This is a link to a website called The Microship Project, in which a crazed geek named Steven Roberts expounds on the construction of a very interesting, albeit very nerdy, trimaran:

The author is some kind of crazed engineer, or perhaps mad scientist, who takes what should be a straightforward idea, like a recumbent bike or small multihull, and transmogrifies it Frankenstein-like into a human-machine hybrid bristling with electronics and clever mechanical gadgetry.  If you are a geek like me, you will find the details fascinating, and perhaps even inspiring-- Mr. Roberts' treatise on cardboard-fiberglass composite construction led me to devise a simple treadmill desk, at which I am currently writing this very blog post (currently passing 4.3 miles).

Now, I know I posted previously about the evils of complexity.  When & if I build a boat, it will have no systems more complex than can be repaired with duct tape and bailing wire. And possibly sugarless gum.  But there is something deep inside of me  that really gets off on triumphant engineering-- And this guy has done it in spades. The link I posted at the top discusses the engineering of the boat in great detail, and explains how & why everything was done.  Even if you never try to build anything as wild as this trimaran, I feel that the thought process laid out on the site is worth viewing.  The construction techniques are applicable to any boat construction project.  And the boat itself is actually pretty cool.

For a while now, I have wanted to build a boat-- It's like this continuous background noise in my little brain.  I am not quite ready to take the plunge and try and convince The Admiral to disburse funds, but the itch needs to be scratched.  One thing I'm seriously tempted to try is to build a small experimental boat using the aforementioned cardboard composite construction.  I love the idea of recycling a waste material, and the resulting structure can be made amazingly strong. Of course, I know that I'd be flying along at 12 knots out in the middle of the lake one day, hit a floating log or something, and be forced to try and make the shore before my paper boat dissolved around me. But The whole concept--  A carboard boat!  Is just too cool to resist.

I have all kinds of goofy ideas regarding my dream boat, including a mini sampan, a HarryProa, and something like Tony Bigras' Miss Cindy. I think I could build something fairly cheaply out of cardboard as a proof of concept. Then I could take it  to a local body of water and play with it, close to the shore, until I am satisfied that the concept is workable.  Then I could remake the boat out of real boatbuilding materials (Home Depot plywood). I'll let you know if anything actually comes out of this lunacy.  In the meantime, go check out the Microship project.  It's some very cool stuff.

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Damien is a Robert Tucker design with reverse sheer

courtesy Creed O'Hanlon

courtesy Gérard Janichon

Damien departs La Rochelle in May of 1969
courtesy Gérard Janichon

In the ice
courtesy Gérard Janichon

Passage du cap Horn d'Est en Ouest, le 4 mars 1971
courtesy Gérard Janichon

Damien returns to La Rochelle, September 1973, after 50,000 miles
courtesy Gérard Janichon

After the first Damien there were several iterations, larger boats most with steel hulls.
cf. Northanger
courtesy Gérard Janichon

One of several books on the journey
courtesy Gérard Janichon

In May, 1969, a small sloop named Damien slipped its mooring within the French harbour of La Rochelle, on the Atlantic coast of south-west France, and made its way seaward through the 12th century fortified stone walls that protect its entrance. Once across the narrow channel between the harbour and the low shores of Ile De Ré, it altered course northwest, out into the wide maw of the Bay of Biscay. She wouldn't be seen again off this coast for another four years.

The beginning of this voyage was the culmination of a long-held dream for two young Frenchmen. Five years earlier, when they were both still teenagers, Jérome Poncet and Gérard Janichon seized on the idea to build the 33-foot, cold-moulded, reverse-chine Robert Tucker design and follow in the wake of their hero, Bernard Moitessier.

They ended up sailing to places even the far-voyaging Moitessier had never ventured.

