Scott's Boat Pages

Tiki 21 Missing in the Florida Keys

2017-01-23T12:23:00.004-06:00

I just got word from my friend, Dan Kunz, the owner of my old Tiki 21, formerly known as Element, that his boat has gone missing from its mooring in Islamorada.

Dan isn't sure if the Tiki 21 has been stolen or if it somehow came loose from its lines, but it was well secured with double redundancy on all lines and chains.

Dan has put out the word to the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs, and the local sheriff's department. If you see this boat in the waters of the Keys or beyond, please get in touch with one of these agencies or Dan directly at svforeveryoung@hotmail.com

The current Florida registration number on the hull is: FL 0809 NW. H.I.N. TXZ65126F92.

Here's an old photo from when I had her with the former name: Element. The current name is Forever Young.

Tiki 21 For Sale in the Florida Keys

2016-03-13T11:12:00.000-05:00

I just got word that my old Tiki 21 (formerly Element) is for sale again. She's in a great location for some shallow draft catamaran cruising if you're in the market for that kind of boat:

Wharram Tiki 21 For Sale

Lying Islamorada, FL. Dan. 305-664-0190 (vm only, no text or email to phone) or svforeveryoung@hotmail.com

Forever Young is for sale (formally Element – lots of You Tube and pics on web under that name). Solid but needs bottom sanding and paint. No road trailer but includes heavy duty 4 wheel Cat Trax/Big Foot beach cart. Original Wharram wing sale gaff rig with Jeckels sails (main, jib and spinnaker). Recent 6HP Tohatsu with 2 tanks. Solar panel on each hull with separate battery and electrical system in each hull. LED nav lights. Lots of power outlets in various places. Safety net forward. Forward and aft tramps. Will be keeping all other items (ground tackle, sleeping pads, gps, radios, etc) for new boat. $8,750.

Book III of The Pulse Series is Available to Preorder Now

2015-09-22T17:02:00.000-05:00

Those of you who have read my 2012 novel, The Pulse, know that there is lots of sailing action and adventure in this story of a man who is stranded in the Caribbean far from his only daughter when a series of solar flares takes down the power and communications grid. The story continued in Book II of the series, Refuge, which was published last year, and now Book III, Voyage After the Collapse will soon be released and is available for preorder now.

Here is the official description:

BOOK III OF THE PULSE SERIES—A STORY OF SURVIVAL IN THE AFTERMATH OF MASSIVE SOLAR FLARES THAT DESTROY THE POWER, COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORTATION GRIDS, BRINGING ABOUT A DESCENT INTO LAWLESS CHAOS AND UNBRIDLED SAVAGERY.

The crew of the sailing vessel, Casey Nicole has endured a harrowing ordeal on the dark waterways of the coastal swamps near New Orleans, but Artie Drager has escaped with what he came for—his only daughter, Casey.

They are free of the mainland but still too close for comfort. Now the crew of six aboard the big catamaran must plot a course and set sail into the unknown, hoping to find a place where the impact of the electromagnetic pulse was not so severe. Where that will be, they have no way of knowing. Did the solar flares impact the whole planet, or just the parts of the Western Hemisphere they have seen?

Voyage After the Collapse is a passage of hope into an uncertain future, leaving the terror of the U.S. mainland astern in the wake.

You can preorder the book now for $3.99. The release date is set for December 16, but I expect to see it released sooner, hopefully in November. Reserve your copy at the link below. You won't be charged until the book is actually released and delivered to your Kindle or other ebook reading device. A paperback edition will also be available around the same time the Kindle edition is released.

Voyage After the Collapse (Book III of The Pulse Series)

Norwalk Islands Sharpie 23 for Sale

2015-06-22T18:29:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I had a chance to personally inspect a Norwalk Islands Sharpie 23 (N.I.S. 23) that is currently for sale in Cocoa, Florida. I've read about these Bruce Kirby designs for years, but had never seen one, as they are rare in the U.S. and even rarer on the used boat market here. When Dave Lewis, the owner contacted me to let me know it was for sale, I planned to pass the information along to my readers here. As it happened, I had an opportunity to get involved with a big teak deck job for Boatsmith a bit farther down the coast, so I was able to stop by on the way home and meet Dave and have a look at the boat in person.

An experienced sailor who has explored lots of remote parts of the Bahamas in shallow draft boats, Dave has been impressed with the N.I.S. 23 but is now ready to downsize to something more suited to quick and easy launching for local daysailing. Considering the cost to build a new boat this size, never mind having it professionally built as this one was, I think this trailerable cruising sharpie could be a good deal for the right person. The boat has been stored indoors and comes with an excellent trailer that Dave had built after he purchased the boat from the original owner. The entire package is in good condition, as you can see from the photos.

