I came across this at: http://bills-log.blogspot.com/2009/09/mulberry-houseboat.html

Not shantyboats, but anyone interested in small boats should find this interesting:

http://bills-log.blogspot.com/

Built by Jack Kern, this is as basic as a shanty boat can be.

The window flower boxes are a nice touch.

Why athletes can’t have regular jobs

It’s hard to believe that any sanctioned group of sailors have more fun with their boats than a bunch of Puddleduck Racers.

The Puddleduckracer 2009 World Championships were held recently in Altoona, Georgia, with participants from 11 states and one foreign country entered.

One of the great parts of the fun is that everyone entered must bring a homemade trophy if they are going to participate. This is the championship trophy:

David (Shorty) Rouse, the creater of the class captured 5th place and copped this trophy:

Read a complete account of the Championships here:

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/09/columns/jackie/03/index.htm

 

1. Chicago Cubs outfielder Andre Dawson on being a role model: “I wan’ all dem kids to do what I do, to look up to me. I wan’ all the kids to copulate me.”

2. New Orleans Saint RB George Rogers when asked about the upcoming season: “I want to rush for 1,000 or 1,500 yards, whichever comes first.”

3. And, upon hearing Joe Jacobi of the ‘Skins say: “I’d run over my own mother to win the Super Bowl,” Matt Millen of the Raiders said: “To win, I’d run over Joe’s Mom, too.”

4. Torrin Polk, University of Houston receiver, on his coach, John Jenkins: “He treats us like men. He lets us wear earrings.”

5. Football commentator and former player Joe Theismann, 1996: “Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.”

6. Senior basketball player at the University of Pittsburgh : “I’m going to graduate on time, no matter how long it takes.” (now that is beautiful)

7. Bill Peterson, a Florida State football coach: “You guys line up alphabetically by height.” And, “You guys pair up in groups of three, and then line up in a circle.”

8. Boxing promoter Dan Duva on Mike Tyson going to prison: “Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter? He went to prison for three years, not Princeton ..”

9. Stu Grimson, Chicago Blackhawks left wing, explaining why he keeps a color photo of himself above his locker: “That’s so when I forget how to spell my name, I can still find my clothes.”

10. Lou Duva, veteran boxing trainer, on the Spartan training regime of heavyweight Andrew Golota: “He’s a guy who gets up at six o’clock in the morning, regardless of what time it is.”

11. Chuck Nevitt , North Carolina State basketball player, explaining to Coach Jim Valvano why he appeared nervous at practice: “My sister’s expecting a baby, and I don’t know if I’m going to be an uncle or an aunt.” (I wonder if his IQ ever hit room temperature in January)

12. Frank Layden , Utah Jazz president, on a former player: “I told him, ‘Son, what is it with you? Is it ignorance or apathy?’ He said, ‘Coach, I don’t know and I don’t care.’”

13. Shelby Metcalf, basketball coach at Texas A&M, recounting what he told a player who received four F’s and one D: “Son, looks to me like you’re spending too much time on one subject.”

14. Amarillo High School and Oiler coach Bum Phillips when asked by Bob Costas why he takes his wife on all the road trips, Phillips responded: “Because she is too damn ugly to kiss good-bye.”

15. These are right in the ballpark with Mike Tyson’s answer to what he will do when he retires….”I guess I’ll just fade into   Bolivia .”

As I’ve said before, the PDRacer is well within the spirit of shantyboating and I love them. In fact I’ve decided to build one myself and will be boring everyone who reads this blog with how it comes together.

Not only are these actually an international racing class with nearly 400 registered hulls, the people who build and sail in them seem to have at least as much, if not more fun than people who sink mega-thousands into getting out on the water. One of the biggest challenges for small boaters is the Texas 200, a five day expidition (I fear to call it a race though it is, sorta) and there’s a dedicated group of Puddle Duckers who enter each year.

Here’s a story of one of the participants:

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/09/gatherings/ranger/index.htm

And anyone looking for just a good read about small boats should go to duckworks magazine anyway.

Anything with sharp teeth eats meat

Most power tools have sharp teeth

People are made of meat

(Stolen from Soundman on the excellent Australian forum http://www.woodworkforums.com/)

And never forget: A borrowed saw will cut anything!

In the previous post on minimalism I mentioned that I look at some boats and say “that’s good enough.” Here’s what I mean:

What’s wrong with that other than the fact it’s not a gold-plater? In fact it has many advantages not the least of which is with such shallow draft it will be able to tuck up into wonderfully quiet anchorages unavailable to most other boats.

The actor Sterling Hayden wrote the following in his autobiography, Wanderer:

“Many men say, ‘I’ve always wanted to sail to the South Seas, but I can’t afford it.’  What these men can’t afford is not to go.  They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of ’security.’  And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine–and before we know it our lives are gone.

” ‘What does a man need–really need?  A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in–and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment.  That’s all–in the material sense. And we know it.  But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade.

” ‘The years thunder by.  The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience.  Before we know it the tomb is sealed.’ “

Thoreau, the avatar of simple living said:

“Why do you stay here and live this mean moiling life, when a glorious existence is possible for you?  Those same stars twinkle over other fields than these.”