After rounding Ushant, the westernmost extremity of France, they made their way 'up' the English Channel to the North Sea and after a layover in Bergen, in Norway, continued north to Spitzbergen, in the Svalbard Archipelago, well inside the Arctic Circle. They then turned south-west to Reykjavik in Iceland. From there, they laid a course past Greenland's Cape Farewell to the east coast of the USA. After rounding Cape Hatteras and beating south to the Caribbean, they port-hopped to the north-eastern coast of Brazil, where they decided to sail 2,000 nautical miles up the Amazon before resuming their voyage south. Months later, after rounding Cape Horn from east to west, they double-backed and sailed homewards through the Southern Ocean, via the three great Capes (including a second rounding of the Horn). They eventually logged more than 55,000 nautical miles over a track that spanned the parallels of 80ºN and 68ºS and encircled the globe.

Janichon and Poncet were among the most prominent of a distinctly Sixties' generation of young French sailors who were all inspired not by phlegmatic English deep-water sailors, such as Francis Chichester, Alec Rose, Blondie Hasler, Bill Tilman, Robin Knox-Johnston and others, but by the somewhat hermitic, hippy-ish Bernard Moitessier and his 'agricultural', Jean Knocker-designed, 39-foot steel ketch, Joshua. Born and raised in colonial Vietnam, Moitessier was a tough, highly skilled sailor – arguably, the most accomplished of his age – but he was also a man very much of that odd, spacey time: a dope-smoking, philosophical, manic-depressive visionary for whom ocean voyaging was as much an opportunity for Zen-like self-exploration as it was an adventure.

Damien's long, extraordinary voyage attracted little attention outside of Europe and Janichon's classic book, Du Spitsberg Au Cap Horn (From Spitzberg To Cape Horn) was published only in France (one of many wonderful maritime titles assembled by the local house, Arthaud). The influence of Moitessier's reflective interior monologues are occasionally apparent not only in Janichon's writing but also the narration for the 16mm film Poncet and he shot during their voyage (just as Moitessier did on his non-stop voyage around the world during the Sunday Times' Golden Globe Race in 1969). An excerpt from Janichon's film, during which Poncet and he recklessly pilot Damien right up to the sheer blue cliffs of a towering, castellated iceberg in the high latitiudes of the Southern Ocean, can be found here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9t2bt_retour-sur-le-voyage-de-damien_travel

In these days of corporate sponsorships, professional crews, and exotic multi-million dollar vessels built to claim the most arcane of ocean passage records, its worth reminding ourselves that the men and women who undertake such unsung, unsponsored, under-funded but perilous voyages in small, spartan yachts for no other reason than the voyage itself – think Roger Taylor in Ming Ming or the Berque twins, Emmanuel and Maximilien, in their tiny, home-built Micromegas – still have more capacity to capture our increasingly meagre imaginations than the flashiest, fastest, highest profile, round-the-world ra

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Illustration by Irwin Schuster, courtesy Annie Holmes

Precious racing circa 1995

Precious at the Coronado YC 2005

courtesy Annie Holmes

Precious at a boat show

interior

Aft shot showing boomkin

Precious nuzzling Little Bird, a Rabl Titmouse, Annies newest passion.

all photos courtesy Annie Holmes

Here are some particulars:

She is 1" x 3/4" strip-planked mahogany over oak frames, and is water-tight.
(She was coated with epoxy inside and out before launching.)
She is 18.5' on deck and 24' overall.
Her beam is 8'1".
She displaces 4,000 lbs. and draws 3.5'.
She has a Sunbrella 3-piece full boat cover.

Annie says, "She's a departure from the original design in that her builder made her a Marconi cutter rig instead of a gaff sloop with running back stays. That explains the boomkin and bowsprit, which are not on the original drawings. She is much easier to sail single-handed for that reason. I've owned her for 25 years and keep her in tip top shape. I bought her in early 1985 from the builder, who is a consummate craftsman. He still builds gorgeous custom violins and guitars, and he built this boat over a two year span and put her in the water in 1980. Her decks and laserettes are teak. Her full keel has a 700# (or thereabouts) lead insert. She is roomy and lovely inside: varnished louvered cabinets, a working sink, lots of storage, and two six-foot bunks. Light grey upholstery with forest green piping. She has a full compliment of sails, including a spinnaker, 180 lapper, staysail, main and jib. My jib is an old Hobie jib which fits fine. I should get serious about replacing it, as the plastic window is cracked. One of these days I will if someone doesn't buy her first. At her last haul-out I stripped and varnished and over-painted the mast and spreaders, so that won't have to be done for some time. She's as lovely as she looks in the photos.