Here are the particulars Dave provided, along with his contact email for anyone who wants to know more about this unique wooden boat:

She is a 23' Kirby Norwalk Island Sharpie(N.I.S.); has a free standing cat ketch rig. Masts are carbon fiber. Have two suits of sails: one white, loose footed; one tan bark, fully battened. All running rigging leads to cockpit.

Professionally built 1996 by Sea Island Boat Works, Charleston, S.C. Hull is epoxy coated inside and out; hull exterior sheathed in glass cloth. Two settees (adult bunks) provide comfortable sitting headroom with main hatch cover closed. No amenities except cockpit cushions and interior cushions for bunks. Standard horizon VHF.

LOA 23' ; Beam 7'-5" ; LWL 22' ; Disp. 1900# ; Draft 4.5' board down; 8" board up.

I've enjoyed sailing the boat in the Indian River here in Cocoa. The boat has always been dry sailed. It currently resides on a single axle aluminum trailer in my garage. This combo tracks well with a medium vehicle.

This vessel is easily single handed and makes a great daysailer, weekender.

Dave Lewis, delewis59@yahoo.com

Sailing the Apocalypse: A Misadventure at Sea

2015-01-19T10:37:00.000-06:00

I've written much here over the years about Wharram catamarans, and my regular readers here know that I'm a big fan of all of James Wharram's designs. I have built a Hitia 17 and a Tiki 26 from plans and restored and sailed a Tiki 21. I've also been involved in the professionally-built Wharram catamarans coming from Boatsmith, Inc. in Florida, and no doubt will build or buy another Wharram cat at some point in the future.

So, even though I'm not building another Wharram catamaran at present, they are obviously on my mind a lot as they keep coming up as the featured vessels in my fiction projects. For those of you who may not have seen it on my main website or other blogs, I have a new book out that was just released this past weekend.

Sailing the Apocalypse: A Misadventure at Sea, is the story of a man who is obsessed with the idea of building a big Wharram cat (Tiki 46) to get his family away from what he believes is a country on the verge of collapse. Terry Bailey has done his research and knows the advantages and virtues of a Wharram for his purpose. He greatly overestimates both his boatbuilding and sailing experience, however, and the story becomes a series of screw-ups and misadventures as he forges on with more determination than good seamanship. This book, at 304 pages, is the first in what will be an ongoing series that follows this family's adventures. I think most Wharram enthusiasts, as well as boatbuilders and sailors in general will be able to relate. The full description is posted below the cover image. You can get a copy of Sailing the Apocalypse in either ebook or paperback from the links at the bottom of this post.

Terry Bailey is convinced America is doomed, and the last hope for his family is to escape to sea.

How far would you go to protect your family if you were convinced America was in imminent danger of collapse? Would you build an underground bunker and stockpile it with weapons and supplies? Buy a cabin in the woods and start growing all your own food? Sell everything off and move to a survivalist’s stronghold in the mountains of Idaho?

None of the above would be enough if you were obsessed with boats the way Terry Bailey is obsessed.Terry has an escape plan to sail to the very ends of the earth; the only real option left to survive what’s coming, according to him. Convincing his new wife, teen stepdaughter and preteen stepson that time is running out, he sells his recently-acquired family on the necessity to build a boat. Two years of hard labor later, Terry has his ship—a huge ocean-going catamaran sloppily cobbled together from plywood and epoxy in their backyard in north Mississippi.

When the ship is ready to launch, Terry christens her the Apocalypse, and the four of them move aboard for good, bidding farewell to life on land along with everything and everyone they had known before that day. There is no need to wait for a disaster to strike, because Terry Bailey has created his own. Now he is about to drag his entire family over the horizon with him. Sailing the Apocalypse is the story of a man who is about to go too far, and is told from the perspective of the twelve-year-old stepson who watches it all unfold as he is swept along for the ride.

Sailing the Apocalypse is available in ebook form from Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble and Kobo.

You can get the paperback from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Both formats are available in the various Amazon stores worldwide as well (UK, France, Germany, Australia, etc.).

