I just realized I never managed to post a PDF of my Sardine review. (Could have sworn I did but here it is.) The January/February 2008 issue of WoodenBoat magazine published my review of Sjogin’s Sardine wood stove. It also appeared in a recent issue of Messing About in Boats.
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The ice is back. Thin but back. Taken by iPhone this past Wednesday. I’m posting during our current blizzard and will not get down to clean off Sjogin till tomorrow.
Interest is building in having a full set of Sjogin plans available for either traditional or glued ply construction. Watch this space.
As many of you know I participate in the forum hosted by WoodenBoat Magazine. One of the folks there is a fan of Sjogin and has started a thread looking to record her lines and construction details. Link to the WBF Thread here.
Rod Brink is the forum member and reader of this Blog who started the thread. He’s a professional photographer and as such he took several of my pics and gave them a little TLC. Check out Rod’s efforts on the Forum Thread. Worthy of some Note Cards?
Looks like there may be interest in building a sister or two….. I’ll keep you all posted of course. This may also lead to determining Sjogin’s provenance as word gets around.
The current cold snap has brought ice back to Jones Tide Pond this weekend. Nothing too serious and open from the end of the dock out to the bay. Water down after the fierce Northwesterlies this week.
Very chilly this morning, about 20 on deck and lot’s of frost below. Started reading a new book on designs of traditional Danish sailing craft. It was referenced in a post on 70.8% by Thomas Armstrong. Thomas recently featured Matt Billey’s project that was the subject of a Post here. Matt was inspired by the Haabet boat found in Bornholm.
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The ice returns. With February around the corner and longer, warmer days we should be OK this winter.
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New breakfast read. A lot of cousins but nothing that say’s Sjogin
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Paul Smith with a shop full of small boats. Speedwell’s been moved out of the Duckboat Room to make way for a new set of rowboats.
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Here’s the Beaton Rowboat jig ready to start building. Dave Beaton would be proud.
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And here are a set of planks cut out from patterns and ready to use.
Paul installed the new keel and centerboard trunk this week along with a new skeg and sternpost. Speedwell also had the bottom sanded and a bit of filling of the dents. She’ll also need to have a few seams tended to but all in all she looks fine for sixty years old.
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The keel’s fastened in place along with a new skeg and sternpost. The trunk was fit and fastened to the keel first.
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The joy of a brand new centerboard trunk. If the light looks odd it’s because the boat’s still upside down.
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Paul replaced the old centerboard hole with a new hole. The original notch allowed the board to jump off the pin when in shallow water. (And when least expected.)
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Ice free and a nice breeze from the ENE about 6 to 10 with gusts to 12 or so. It’s supposed to lay down later but home for chores and another fire. There might be a window for a sail tomorrow morning.
The first onshore wind in a long while is starting to thin the ice in the basin and the rain coming with this system will reduce it further. Not to say we can’t get another cold snap that will freeze things up again, but the sun’s getting higher and brighter each day. I’m looking forward to my first sail of the year.
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Spitting rain out of the NNE and just above freezing but the usual conditions below.
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Open water getting closer. The gulls seem to be saying “how about some sausage bread scraps?”
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On a serious note, I want to bring your attention to an organization that is and has been doing real good for the fisherman of Haiti. Sails for Sustenance has been collecting used sails from US sailors since 2006 and giving them to the sustenance fisherman of rural Haiti. The locals adapt the sails to their small WOODEN boats and broaden their opportunities. The rig used in the video is nothing more than the traditional sprit sail, used with variation throughout the world. I had such a rig on Puffin, a Hankin’s beach skiff I converted to a sprit rig years ago.
Check this out:
It’s kind of like the sermon about teaching a man to fish. Here a man already know how to fish but we can can give him better wings to feed a community. I have an old main and jib from Sjogin that I’ll send them.
There is a huge need for protein in the aftermath of last Tuesday’s disaster and a better harvest would certainly help. Please contact these folks and see if you can help.
Paul Smith has worked his magic and built a fine new center board trunk. Beaton’s just got a load of prime Atlantic white cedar and Paul used some to fashion a new trunk for a sixty year old boat.
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Prime cedar and mahogany should last another sixty years. This will be painted in Kirby’s finest when installed.
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The number was cut out of the original trunk and set in the new one. Nice to have a bit of Phil Clarke’s hand work in the new trunk. Number 14 was the last Duckboat he built before selling the plans, patterns and mold to David Beaton in the early fifties.
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Ice still fills the basin. One of the f****glass boats went out though and opened a channel. This may help to break it up; all we need is a good westerly breeze.
