to look at on a cold winter day.

I had planned to do the just the two weather collections - calm and stormy - but then started thinking about all the views of Spartina that I like so much. Plus I know that some builders like to look at existing boats for ideas. I know I studied every detail of every Pathfinder photo I could find while I was building Spartina. Maybe somebody will see an idea that they like (or not) in the photos.

My friend Kevin B., builder/sailor of the legendary Navigator Slip Jig, sent me a note about a new book out about Navigators. The book is Something About Navigator, The Welsford Camp Cruiser by Robert Ditterich. You can read about the author, the book and the construction of a Navigator at Robert's blog called "what was the middle thing?".

From the blog is appears Robert is a busy guy. A boat builder, violin maker and writer - plus a lot of other interests thrown in.

I haven't seen the book myself but, from what Robert says on his blog, it contains some writings by some very experienced small boat sailors (I believe that is David Perillo's "Jaunty" on the cover and I've always considered David as the guy that set the standard for adventure sailing on JW's small boats). Here is Robert's description.....

Correction from Robert:  The cover pic is actually Dave Johnstone's 'Korora' from NZ, and his boat pics are absolutely terrific.
Thanks Robert for helping me getting that straight.  Dave, my apologies.  Beautiful boat!


Now here is Robert's description....

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The book gives a bit of an outline of the development of the design, and a bit of an analysis of the things that maybe have made it such a happy and successful boat enjoyed in so many ways, in so many places, then there are some stories by Navigator owners and sailors and some builders.

The other voices though were given so generously and with such a co-operative and helpful spirit, and the essays they contributed lift this little book off the page and out yonder onto the water.....in no particular order, Steve Parke, Owen Sinclair, Richard Schmidt, John Welsford, Chuck Leinweber, Kevin Brennan, Martin Welby, Dave Perillo, Dave Johnstone Barrett Faneuf....

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Sounds like a good book about John's second best design. (I'll let you guess what I think is his best design.) I just now see that it is available through amazon here.

And speaking of small boat adventures, my sailing friend Paul, aka DanceswithSandyBottom, has put together a very nice series of posts about this year's Watertribe's NC Challenge. You can find them here.

Lots of great photos, maps, data about wind, currents and boat speed. It is a lot of fun to read. My favorite post is called Sprint to the Finish. It is a exciting story about, quite literally, Paul and his sailing partner/son Alan sprinting with their boat Dawn Patrol over sand flats to the finish. There are wind shifts, back channels, rowing while sailing and a little luck thrown in for the final stage of the race. I was lucky to hear about the race and the finish first hand from Paul when I sailed with Paul and Dawn in October. I remember enjoying the story then, and it reads just as well now. Thanks Paul.

steve