05 Oct

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Pleasures

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We are regularly and thoroughly flattered by comments we get from readers about our magazine. People talk about savoring each issue, waiting by the mailbox, and the good feeling they get from reading and even re-reading a copy. I’m so close to it that it’s difficult for me to relate. While I find each issue very satisfying, having struggled to produce it, it’s impossible for me turn the pages with the fresh eyes of our typical reader.

When I hear from a passionate subscriber I sometimes wonder if there are publications, productions or programs in my own life for which I have this same kind of enthusiasm. Craig and I are both big fans of Old Time Radio, and I know we both enjoy broadcasts of AM radio programs like When Radio Was and internet stations like Antioch AM 1710  and Yesterday USA. Another of my favorite things is the CBC broadcast Vinyl Cafe, an entertaining hour of music and storytelling—and a wonderful live show if they pass through your town.

Although none of these has anything to do with boats or sailing, they’re good examples of niche productions that I enjoy and am thankful exist. All of them also happen to be “escapes” of one kind or another—well removed from the din of television news cycles and the stress of the modern world.

We trade subscriptions with a half dozen or so other sailing magazines. I very much enjoy several of them and usually take away something from all of them, but obviously our own magazine is the only one that suits me entirely.

One sailing production that gives me a really warm feeling, and speaks to our specific niche, is Dylan Winter’s Keep Turning Left video blog. The camera work and narration are spectacular, and each episode has historical bits, humor, and the slow pace of a little sloop wending her way through a muddy tidal passageway. If you haven’t yet seen one of his films, I recommend you have a look.  A new installment called “Ore Spit” is posted at his site now.—JC

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04 Oct

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coast_pole Eben Goff

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‘coast / pole’ took place during two trips to the North Olympic Coast in Washington State; the first during winter of 2002 and the second in spring of 2003. Driftwood poles were collected locally and carried to specific stretches of coast where, after the day’s first high tide began to recede, the poles were set vertically into sand or rocks along the tide line. The pole configurations took shape in response to their surrounding topography. The quantity of poles used in these arrangements ranged between 25 and 100. All constructions washed away with in 24hours. At the outset of this project, a self portrait photograph was taken wearing a hand-made mirror mask and a fishing net that had washed up on the beach.


Eben Goff



Alchemical Vessel


Point of Arches


caption text for coast / pole 4



coast / pole 4
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coast / pole 1
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coast / pole 1
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coast / pole 3
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coast / pole 2
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coast / pole 2, washed out to sea
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All material courtesy Eben Goff

I stumbled, happily, across this arresting art project by Eben Goff. I found it haunting, but at first I didn’t delve into why, I just enjoyed it on it’s surface, letting it tug at me but not wanting to analyze too much. I’d revisit it every few days. Recently I directed a friend who shares my interest in art to it. In trying to answer her questions I found I was looking more deeply into the work, and simultaneously into my response to it. It was a fruitful endeavor. I had originally contacted Eben to ask his permission to share this piece with my readers, but he was traveling over the summer and we had only a little dialogue. After digging into it with my friend, I had a set of responses to the work and sent them to Eben to see what he thought, and his reply surprised me, I don’t usually get this stuff right but he confirmed my reading and elaborated on it. I’d like to share the ‘conversation’ with you, but not just yet. What I plan is to give anyone interested a chance to do what I did, to work with this piece and arrive at your own conclusions and discoveries. In short, right now I want to share it, but not spoil it for others by laying my interpretation and Eben’s response all over it just yet. This will allow you to have an unmediated response of your own. In a week or two or so, I’ll re-post this with a transcript of our exchange. Should be fun, stay tuned. And great thanks to Eben for being open to a dialogue, and to my friend Lisa Obrecht who got me really thinking about this piece and helped elucidate our responses. A portal to Eben’s masterful work, and other pieces, can be found here.

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29 Sep

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SCAMP 9/29

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More photos of SCAMP under construction.

She looks almost ready to cruise…

Doubling the after edge of cabin roof. Note double access hatches. They will be typical watertight type eventually. That long cutout in the center will be an access door inside the mast box to get at the mast step. Hard to see, but there’s a small drain hole at the base of the bulkhead so that rain water and spray don’t collect but instead drain away into the cockpit.

View forward. Note almost finished coamings and beamy cockpit. Although the primary accommodations goal was a comfortable solo berth on the cockpit sole with upper body under the “veranda,”  with filler boards, SCAMP’s generous cockpit will accommodate two sleepers out in the cockpit entirely.

And finally, the answer to the burning question every hardship-loving,  minimalist small-boat cruiser has secretly wondered about with regard to SCAMP: Yes, a grown man can sit entirely out of the weather—even without the boom tent.

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