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Ice free bilge for the first time in a few weeks.
… Myth, pride of Bay Head in the shop for a makeover and a little TLC.
We’re still in the grip of a deep freeze and the basin’s finally frozen over. And Sjogin’s bilge is semi-solid as well. The temperatures will be in the mid to upper thirties this week so the ice shouldn’t get too thick. The ice out on the Bay is up to Swan Point but open directly across from Beaton’s.
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Iced in but not Shackleton thick yet. About 25 this morning and about 50 below after a few Sardine stokings.
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You can make out the ice just past Swan Point and across the Bay. Every once in a while I can manage to sail out of the basin and go exploring along the pack ice. Not today.
The open water around the pilings is from the bubblers.
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Had a visit from Kent Mountford yesterday. Shared a cuppa and talk about the Silent Maid. Kent’s writing a book about her and the lives of all who shared in her stewardship. His family owned the Maid in the 60’s. If any reader has a story about her, let me know and I’ll pass it on to Kent.
All my best wishes to you all for this brand new year. It’s also the 25th year Sjogin has been in the family. My friend Jon Walters and I rescued her from the back row at Beaton’s in 1985. Probably worth an anniversary gala this Summer. She’s now 48 years old and looks like she’ll make her 50th birthday party.
No sailing this weekend; ice in the basin (and in the bilge) and high winds from the northwest since then. It’s the season for hand pumping and mid week visits to keep the old girl afloat.
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First bit of ice in a while though gone by Sunday. With these westerlies the colder surface water is blown down Bay and replaced by the relatively warmer bottom water. The bubbler system Beaton’s uses to protect the pilings works the same way.
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With all these frigid days and nights I’m amazed that the basin is ice free. Went down after work today to pump her out and pick out what little ice was in the bilge. The bright sunny days have helped I imagine.
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Breakfast’s ready. Last Sunday morning’s visit. Freezing on deck but warmish below.
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Illustration from my current read, In Tidal Waters. Details of this neat little book in the post below.
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This is a model of the shop at Beaton’s was made in 1960 by a local craftsman. It was on display when I stopped by for their Christmas party. Detailed down to the tools on the bench and the Lightning being planked. Accurate except that’s its far too neat.
Paul Smith has been making progress on Speedwell. The keel has been beveled and fits just so. There’s a new load of white cedar on the way from Virginia for the centerboard case and the new mast step and floors have been installed. Time to start thinking about a sail rig and spars.
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The keel is being beveled in this photo. After picking up the bevels of the garboards, the angle is recorded on a bevel board; really just a scrap of wood with a straight edge.
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The bevel board. When these boats were being built on a regular basis, there were lots of different boards like this that the builder would use to set the correct angle for each piece.
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It helps to have the right clamp. The keel now fits snugly against the garboards. After fastening, the seam will be caulked with cotton and seam compound.
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New mast step and floors installed. Since the frame ends were shot, Paul scarfed and screwed a piece of oak to the good bits. This should keep her tight when bashing to windward.
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Last Monday. Note the snow at the base of the mast. The wind found a gap in the mast coat and flake by flake, the snow settled into a mini drift.
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Here’s an illustration from the latest read on Sjogin. The caption reads “There was no alternative but to remove my nether garments.”
The book is “In Tidal Waters” by Francis B. Cooke, a sailor and writer chronicling his misadventures in the waters of the Thames Estuary and costal Essex, England in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. It came from D. N. Goodchild’s Shellback Library, a collection of folio books covering all things nautical. Browse through his collection for some terrific old titles, still available though long out of print. I have a half dozen titles so far with a few of them on Sjogin’s bookshelf.
and the Happiest and let us hope, a more Peaceful New Years to all. Home yesterday for Christmas Dinner with family and friends, old and new. Just cool enough for an all day, all evening fire.
The snow of last weekend still counts as a White Christmas though it’s melting fast. We didn’t finish digging out from a knee deep northeaster till last Monday. Didn’t get down to Sjogin till then and found a cockpit full of snow but otherwise clean decks. “Bailed” her out and had a nice fire below.
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And there’s the full extent of Holiday Decorations on Sjogin. Before the snow of course. We’re having a light ice season in the pond so far. (Touch wood!)
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The NE wind kept the decks clean with just the cockpit to “bail”.
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Ice beard forming. No serious ice yet. I put the pump back to work after a bit of ice formed in the bilge water. Warmer now.
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Happy Hollies. The morning after the storm.
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Ready made Snowman.
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Christmas Tree and snow, perfect together. I think the Architect of our home had Christmas in mind when he drew this window.
