Back again after a long trip away.

Back on the air.

A word of warning, don’t expect your email to work properly if you have a local network set up with two computers which use different internet browsers!

But that aside, I’m recently back from 6 weeks in the USA,  visited the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival where I met a whole lot of very nice and interesting people, gave two lectures on boat design and the history thereof, participated in a lecture by small boat adventurer Howard Rice, gave talks to the students at the North West School of wooden Boatbuilding and a local Rotary group.

I enjoyed all of those, and will write up more on the show as well as the rest of the trip later.

But first, huge thanks to our hosts Peter and Helen Leenhouts, we feel that we’ve connected in a manner that has gained us lifetime friends, great people who made our stay there memorable.

Thanks also to Anika and Josh Colvin of Small Craft Advisor magazine,  Howard Rice with whom I’ve been corresponding for years but met for the first time at the show, and so many others who made the show such a pleasant memory.

Like I said, I’ll write more about the show, and about the rest of the trip later, I’m still in catchup mode after the trip away and will be for a while yet, so I’ll just touch a highlight here.

That Highlight?  A relatively small thing, and by no means the most important one but one which will remind me of the show and my new friends every time I use it.

“It”?   During a rare few quiet moments Denny and I were browsing through the many exhibits at the show and came across the Lei Neilsen tool stand in the end of the Maritime Centre building,  I was explaining just what it is that makes their tools special and so much better to use than the standard hardware store product when she surprised me by asking “ If I were to buy you one, which would it be?” 

Ever been faced with a choice like that?  So many treasures to choose from and only one allowed?

The second most used hand plane in my shop is a Stanley 60 ½, a little low angle block plane which I use for light work, it fits one hand perfectly, cuts end grain as well as rounding corners and smoothing small areas, its versatile and very useful.

I’ve two, one is near new but I much prefer the very old one I bought from a junk shop and rebuilt.

 Comparisons between the old Stanley 60 1/2 low angle block plane and the Lie Neilsen of the same size and configuration.  While the differences may not be obvious, they are quite different to use.

However even the old  Stanley one is not as well made as it might be, and the steel in the blade provides an edge that is only moderately durable, the mounting for the blade is not properly machined so the blade is not rigidly held in the body and consequently the tool is not quite as good as it might be, so I pointed out the Lie Neilsen equivalent and bingo, later that day I became the proud owner of one.  http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?sku=60_5 

Back at home in my workshop, I tried it.  Even straight out of the box it cut beautifully, and with a very light hone on a 4000 grit waterstone it made silky transparent shavings even from curly grained beech.  Ahhhh!

I’ve taken some pics below, you can see the blade bed in the Stanley is not machined, the adjustment ok but not brilliant, and the blade very thin in comparison to the new one.

The weight of the LN plane is considerably higher, the tool a better fit in the hand, and the whole function much improved.  The old one did the job, but the new one is a real pleasure to use.

Worth the money? You bet!

John Welsford

There isn't a recent photo of me about on the net, so for those who'll be attending the several gatherings where I plan to be, this is who you're looking for, or to avoid as the case may be.  Me, John Welsford at Kathies Cafe in Tauranga, ( very very good food!)

Travel and visiting friends.

Its only three sleeps until we’re  off in the big silver bird on the 6th. 6 weeks travelling in the USA, visiting friends, going to interesting places and events, and talking to people.

All about boating, apart from some of the scenery of course and maybe a few side trips to pursue my wife’s interests as well as a some of my non boating activities.  ( Walking is one, cant walk on water! At least I can’t in spite of what some people think of boat designers)

We’re starting off with three days at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat festival across the other side of Puget Sound from Seattle, its 12 years since I was  last there and I’m sure I’ll see lots of improvements and changes.  We’re to be guests of Peter Leenhouts, a director of the NorthWest School of Wooden Boat Building and I’m to meet the instructors and students there to talk boats, I’ve two talks to give at the festival itself and hope to make it to a meeting of the local chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Soc. Lots of talking, some listening too as this trip is in part research for future design work.

