BYSNOWYDHBOATWORKS, DECEMBER 9, 2017
When it comes to building or rebuilding wooden boats, I have often been told that for many very sensible reasons, the best thing would be to build a given boat in steel, or in fibreglass. It’s hard to argue directly with the logic of this, but I think when it comes down to it… if you’re interested in sensible things, you ought to stay away from boats in the first place! For me wooden vessels are the ultimate expression of human ingenuity, of cultural and geographical specificity, and of the audaciousness of our forebears. Being sensible doesn’t really enter into it.
And in that vein… I’ve bought a boat. Her name is Rosalind, she was built 114 years ago by William Paynter of St. Ives, Cornwall as a fishing lugger. She’s 39 foot 6 and a half inches stem to stern, and displaces about 22 tons. She had a long career, originally registered as Susan out of St. Ives but later renamed Rosalind when working out of Mevagissey between the wars. In 1959 she was taken on by a chap named Richard Griffiths, now sadly passed away – from what I’ve heard of him I would have liked to have known him. Rosalind was Richard’s home on both sides of the Atlantic until his passing late last year, since when Rosalind has sunk twice at her slip, and now been put on the hard where she was awaiting the dreaded chainsaw. She needs a complete restoration, and the scale of it all is honestly and I think appropriately daunting, and the “sensible” thing would unquestionably have been to walk away from her. But that’s not what this business is about really, is it?
At some length I sorted out the logistics of hauling her from her prior abode in Oxford, Maryland to a suitable site up here in New England, and the haul went beautifully (thank you Brownell Systems, you’re awesome). Interior demolition is done, engine is out, bilges are as clean as they are likely to get, the shed is up, and frames are going in. More to follow, and once I remind myself how to process video there will be lots to see! Stay tuned. In the mean time, check out instagram.com/snowdrops.and.avalanches for progress.
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“So great is the dignity and excellency of humane nature, and so active those sparks of heavenly fire it partakes of, that they ought to be look’d upon as very mean, and unworthy the name of men, who thro’ pusillanimity, by them call’d prudence, or thro’ sloth, which they stile moderation, or else through avarice, to which they give the name of frugality, at any rate withdraw themselves from performing great and noble actions.”
-Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri, Giro Del Mondo (Voyage Round the World), 1699