Finally; a “real” boat in Soper’s Hole. This week we’re playing host to Marguerite, a 1895 Channel Pilot Cutter. She’s a Cornish boat, with the distinctive and desireable low eliptical stern. Fully-equipped with early-1900’s gear, oozing character, reeking of tar and linseed oil, and completely traditionaly rigged. About 70′ overall. Perfect.
If i had to pick a favourite historic gaffer from, say, the pages of John Leather’s “Gaff Rig Handbook”, it would be a traditional English pilot cutter.
Also great to see such a historic boat actively cruising! A family affair, with three adults and two young kids, they’ve come across the Atlantic for a winter of cruising the Caribbean, and will be heading back over after Antigua Classics.
One of the owners came ashore to get water at the yard, and delighted with my little green boat taking shape behind the shop; in rig and hullform, it’s a very similar shape, albeit much scaled-down.

Well, i’m done… some DVD marathon this weekend! i’ve seen:

Farenheit 9/11 – finally saw this one; tend to agree with the Message, but not with the Medium of Moore
The Road to Perdition – Hard for me to get into, but Jude Law’s part was creepily well-played
Bridget Jones’s Diary – quite liked, keen to read book now
About Schmidt – How Nicholson can make a scene out of blank staring is scary, but the plot didn’t leave him much else
The Bourne Supremacy – Not as good as the first; overextends itself a la Mission Impossible II
The Pianist – oh my… very very good; long, but not drawn-out . Brody deserved that Oscar
Bruce Almighty – enough already! Carey has shown that he can act, and moreover, be funny without being ridiculous; i guess this wasn’t a vehicle for those skills…
A Beautiful Mind – Very much liked. i think i like Crowe more and more all the time.
The Royal Tenenbaums – The set was the star of this one; such an incredibly rich visual feast!
Ali – Just couldn’t get into this one. i think i’m just too unfamiliar with Ali himself to suspend my disbelief and see past Will Smith.
Gladiator – unlike the other’s i’ve seen this one before; several times, in fact. Still a fave.

So many more DVDs here! Must stop myself from watching, say, all the Mad Max movies back-to-back, or getting into any of the LOTR special-editions. Loads of concerts on DVD too, though. Might round out the night (and the weekend) with something musical.

Just saw “A Beautiful Mind”, and was quite moved. i shall have to think about it further, but i’m feeling that my standards may have been shifted by this film. The examble portrayed of a wife and partner who goes beyond her own limitations in the service of sublime companionship is remarkable.
i’m wondering if we all might do well to no longer hold to our own limits, but to hold ourselves to the greatest ideal. Of course, of course, there is only so much any person can give of themselves, or take from another, but is that any excuse to stop trying? To stop searching for that which improves each of us, and makes us more capable?
When we hear, “I can’t take this anymore”, or “I can’t do this anymore”, it seems to me that most folks are closer to aknowledging or validating the ideal that there is something out there that will always overwhelm us. Instead, ought we not aknowledge that we simply don’t have the skill or personal resources to withstand? When a problem seems so great that naught can be done, is the problem really the problem? Or does the problem lay in what little we have come to expect from ourselves?
My expectations of others shift constantly; perhaps i ought to reconsider what i expect from myself instead. More importantly, perhaps i ought to consider removing the limits of “how much i can take”.

Work has been going a little slower on the new dinghy this week. The yard is still slow, but we’re getting around to those boatyard tasks we’ve been putting off (fixing the roof, repairing floats, splicing new mooring pennants, installing new lights in the back of the shop).
Still, i’ve been putting an hour or two in each afternoon, and slowing getting ahead. The centerboard caused me some grief; i over-reached and paid for it. i laminated a board to the largest size i thought would possibly fit the trunk, grinding and power-planing away the ‘board for hydrodynamic shape. In the end, i ended up grinding away almost half of my own work! The board looks good on it’s own, but it just wouldn’t fit the boat. i made up a second board, this one far undersized, and am building the shape up, rather than grinding away to reveal it. So far, the board is a little less shapely, but fits 110% better. i’ve also cast 10 lbs of lead into the bottom of the new centerboard.
On to the fun bits! i made up a nice cap for the top of the centerboard from a gnarled teak plank. Sanded and oiled, the teak grain swirls from near-black to a buttery blonde. i plugged the screw holes with plugs cut from the lightest part of the same plank, for a great contrasting effect.
i got the spreaders made up as well. Although they’ll be up the mast and (usually) far from scrutiny, i wanted to make really great, strong spreaders for the rig. They needed to be between 18 and 20 inches long, so i rooted through the scrap bins for a piece of hardwood to get them out of. i found a rough, un-milled offcot, the right moulded dimensions, 40 inches long, but couldn’t identify the wood. i cut off an inch or so from the end to reveal fresh grain, and was rewarded with wild pungent aroma. James and Tracy identified it as Imbuya, a remarkable tropical hardwood.
Planing the piece to remove the rough sawmilling marks, i got myself a pile of curled shavings looking all the world like dark chocolate! With the planing and further millwork on the tablesaw and bandsaw, the air filled with the powerful aroma, and my eyes started tearing up. Strong stuff! Tracy says he put an imbuya mast step in his wooden boat, and although the wood comes in a wild range of colours, it always has that same strong aroma. Sanded and oiled, my spreaders turned out a deep dark chocolate, swirled with mocha. They’ll be quite a contrast to the Bristol Beige-painted fiberglass mast they’re going to be attahed to!
i also oiled much of the exposed mahogany, iroko, and teak on the boat itself, and will continue adding coats of oil as i go along. Playing with jigs on the drillpress, i made some diminutive teak mast collars for the attachment of rigging to the bowsprit end as well. Time to follow up on Tracy’s suggestion and find a small gold star earing or bauble to affix to the bowsprit end!