This is going to be interesting for me, Russell Brown and Richard Woods, both renowned designers of multihull sailing craft will be there and meeting up with others who practice the same craft that I do, ( even if their boats have more hulls than mine) is a rare treat.

Anyone wanting to catch up with us during the show should go to the Small Craft Advisor magazine stand and ask Editor Josh, I’ll be around there a lot, and if not then wont be far away.  Just ask. Talk to him about SCAMP and the magazine while your there.

From there we travel right across to the other side of America to Maine, and the WoodenBoat magazine offices where we’ll be guests of Editor Matt Murphy and Publisher Carl Cramer. As well it’s been a while since I was there and I’m looking forward to renewing old relationships, talking boats, writing, teaching, sailing, and checking out the scenery so different from the other coast.

Bob Hicks of Messing About in Boats magazine is driving up from Wenham to spend a day with us, I suspect that we’re going to talk classic racing motorcycles, a passion and experience we both share.

It’s a bit of a wake up call when the machinery one sweated to pay for, got hands greasy while mechanicing and raced is suddenly considered a classic, a sign that the years are flickering past at an alarming rate.  Anyway, Bultacos, Aermacchi HD racers, BSAs and so on will be where we’re at.  Oh, and a little bit about boats.

It’s a long way from Maine to San Antonio, three flights rather than the two from Seattle to Bangor, and we’ll be travelling from 25deg c days to 40deg c days,  hard after coming from early spring in New Zealand where a 16 deg day is about normal but no doubt we’ll manage. Cool drinks, light clothing, big hats  and shade, should work.

Leo Hill ran my jwbuilders yahoo group for years, he’s a good man and will be picking us up and hosting us for a few days and showing us around San Antonio,  he’s bought a Suzuki Vee Twin  cruiser, yes, two wheels again, and we’ll be out having fun on that as well.  I’ve no doubt that the breeze as we ride will help us cope with the heat.

We meet Chuck Leinweber of www.duckworksmagazine .com at Canyon Lake small boat messabout on 24^th Sept,  and will be talking to anyone wanting to come and say hello.  It’s my second visit to that venue and I’m very much looking forward to seeing some of the characters I met last time.

If you miss that one there is another gathering the following weekend at the Centex messabout at Inks Lake, another chance for me to talk to interested and interesting people.

Chuck and Sandra host us for nearly two weeks, then, with Chuck at the helm of the car and a boat on its trailer behind we head off on the long drive up to Lake Eufaula for Sail Oklahoma where Jackie and Mike Monies will be our hosts during the Columbus Weekend  event.  Although only in its second year this has attracted an entry of close to 100 boats and twice that number of people, and hosts the Puddleduck racer world championships.  I’m told I’m entered in that latter competition in a “Kiwi PDR” of my design and am looking forward to it even though it’s a very long time since I was a competitive skipper.

This too will be a chance to meet other designers,  Graham Byrnes and Jim Michalac will be there, and between the three of us we cover a very wide range of boat designs, different techniques of construction and design theory.  Its going to be a busy weekend but I do hope to get a chance to sit down and swap ideas with these two.

From there it’s back on the road to San Antonio, back to Harper TX and Casa Duckworksmagazine then back to Leos where we plan on just blobbing out for a couple of days before the long long series of flights back to New Zealand.

There is a more detailed itinerary “here”  with times and places plus links to events.  http://www.duckworksbbs.com/jwboat.htm

This trip, being blunt, is a big chunk of money, and its only been made possible by the very kind support of Sandra and Chuck Leinweber of Duckworksmagazine and  boatbuilders supplies.  Thank you so much guys, it will be great to catch up with you again.

Thanks also to the others who have volunteered to host us or help us along the way, it’s a humbling experience to find that people who only know me through my work and my writing think enough of me to pitch in and help.  Thank you everybody, thank you.

