salt and wood

1. The makings of Wood if I Cood

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7. Bon Voyage

8. Pirates

You know it took me a long time to get to this point. This was a day trip to the beach that I was not even likely to get time to whip up a boat. Not to mention the wind was blowing on shore. It just so happened I found a few bits here and there and voila, a boat. And not just any boat but a colour coordinated, rope weave crafted, wooden hulled, successfully engineered self writing boat that sat perfectly on the water and low and behold was bobbing around on the water next to me when the wind changed for the afternoon and she glided out into the bay in a smooth effortless fashion and to top it off she was headed for the open sea at the opening of Botany bay. To say I was feeling fulfilled would be an understatement. As we wondered up the hill to leave the beach I turned to get one last shot of her way out on the water from higher ground. It was at this point that I noticed the pirate attack under way. A small chubby child clearly to young to be in charge of a motorized dinghy had broken away from a large motor boat named ‘Risky Business’ and was heading at speed towards the (hence) Wood if I Cood. As my heart sank I watched him grab her by the sail and drag her behind his dinghy at high speed much the same way a hopped up Mexican might drag a captured cowboy. As he came in closer to the shore I yelled out “hey kid let it go out” and I could hear his mum yelling for his attention from the RB “Jordan let it go let it go”. She was clearly concerned that little Jordan may have enraged some beach dwelling boat making hobo and there could be retribution. I couldn’t watch. I tell my self he let it go and it stole away into bay on the evening breeze.

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flotsam rubbish sailing boat

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What an oddball. An almost hull free creation. It sailed surprisingly well. The theory here was that the half bottle located at the rear of the rudder shaft would add to the effect of the rudder and be weightless in the water but if she tried to tip forward in a gust and the half bottle lifted it would of coarse attain weight and hold her down. It sailed surprisingly fast but didn’t get to far before it tipped forward and the big floppy sheet sail dug into the water. This was in the days before I had developed the self righting tech seen on The Steve Kamper, Wood if I Cood and This Is Ship to name a few.   

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Flotsam rubbish sailing boats

There were a number of things I enjoyed about this boat. Not least the word play. The remaining portion of this real estate agents sign not only vaguely referred to a famous car race but also the Leman Brothers company that had just collapsed in the U.S.  A big graceful wooden hulled creature fixed over three PET bottles partly filled with water. The theory was that they float when on the water but attain weight when lifted out of the water such as when she is tipping to far. The main sail was located far enough forward to counter the effect of wind pulling the protruding rudder to the round and sailing backwards. In fact she sailed beautifully as you can see from the wake here pulling away from the rocks and way out in the bay in the final pictures. 

1. Stern

2. Port

A funny primitive little wooden hull plastic sheet sail skimmer. This was a very early creation. The rubber band stabilized knife rudder is probably the only noteworthy feature of Knifes Edge. Strictly for sailing on very calm seas. 

1. Pretty basic

2. Striped hull

3. Ready to roll

4. Bon Voyage

Not even a skimmer just a funny fat little barge with a spray can lid full of sand to help stabilize the hull on the water. You can see where a clothes peg came into its own fixing the sail to the biro mast and in turn to the secondary stabilizing stick that was running the glad wrap flag. This took a few minutes to put together but sailed off in a very satisfying fashion. 

1. The Broken Toe on the lake at Wottamolla RNP.

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Clearly the craft are not posted in order of grace or chronology. This was a very early effort cobbled together with my son at Watamolla in the Royal National Park. Luckily the National Parks were underfunded just enough to leave them short staffed and there was always a little more debris washed up than they were able to collect. I suspect it is the same today. And opens up the philosophical discussion of environmental management. A like the native planting in human altered environments debate. The resources and energy thrown into constantly scraping the sand clean on the beaches is promoted/ spruked for funding as an environmental necessity. In truth it is more for the benefit of our desire for pristine tidiness or the idea of ‘original natural’ and a clear spot to lay out our towel. The seagulls and crabs don’t care what is on the sand and would probably prefer the pickings and shelter. The only real difference to the natural world is the blooming carbon footprint we generate from our incessant ‘cleaning up.’

1. The Mud.

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4. The Mud clears the bridge.

