It's You

Who are the builders? Who can build a boat? The short answer is most anyone can build a boat particularly the small boats that we specialize in. Much of the time in developing plans today is the process of simplifying the process as much as can be done using the modern tools we have at our disposal.

In years past it seemed that the assumption was that any one could do so and many seemed willing to try, today it seems that the assumptions is exactly the opposite many seem to assume that they are not capable. I have some ideas on how that has changed over the years but do not believe that those in the past where more able to undertake this type of task than anyone is today. When you see some of the plan sets (set is a generous word as most where a couple of drawings and a table of offsets) that where offered in the past to amateur boat builders you some times have to wonder how any boats where built at all, this by the way also could serve as a warning for those of you considering some of the plans that are offered today on the internet that are reprints of designs offered in magazines over the years. These plans are more often than not a few photocopied pages from a magazine with limited or no information and no back up.

Plans today are much more comprehensive with drawings, illustrations, pictures building notes often in book form this alone helps to increase the number of people able to complete a project such as a boat particularly a small one such as a canoe or kayak. Many parts come with full size patterns or the boat parts can be cut using a computer controlled router. The number of people with exposure to the use of power tools and there use may not be as large today as in the past but the use of kits has eliminated the need for most of these. Should you be wary of using tools many community colleges offer introductory wood working classes, my wife took one that was for women only put on by the local carpenters union.

Something else that has changed over the years is that today we are convinced that we must have a vast assortment of tools to and they must be of the most modern design and the best quality to be able to complete or even contemplate such an undertaking. I recently was given a copy of a compilation of articles from Popular Mechanics published in 1931 on boat building the illustrations are of people with hand tools and a table saw turning their dreams into reality. In this book the building of a rowboat covers six pages as does the building of a small outboard boat, a small sailboat gets a dozen pages.

The process of building small boats has undergone many changes over the years in addition to the technology mentioned previously; plywood has made things simpler especially when combined with modern epoxy resins.

Soon the weather will begin to warm again and it will be time to get on the water why not it do in a boat you have built.

You are the builder.

Dream On

It is more than likely that it is the season that has turned my thoughts to the dreams that we have all had in our lives, those things that we have wanted to pursue. These stand in opposition to the now dreams we have like the kids of sugar plums dancing in their heads, the ones that fuel this past Fridays frenzy. I am thinking of the dreams that lead us to make the life choices we all have to make, the ones that lead us down the life path we have followed those which have caused us to arrive at place we now inhabit. Many of us start out with the common dreams of childhood of being a fireman or similar, as time passes these initial dreams morph into new pursuits or simple refinements of the original as we discover more of the world and of that which interests and motivates us.

For me my life has been spent around and on the water from trips with my parents as a child to a toddler tossing toys off the break wall in the backyard into the river to see what would float. My first real dream of time on the water was as a pre-teen my parents, mainly Dad set about to plan a trip south under sail, that was the first dream that I really remembering embracing. It was also the time of my first love and she was a beauty at least that is how I recall her now, 52 feet on deck, ketch rigged, powerful and able I kept a picture of her as a marker in my text books at school and dreamt. She still lives in my dreams, more I imagine as she was intended to be than as she really was but she still sails there and she is a thing of beauty powering forward under full press of sail. For reasons I have never known that dream died though I still remember her and how close it came to reality with the boxes of books for our schooling stacked in the garage set and ready to go.

That was followed a few years later by my first boat purchase at the end of my teen years and sailing at every opportunity that could be had, it was also accompanied by the need to pay for time on the water and so came that ‘safe’ job. This was followed by the other choices life is filled with I met the ‘one’ and not a boat this time a real live woman, then that decision that shapes the rest of your life. In one hand a quote for the building of a new boat, on the other a wife, the search for a house, the new boat lost, and so eventually did bigger boats a decision I don’t regret for it led to a life with a great woman and two awesome kids now out pursuing their dreams.

 This leads to now , the ‘safe’ completely unfulfilling job wasn't safe and is long gone replaced by the pursuit of old dreams, tempered by life’s other demands. There is now a diploma in yacht design, a few years experience building boats, time working in both commercial and pleasure boat design offices and here I am. Designing boats for people who still dream, whether dream is an old one revived or one just born, who want to spend time afloat, and can with some guidance build their own boats.

Dream on, and we will see you on the water.

Price Points and Memories

Not that long ago I read in a magazine where the writer had commented on how he (I think the writer was male) was no longer paddling  as it had been cut back to pay for all those things that come with getting older and settled. This has lead to me thinking about how we have gone from the point where all we needed to get on the water was a boat shaped object to the point where even sports with few equipment requirements have become too expensive to participate in?  Have we bought so fully into the idea that to fully enjoy the outdoors we must have the latest gear, have we fallen into the same mentality that has people lining up for half the night at electronic outlets to buy the latest piece of marginally changed gear to replace the one which we have just begun to figure out how to use all the features of.

