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Mistig's avatar

Hi Janice,

Tell me about it.

It doesn't matter if you are building, rebuilding, refitting or repairing ships or yachts for that matter.

Being a large yacht builder/refitter I an only say AMEN.

I have the feeling certain designers were born with an addicition to curved lines, it makes "her" more beautiful is what they think. (I always refer to ships as a female as they are unpredictable, beautiful at sunset, expensive in the up keep)

Quite often I agree which does not mean it makes things any easier when you are building these projects.

Getting one ready at the moment and man it ain't easy, but then again that's what the client ordered.

And when it is all done we can be so proud of what was achieved with all 1100 craftsmen.

Tom de Vries

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Janice Anne Wheeler's avatar

Hey Tom! This is a great note. Females for certain.

I just sent you a grateful note and I'm thrilled you are aboard. It's an art form!

Where are you? Include a photo, perhaps?? We're addicted, too.

J

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Janice Anne Wheeler's avatar

That would be delightful! So much to see!

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Egor Korneev's avatar

I love your plan: “I’ve now moved on to Portugese because, sooner or later, STEADFAST is going to head down the coast of South America until I see a penguin.”

In a month we are sailing to Panama, but after a couple of years we plan to sail further south. Maybe our paths will cross :-)

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Janice Anne Wheeler's avatar

That would be delightful! So many worlds to experience.

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Switter’s World's avatar

I actually found a vessel where everything was straight and square. If you drive north to Prince George, BC, drive east to Vanderhoof, drive south on a certain unpaved forest road about 100 miles, proceed east another 30 some miles on an atv, you will arrive at a series of small lakes and a hunting lodge. There they built fishing boats with gunwhales made of 2”x12” boards about 10’ long and 4’ apart, with a 2”x12” stern screwed to the gunwhales, which are cut at a 45 degree angle for the bow. The bottom and bow are 3/4” marine plywood with a few 2”x4” stiffeners and benches. The whole monstrosity is caulked with painters caulk, painted with house latex paint, and in any kind of weather, they are a right swine with their 15hp outboard engines, but they are straight and square.

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Janice Anne Wheeler's avatar

Sounds a bit like a duck blind in Eastern Maryland!. What do they do from them out west?

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Switter’s World's avatar

They were little lake barges for sport fishing. Pretty much butt-ugly and totally homemade looking, but they did float, which is one of the fundamental requirements for a boat.

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Scott Corner's avatar

“She’s worth it,” I told him, smiling but abraded by his overstep. “This is my home.” (J.W., 8/4/24)

Lately, when I read your posts and think about the scale of your task (and the fact that it will wind down), Trace Atkins' "You're Gonna Miss This" comes to mind.

You're gonna miss this

You're gonna want this back

You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times

So take a good look around

You may not know it now

But you're gonna miss this

"On the last day of the year we stood on rearranged scaffolding, mentally preparing ourselves to keep tackling and jousting, bracing against the wind and for the repair tasks at hand, ..."

There is such a tug and a pull with a task that is larger than ourselves, that we want to finish right now ... soon ... sooner rather than later. Fatty Goodlander once wrote, "Only build a boat if your ultimate payoff is building a boat. If you want to get to sea, there are far easier and cheaper ways." And yet, "What's in the way is the way ..." You are regenerating a living thing, linked to the past through people and nature (I dare say that there are timbers in Steadfast that were living trees during the Civil War; perhaps the Revolution and before). You are blessed to become part of her. Not just her history, but a soul linked to her future through posterity's past.

I'm feeling the itch. Maybe a small tender or slightly larger rowing boat (something I can hide from my wife before she realizes what's happening - ha ha). But the real question is how? And how long? I often say, "Modern methods for modern boats." But I have that itch to immerse myself in that creative process that does not lend itself well to timeframes and deadlines - going slow to go fast. In some small way to place a piece of my heart and soul into a creation that transcends us. There is nothing quite like launching a boat you built yourself. The "joy of slowing down".

I remember the sadness I felt when I finished the oars, the final woodworking task on ALKI. (She's stitch-and-glue, so the genuine woodworking projects - cutting bevels, shaping wood, shavings, rather than epoxy dust - were moments to treasure.) Standing there, looking around the tent where I'd spent the better part of four years, where I'd spent COVID, and just like that, I was done. It was so abrupt. All the planning, preparing, rearranging, tackling - and suddenly it was time to go sailing - a truly joyous affair, but different.

You are not Sisyphus when you are fortifying yourself to tackle and joust and brace for "...areas I will never see again..." These too, "... are some good times ..."

Happy New Year and Cheers!

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Dmitri Lebow's avatar

Scott's got it right! His actions, fantasies, and accident of birth shared with so many down these many years, many centuries, has tapped into the ancient alchemy that infects the boatbuilder. Thems, who craft with their own hands a structure without foundation capable of literal conveyance into unfettered freedom. The magical transformation of an ineffable dream into a tangible reality, both splendid and terrifying....and it takes so long; it costs so much in every way.

Then it's done and you go sailing. Into adventures, until now, unimaginable. The struggle becomes a distant memory as if it happened all too fast.

All of a sudden, somehow, someway, you want to do it all again.....

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Scott Corner's avatar

You are a poet Dmitri!

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Janice Anne Wheeler's avatar

Scott, I read this post again today with more presence and a different frame of mind completely. What I would like to do, with your permission, is to include this in my next post. It was an incredible lesson for me, once I let my toes warm up and nodded my head and absorbed your wisdom. So, with your permission....today is the anniversary of my father's death and somehow that focused my reality and I thought to myself how much he would enjoy what we are doing, learning, absorbing. May I? I'll email you directly. THANK YOU. Honored to have you weigh in. Honored. J

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Scott Corner's avatar

Of course.

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Janice Anne Wheeler's avatar

Nice to hear from someone who relates so well, Larry from the Cruiser's Net said the same. Patience is a virtue for certain.

Thankbyou as always for chiming in. It's a pleasure. J

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Elizabeth Beggins's avatar

New Year's Eve brought quite the sky-show, didn't it?

While you may be more disassembled than you were at the end of last year, what's visible looks fresh and sound. That's not nothing! (!!!)

I recall, as we prepared our old girl for a new journey all those years ago, that my mother kept asking, with exasperation, why it was taking us so long. I told her to imagine renovating a house, one with no straight walls that also had to float. :)

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Keith Halfmann's avatar

Happy New Year! Your perspective on learning is encouraging, and your positive outlook is inspiring. Looking forward to more weekly reads as you get Steadfast ready for heading south.

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Janice Anne Wheeler's avatar

Thank you Keith, I always appreciate your Sunday morning comments with my coffee. We just never know what will cross our paths next! Happy 2025. J

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