This is the first of a series of interviews with James Wharram and his co-designer, Hanneke Boon, talking with David Halladay of Boatsmith, Inc. in his shop in West Palm Beach, Florida. In this first video, James discusses his early influences that led to his legendary catamaran designs:
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Buy, Outfit & Sail: A Book for the Frugal Sea Gypsy
I've recently read through Cap'n Fatty Goodlander's recent book: Buy, Outfit & Sail, not just once, but twice. If you've ever even remotely entertained the idea of living the cruising life, this book is as good a place to start as any I've found. Cap'n Fatty dispels the notion that you have to have a lot of money to acquire and outfit a seaworthy boat and sail it around the world. While many other sailing authors have put forth essentially the same idea, few have done it in such an entertaining way as Cap'n Fatty.
The first time through, I read this book because it was full of new ideas and information that I had not seen all in one place before, and some not anywhere. For example, unlike most other "how to get started cruising" books, Cap'n Fatty doesn't just talk about what kinds of boats to consider, he explains at length how to find them. And not only how to find a boat - but how to find one for pennies on the dollar - especially those boats he says have a "ticking time clock" due to the current owner's need to get rid of them now due to various reasons. And after you find the deal of a lifetime on the right boat, the outfit and the sail portions of this book will put you on course to get your vessel shipshape and keep her that way as you chase the horizon.
I read this book a second time not only to pick up tidbits of advice I might have missed the first time around, but mainly for the sheer entertainment value. Cap'n Fatty is a natural-born storyteller, and this book is packed with fascinating glimpses of the amazing life he's lived at sea in a variety of boats. Some of these tales will have you cracking up with laughter and some are so far out there you'll find them hard to believe, but no matter how outrageous the stories, somehow you know that Cap'n Fatty probably actually lived them.
The first time through, I read this book because it was full of new ideas and information that I had not seen all in one place before, and some not anywhere. For example, unlike most other "how to get started cruising" books, Cap'n Fatty doesn't just talk about what kinds of boats to consider, he explains at length how to find them. And not only how to find a boat - but how to find one for pennies on the dollar - especially those boats he says have a "ticking time clock" due to the current owner's need to get rid of them now due to various reasons. And after you find the deal of a lifetime on the right boat, the outfit and the sail portions of this book will put you on course to get your vessel shipshape and keep her that way as you chase the horizon.
I read this book a second time not only to pick up tidbits of advice I might have missed the first time around, but mainly for the sheer entertainment value. Cap'n Fatty is a natural-born storyteller, and this book is packed with fascinating glimpses of the amazing life he's lived at sea in a variety of boats. Some of these tales will have you cracking up with laughter and some are so far out there you'll find them hard to believe, but no matter how outrageous the stories, somehow you know that Cap'n Fatty probably actually lived them.
The book is available on Amazon in Paperback or for Kindle. For more information on this and Cap'n Fatty's other books, visit his website at: http://fattygoodlander.com/home
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Beachcruising
I've been spending way too much time thinking about boat design lately, but I suppose it's justified, since I'm trying to decide what my next boat will be. I've been looking at a wide variety of sailing vessels, from heavy, offshore-capable monohulls to small multihull beachcruisers. Sometimes it helps to get just get out on the water to think, so I spent some time a few days ago paddling my kayak around Deer Island, just south of Biloxi. Kayaks are just so simple and quick to launch, and easy to pull ashore most anywhere you care to stop. This is my Arctic Tern 17, one of my favorites that I built about 14 years ago:
While there are some large, shoal-draft cruising sailboats that can go right up the shore and safely dry out at low tide, this Endeavor 37 Ketch that was also beached on the island is definitely not one of them:
This sailing yacht was obviously left hard aground by the storm surge of recent Hurricane Isaac. She's a good 40 or 50 yards from the water's edge now, and at 20,000 lbs. displacement, will not be easy to refloat. I don't know where she was before the storm and how she came to break loose and end up on the beach at Deer Island, but seeing this is a good reminder of just one of the things that the owners of small, beachcruising sailboats and sea kayaks don't have to worry about.
While there are some large, shoal-draft cruising sailboats that can go right up the shore and safely dry out at low tide, this Endeavor 37 Ketch that was also beached on the island is definitely not one of them:
This sailing yacht was obviously left hard aground by the storm surge of recent Hurricane Isaac. She's a good 40 or 50 yards from the water's edge now, and at 20,000 lbs. displacement, will not be easy to refloat. I don't know where she was before the storm and how she came to break loose and end up on the beach at Deer Island, but seeing this is a good reminder of just one of the things that the owners of small, beachcruising sailboats and sea kayaks don't have to worry about.
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