It is easy to make a sport too expensive to participate in but in this case it is just as easy to make it affordable, you may have to paddle a boat that is a few pounds heavier and your gear may look like it has few miles on it, but you will be outside and not in the office trying to make an extra dime so you can afford the gear you want. I know that what gets me outside and what lead me out there in the first place, it had and has nothing to do with the equipment being used; it is place where I’m using it. One of my memories from when I was younger was sailing with my uncle and a friend of his the boat was an old plywood boat, and my purpose on board was to bail as it was a leaky old tub, the memories of that day have nothing to do with the quality of the equipment. When it comes to canoeing the memories are of paddling the flood waters behind our house in a beat up boat with a couple of friends. When you think through your memories of outdoor adventures what are they made up of, my guess is that they are not fond recollections of equipment but of people, places and experiences both good and bad.

I think that carbon paddles and super light Kevlar canoes are cool, have you seen the ad with the guy holding the boat in one hand over his head?  That’s nice but I don’t usually use my boats like that I prefer them in the water, and portaging with the boat in one hand seems impractical. When the gear that we use becomes as important as or even more important than the experience of the outdoors have we not already lost much of what we chasing in the first place.

Let's get outside.

Give Thanks And Lead On

As the summer/fall seasons winds down and as the skiers start to anticipate the beginning of their season my thoughts have turned to how I have come to enjoy the outdoors and what has led me to where I am at today. How did you end up outside? What is it that first led you to spend time outdoors?

 My guess is that it was not some video game that had an ultra realistic depiction of the sport or sports that you now partake in or some awesome background rendering in that game of a forest.  For most of us it will be the result of interaction with others, whether it is family or friends more likely than not someone enticed us outside with stories of the joys they have found through their experiences, or as a child was dragged along by parents. Whether those experiences involved backpacking, boating, camping, biking or any other activity, or for that matter inactivity as you may just like to sit in your favourite camp chair and watch the sun rise or set. No matter the activity that you like to participate in someone led you outside and showed you the joys to be found there.

You may like me have been doing this pretty much all your life, my parents had me outside well before I have any memory of being there,  born in the late fall by the next summer only a few months old I was in Algonquin Park, a couple of years later a tour on the St. Lawrence River. That has been followed over the years by countless camping trips, many thousands of miles boating under sail and power, and more recently using paddle power. Visiting my grandparents in the summer often involved a drive to one of their favourite parks as that is where they spent as much of their summers as possible. As you can see I started early and am still heading out, my children’s stories will be similar though their days outdoors started in sailboats then camping with us and now on their own.

These thoughts lead me to the following questions, have you ever thanked the people who led you to enjoy these great pastimes?  Secondly are you passing the love on, leading others whether family or friend to an appreciation of the natural world with which we are surrounded?  Caring for and preserving it for future generations will depend on this. Many live surrounded by urban sprawl, both upward and outward and have never seen the beauty of a sunset or sunrise over anything but a towering apartment complex, never having seen a night sky that has not been diffused by light pollution.  Having no connection to or feeling for the places outside the cities they will have no reason or compulsion to help preserve it.

Give thanks and lead on. 

Playing The Outdoors Game

Over the last while I have noticed what seems to be an increasing number of rescues of those who have managed to get into situations that in many cases never should have come about in the first place. There are those who have a high, even arrogant opinion of their abilities (many of these do have a very high degree of skill) and will head off into areas that may be closed for the season or into areas that are known to be extremely risky for any number of reasons though they know they should not be there they are ‘good enough’ to handle anything that may arise. In addition to these we now have the adventure tourists, people who pay at times what are extraordinary fees for the ‘right’ to attempt what only the few, rare extremely skilled experts in the field of endeavour they are entering would ever attempt. Then in some cases they then proceed to ignore the advice of those experts because they have paid for the adventure they are going to see it through even when warned that it is for whatever reason no longer safe to proceed. Then of course there are those with no skills or any idea of what they are doing other that partaking something they always thought it might be nice to try, they saw the video and it looks simple.

Once upon a time there was the expectation that one needed to be able to get themselves out of trouble and that the knowledge that yes once you got out there, wherever that place may be, that you where on your own. With that came the knowledge that if things went wrong you may not come home so you had better be ready for all eventualities. A couple of years ago I was talking to a scout leader who had recently taken an advanced first aid course which included scenarios that involved life and death decisions he said that they made him consider things he had never thought of before and that he came close to no longer leading the kids on trips.

 Now when asked if they are ready for any emergencies that may arise while they are pursuing their particular adventure, many will proudly show off their sat phone, and locator device and that is often the extent of the planning. How about a first aid kit and the skills to use it? What at one time took weeks or months of meticulous training and planning in addition to the time spent in the acquisition of the appropriate skills has been replaced with these devices, and the attendant expectation that when you hit the button someone will come running and do so in a timely fashion, timely being defined by the person with the problem. This is what I refer to as the gamer mentality, all you need to do is hit reset and you get out of the situation that you have found yourself in with no real consequences. That mythical creature the taxpayer gets the bill and on you go to try again next year, reset complete.