John Welsford

Chips new Pilgrim sailing dinghy

Its the interaction with the customers that makes this job so good, lets face it, if I was only doing it for the money I'd be better off mending roads, but the people who have such confidence in my work that they commit years of spare time and a lot of cash to build my interpretation of their dream make me feel very proud.
I'd had a few exchanges of emails with Chip Matthews about the boat he wanted, and he bought plans for my Pilgrim design  http://www.jwboatdesigns.co.nz/plans/pilgrim/index.htm  .  That was late 2009, I think he started the build about Christmas, and I had the occasional question and progress report until he launched her a month or so ago. 
Just great, I dont need to go on about it any more than I have, his photo album tells the story. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chipspilgrim/

Thanks Chip, that makes the late nights and inky fingers worth it.

John Welsford

Winter jobs.

Man overboard.  Another winter job.

Winter jobs, I’m not doing much sailing at present, the weather here in New Zealand never gets so bad that its out of the question but I’ve a heap of other things to do plus a multitude of little “improvements” to do on the boat.  Some to do with comfort, some with the boats function and, some with safety.

While falling over the side of your boat is something that we avoid where possible, it happens.  Getting back aboard is an issue.  Even the height of the sides on a small dinghy can be a barrier hard to scale when cold, tired and weighed down by soaking wet clothing, and a bigger boat is just impossible.

A boarding ladder is the ideal, one of the folding ones that bolt to the transom, but in my case the budget does not stretch quite that far just yet so I had to come up with something workable, just in case, I’m not planning on falling in the ocean but, like I said, just in case.

Back at the after end of the boat are a pair of good sized bronze cleats intended for tying the boat up to a wharf or whatever, and they are accessed through closed fairleads ( chocks in “American” ).  These fairleads and cleats are big enough to have more than one rope in use, so for each side I spliced up a length of rope with a good sized loop on each end, threaded one loop through the fairlead and  onto the cleat< I threaded it  through between the cleats legs and doubled it back over so it cant slip off .

The rope and free looped end sit nicely on deck just inside the little bulwark, out of the way, and I leave the end of the free end loop just through the fairlead so I can grab it from outside, pull it out, put a foot in the loop and with hands over the bulwark I can stand up in the water enough to get my upper body over the rail and with a bit of flailing around get a leg up and lever myself on board.

Not perfect, but a great deal better than nothing.

Yes I have a safety harness.  It will when I go sailing next, be clipped onto a jackline.  Have I a jackline rigged yet? That’s  another job to do.  Hopefully by the time springtime comes around, the long list will have check marks beside most of the items on it.

Being winter, its dark early, at least thats my excuse.  So I finish my day by doing some digital mooching around looking for something of interest. 
Dylan Winter has just posted a really lovely 25 minute video doco on an amazing yacht race with a difference.  No Liquorice Allsort ocean racing wetties ( thanks Annie Hill) no screaming surfing runs in the southern ocean, just gentle and gentlemanly sailing up and down rivers and in ponds on the Norfolk Broads in England.  Beautiful boats, whiskery skippers, pipes alight, trousers with braces to hold them up and straw hats, not a lifejacket or curseword ( There might be one in the whole 25 mins I think . This is the annual Three Rivers race.
Well worth watching.http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk/  Do go and have a look before he changes his homepage again, its the third one down with that mass of sails, white paint and varnish maneuvering in a small river,

John Welsford.

After work relaxation

A really nice place to relax.

Like most of us I spend a few minutes browsing the net after checking my emails each evening, looking for something entertaining and relaxing to end the day so I can leave the work part of my life with its annoyances and aggravations behind and enjoy the evening in a reasonable state of mind.

Some of the things I find are anything but relaxing, some really make my hackles stand up,  and generally I’ll avoid those “places” in future so I have a little list of regular “favourites” that I know will work.

Right at the top of that list is Dylan Winters site http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk/

Now Dylan is a gent of a certain age with a pleasantly crumpled visage, clothing the same, and both boat and car not so rich that it’s hard for me to identify with him.  He’s undertaking a voyage around the British Islands,  not the biggest or the longest in terms of boat or distance, no Cape Horn in midwinter type adventures, no palm trees or dusky maidens, not even encounters with smugglers or rum runners.