She is a dream to sail, and I've won lots of racing trophies with her, racing against other wooden boats. She's taken prizes at local wooden boat shows as well. I have used her gently over the years and she always gets double-takes wherever we go.

I'm now in my seventies, and I have another Rabl boat, a mahogany strip planked Titmouse, which is on a trailer and will be cheaper and easier for me to maintain."

(Annie is the author of 'Skiff Song', a memoir about her search into the history of another boat, her 1939 vintage Australian 16-foot racing skiff, that took her on an amazing adventure down under. She has since donated the boat to Australia as a gift from the U.S., as it was the last of it's vintage.)


Please email me if you have interest and I will forward your interest to Annie so that she can contact you.

You'll find my email @ 70.8%

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People keep telling me I should quit my day job and write a book.  Or maybe they mean write a book, become a gazillionaire,  and then quit the day job. I have trouble keeping that all straight.  

Anyway, sometimes that idea sounds pretty appealing, but then I gaze  into the soulful and hungry eyes of my children, and think of how they're already eating us out of house and home. If I quit my day job I had better have a lucrative contract lined up, or they're going to hit me over the head with my laptop one day and barbecue me out in the backyard to fend off starvation.

Just kidding.  The kids are vegetarians.  More likely the neighborhood will be quickly stripped of all gardens, fruit trees, and decorative shrubbery before the chilluns eat Dad. But I'm not quite ready to quit the day job just yet.  For one thing, I have no idea what I'd write. An important rule of creative writing is that the author ought to actually know a thing or two about his subject-- About all I know for sure about my favorite subject (not THAT favorite subject. Jeesh) is that it's a miracle I haven't managed to crash my boat into an IRS building or something.  The full extent of my nautical klutziness has yet to be revealed, but I'm sure I have at least a couple more years of silly blog posts to write before disgorging a Magnum Opus.  A book might be expecting too much, unless I can discover some captivating twist involving nose hairs and varnish, or something along those lines that Wooden Boat readers might enjoy.

We have a local author, a lady who wrote some book about vampires (named Eddie or something) who fly about doing supernatural vampire things and making out with nubile young women wearing corsets. The book (now a Major Motion Picture or two or five) is causing major hormone malfunctions all over this corner of the galaxy.  Obviously, the teenage-girl-and-bloodsucking-vampire angle is hot; I keep thinking that I need to write a book like that so I can buy 16 Lexuses for my cat. But I know very little about hunky vampires.  (And even less about nubile women in corsets, now that I think about it). What I need to do is work in some kind of sailing angle.  

I suggested to my teenage daughter that we should go up to the boat, where she would lounge around on the focs'le acting like Vampire Bait while I jotted  down ideas about how to work the angle into some spine-tingling nautical Nosferatu story worthy of being picked up by Hollywood:

The sailboat was on a broad reach across the still waters of Creepy Key, the full moon shimmering off the quicksilver like surface. Belladonna was chilled, but had nothing to cover her bountiful cleavage but a Type III PFD, which would not do at all when her forbidden vampire  love, Hector, managed to gnaw his way out of the chain locker. Belladonna sighed with irritation; Captain Dad was so unreasonable! "Father," she said petulantly, "can we let Hector out now?  I promise I won't let him play with my tiller tamer anymore"

"Dammit, nubile daughter, mind your heading!  The main is luffing! Sheet it in post haste. And no we will not let that demon spawn out of his prison until we land on Forbidden Isle and buy you some clothes! And did you finish your Language Arts homework like your mother told you to? Forsooth!"

I thought that was a pretty good beginning, but the glare I received from the daughter suggested otherwise.  And having her younger brother ask what "nubile" meant kind of put the kibosh on that train of thought.  

