While you're there, see what Jet's been up to!
If you’re interested in the 13′ Martha’s Vineyard Catboat I designed last summer take a look at this new series on Marty Harris’ site!
Marty Harris has documented progress on the 13′ Catboat on his site
Boats I’d Like to Design: Canoe Yawl
One of the first designs I fell in love with was L. Francis Herresshoff’s Rozinante. There was one being built at the “Boat School” in Lubec when I arrived there in 1973. Reading L. Francis’ Compleat Cruiser fleshed out the story behind this wonderful craft. It’s fitting that when I want to focus on writing stories about designs as I am in this series, that I return to this design and to this type. Continue reading
Boats I’d like to design
This was the title to a post on my home site that led to a new project. While that original kernel evolved into Boats for Difficult Times, I think its original impulse deserves an airing here.
A designer usually compiles a list of previous work and then looks for potential clients to approach them for boats they’d like to have. Sometimes, and I’ve done this quite a lot over the years, a designer will begin developing a new idea speculatively in the hopes of attracting a client to complete it. This will be a little different. As I see it now at least, what I want to do here is talk about boats I’d like to design. Continue reading
A Croatian Latiner
This is what a Latiner can do! See how the main and the jib are actually lifting the boat running downwind. Other rigs depress the bow. I’m also struck by how much this boat looks like boats from Portugal at the other end of the Mediterranean World. http://bit.ly/hBjS2G More images here.
This is just a quick post to celebrate having found this incredible image. It says so much about boats, and why we love them. I hope to expand on that soon. In the meantime let me invite you to comment and to add your own examples, either of wonderful Mediterranean boats in action, or images of any boat that really inspires you, or really any comment appropriate to early days over at Boats for Difficult Times.
For a look at a Latiner design I’ve roughed out check out Delfina.
70.8% does a feature story on Antonio Dias Design
70.8%: Antonio Dias Boat Design
Thomas Armstrong has put together a combined over-view and review of my work. It’s an honor to be featured on his blog.
Tommy Cod
Dory/Skiff
I call this type a dory/skiff, a hybrid of the two with a narrower bottom than a skiff, wider than a banks dory. This makes a boat that rows easier than a broader skiff with more initial stability than a dory.
I took this picture in Portugal in 1976. This was the inspiration for Tommy Cod. These boats were built entirely of the local resinous pine. Everything from little skiffs to 50′ Seiners built on the bank like this with sawn frames.
Tommy Cod
This boat carries a sprits’l rig. The “flag staff” is Tommy Cod’s tiller.