Boatsmith's Ariki 48 Nearing Completion

2014-12-02T10:56:00.001-06:00

My friend, David Halladay, of Boatsmith, Inc., has just posted an update of the nearly-finished custom Wharram Ariki 48 he and his crew have been building in West Palm Beach. It shouldn't be long now until launch:

I am The Ocean:

2014-11-05T20:50:00.000-06:00

Book Giveaway: The Sequel to The Pulse

2014-09-03T11:32:00.002-05:00

Time marches on and it seems hard to believe that it's been over two years since my first novel, The Pulse was published in the summer of 2012. I posted about it here before it was released because although it is a work of dsytopian fiction, most of the story involved sailing a long and dangerous passage with no electronic instruments or aids to navigation in the wake of a solar flare that shuts down the power grid:

http://scottsboatpages.blogspot.com/2012/06/post-apocalyptic-sailing.html

The Pulse was a big success when it was released in 2012, for awhile getting into the top 300 books on Amazon, and I wanted to immediately write the sequel because I ended the first book with a sequel and even a series in mind. Working with a publisher can prove incredibly frustrating though, as in their infinite wisdom they delayed offering me a contract for the sequel for more than a year and instead insisted I do a parallel story for young adults set in the same world. While The Darkness After was also a fun project to write and was a success as well, that story did not involve sailing and the publication schedule delayed the writing of the sequel to The Pulse much longer than I would have liked. But finally, the book was completed earlier this year and Refuge After the Collapse has now been printed will be available on or before September 23. The story picks up with Larry Drager, anchored in the remote Honey Island Swamp near New Orleans in his big Wharram catamaran. I hope those of you who read and enjoyed the first book will check it out and I apologize for the long delay. This won't happen again as I calling all the shots with my book publishing from this point forward.

I wanted to post this to Scott's Boat Pages today in order to give readers of this blog who may not follow my other sites an opportunity to enter a book giveaway for Refuge that will end around the 23rd. The giveaway is for 10 signed copies to be mailed to the winners, and all you have to do to enter is sign up for my opt-in newsletter by entering your first name and email address in the form linked below. Your email address won't be shared and you won't get a bunch of junk email from me, only the occasional book giveaway or new release announcement like this one. After you enter by submitting the form, be sure and check your inbox and spam folders for the confirmation email, because if you don't click on it to opt in, you won't be officially entered:

Scott B. Williams Email Newsletter Signup

If this link doesn't work for some reason, you can also find the signup form under the Newsletter tab in the menu at the top of this page. I'm currently working on another novel about cruising on a sailboat and I'll look forward to keeping my newsletter readers informed about the upcoming release that will be happening later this year.

Living the Life on 28 Feet

2014-09-03T10:30:00.000-05:00

This video portraying a single hander's life aboard a 28-foot wooden sailboat has been making the rounds on the various forums such as Sailing Anarchy. If you haven't seen it, it's well worth the watch, not only for the story but the quality of the production and the photography.

The Pros and Cons of Living On A Sailboat in the Caribbean

David Welsford doesn't pay rent or have a full time job. Instead, he lives on a 50-year-old wooden boat. A few years ago, he gave up the luxuries of land for life alone in the sea. "For me, what's more important than having a big house is having a space that makes me feel good," he says.

This short documentary explores Welsford's unique, maritime lifestyle, and the sacrifices that arise along the way -- from romantic relationships to finances. "There's always a way to make money. There's always a way to live," Welsford says. "If I have enough to go and have a beer and I have enough to go to the grocery store, if I can put enough diesel in the tanks of the boat, then I think I'm one of the richest people in the world."

http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/374880/living-alone-on-a-sailboat/

How NOT to do a kayak trip in Virgin Islands

2014-08-01T14:43:00.002-05:00

When I published my trip narrative, On Island Time back in 2005, in the back of my mind it occurred to me that some would-be adventurer with the same determination I had at age 25 might be inspired by the book to set out on some life-threatening adventure and go missing or worse. I wondered if I could be sued by the family, but then put such worries aside when I realized that most likely, the odds of such a thing happening were slim, considering the limited distribution the book would get, published by a small university press in Mississippi.

But out of the blue one day, I got an email from of all places, Kansas. Scott Finazzo, a professional firefighter there, had received my book as a gift from his wife, and the wheels began turning. Already infatuated with the Virgin Islands from a trip there as a tourist, Finazzo was now inspired to paddle there. No, he wasn't planning to try and paddle to the islands from Kansas, but he did plan to island hop among them, getting far off the beaten path in both the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. The thing is, he had zero seat time in sea kayaks, not even a day trip on a Midwestern lake or river. He also quickly realized it would cost too much to ship hardshell touring kayaks there, no outfitters in the islands rented appropriate boats for his proposed trip, and buying an expensive folding kayak such as a Feathercraft was way out of the budget. Not to be deterred by such minor inconveniences, he enlisted two of his firefighter buddies as co-conspirators in the adventure. One of them suggested building the boats for the job, so under his guidance an after-hours boatbuilding project was began in a suburban garage in Kansas.