OK,  regroup. There's that lady in the UK who was penniless when she wrote that book about a teenage wizard (and her children might have been eyeing her for supper, for all I know).  Now she has more money than God.  If I could work out some piggyback thing, I'd be golden-- After all, my boat is a West Wight Potter, and Harry Potter is serious juju capable of generating barges full of money for old whats-her-face out in England.   Harry West Wight Potter-- It's perfect.  This time it was the twin boys who received the invitation to go on location for inspiration.  They were not sure about the offer:

#1 Son: Can we bring the Wii?
Future Gazillionaire Author Dad: Uh, I guess so. No, wait a second, there's no power--
#2 Son: Will there be vampires at the boat?
FGAD: No. This is just a way to get inspired for the book.
#2 Son.  What book?
FGAD: A book I'm going to write and make all of us filthy rich.
#1 Son: I want to be a vampire.  That would be cool!
#2 Son: You can't be a vampire. You're a vegetarian.
#1 Son: You can too  be a vegetarian vampire!
#2 Son: Can Not!
#1 Son: Dad, can vampires be vegetarian?
FGAD: Uh... Go ask your mother.

So maybe the concept needs some more work. But at least I have a catchy title: Harry West Wight Potter And the Hunky Vampires Of Teenage Lust. In the Caribbean. Now with Werewolves! 

I think I'm on to something.  What do you think?

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Slider catamaran designer, Ray Aldridge, is nearing completion of an intriguing new, even lighter, design.—Eds

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Sunday February 14, 2010
Another beautiful day.  I know I sound like a broken record, but Sean must have put in his order early for this weather because it would be hard to get much better.  It's starting off today in the high 40s and supposed to get to the low to mid 70s.  Right now the wind is about 8 and supposed to get to at least 15  again.

We had the skipper's meeting at 8:30 this morning.  Today is the scavenger hunt, which is really scheduled in case there is a blow and sailing is not possible one of the days, as most of the hunt can take place on the land.  With the current wind and forecast, Sean encouraged everyone to just go sailing since that is what the event is all about.  That is exactly what most people did.  Only one actually went on the scavenger hunt, so she, of course, won.  Although I did have a couple of options of boats to go out on, I decided at the last minute to go with the powerboat sailing assist craft piloted by Nel Broce so I could get some good photos.  Nel is a great guy.  He knows the lake well and took me to a lot of the areas I hadn't been to and then we started following the sailboats. After about an hour we went back to the dock and picked up Sean and spent several hours out shooting photos and cheering on the sailors.  Several times I wished I was sailing but, then again, I really enjoyed this part too and saw some things I would not have seen otherwise.

As the day progressed the wind continued to rise.  I haven’t heard the official wind readings but I went online when I got back and what I found said it was currently at 24mph.  Great sailing day.

Some came back in for a seminar of celestial navigation put on by Jonathan Olenick from 1:30 until 2:30.  He did an excellent job with it.

Everyone was back in by 3PM for the awards ceremony, the final official event of the weekend.  Sean started by welcoming the local dignitaries again.  Mayor Mark Nexsen, Vice Mayor Don Callahan, another council person Margaret Nyberg and Dean Barlow, the City Manager,  and Greg Tryon from the Havasu Hospitality Association. The mayor once again thanked everyone for coming and invited them back for next year.  He mentioned several of the goals of the city.

Greg Tryon also thanked everyone and ask for feedback on any issues they might have had and for any suggestions anyone had to make next year's event even better.  He once again mentioned that he would be working on having more docks and also the minor problems that several had with restaurants and the discounts that had been offered.

After all of this, Sean spent a long time giving out awards.  Everyone participating in the event got something.  The sponsors had provided enough items to be able to do this.  Everyone seemed thrilled to get whatever they got no matter how large or small.

Just as Sean thought he was through, Larry Yake got up and said there was one thing left.  Clearly, Sean was surprised.  Larry got Jo to come on stage and join Sean and then presented them with a gift certificate of $1,500 to Elliot Pattison Sails so they could replace their "Ebay" sails.  This gift was made possible by secret contributions of everyone at the event. As you might have guessed, a huge standing ovation followed that almost never ended.  It couldn't have been too long for all that these two did to put this together.

Later on at 6 PM, many went for a sunset cruise on the Dixie Belle paddle boat and then dinner at Martini's.