5. The Achievement.

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This is Kendrick Park where the Princess Highway crosses the Cooks River near Wolli Creek Station. A family rest stop in the park was enough time for my son and I to start trawling the muddy banks for building materials. I thought I was going pretty well with my very conservative little river Taxi when my son completely usurped me with his beautiful sculpture of a creation and christened it The Achievement, just to rub it in I am sure. With some rudder adjustment the Mud was able to cut across a slight on shore breeze and head down river towards Botany Bay (?). Unfortunately the wind had swung too far in by the time we tried to launch the Achievement and we never got to see her head out into the river. 

1. The makings of This is Ship.

2. Pre nose cone.

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5. Instant wake.

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7. Bon Voyage.

This is Ship is the most successful ballast or self righting boat constructed to date. And she performed very well in a stiff wind. Much like the Steve Kamper (Boat 16) a sand filled bottle ballast boat with a triple hull including a mid section of timber and a foam deck. The three part mast is a stick and some umbrella struts. With a fast food sail and and a long stabilizing keel. This was put together in 30-40 minutes and took of on the water cutting a pleasing wake as it shot out into Yarra Bay.

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2. The competition.

3. Keel detail.

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6. Bye Steve.

7. Bon Voyage.

I bet this guy never thought he would reach these heights. The Steve was an ungainly thing to look at, especially the double hung sand filled bottle hull swinging under the float bottle. A foam block was used to stab in the mast and pin the ‘sail’ and also to stab in the long tail stick to give the rudder enough leverage to keep this big lug on a straight uncorrupted path (right Steve!). The yellow ball was stuck on top to help visibility as she went out deeper.

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This was put together while flopping on the beach with friends. Its one of the little beaches covered by the National Parks near Maitland Bay and as such the pickings were slim as those pesky rangers and volunteers do such a fanatical job of keeping these beaches looking artificially like its 1780 all over again. A simple little foam hulled, glass keeled, glad wrap sail skimmer that sailed well enough except the across shore breeze meant it really wasn’t leaving town that day. You can see a picture of me at the end there with my little pink ribbon boat. I like picture 6, I imagine that is pretty much the view Cook and Banks saw when they came up here for a sticky around. 

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OK so this one is leaning more to the art side that the sailing side but still a good day out scavenging around the rocks and waves. A couple of feathers stabbed into an old float with a piece of wire and a broken cutlery handle forming the ballast. Evidently the ballast wasn’t enough as is sailed around well in the sea pools but when thrown out to sea past the break the feather sucked onto the water surface and stayed there.

1. Work area.

2. Another go.

3. Ready steady.

4. High hopes.

5. Failure to launch.

So these are the final shots of the Cheese Cross Senior and the sad state of affairs regarding sending her out to sea. It seems it was just never going to happen. We tried launching her from one side of Little Bay but she couldn’t quite clear the small breakers and was smashed against the rocks. Eventually after fishing her out and rebuilding the mast and sail and making some adjustments she was launched from the other side of Little Bay to accommodate a wind change. Smashed again. This time caught on the tide and flipped over unreachable she was left to float around in circles mocking me. My son was taking these pictures and thought it was hilarious taking great pains to express to me the various angles of destruction he had recorded.

1. Collection and construction.

2. Port.

3. Port.

4. Bow.

5. Starboard and wake.

6. Wake.

7. Test flight.

It is appropriate that this is boat 13. Never quite getting an off shore breeze it went back and forth from the beach a number of times. Picture 1 is a good example of the sort of spot where a boat is constructed. Pictures 5, 6 and 7 show the speed of this boat on the water and a test sail from the breakwater to the other side of Yarra Bay. The hull was a length of channeled pine with a cross beam of pine mitered into it with a pocket knife. A plastic bag sail on a stick frame with a cut plastic rudder and some foam outriggers. Picture 6 shows it with the additional ALDI bag sail.

1. Hand carved wooden rudder.

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3. Colour.

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The crucifix timber hull and the discovery of the little plastic hippo led my son to the name of this boat. Another skimmer. Composed of vivid green rope, around a timber hull and a wooden rudder carved with a pocket knife. The sail is a prawn bait packet and the float was added to the crows nest to make it more visible further out. This boat was near as wide as it was long but setting the outriggers far enough back behind the mast seemed to overcome this and it sailed surprisingly well on and out towards the heads. Not being a particularly windy day a little blade of foam was added above the main sail to add thrust.

5. Crazy little Hippo.

6. Reflection.

7. Bon Voyage.