There were so many setbacks and delays that the glue binding the fabric on the skin-on-frame kayaks was literally drying on the plane ride down island. The boats were completely untested until they were assembled on a Caribbean beach for first time. These guys didn't even know how to get in a sea kayak before they began! Finazzo describes one such entry in this typically hilarious passage in his book: 'While still nestled firmly in the sand of Brewer's Bay, Eric squeezed, jostled, and cussed himself into his kayak. The boat rocked side-to-side as he kicked his linebacker legs into position. Once in place, he quickly scooted his ass forward and backwards a few times like a dog on the living room carpet. He successfully lodged himself in and gave me a nod affirming he was ready to go.'

Finazzo describes this whole adventure in a way that is both entertaining and informative. He later enlisted my advice on writing and recently completed his book about the trip: Why Do All The Locals Think We're Crazy? Three Men, Three Kayaks, The Caribbean, and One Bad Idea. The book is available now on Amazon in both paperback and ebook formats, and is a read I highly recommend. Yours truly even wrote the forward! Finazzo and I have long since become good friends since that first email out of the blue, coauthoring The Prepper's Workbook for Ulysses Press earlier this year and last year sailing together across the Gulf of Mexico to bring my Cape Dory 27 home to Biloxi.

Reuel Parker Egret 31.5 Sharpie Build Blog

2014-01-15T06:48:00.000-06:00

During my most recent visit with Reuel Parker, which has now been a little over a year ago but certainly doesn't seem like it, Reuel gave me the study plans for an enlarged Egret-styled sharpie. Based on the original 28-footer made famous by Commodore Munroe in Florida, this 31.5-foot version offers much better cruising accommodations, although like all sharpies, still minimal for it's size. Reuel said it was the most boat that could be built for the money and pointed out that it would be quick to build, trailerable and yet capable of crossing the Gulf Stream and exploring skinny water off the beaten track, like the Bights of Andros, one of his favorite places in the Bahamas to hang out.

I was intrigued, but not ready to start another boat building project so soon after selling my Wharram Tiki 26. In fact, the reason I was in Reuel's neck of the woods in Florida was to inspect a Liberty 28 Cutter that was offered by a brokerage nearby. I didn't make an offer on the Liberty, and ended up buying my Cape Dory 27 several months later, but I've pulled out those Egret study plans more than a time or two. I kept hoping someone would build one, and now it is happening. A Google search of the design turned up Dennis Woodriff's build blog, started in 2013. Building in Virginia, he made rapid progress until winter and a move put him on temporary hold. The hull has been built and turned and he is now finishing the interior, deck and house structures:

I got in touch and learned that Dennis has extensive sailing experience and plans more big adventures when he launches his new Egret sharpie. I'm anxiously awaiting the continuation of the build, and I'm betting that once the weather improves we won't have to wait long to see this new Parker design launched.

For more on the Egret 31.5, the description of the design is available on Reuel Parker's site here.

Columbus Ship Replicas During Biloxi Stopover

2014-01-05T15:13:00.000-06:00

Considered to be the closest replicas to the real thing ever built, the Niña and Pinta Columbus ships operated by The Columbus Foundation of the British Virgin Islands were docked in Biloxi most of last month. Built in the traditional way in Brazil, both of these ships are full of authentic details on deck, despite the hidden engines and more modern crew accommodations down below.

The Pinta replica is larger than the original, but the Niña is historically accurate, at 65 feet on deck with an 18 foot beam and 7 foot draft. This is the Niña below:

View of the Pinta from on board the Niña:

The Pinta on deck:

The Niña in profile with Deer Island in the background, just across Biloxi harbor:

More about these ships can be found on the The Columbus Foundation website here. After leaving Biloxi they were scheduled to haul out for maintenance at Landry Boatworks, Bayou la Batre, Alabama. The next port where they will be open for visitors is Ft. Walton Beach, Florida.

Local Fall Sailing

2013-12-08T14:41:00.001-06:00

Fall is generally my favorite time of year on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, and this year was even better since I now have a Cape Dory 27 at the dock and ready for local adventures. As with any boat, I have a long list of projects planned that I'm still working on prioritizing, and haven't yet decided which will come first or where I'll do the work. I've been weighing the pros and cons of doing it bit-by-bit in the boatyard near the marina or in the water at the dock, or moving the boat to my backyard on a custom trailer or hiring a local boat mover with a hydraulic trailer to do it. One way or the other, I plan to decide on that soon, probably after the first of the year. Here are a few photos taken in local waters since the trip home from Tarpon Springs in July:

This is the anchorage off of West Ship Island the first week in November, taken from my little 9-foot sit-on-top kayak after I spend a half hour of so diving under the bottom to clean the hull and prop.

That trip was Michelle's first time aboard the boat. We had great weather, and the anchorage to ourselves.

Sunrise over West Ship Island.

