RudderPosts

The Maritime Tour of the Netherlands

Peter Neill hosted our tour of the Netherlands last summer, and he'll be hosting next summer's to Denmark and Sweden. Here's Peter's  report from the tour of the Netherlands:

2006 Wooden Boat Maritime Heritage Tour:
The Netherlands
June 25-July 6, 2006

Continuing a travel program begun with visits to Norway in 2005/05, the Wooden Boat Maritime Heritage Tour tacked through the Netherlands this summer with twenty crew, all polyglot, colorful, and willing, Mary Barnes and I met the group in the Amsterdam airport and we moved to Lemmer by bus to board the 1907 sailing barge, SUCCES, and immediate departure on the Ijsselmeer, the Netherlands’ inland sea.

The vessel was spectacular: double cabins with private head and hot shower, full bar, and great food. Our Captain was Wietse van Lingen, assisted by his partner and mate, Evyline, and their new baby, Emma. SUCCES is steel, two-masted, flat-bottomed, and broad-beamed with leeboards for stability. Wietse handled her like a skiff, putting her through bridges with a foot of leeway on either side and routinely reaching at 7 knots under sail. He was a fine seaman and great host.

We began our journey inland by canal into the Frisian Lakes at Heeg, a lovely inland town, before moving on to Stavoren when we met and sailed in company with the fleet of Friesland Vaart, a maritime festival celebrating the revival of historic vessels in Holland. It was a wonderful event, with the usual shoreside exhibits, music, and food. As Mary and I walked the docks, we kept finding our WB crew in the cockpits of botters, invited aboard for stories, beer and Dutch gin. The following day we sailed again amidst these colorful vessels, until we headed north to Workum , another charming town and its small boatyard which had been in business for almost 150 years. The names of the owner/boatwrights were carved chronologically on a sign on the shop façade.

Our next passage took us to the eastern lock on the Ijsselmeer and entrance to  the Wadden Sea and the Frisian Islands, Erskine Childers’ water, and our first port of call, Den Helder, where we visited the Dorus Rijkers Life-Boat Museum and The Royal Dutch Naval Museum. Wind direction, weather and tide intervened and we could sail no further east, only to Texel, the first of the Frisians, home of colorful fishing fleet and its own funky maritime museum.  Wietse loved to sail his vessel, so this day and the next he took advantage of the fresh breeze and many of us got a work-out as crew.

Our destination was  Enkhuisen, home of one of the finest historical museums in Europe. It is an open-air place, with many types of buildings depicting all aspects of Dutch culture. The museum has a wonderful collection of small craft and fishing materials as well. That evening, after the museum was officially closed, we enjoyed a private tour, a feast of fresh and smoked herring, Dutch cheeses and sausages, and various wines, served in authentic these settings.

We left SUCCES in her home port, Enkhuisen, for Amsterdam and the National Maritime Museum, where we were welcomed by the Director and introduced to a spectacular collection of navigational instruments, maps and charts, and the greatest of the Dutch marine paintings. It was good to return to the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky, a soft mattress, clean laundry, and the City’s vast selection of restaurants to choose for dinner.

Our next excursion took us to Rotterdam where we visited The National Maritime Museum and its exhibits on Europe’s largest industrial port and then to the extraordinary museum ship, Buffel, with its’ perfectly restored engines, staterooms, and associated materials. If that was not enough, we boarded at the Museum dock another perfectly restored historic vessel, HELENA, a traditional Dutch trader, on which we sailed to Kinderdijk, the largest concentration of antique windmills in Holland. We lost the wind to a very hot day, but nonetheless on the slow motor home were fed an astonishing meal by the on-board chef. The crew slept very well indeed on the return by bus to Amsterdam.