I cannot even begin to tell you what a great event this has been and there is nothing we can ever do to sufficiently thank Sean Mulligan for what he has done for pocketcruiser sailors with this event!

THANK YOU SEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John Owens J O Woodworks www.jowoodworks.com 

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February 13, 2010
 
Woke up to another beautiful day, probably in the high 40s.  It's supposed to get to 72 today with winds building to around 15 by mid afternoon.

Sean had the captains meeting at 9 this morning so everyone could sleep in. Today is the poker run.  We all took off around 10:45 with basically no wind.  We motored south clicking pictures of several on the noted landmarks on the sail plan.  Most of the group motored or motorsailed south about 4 miles to Havasu Palms, the location of the most valuable item on our list.  A brief stop at the marina there to stretch our legs and answer nature's call and we were off again headed back North.  While we were stop the wind picked up to probably 4 or 5 knots.  Not a lot but way better than nothing.  It was coming from a northerly direction so upwind we went.  The angle of the wind was such that we could make some pretty long tacks considering how narrow the lake is in this area.  The farther north we went the heavier the wind got.  I was sailing with Larry and Gary again today on Sean's Monty 23.  I really enjoy this boat!  By the time we were about 2/3  of the way back I would guess the wind was up to about 15 so we took in one reef on the main.  It wasn't long before we decided to change headsails from the 150 down to the blade.  This helped a lot and greatly reduced the amount of weather helm.  As we passed a lot of the boats that were just heading south we got to see the beautiful view on many very many colorful spinnakers.

As we headed into the channel more and more power boats came into play.  There were a lot of them pulled to the bank on the beach but a lot in the water too.  As we got closer to the docks at the resort it got to be quite a traffic jam with many of the power boats not understanding the restricted maneuverability of sailboats, but as far as I know there were no wrecks, so all is well.

At about 4 Harry Pattison from Elliot Pattison sailmakers gave a very interesting sail seminar that lasted about 2 hours. 

At 7:30 we all joined again in the convention center for the grudge match between North and South.  This was a game of nautical jeopardy hosted by Neil Dorf.  Four people from each side played and much to my dismay the South lost.  Oh well, there's always next year.
Looking forward to another great day of sailing tomorrow.

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Friday February 12, 2010
Well, as expected, today was a lot better than yesterday.  We woke to a beautiful clear sky, temperature probably in the high 40s.  Before the day was over I would guess the temperature got up close to 70 if not even higher.

Everyone met at the convention center and the resort provided breakfast burritos.  At 8 AM Sean got up and started making his official welcomes.  Vice Mayor Don Callahan welcomed everyone saying how enthusiastic the city was and thanked us all for being here.  Greg Tryon with the Lake Havasu Hospitality Association got up and spoke for a few minutes about their goals to support our group in anyway possible.  He pointed out the list of supporting businesses that would provide discounts on meals to any of our group showing their badge.  So far the only place I have eaten or had drinks at on the list is the Martini Grill here at the resort and I can assure you they when they say discounts they really mean it!  He also mentioned that they were working on the possibility of portable docks for next year so more sailors at the event could dock their boats here at the resort.  Jennifer Johnson from the London Bridge Resort also welcomed us and I will point out that this lady really went over the top  making things work out nice for us. Sgt. Burns with the police department also got up and welcomed us.

Sean then recognized the sponsors for the events and pointed out the ones that were hear.
One of the guys then pointed out that Sean had failed to mention the most important person here—Sean Mulligan.  Without him this would not be possible.  With that, the group stood and gave him a huge well-deserved standing ovation.

A little before 10 we all took off for the circumnavigation of the island.  I was able to sail with Gray Hyde and Larry Yake on Sean's Monty 23 Dauntless.  Really nice boat.  There wasn't much wind but we all had an enjoyable "controlled drift".  It was pretty amazing seeing this many pocket cruisers  in the same place and, get this, there were no wrecks!!!  After a little while we motored to ahead towards the SW part of the island and caught some decent wind.  It wasn't heavy or as much as we would have liked, but we enjoyed about an hour of good sailing before motoring on around the island and under the bridge back to the docks.  Most everyone was back by 12:30 for the boat show.  A lot of people from town came down and spent a lot of time looking at the boats and the captains were thrilled to tell them anything they wanted to know about their boat.  I was able to spend a lot of time meeting everyone since I didn't get the opportunity last night due to my late arrival.