These last two were taken by my brother, Jeff from his fishing boat, as I was sailing back to Biloxi from a solo trip to East and West Ship Islands. They were taken with an iPhone, so not the best quality, but the only shots I have of the boat under sail. I still had a reef in the main coming in, as it had been blowing a steady 20-25 knots a couple hours earlier. This boat is really easy to singlehand, a very important criteria I had when I was looking for my next boat. At this time I have two tiller pilots on board, but will eventually fit a self-steering windvane as well.

Kruger Sea Wind Canoe #175 is For Sale

2013-09-05T17:35:00.000-05:00

UPDATE 10-12-13: Sea Wind #175 has now been SOLD and will be moving to the Chesapeake Bay area when the new owner picks it up in November.

I recently mentioned in the comments section of my post about The Kruger Sea Wind Canoe, that my boat, Sea Wind hull #175 is currently for sale. I am updating here to let anyone who may be looking for a great deal on one of these boats know that #175 is still available.

It may come as a surprise that I am selling this special boat so soon after buying it, so I'll explain the reason now. I had been in the market for a cruising sailboat to replace the Tiki 26 catamaran that I sold in August, 2012, and for several months I looked at boats from south Florida to the Texas Gulf Coast and still could not find what I was looking for. So in March, 2013, when a friend sent me a link to a classified ad listing this Kruger Sea Wind for sale in Minneapolis, MN, I decided to jump on the opportunity to buy it, because these boats are rare on the used market and usually sell fast when they do appear. At the time, I was ready to get out on the water, and figured it would be a long time before I found the right sailboat. So, I drove to Minneapolis, picked up the Sea Wind and brought it back to Mississippi, where I have since paddled it on numerous day trips in rivers, lakes and the Gulf, and one three-day camping trip on Bay Springs Lake, on the Tenn-Tom Waterway.

Naturally, not long after buying the Sea Wind the perfect deal on a sailboat came along, and I bought a 1980 Cape Dory 27 in Tarpon Springs, Florida, and sailed it home with my friend, Scott Finazzo, as described in my previous post here. Of course, a 27-foot sailboat that has to be kept in the water all the time requires a lot more in the way of maintenance and expenses than any canoe or kayak, not to mention all the upgrades and additional equipment I would like to add, so I made the decision to let the Sea Wind go at this time so I can devote my full attention to the sailboat. Owning a Kruger Canoe, even briefly, fulfilled a long-term dream of mine I've had since first reading about Verlen and Steve's Ultimate Canoe Challenge expedition back in the 1980s. I'm sure I will own another one at some point, as the boat has lived up to all the hype and is everything the avid paddlers who own one say it is. But for now, the limited time I will have to use it doesn't do it justice, so I'm hoping to find a serious paddler who will be able to use it to its potential.

Sea Wind #175 is ten years old, built in 2003, and there were two previous owners before me. It is in excellent condition for its age and has not been abused or likely even used hard. There are a few of the usual dings and scrapes any boat of this type will sustain in normal use, but overall, the boat still looks great and performs like new. It comes with the optional spray skirt that encloses the large cockpit for paddling in rough conditions in open water, as well as a waterproof travel cover for the cockpit, and the cockpit canopy that Verlen designed for paddling in hot, tropical conditions. I'm selling the boat with all these extras as a package deal, and whoever buys it will save a significant amount of money over the cost of a new Sea Wind, not to mention getting it now, rather than having to wait several months depending on the builder's backlog. You can find current pricing of a new Sea Wind and these accessories here on the Kruger Canoes website: http://www.krugercanoes.com/Products.html

Email me directly for the price and answers to any questions you may have about this boat. It is located in south Mississippi, but delivery or shipping may be possible depending on buyer location.

Sailing My New (to me) Boat Home

2013-07-27T17:37:00.000-05:00

Long-time readers of this blog have probably been disappointed in my lack of regular posting, but those of you who still check in from time to time will likely see a lot of new material here in the near future. I have been on an intensive boat search for the past year, since selling my Wharram Tiki 26 catamaran project, and though I could have posted about the various ups and downs of the search, I decided to wait until I actually found a boat first.

