Shop Cats

Almost every shop that I have ever worked in has had a resident cat. The shop that I have used for the last eighteen years is no exception. In that time, there has been a succession of shop cats, kept ostensibly for rodent control, but who, ultimately contribute much more to the community. In fact, some of these felines were not particularly adept at catching rodents. However, those who may not have been particularly able hunters have, almost without exception, been possessed of huge personalities.
              Three of the most interesting cats that have dominated the shop over the years were Tigger, Furgus and Punch. While these three cats were very different from one another and did not, in fact, manage the shop at the same times, they all loved boatbuilding. Thus it turns out all of my pictures of these three involve building baidarkas, an skin-on-frame kayak native to Alaska. Tigger liked being involved in any project that we had going on. He was always around but rarely underfoot.

 Punch and Furgus on the other hand needed to be in the middle of everything and were always underfoot. When he was a kitten we had to go to great lengths to make Punch feel involved while keeping him out of the way.

              Furgus just ended up in the middle of everything.

                You can read at greater length about the shop cats, and other four legged friends by going to this link at the Solo-adventures web log.

Another interesting weblog

I was bouncing around the net the other day and ran into A Shipwright in Training, from psychologist to boat builder, the web log of Tom Daniels. He has some really detailed photographs and step by step descriptions of what he is working on, at the moment a Whitehall (one of my favorite boats to row and hugely challenging to build in a traditional manner). He also has a glossary of boatbuilding terms on his site that might be useful to someone unfamiliar with boatbuilding. I intend to check in with this site now and then.
             On the subject of Whitehalls, if this is a type that races your motor (it certainly does mine-something about that wineglass transom…) then you might want to check out this photo journal from the Apprenticeshop at Atlantic Challenge in Rockland, Maine. It covers the building of an Orvil Young sailing Whitehall.

Winter Reading

Some good friends from Alaska recently sent me a great addition to my library. A book and video tape called Qayaqs and Canoes, Native ways of Knowing .  Anyone who appreciates baidarkas, umiaks, or native Alaskan handcraft will appreciate this book. Really a series of essays, and observations based on interviews with eight native boat builders, their apprentices and supporters, the book is the direct result of a project called Qayaqs and Canoes; paddling into the millennium. Filled with evocative photographs of some magnificent artwork, and due to the format based on interviews, you can pick the book up and start reading almost anywhere.
           It reminded me of another wonderful book in my collection Our Boots, An Inuit Woman’s Art. Again, like Qayaqs and Canoes, magnificently illustrated with museum quality photographs, interviews and examples from premier Inuit makers of mukluks.
           And while on the topic of books, let me take a moment to plug fellow blogger Gavin Atkin’s new book; Utrasimple Boatbuilding, available like the other two books here on Amazon. This looks like a perfect book for the beginning boat builder. You can read more of Gavin’s work at intheboatshed.

Boatstands and Video clips

In this early stage of winter, and until the ground is well and truly frozen, I like to check on the boat almost every day. As part of my morning routine, I duck into the boatshed, check the boatstands, and adjust them. This part of my daily evolutions continues until the ground stops heaving with frost. As I was under the boat this morning, I suddenly remembered a video clip a friend of mine made last summer of us sailing across Muscongus Bay. I keep meaning to post it on this site, but have never gotten around to it.
            For any of you interested in vicarious sailing I post it here, and will post it on the “boat page”.

            We had sailed from the anchorage in Lewis Cove, East past Pemaquid point, around Eastern Egg Rock and up towards Harbor Island. A solid North Westerly breeze allowed us to average six knots under jib and mainsail with a single reef.  A terrific sail on an early summer day.

Busy, Busy, Busy

What with making toys, trying to get the kitchen finished and work, I have not put up a lot of new stuff on this site of late. More posts are coming, particularly related to boatbuilding, toy-making, and creative stuff for the Holidays. In the meantime, I noticed that my friend Peter got a really nice plug for his book about his tree house (which I illustrated). You can see it at:   Casasugar