Father of fiberglassing passed away

Everett A. Pearson, known as the pioneer of building production fiberglass boats passed away at 84. Pearson Yachts were the first wildly successful fiberglass production boats, he also build powerboats as well with True North.


From Wikipedia:

In 1955, cousins Clinton and Everett Pearson began building fiberglass dinghies in their garage on County Street in Seekonk, Mass. The fiberglass material and their methods of construction was brand new and untested. However, Tom Potter from American Boat Building approached the Pearsons with a project to build an auxiliary sailboat that would sell for under $10,000. Naval architect Carl Alberg was given the task of designing the boat. The result was the Triton 28 sailing auxiliary. The first boat was built in the cousins' garage, in time for the 1959 New York Boat Show.

In 1959, the Triton 28 was launched at the New York Boat Show. The cousins had to borrow money to pay for the transport of the boat from their garage to the show. The boat proved to be a hit, and the cousins had deposits for 17 orders by the end of the show. To raise the capital to acquire facilities to meet the demand, the cousins made Pearson Yachts public in April 1959. Upon returning to Rhode Island, the demand for the Triton 28 remained so strong that the cousins purchased the old Herreshoff Yard to expand their production site. Pearson Yachts introduced a number of new models, most of which were also designed by Carl Alberg. By the end of the year, the newly founded Pearson Yachts had over one hundred employees and was turning out nearly one boat per day. 

RIP Everett

Free e-books from Steve and Linda Dashew

Free is always is good thing, Steve and Linda really support the sailing community.

This time they are giving away free e-books.

Great books

Enjoy!

Blog: Janice aboard Seaweed

Here is another very interesting blog, Janice a lady living on a mini-trawler. Specifically a 23' Schucker mini-trawler, from what I understand, 6 of these were built and 3 remain active.

Seeweed and Algae

As I also like trawlers, and small ones too (I own a C-Dory 22), but this one is actually liveable, albeit for one person.

I think this is a great boat and she appears to be a great lady with a great attitude!

So, do read her blog and support her!

Cheers

Fun simple online sail simulator

Do you have boring meetings sometimes like I do? I was just bored and came across this simple fun sail simulator.

All aboard

Try it here. Fun for about 10 minutes?!

Next, I'll cover one that is fun for much longer.

Cheers!

Free online sailing magazine: Southwinds

It's funny, how you sometimes come across things on the internet.  I was reading about the great boat Seaward 32RK (good for another post - way outside of my range, but still fantastically interesting boat). So, was pointed to a review in Southwinds magazine.

August 2017 cover

You can find the magazine home page here.  All back issues are pretty much available through Issuu.

I also found an FTP server with many back issues, easier to download than Issue, specially if you use an extension such as DownThemAll.

Cheers!

Sail-In Cinema in Toronto

Too bad its too far for me, but this is really cool. Instead of Drive-In theatres, in Toronto there's Sail-In theatres called Sail-In Cinema. Kewl eh?

Anchor Watch!

From August 18 to August 20, audiences enjoyed Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Edward Scissorhands on a four-storey, two-sided, floating screen anchored to a barge in Lake Ontario.

The inaugural Sail-In Cinema™ was held in 2011 to mark PortsToronto's centennial year. The annual event attracts more than 10,000 people on land and 100 boats over the three-day period and is now a permanent fixture on Toronto's summer calendar.

Brings a whole new meaning to Anchor Watch :-)

Blog: Graduating to a smaller boat

Boy, I havent been blogging in awhile.

I'll try to be better.

I do read quite a few blogs, one of my favourite, because I love small sailboat travel and particularly Matt Layden's Paradox design (for 1 person), is Graduating to a Smaller Boat.

Beautiful Paradox

Dave built his own Paradox, he sailed it around Hawaii, and now he just arrived back in Florida after going to Bahamas and Cuba.

Proof that size does not matter when cruising, safety and seamanship does.

Cheers!

Foldable Canoe

A few years ago, someone create a foldable layak called Oru.  Very cool and useful.

I believe, the same people have now developed a foldable canoe. Also very cool.

MyCanoe

When Oru came around, they only had one model. Now they have many models, and most of them are SOLD OUT. A proof that many people like the portability, lightweight and ease of storage of these contraptions.

At the time, I actually developed for fun some plans for a foldable Kayak. I only went so far as creating a paper version of it. It seemed decent enough.

With the winter still upon me here in Simcoe county (Ontario, Canada), I think its time to dust off this plan. So, at the next free weekend (when I can no longer ice fish!), maybe I'll finally build / fold it. If its any decent, I will OpenSource the plans. As I have a hard time justifying $1000 on a foldable kayak when it's basically made from at the most $30 of Coroplast?!

I'll keep you posted.

How about portable boats?

Well, its cold and full of snow here. A couple years ago, I came across the site PortableBoat plans by Ken Simpson's of Arizona.

1-Sheet Wedge

So, I think, just for fun this winter, I may just build the 1 sheet wedge that he has...could be fun to go fishing and go through the canals around here.

His plans comes with tuns of fun options...you can even increase its length for a second occupant. You could row it, use a trolling motor and even create a sail version.

Check his stuff out, he has a lot of neat stuff and he uses a very cheap and proven building methodology. No epoxy here.

I'll keep you updated!

Cheers!

Living the Vendée Globe through The Godforsaken Seas

As the Vendée is in progress, I am also reading one of the best book documenting the 1996 Vendée Globe race.


This not something I would do, for me sailing is about visiting places, and racing is usually in teams, more fun to me.

Regardless, I admire the people that have the guts to do it and the stamina as well.

This is a great book about the process of many people going around the world alone. It is also a book for anyone, no need to understand sailing, everything is very well explained.

Cheers!