That search has led me to a 1980 Cape Dory 27, a Carl Alberg design I have long admired that is just the right size and displacement to meet my current needs in a cruising boat. I will be posting extensively here as I upgrade and refit this vessel, at the same time as I use her for local daysailing and cruising. Taking my time to find the right boat paid off, as she was mostly ready to go and only required four days of preparation and outfitting to get ready for the 450-mile passage home from Tarpon Springs, Florida to Biloxi, Mississippi. Here she is at the dock in Florida:

For the trip home, I had the competent help of my friend, Scott Finazzo, who I am co-authoring a book with at the present time. Scott is also the author of the excellent adventure and travel blog: Lure of the Horizon, and along the way he spent far more time than I shooting stills and video, mostly with his phone. Here is a short compilation of the video clips that he put together:

Kruger Sea Wind Canoe

2013-06-11T09:19:00.003-05:00

My most recent boat acquisition is a Kruger Sea Wind canoe. While at first glance it may look like a kayak or hybrid of some type with its fore and aft decks and foot-controlled rudder, it is in fact a solo canoe and is paddled with a single blade paddle from the middle of the boat.

The Kruger Sea Wind was designed by the late Verlen Kruger - a product of more than a 100.000 miles of paddling experience (more than any other man in history) and was his ultimate expedition boat after more than 40 prototypes.

Unlike a sea kayak, the Kruger Sea Wind has a long, open cockpit and a comfortable seat that adjusts up and down to suit conditions and type and length of paddle being used. With its high peaked decks and raised coaming, it's a dry ride in all but the worst conditions and when needed there is a custom fitted waterproof fabric spray deck to seal the cockpit completely. At 17'2" long with 28" of beam, the boat has a lot more volume than the typical touring sea kayak as well. With no bulkheads or hatches, gear can be shoved fore and aft under the decks in large dry bags. The seat can be quickly removed to clear the cockpit floor for sleeping aboard, if necessary.

I've always wanted to try one of these Kruger-designed canoes since back in the 1980's when I was planning my own big kayak trips that were partly inspired by Verlen Kruger's exploits, particularly his 28,000-mile Ultimate Canoe Challenge and his 20,000-mile Two-Continent Canoe Expedition:

While I still like sea kayaks and feel that they are the most seaworthy small boats available, particularly for nasty surf conditions and the like, the Kruger Sea Wind would have many advantages on trips like my journey from the lakes of Canada down the Mississippi River. For one, it's much easier to portage than a kayak, with a special portage yoke built into the bottom of the seat, that can be quickly deployed by flipping it upside down in it's rack. Then, it's easier to quickly get in and out of than a kayak, useful for pulling over shoals, logs and other obstacles and landing on muddy riverbanks. It can carry much more in the way of gear and supplies, allowing you to easily travel a month between resupply. And finally, it's more comfortable than a kayak, with room to move around and change position, rather than being shoehorned into a narrow cockpit with no options. The long cockpit also allows for setting up a camera tripod in front of the paddling position - great for wildlife photography - especially from a stable platform like this boat is. It's also easier to access camera gear, change lenses, etc. than in a kayak. Most of the video clip at the end of this post was filmed with my Nikon V1 on the tripod in front of me as I paddled.

The main reason I waited so long to try one of these boats was price and availability. All Kruger Sea Winds are custom-built one at a time by Mark Przedwojewski, who learned the craft directly from Verlen. And all are super-strong lay-ups of 10 layers of Kevlar, making for a lightweight, yet almost indestructible boat. A new Sea Wind will set you back around $5500 with no accessories such as the spray deck. Every once in awhile, a used one does show up, but most owners keep their Krugers for life. Mine recently came up for sale by a friend of the prior owner, after she passed away last year. I snatched it up as soon as I found the ad on a paddling classified site, then drove to Minneapolis, Minnesota to pick it up. Getting it used, I saved a good deal and got the spray deck, bimini top and cockpit cover. It's got a few character scratches and dings, but it's Kruger and these boats are built to be paddled, not looked at. Still, it does look good to my eyes anyway, even if it's not perfect. I really love the lines of the hull and decks. It is certainly one slippery boat, and moves through the water with less effort than any canoe I've paddled.

Here's a short video I put together from a recent three-day paddling and camping trip with Ernest Herndon on Bay Springs Lake, which is part of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in north Mississippi. Ernest was paddling my Necky Tesla sea kayak most of the time while I put the Kruger through its paces. He shot the scenes of me paddling the Kruger from the bank during a short break, while the rest was shot from the cockpit while I paddled:

To learn more about these fantastic boats, visit Kruger Canoes. To read the Verlen Kruger story, check out the book: All Things Are Possible: The Verlen Kruger Story: 100,000 Miles by Canoe. Look for updates here too as I try this boat out in a variety of conditions and environments. I'm still in the process of getting it set up for travel and thinking about where I might like to take it.

Assembling a Big Wharram Catamaran

2013-05-19T21:04:00.001-05:00

Part of the appeal of building a Wharram catamaran is that the hulls and other components can be built individually and then moved to another location for assembly and launching. With the smaller sizes, this can be done without much mechanical assistance, but once you get up to the size of the Ariki 47, it gets a little more involved.

