Links:
Sharing the Bounty
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12
February 04: In
the two years that this website has been alive and growing,
the original Links pages have become somewhat moldy.
The
latest
links that I've posted on this website reside at
the bottom of the Home page.
Some
folks update all the time; some folks haven't touched their
websites since Netscape was a viable web browser client. Other
websites are somewhere in between.
Favorite
boat-related websites:
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Duckworks
Magazine ... an
online magazine of enormous size. The focus is on small boats,
boatbuilding, and messing about in boats that we build. Chuck
and Sandra Leinweber have gone to a subscription model, but
the cost is slight, and if you contribute an article or letter,
you get credits. You also get credits for purchases, such
as boat plans of Jim Michalak and John Welsford.
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Jim
Michalak's Boat Designs ... the
website of my favorite boat designer. Jim has been posting
solid-gold information twice per month for several years now.
His book, Boatbuilding
for Beginners (and Beyond):
Everything You Need to Know to Build a Sailboat, a Rowboat,
a Motorboat, a Canoe, and More, grew from these posts, and
I believe that the posts, available in archives, exceed the
size of the book. Each post has photos of boats that people
have built from Jim's designs, a main article concerning an
aspect of boatbuilding or design, and news of the various
prototypes that are being built at any given time.
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Free
Boat Design Resources ... has interest
for you in multiple ways: Gavin Atkin, the webmaster, has
designed a wonderful little boat called the Mouse,
the Internet's first and to this point only Open
Source boat design. That's one draw. The
other draw of this website is the listing of free resources
for boat design, including free software. I have built a Mouse
variant (two of them, in fact) called the Flats
Rat.
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The
Cheap Pages ... of Craig O'Donnell offer
a look at small boats from the angle of plywood construction
and other cost-cutting ideas. Another angle of view is the
wealth of out-of-print books that are available for download
on the website.
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Yahoo
Clubs ... I've
joined two, Michalak's
Small Boat Designs and Mouse
Boats. You can get each post to a Yahoo
club as an individual email, or you can get a daily digest.
I like the digest. A note on Yahoo clubs in general: It is
simple to join; there is no cost. Spam is kept to a minimum
by the club sysops, and you can tailor your Yahoo profile
to be as private as you desire. The two clubs that I've joined
have a good community feeling, and if you are building a Michalak
design or a Mouse boat, you can post questions and get friendly
advice. You can read my
building logs, too. And you can email
me with any questions that you have: Cut
and paste this address into your email client:
nospam@herknperk.net
Favorite
suppliers
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Elmer's
glue ... is my
first choice, any more, for gluing boat
joints. I love the ease of application and lack of epoxy-borne
hazards. After using my Elmers, which is treated with wood
flour to make it stay in place and not ripple or run, I coat
surfaces that will need extra protection from water with a
bead or a coating of epoxy.
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The
Japan Woodworker ... sells
a line of thin-blade saws that cut on the pull-stroke. My
woodworking abilities doubled when I started using this type
of saw. The accuracy is astounding. I have a western dovetail
saw and a miter saw that are quietly rusting in their places
in the basement. The pull saw does their work far better.
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HR
Solutions - PolySails ... offers
polytarp in white, as well as other colors, in kits that will
have you making sails right and left. I purchased a big kit
for about $125 when I built the Weekend Skiff and was able
to make and test several different sail designs. I also bought
a polytarp kit when I needed a sail for my
Piccup Squared.
Favorite
boatbuilding magazine
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Messing
About in Boats ...
is the only boatbuilding magazine that I read. The readers
are the writers, and they know what they like to read -- articles
on techniques, designs, destinations, and anything by Robb
White. For $28 per year, you get 24 issues. Unlike the slick
magazines with all their ads and yacht preoccupations, MAIB
celebrates small, thrifty, useful boats. If you go to Duckworks
Magazine, you can subscribe by credit
card online.
Favorite
backyard boatbuilders
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The
Great Boat Building Project ... a
dad and his daughter, about 12, and three of her friends are
building a Weekend Skiff. They plan to use
a gaff rig, too, which I found too complex. They also asked
and got my permission to use a photo of my
Weekend Skiff.
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Form
follows function ... Gerard
Mittelstaedt, a library director in McAllen, Texas, has a
simple, effective website that shares the several boats that
he has owned or built over the past decades. Look
for the junk-rigged 25-footer. Lots of good pix. He emailed
me after a piece about my
father's boats ran in the March 2004 edition
of Duckworks
Magazine.
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Escargot
canalboat ... built
in Seattle, designed there, too. The website is getting a
bit long in the tooth, but the logs are interesting and give
a fair idea of what you would encounter in building this design
of Philip
Thiel's. Lots of photos show the process
and the outcome. Thiel has a preoccupation with pedal-powered
boats. His website has information on the Escargot and some
other interesting designs.
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Boat
Blogs ... are
being created with blogging
software -- if you ignore our website, which is based on blogging
principles but archives by hand instead of with software such
as Blogger.
Type "boat blog" into a Google search window and
see what you find.
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Cruising
the Erie Canal ... posts stories and
pix of several persons' trips on the canal. Good links list,
too. Simple, easy-to-use website. The webmaster, David
Guenther, is an ambitious cruiser -- and
a survivor.
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History
of the Erie Canal ... follow this link
for Erie Canal history, maps, and pictures concerning Rochester,
NY, and surrounding places.
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Canal
Junction ...
will introduce you to the English canal system with its narrowboats.
Rules,
regulations
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Handbook
for backyard boatbuilders
...
ia available
for free download from the Coast Guard in Louisville, KY,
has posted a . The
website has all the usual suspects rounded
up in one place, and a bunch of stuff about the Ohio River,
too. Since I don't go in for stinkpots, I'm mostly interested
in what they have to say about flotation.
 And,
finally, Powells Books
I
lived in Salem, Oregon, for about 10 years, and one of my favorite
day-off destinations was Powell's
Books in Portland.
The
original location of the bookstore takes up an entire city block
and is housed in what once was a car dealer's building and showroom.
Used books and new books are side by side, so it is more like
a library than a bookstore, because you can find the best books,
in or out of print, on any subject. Powells now occupies an additional
six sites in Portland and its suburbs.
One time I ran into the store to get change for the parking meter.
Mr. Powell himself, a fine old gentleman in rumpled clothes, handed
me a handful of change, ignoring my outstretched dollar bill.
"Take this; others may need some, too," he said. Strange
but wonderful, just like his bookstore.
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