The cost of a person’s boat doesn’t make the stars twinkle brighter for the gold -plater than it does for the minimalist sailor. I’m reminded of that when I remember two very different approaches to the cruising life I encountered on the Rio Dulce back in ‘92. One of the nicest boats on the river was a big, beautiful trawler-type boat named Old Huguenot , around 60 feet or so. It sparkled and shined, had professional crew and really was pleasing to the eye. A boat anyone could be proud of. It was easily in hock to a bank for a serious seven figures.

At the same time there was a beat up 25 foot sailboat owned by a young guy in his 30s with a yen to wander. He’d bought the boat in Tampa, Florida, for $1,500. It had exactly two sails, the main and a working jib. It was equipped with a single-burner stove, a VHF radio with six channels and a small compass. Yet there he was on the Rio Dulce. It was great fun to see the bearded sailboat skipper and the owner of the nicest boat on the river sitting side by side at one of the marina bars sipping a frosty Gallo beer together. As Thoreau, again, points out:

“This the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one center.”

I wish I’d kept track of how many times I’ve started on this thread only to abandon it. Minimalism encompasses so many different themes…art, tiny houses, cruising boats, an attempt to simplify one’s life.

Some seek out minimalism in their lives. Some have it thrust upon them. I seem to fall into the latter category. A couple of years ago I had more money in the bank than I thought I would ever have in my life. Today I’m worried about coming up with the rent for November. What happened to that money? Life interveined.I only bought a few things when I first received the inheritance from my Dad. I bought myself a new car (used but nicer than what I had ever had except for once), I bought some furniture for my bedroom, a bought a lower-end flat-screen t.v. and I had some long-neglected dental work taken care of. Essentially I ate the rest of it.

As so many people are learning lately, once you reach a certain age the job market for your skills diminishes rapidly and the older you get the smaller that market becomes. In order to survive without depending on a job bagging groceries at Publix you have to go out and create your own job.

For a while I worked as an “independent contractor” for a limousine company ferrying people to and from the three large airports here in southeast Florida. I liked the job. Actually it was the people I dealt with that I enjoyed the most and I built up a list of people who would request that the company would send me to drive them. One was the CEO of a large international corporation who did a lot of traveling for his job. He once said to me “you’re an intelligent guy, why are you doing a job like this?” My answer was, “how many job openings are there in your company for 60 year old white guys?” “I see your point,” he said.

I drove for nearly 2 years until the price of gas (which we had to pay for) rose faster than the fares did to compensate for our increased expenses. The last three weeks I drove I didn’t even make the pitiful minimum wage people at Wal Mart receive.

Two opportunities opened up at the same time towards the end of my driving days. I was offered the position of Associate Editor for Southern Boating Magazine and a long-time friend received his General Contractor’s License and asked me to be his office manager.

Actually it was the second time I’d been offered the magazine job. I turned it down the first time because they were located at the extreme southern tip of Miami Beach and I lived north of Fort Lauderdale. The money they were offering wasn’t enough to compensate for the hour plus drive each way plus the cost of gasoline.

Presented with the choice of the two jobs I weighed the options. Did I want to help start something new or did I want to face the prospect of the third annual update to generators for cruising boats? I chose to throw my lot in with my friend.

We did fairly well at first, and in January of 2008 we had over $2.5 million in bids out for new work. Then George (putting the W into AWOL) Bush’s economic program and the inevitable bursting of the housing bubble went in to high-gear. My  traditional investments tanked. We didn’t sign any new work and I was forced to live off of my inheritance.

Now I subsist on Social Security and am struggling to sell my Boston Whaler so I can get down to Panama where I have a Pensionado Visa and will be able to live better than I can in my own country. I keep dropping the asking price of the Whaler (to no avail) and so the boat that I thought of buying or building a year ago has dwindled in size and so I keep tweaking the dream and downsizing the boat. This has lead me to thinking along minimalist lines.

A decade and a half ago when I had the burning desire to cruise to Belize I said I’d use the money I had to buy a boat to do it in and I wasn’t too picky about how big it had to be. As long as it would be big enough that I could lay down in and keep myself dry in a storm would be sufficient. Currently I’m back in that mode. I delight in the exploits of Dylan Winter in his 19 foot boat and his circumnavigation of England chronicled in his YouTube videos “Keep Turning Left.” I devour Duckworks Magazine and when I see some of the designs think to myself “That would do.” I regularly visit Craig’s List, Sailboat Trader and eBay looking for something that I could afford and make that great adventure down to Panama. Robert Manry crossed the Atlantic in less than 15 feet. I could certainly get to Bocas del Toro in something a bit bigger.

You just have to think of all the things most people want on their boats and then decide what you can really do without.

As Thoreau said, Simplify, Simplifiy.

SIX PHASES OF A PROJECT:

ENTHUSIASM

DISILLUSIONMENT

PANIC

SEARCH FOR THE GUILTY

PUNISHMENT OF THE INNOCENT

PRAISE AND HONOR TO NONPARTICIPANTS