Here's a video clip Boatsmith posted showing the delivery and partial assembly of the first pro-built Ariki 47 delivered to the customer, who will complete the fit-out and rigging himself.

Interviews With James Wharram (Three)

2013-03-05T20:41:00.000-06:00

James Wharram continues his story of his early voyages and talks about meeting sailing legend Bernard Moitessier in Trinidad:

Interviews with James Wharram (Two)

2013-03-01T09:13:00.001-06:00

Here is the second of a series of interviews with legendary catamaran designer, James Wharram and co-designer Hanneke Boon. In this conversation with David Halladay, James recounts his early seafaring life:

Interviews with James Wharram

2013-02-26T17:58:00.001-06:00

This is the first of a series of interviews with James Wharram and his co-designer, Hanneke Boon, talking with David Halladay of Boatsmith, Inc. in his shop in West Palm Beach, Florida. In this first video, James discusses his early influences that led to his legendary catamaran designs:

Buy, Outfit & Sail: A Book for the Frugal Sea Gypsy

2012-12-09T09:52:00.000-06:00

I've recently read through Cap'n Fatty Goodlander's recent book: Buy, Outfit & Sail, not just once, but twice. If you've ever even remotely entertained the idea of living the cruising life, this book is as good a place to start as any I've found. Cap'n Fatty dispels the notion that you have to have a lot of money to acquire and outfit a seaworthy boat and sail it around the world. While many other sailing authors have put forth essentially the same idea, few have done it in such an entertaining way as Cap'n Fatty.

The first time through, I read this book because it was full of new ideas and information that I had not seen all in one place before, and some not anywhere. For example, unlike most other "how to get started cruising" books, Cap'n Fatty doesn't just talk about what kinds of boats to consider, he explains at length how to find them. And not only how to find a boat - but how to find one for pennies on the dollar - especially those boats he says have a "ticking time clock" due to the current owner's need to get rid of them now due to various reasons. And after you find the deal of a lifetime on the right boat, the outfit and the sail portions of this book will put you on course to get your vessel shipshape and keep her that way as you chase the horizon.

I read this book a second time not only to pick up tidbits of advice I might have missed the first time around, but mainly for the sheer entertainment value. Cap'n Fatty is a natural-born storyteller, and this book is packed with fascinating glimpses of the amazing life he's lived at sea in a variety of boats. Some of these tales will have you cracking up with laughter and some are so far out there you'll find them hard to believe, but no matter how outrageous the stories, somehow you know that Cap'n Fatty probably actually lived them.

The book is available on Amazon in Paperback or for Kindle. For more information on this and Cap'n Fatty's other books, visit his website at: http://fattygoodlander.com/home

Beachcruising

2012-10-10T06:44:00.001-05:00

I've been spending way too much time thinking about boat design lately, but I suppose it's justified, since I'm trying to decide what my next boat will be. I've been looking at a wide variety of sailing vessels, from heavy, offshore-capable monohulls to small multihull beachcruisers. Sometimes it helps to get just get out on the water to think, so I spent some time a few days ago paddling my kayak around Deer Island, just south of Biloxi. Kayaks are just so simple and quick to launch, and easy to pull ashore most anywhere you care to stop. This is my Arctic Tern 17, one of my favorites that I built about 14 years ago:

While there are some large, shoal-draft cruising sailboats that can go right up the shore and safely dry out at low tide, this Endeavor 37 Ketch that was also beached on the island is definitely not one of them:

This sailing yacht was obviously left hard aground by the storm surge of recent Hurricane Isaac. She's a good 40 or 50 yards from the water's edge now, and at 20,000 lbs. displacement, will not be easy to refloat. I don't know where she was before the storm and how she came to break loose and end up on the beach at Deer Island, but seeing this is a good reminder of just one of the things that the owners of small, beachcruising sailboats and sea kayaks don't have to worry about.

Meeting James Wharram at Last

2012-07-12T18:00:00.000-05:00

Meeting British catamaran designer James Wharram and his co-designer Hanneke Boon back in May was certainly one of the highlights of my year so far, at least until late June, when I saw the first copy of my first novel in its published form. But those who have read The Pulse know that a Wharram-designed 36-foot catamaran is also integral to the plot as the vehicle of choice for one set of characters, and I can say for certain that it will be a part of the sequel as well.

The event was the 2012 Hui Wharram, or Wharram Spring Rendezvous, held in the Florida Keys on and the grounds of and in the anchorage near the Lorelei Restaurant in Islamorada. This is an annual event, but this was the first year the famous designer himself was in attendance, and I made the 2,000 mile round road trip to the Keys just to meet him.