Our last day was free. We scattered alone or in groups to the many wonderful art and historical attractions of that remarkable city, so accessible by canal boat, public transportation, or foot, only to come together again for a final dinner at The Ship Chandler’s Warehouse,  aprivatley-owned building, meticulously restored and stacked within with goods as it might have been in the 17th century. We arrived there by canal boat to find a glorious candlelit room, a table set with flowers, pewter and glass, and yet another delicious menu of fresh fish and  vegetables, dessert, three wines, coffee and Dutch chocolate. There were toasts and anecdotes and commitments by many to visits at home. For several of us, it was our second WB trip. Strong friendships have been made and I will not be surprised at all to see them renewed as reservations come in for the 2006 Maritime Heritage Tour to Sweden and Denmark.  Join us!

Beginner Boatbuilding

If you stumbled onto this site through a channel other than WoodenBoat magazine... and if you have an interest in boatbuilding, click here for information on how to build your own boat.

Willard B Jackson

Photographer Willard B. Jackson captured, on glass plate negatives, the sailing scene at Marblehead, Massachusetts, between 1898 and 1937. I've been fascinated with his work for years, and have wanted to write a book on it for as along. The stars aligned on that project in 2004, and the book was released last month. It includes images of boats designed by L. Francis Herreshoff, B.B. Crowninshield, W. Starling Burgess, Albert Boardman, C.D. Mower, John Alden, and more. Jackson's images include boats built by N.G. Herreshoff, George Lawley, the Britt Brothers. There are Universal Rule Boats, one designs, 30 Square Meters, Sonder Class sloops, schooners.... Oh, what the heck: Click the "continue reading" thing for an excerpt. And click here to order it. And click here for information on a show of the artist's work currently hanging at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

The Third Most Curious Thing

One of the fun features of this weblogging service, TypePad, is that it allows me to see the terms that drove people to this site. No, I can't tell who you are, but I can tell how you got here. Some of the more popular ones are "BB Crowninshield, "Cool Boat," and "Small Outboard Motor." The most amusing one appeared this morning. Someone in Spain Googled "Curiosities of the World," and this site came up as number three.

Kathy Bray Prints

If you don't know about Kathy Bray's prints, you should. She does stunning color renderings of the outboard profiles of classic wooden boats and vessels. You've seen them on the pages of WoodenBoat, if you read the magazine. Her catalog includes works by N.G. Herreshoff, L.Francis Herreshoff, B.B. Crowninshield, Fenwick Williams, Gil Smith, Starling Burgess.... You get the idea: she's rendered the works of most of the major designers, and her catalog continues to grow.

Now comes word from her father, Maynard, that Kathy's collection will be available on a wider-than-before basis. Here's what he e-mailed yesterday:

Hi All,
Anne and I seem to have found ourselves in the retail print business.  Under the name Bray Prints, we’re offering 11 x 14” prints of daughter Kathy’s boat profiles—over 50 different boats, all wood and all nice-to-look-at classics.  Our aim in this endeavor is to free up Kathy so she can continue to produce these lovely images without having to deal with their promotion, printing, shipping, and handling.

Thanks to son Nat’s involvement, there’s now a Bray Prints website: <www.brayprints.com>.  Check it out if you feel inclined.  You may find a boat or two among the current offerings that’s dear to your heart.  And if all goes well, there’ll be more to choose from soon.

Have a great summer.
Anne & Maynard

Robb White Article

The search terms for this blog suggest that lots of people are looking for information on Robb White, boatbuilder, writer, and friend to many. He passed away suddenly, recently (see below). So, here's the text of his profile from WB No. 160, written after a visit with him in the winter of 2000-2001. This is among the most memorable encounters I've had during my time at WoodenBoat.  ~MPM