But I don’t get to have those sort of adventures, they are generally wet and uncomfortable, way out of my budget and don’t leave enough time for me to live the other parts of my life so its creeping up creeks, hopping from harbour to harbour and finding new crinkly bits of coastline to explore that interests me.

Dylans voyage is a whole lot of that, he sailed his little sloop out of his home port, turned left, and will keep doing that until he gets back to where he started from. It’s going to take years, he’s exploring the myriad tiny ports along the way, putting his boats bow into every river, sailing up each of the estuaries he comes across and stopping at the towns at the head of each.

There is a great deal to be seen in these places, and Dylan is an exceptional maker of video documentaries, applying his skills to this endeavour so we can share his observations on the history, the wildlife, the other boats and ships he comes across and the scenery.  I must say too that his choice of background music adds greatly to the imagery.

Dylan Winter, in "crumpled" mode.  I feel like that a lot of the time.

He uses Google Earth to show you the bigger picture, his camera for close-ups, and music for background and his commentary for flavour, it’s a combination well worked and it works well.

There has been commercial shipping on the English coast for over two thousand years, way prior to the settlement of the “New World”. Many of us have roots there and for me as a New Zealander of UK ancestry its like a home I’ve only briefly visited, these tiny documentaries with their exquisite camerawork, dry humour and piquant  observation  are a real treat.  Yes I can identify with them, the budget is similar to my own, the age of the presenter similar, he likes the same things that I do, he grumbles about the same things that I would  and it all feels very much like home.  Yes there is a small subscription, but it’s really worth it.

http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk/

The view over the bow of Sea Slug,there is a perfect anchorage up that river.

John Welsford

This is what keeps a designer going.

Gone Walkabout.

A couple of years ago I had an email from one Osbert Lancaster who lived on the shores of the Forth of Firth in the South East of Scotland.  For many of us here in New Zealand that’s a place of ancestral connection, there are an awful lot of us with Scots forefathers, but its also a place that is much colder than we’re used to. 

However, it has very long evenings, long periods of calm weather and an incredible coastline dotted with ancient, and I mean many hundreds of years or in some cases over a thousand years  old.  Its an area that cries out for exploration by a boat small enough to creep in close to the edges of the water as well as tough enough should the weather blow up. This is the edge of the notorious North Sea after all.

Now this is how to enjoy sailing, Osbert surfing his Walkabout with a solid tail wind,  the wake of the boat suggests that he's moving slightly faster than the wave train, I bet that was a thrilling ride

Photo by John Mac Pherson

Osbert wanted to go our and enjoy this northern small boat paradise and chose to build my Walkabout design, http://www.jwboatdesigns.co.nz/plans/walkabout/index.htm   , a boat that could almost have been custom designed for what he wanted to do, a boat that was more than capable of the job at hand.  Osbert bought plans, had a part kit cut by Fyne Boat Kits over in Cumbria not that very far from his home  http://www.fyneboatkits.com/  and got on with the build.

*

I heard from Osbert fairly regularly over the next while, he was a beginner builder when he began (An expert is but a beginner with experience, and experience begins when you begin)  He’s documented the build “here”   http://forthsailoar.osbert.org/archive/1/2009 

I don’t mind hearing from builders, and sure sometimes I get the same question several times a day but I manage, its getting to know the people and following their frustrations and their joys, and then hearing about the adventures when the boats complete that really makes my day. A couple of good photos and a story about how much fun they had pays for the myriad emails and the chore of explaining for the nth time, how not to do something that I learned about years back.

Osbert though seems not one to do things by halves, I’ve been getting reports from him on a regular basis, racing as a rowing boat, racing with the local dinghy club, cruising the waters of the Firth, and getting involved with the Dinghy Cruising Assn   http://dinghycruising.org.uk/  .