At 5 PM today there were still more sailors arriving.  Don't know exactly how many are here now.

After dinner about 7 PM Sean once again welcomed everyone and introduce Stan Sussman from Interlux/ Awlgrip Paint who gave a very good talk about their products both old and new discussing their uses and application methods.  He then spent quite a few minutes answering a lot of questions from people.  I think the crowd really enjoyed it a learned a lot.  I spent a long time later with Stan discussing a few of the items in great detail as to how they would best work on my products that I make.

After Stan, Jerry Montgomery got up and with a nice slide show went over the details and ideas of the new 16 he is currently designing.  It was very interesting seeing how the actual work of building the mold for the hull was done.  There were a lot of questions which he gladly answered.

Following Jerry, Larry Yake got up and gave rather interesting gag gift awards for countless accomplishments such as farthest distance someone pulled their boat, shortest boat, most sailboats owned and still married, and the list went on and on. 

Finally Sean had the long awaited Ugly Hawaiian Shirt Contest and boy am I glad I wasn't the judge because there we a lot of really really really ugly shirts.  I won't even start to talk about the wig and headgear that Sean put on.

Everyone then visited for awhile and slowly went back to their rooms for a well deserved rest. I think tomorrow will be even better and has more wind forecast as the day progresses.

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John Owens has kindly agreed to keep us posted with live updates from the big pocket cruiser gathering at Lake Havasu. Below is his first report. John runs JO Woodworks. You can see his website here. —Eds

Thursday February 11, 2010
Well this wonderful day for a sailor  Actually started at 5:30 PM on Wednesday when American Airlines sent me an email saying that my 7:55 AM flight out of Tyler had been canceled.  I called them and after much ado found out everything from Tyler had been canceled until at least 1:15 PM.  They told me my 9:55 from Dallas to Phoenix was still on so at 4:45AM on Thursday I headed for Dallas.  About 30 minutes into the drive it started light snow.  IT DOESN'T SNOW IN TEXAS!!!!  The farther I went the heavier it got but 3 hours later I was at DFW airport.  Got checked in with no problem and was told that even with the weather everything was close to on time.  All is well.  NOT!!!!!!!!!  About the time for boarding they came on the loud speaker saying that the flight was canceled.  As it turned out, so were a lot of other flights.  I got scheduled on a 12:20 Central time to Las Vegas arriving in Vegas at 1:20 Pacific time.  Keep up with the time zones.  At boarding time they came over the speaker once again and said our flight attendants were on the ground from another flight and would be right over and we would start boarding.  45 minutes later this happened at 12:20.  Remember that was flight time.  We pulled out of the gate at 12:50 and proceeded to wait in line to get to a de-icing zone.  REMEMBER, IT DOESN'T SNOW IN TEXAS!  At 3:40 central time we finally take off and get to Vegas at 6:14 Pacific time.  Oh, I forgot to mention the car!  I had an Avis car rented in Phoenix.  When I called to move the rental to Vegas I found out that they're entire fleet in Vegas was already rented out so for the next hour of waiting time I was arranging one with Enterprise.  Well I finally got the car and had a tiring drive in the dark on an unfamiliar highway to Havasu.  Arrived at 9:30 PM Mountain time.  Only 17 hours and 45 minutes after I left the house.  I could have driven it in 18 hours according to Google!

Well the good news is I got to the convention center as the movie was ending and met Sean and of course Captain Howie! Got to meet back up with Dorothy and Eldor Eisen from
Ft. Worth who I met last year on Lake Palestine at an event with the Lake Palestine Yacht Club, and the Geeziers Pocket Cruiser club.  Met several others and got all the stuff spread out.
Sleep was not a problem Thursday night! Now it is Wednesday morning and all is well.
I'M AT LAKE HAVASU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Sorry I don't know from what book this originated, just found it on the web. Seems reasobably accurate though. —Eds

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