The Evolution of Robb White
Boats and free thinking in south Georgia

by Matthew P. Murphy

Evolutionary biologists love islands. When populations of plants or animals become separated from others of their kind, as happens when they find themselves transported to an island, all sorts of weird and wonderful things can happen over time. Consider, for example, the Galapagos archipelago. These islands are home to many species found no place else on Earth. They may have origins in common with cousins on the mainland, but having lived in a distinct environment for several thousand years, they've evolved techniques of doing things in their own ways.
    Now consider a boatbuilder. Consider a man who, because of some genetic predisposition or some force of early childhood development, must build boats. Put this man in Thomasville, Georgia. The place isn't an island in the geologic sense—quite the opposite, in fact—but for our purposes, it is. There are no other boatbuilders around here; ideas and inspiration will drift into the area on the pages of books and magazines, like a proto Galapagos iguana clinging to a log, but the day-to-day contact with boatbuilding masters and peers, typical of the apprentice, does not exist here.
    So what happens? If the combination of genetic predisposition and environment is favorable, the boatbuilder, like the species on the island, thrives. If there's a wrong gene, unfavorable surroundings, or lack of ingenuity on the part of the boatbuilder, then the venture fails.
    Thomasville's Robb White, the self-proclaimed “oldest boatbuilder in Georgia,” has been building small boats for the past 40 years. Most of them are lapstrake, and no two are alike, for Robb doesn't use molds. In fact, he uses hardly any of the conventional stuff found in most boatshops—from the wood he planks with to the tools that clamp his laps and the fastenings that secure them; from his procedures with epoxy to the way he fits his stems. He cuts and connects nearly everything in the boat by eye, in a process more like sculpting than boatbuilding.
    “I ain't never been in another man's shop,” Robb White claims. But he's read just about everything that's come down the highway over those four decades. He has struggled. He has adapted. And he has survived.

Robb White, 1941-2006

I'm sorry to report that Robb White died yesterday of complications during surgery. Robb was a frequent contributor to WoodenBoat, and a friend. His straight-ahead thinking on boats and life and the natural world were like a breath of fresh air in the modern, off-the-shelf world. We'll miss him dearly. You can read his death notice at his web site, and also read some of his writing there.

Pier Review

What is it with the urge toward pun when assigning a title or headline to an article or post about a pier? Pier Pressure... Pierless... Pier Review...

We were without pier for a few weeks in early Spring, when the folks from Rockland, Maine-based Prock Marine came over here with their floating cranes and expertise to replace our beloved but tired pier. The scene brought to mind the image on the cover of our tenth anniversary issue, in which Jon Wilson is rowing a peapod near the granite pilings of that soon-to be-built structure, ca. 1982. It served us well, that ol' pier. And it was time for a new one. Here's an in-progress shot from several weeks ago. I'll go get one of the finished job when the sun comes out again.

Where's My Magazine?

Richard Morris, in the comments on the Pop Quiz Winner, asks an important question: Why hasn't he yet received his copy of the May/June issue?
    Although edited and designed here in Brooklin Maine, the magazine is printed in and mailed from Liberty, Missouri. All of the subscription copies (save for a few that aren't relevant to this discussion) left the printer on May 11 and entered the U.S. postal system. The U.S. Postal Service specifies a delivery window of three to twenty-one days. I'm told the Postal Service is currently updating their delivery protocols, automating what used to be handwork; during this transition phase, things may be running slowly and erratically (I've received more damaged mail than usual this week). There's good news, though: We're about to change our delivery protocols, too. A newly offered service will allow us to shorten that delivery window to just five to fourteen days. We're going to begin doing that with the next issue--though there will be occasional issues, like the one that includes our store catalog, that won't allow this.
    Our apologies, Richard. E-mail me (matt@woodenboat.com) if you don't see your magazine by Tuesday, May 2, and I'll personally mail one to you. And your point's well taken: No more pop quizzes while the issue is still in transit. But there might just be another quiz next week. So study.

Boat Dreams

Toby Rodes just sent us this photo of his 23-month-old son, Marshall. “He had a bevy of choices for books,” writes Toby, “but he gave a stern 'no' to each. His rational choice was WoodenBoat—you will note that he fell asleep working his way through the classifieds.”

Toby is the owner of the Fife-designed Six-meter sloop ALANA, recently restored by Brion Rieff. He's also been the catalyst behind a surge of Six-meter activity on the East Coast. We knew his enthusiasm was contagious, but at this rate we'll need a Pee Wee Division in the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta.

Toby says his wife didn't know whether to laugh or cry.