Today though, he topped them all,  I spotted a reference on a boating forum to Osbert and Sail Caledonia, a “raid” type event that runs from Loch Ness ( yes, the place with the monster)  on Scotlands West Coast, reknowned for fast currents and wild weather, through the Caledonia canal with Lochs, Locks and rivers, estuaries and sandbanks, through to his home waters on the Firth of Forth.

Here she is at the finish.  This event is a real test of man and machine, and I'm pleased to say that Osbert and Scratch both seem to have finished in good order and condition.  Congratulations both.

Chris Perkins photo.

He’s collected some wonderful photos of his  very nicely built Walkabout  “Scratch” ( Number 6 on her bow in these photos) taken during the event, and I don’t think I need to elaborate other than to say he had a very good time, and for a beginner sailor in a home built boat has done extremely well.

http://forthsailoar.osbert.org/sail-caledonia 

I loved the pic of Scratch surfing, but the one that really captures the spirit of dinghy cruising is the one with the tent up, a tiny but comfortable little home among all the other boats.

Well done indeed.  You’re an inspiration sir!

John  Welsford

Just a nice day out

It was a nice looking day,  slightly cloudy and very calm.  Our family does not get together as often as we’d like, two of us work shifts at the hospital, one is a fulltime student who will gain her nursing qualification in about another year, she’s a mother of a 2 yr old as well, and sometimes I’m not able to get away so its rare for all of us to be able to go out together.

This day though, even though it was wintertime it was warm, mild and gentle so we packed a picnic lunch, the  boat of course has a cooker to produce hot drinks so the thermos stayed home.  We hooked the boat on and  drove off to Lake Ngaroto where there is a lovely picnic grounds with all the trimmings, two superb boatramps and just enough of a lake to introduce the two year old to sailing.

The boat is not really big enough for all of us, so the plan was to take two or three at a time and do a lap of the lake while the others enjoyed the peaceful park grounds and bush walks. 

It was nice to have help to rig the boat, it’s a goodly lift to get the mast up and sometimes that’s more of a heave than I want to do, and there are things where two sets of hands make it a lot easier and saves time, so it was not long before the big tarp was spread out with lunch organised, the boat rigged and in the water, and the puppy convinced that he was not to eat the sandwiches while we weren’t looking.

Little Aysha is 2 years and four months old, a good age to introduce to new things as long as they are gentle,  so we cast off with the small one, her mother Sarina and my Denny on board.  There was just enough wind to move the boat at a very quiet walking pace, perhaps 3 knots in the puffs, and the puffs were close enough for us to coast from one to the next.  All good, two laps, then in for a cuppatea and a crew change, out with son in law and daughter Sarina, Denny staying with the small ones, that’s granddaughter and pup, and in an hour we’re back for another crew change.

It was like that until about 4 pm, nothing exciting, the little one showed a marked liking for going below and sleeping on a bunk, Sarina showed that she has not forgotten how to helm, son in lay was interested in sail trim, and Denny so enjoyed the day that she is talking about us renting a mooring over in Tauranga next summer so we don’t have to launch and rig, drag the boat out and un, each time we want to sail.  Lovely day though, no excitement, just a nice day out with the family.

A marina berth is about $350 a month which is a bit rich to my way of thinking, but we can get a swinging mooring for about a quarter of that, perhaps less. If it works out maybe we’ll buy one.  Have a look on Google Maps at Omokoroa,  Bay of Plenty, New Zealand .  There are several moorings for sale here and a couple to rent by the month.  The boatramp is at the end of “The Esplanade”.  Good secure car parking, nice jetty with  floating pontoons, and we’d hope to get a mooring up the river a bit in the sheltered part of the area.

My little boat does not have a self draining cockpit, that’s a big job to fix as it would involve cutting the present cockpit sole out and rebuilding it about 100mm higher and fitting drains so its going to be a fitted cover until that can be done.  I need a dinghy too and a roof rack on the car so I can carry it.  I’d buy a dinghy, except being a designer of boats am much more inclined to build one. 

Another job, I’m not getting all the outstanding ones done as it is,  maybe I should just swim out and back.

John Welsford