I decided to build a small boat for my grandson for his birthday, I had given him a sampan dinghy last year but that got stolen so he was boatless for the coming summer. I liked the Gavin Atkin design Mouse boat but I thought in little bit more beam and flare at the midships section would be more suited so I designed Vole, a fatter mouse. from design to delivery was four weeks. I don't know why I do these things to myself. Anyway the palns aref ree and should be in the store and also on Duckw
Things have changed mightily in the cove since my last post. The little dead boats are all gone replaced by this giant of a dead boat. The James Island Belle did not go to be repaired or restored. I found out that before she was beached she had been sold to a fellow who tied her up between two larger vessels. A wake from a passing boat brought the two larger boats together and essentially crushed the Belle. So she was stripped and when the pump got her afloat she was towed out in to the outer harbour and the pump removed. Bye bye Belle. Then along came the big boy, covered in junk and leaking like a sieve. The deal apparently was that in exchange for removing the boat bodies from the beach the company owning the barge could beach it and then bring in a crusher to take it apart piece by piece. Didn't happen, no one would remove the pieces. So instead the junk was all removed from the upper deck in case it should sink on its way to another mooring spot. Hasn't moved since. I think the in case should be in parentheses. Hello Belle. Speaking of junks here's Kuia Le on launch day my favourite little sailor supervising. Dry as a bone and right on her marks Dead boat cove is and isn't a real place. It is a real place in that I can show you were it is on a chart and it isn't because it has no real name. It lies between the Ladysmith Marine Society marina and Slag Point. It has many live boats but more boats that came there to die or are dead. Anyway I visit the cove almost every day and I've begun taking pictures of the dead. This one was the second boat to die on the beach after I began visiting the cove. It appeared on day and apparently it was listed on craig's list as for sale as is where is. Then bits started disappearing and it retreated further into death. The boat itself has pretty good lines and was once, I suspect, someone's pride and joy but no more. My intention here is to document the deaths at the cove and also the births and to comment generally on boat building, sailing and any other matter that crosses my mind. I'm not intending to blog often but you never know do you what might pop up. |
AuthorI'm a self employed consultant, a coroner and a designer of small boats for home builders. I've just completed my own boat Kuai Le and have a mooring for her in the shallower corner of the cove. Archives
June 2014
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