The other thing that has come with this is the lowering of what defines in many minds what an emergency is, people who feel that sending out a rescue chopper for them because the weather is going to hold them up and they may be late for work so it is only reasonable as far as they are concerned.

For those who may interested our normal practise even for something as simple as a day paddle,  we carry a ditch bag (I will admit that this may not happen in areas where we are paddling close to shore in a well populated area) it contains a couple of space blankets, a water filter, matches, compass, a few emergency munchies and whatever other supplies are appropriate for the situation. What that means is that if I paddle a half day into a park or any other area and something goes wrong I will not even be real hungry until the second day of my one day paddle.  These things are kept in a dry bag so when we head out all you have to do is add some food (today’s lunch doesn't count) and the first aid kit and you are on your way. It also means that I don’t have to depend on cell phone reception or someone else to get me out of what is not an emergency but an uncomfortable inconvenience. 

A wilderness state of mind

Many of us go out seeking for some experience of wilderness, though what makes up wilderness varies from person to person, you may dispute this, but it all depends where you start. My dictionary states that the word is derived from the middle English word wilderne or wild place and what seems wild to one may seem tame to another if your life experience takes in only large cities you will not have to get too far outside of one to consider yourself in a wild place. On the other hand some of us who have little use for life in large cities consider ourselves in a wild place when entering one, as wilderness is  also defined as a large, confused mass or tangle of persons or things, there may be some validity to that point of view. Like many what I define as wilderness is those wild places where we like to roam, those places where you seldom see others apart from those who you have chosen to travel with, places which are not always easily or readily accessible.   

I was recently reading a story where an experienced wilderness traveller had taken a couple of kids paddling. The adventure took place between a couple of large cities and was not what many would call a wilderness experience at all but a simple day paddle , there was no remote river involved, no camping, and dinner was in a restaurant on the way home. He was chuckling to himself as the kids told the waitress about their wilderness adventure, as many of us would. As I was thinking about this I could only see good here, these kids had enjoyed a new experience in the outdoors that had left them thrilled enough to share it with others.  They had an experience that that they would take with them as they moved forward in their lives,  hopefully it will lead to them seeking  more opportunities to see and experience wilderness and maybe even a little of what many would see as true wilderness. There may come a day at some point in the future when they laugh at this their first experience of wilderness, but I hope none of us laugh out loud when we hear these stories as the hope for preserving the wild places will one day be theirs and others who may get started making those wilderness treks in their backyards. For many of us it would likely be a great experience to when the opportunity arises  take some kids out to experience the wilderness in their backyard, and maybe have the chance ourselves to get a fresh perspective on our/their wilderness.

One last note as I wrote this I also looked at the meaning of wild which was defined as living or growing in its original, natural state; not domesticated or cultivated, taking this to its literal extreme is there any real wilderness left? Is there any place that has not been affected by man whether he has travelled there previously or not, while you think about that and I hope you will, what it really proves is that no matter how far you go to experience wilderness it is in reality a state of mind. 

Modelling

Modelling- we are not talking about some latent desire I may have to grace the cover of a magazine, those of you who know me and those who have surmised that the overly paunchy guy with the bald head that you see in some of the boat pictures is the guy on the other side of the key board you will no doubt be relieved.  If the thought or picture of such an occurrence is now planted in your head, I’m sorry.

What I am talking about is making models of boats, in particular new designs that we are working on, I do not do this often, and usually I rely on the fact that the boats are all modelled in 3D in the computer. Now that we have modelled a number of boats this way and in particular a substantial number of canoes and kayaks there is usually little reason to do so, simply looking at the model will tell us if the wood will bend to make the shape we desire. This judgement call is important in particular with the plywood boats as there is often a degree of compounding of the plywood in the ends of the panels that form the hull and sometimes the deck. Compounding is simply trying to bend the plywood in two directions at the same time; plywood will only do this to a very limited extent.

The boat that is being modelled now is the small trimaran that appears in rendered form on the home page of our web site, http://www.getonthewater.ca/ there are a couple of reasons that I have decided to model this boat to scale. First,  at the present time the plan is for the outer hulls to be stress formed that is two panels will be joined along the centreline and then bent into the desired shape and I want to make sure the final shape that is chosen will work using this method even before the prototype is built. The second reason is simply a practical one, a trimaran even a small one takes up a lot of space, show space is expensive it is much cheaper to sit an 18 x 12 inch [457 x 305 mm] model on a table than to rent the required space, it is also a lot easier to ship leaving room to take other boats which can be displayed more economically to shows.

 The above leads me to touch on part of the philosophy behind our designs, the expense of keeping a boat in a marina and particularly a wide body one is becoming prohibitive for many, one that can be taken home or disassembled and the taken home avoids that expense. Additionally making each section of the boat light enough that it can be carried piece by piece to the launch area will allow access to places you could not otherwise reach.

I do plan to continue with my modelling career even if only sporadically, but I do promise that I will model only boats, and that I myself will only appear when wrapped in one.