Here, James Wharram is signing my copies of his Design Book and his classic narrative of his 1956-59 double-transAtlantic voyage, Two Girls, Two Catamarans:

James Wharram and Scott B. Williams

Coming from a background of long-distance sea kayaking and canoeing, I was naturally attracted to Wharram catamarans the first time I saw a photo of one back around 1997. I immediately ordered his Design Book then and built the Hitia 17 beachcruising catamaran, which was a natural progression from paddling to sailing. These designs made sense to me then and they still do today. Wharram's basic principles that make them so inherently seaworthy are these:

Narrow beam/length ratio hulls
Veed cross-section to sail to windward without daggerboards or centerboards
Flexibly mounted beams joining the hulls together
No permanent deck cabin between hulls

In addition, like traditional native canoes and kayaks, the two individual hulls that make up a Wharram catamaran are always double-ended, with plenty of rocker amidships and lots of reserve buoyancy due to the flare carried all the way to the sheer. Unlike many modern multihull designs, these catamarans are extremely resistant to capsizing or pitch-poling due to either wind or sea state. This has been amply proven by many ocean crossings in small Wharram cats, including Rory McDougall's circumnavigation in a Tiki 21, which still holds the record as the smallest catamaran to circumnavigate.

An outstanding example of a Tiki 30 at the rendezvous

More about James Wharram's visit to Florida can be found on his website, which was recently updated with a report by Dan Kunz on the rendezvous and James' own report on his visit to the new shop of his U.S. professional builder, David Halladay, of Boatsmith, Inc. Hanneke Boon has also put together a video of the rendezvous and uploaded it to YouTube here. I also wrote an article about the rendezvous for the current, July issue of Southwinds magazine.

Wharram cruising cats pulled up to the beach at the Lorelei

Book Review: Across Islands and Oceans

2012-07-02T14:45:00.002-05:00

I first posted this on my main site earlier today, but wanted to repost here for those of you who may not have seen it. If you have any interest in sailing and especially cruising aboard a voyaging sailboat, you don't want to miss Across Islands and Oceans, by James Baldwin.

Across Islands and Oceans is one of those books that makes me lose focus on everything else I'm doing and seriously contemplate hauling in the anchor and setting sail for distant horizons. The author, James Baldwin, did just that, but he was seriously focused on his dream or he wouldn't have been able to pull off such an amazing solo voyage around the world, beginning at the young age of only 25.

It was another 25 years after leaving before he put down the story in the detailed form you'll find in this book, and in the meantime he continued sailing, circumnavigating two and a half times on his engineless 28-foot Pearson Triton, Atom, and making a name for himself in the voyaging community through his many articles in Cruising World and other sailing publications. His website, Atom Voyages, is a popular and extremely useful resource for those looking to restore and outfit older fiberglass sailboats and follow in his wake. I referred to it extensively in my own refit of an old Grampian 26 that I owned for a few years before losing her to Hurricane Katrina. Baldwin's advice is based on solid experience, and his recommendations are well-reasoned and budget-conscious for the self-sufficient cruising sailor who is not independently wealthy or interested in all the latest gadgets.

But back to the book at hand: Across Islands and Oceans is not simply the narrative of the kind of adventure many of us sailors can only dream about, it is also so well-written and interesting that it could capture the imagination of the most land-locked dirt dweller with no intention of ever setting foot aboard a cruising boat. Baldwin's descriptions of not only the offshore passages but his explorations ashore and interactions with the natives showcase not only his writing abilities, but his keen and genuine interest in the history and culture of the places he visited. Because he was alone with no companion to answer to or distract him, he was able to devote his full attention to the new people and places he encountered over each new horizon. Having traveled solo for extended periods of time myself, I can relate to the difference this makes in the experience, and especially in this case, the difference it makes in the finished book that is the narrative of the voyage. I learned new things about out-of-the-way places that I hope to someday visit throughout the book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in sailing or travel of any kind, but that recommendation comes with a warning: reading this book may leave you discontent with your current life! You may find yourself perusing the online listings of used cruising boats for sale, and if you do, you'll find that in the current economy, this is perhaps the best buyer's market ever for a solid old fiberglass sailboat. For less than the cost of even the most basic new car, and a good bit of elbow grease, you can find and prepare an old boat that can take you around the world. On Baldwin's website, you'll find examples of people who did exactly that, many of them bringing their project boats to him for advice and assistance on the refit before setting out on their own ocean crossings.

Across Islands and Oceans is available in print or in the Kindle version on Amazon.

Art on The Water Video

2012-06-29T14:07:00.001-05:00

Here's a pretty cool video compilation I found on YouTube of Wharram catamaran photos from around the world. Just about every model from the JWD Design Book can be seen here: