After the big storm, this is a gorgeous weekend here in Nova Scotia: sunny and unseasonally warm. I am dying to go sailing! Alas, no opportunity. Perhaps I can make it out tomorrow on the little sailing dingy, the Gypsy Girl (a 15 ft. skiff designed by Philip Bolger with chined plywood hull, this one built by Sam and Jim‘s friend Paul Anderson). I have a photo here with her rigging down … which makes her a simple rowboat. The fact that that boat can be sailed or rowed, is one of her special features. Plus it makes it so that she doesn’t need a motor! I love practical thinking. And independence.
I wish I could show a photo of her with the sail up, but, without a mooring or berth, that would mean she’d sail away, and I can’t be in the boat and take a picture of it at the same time! Not even from the boat, because I get totally soaked in her, and while I don’t mind that, I am fairly certain that the camera would!
Well ok ok, here is a drawing I found online (I got it here). The ‘mast’ simply gets slid into its slot if you want to take her out for a spin. No raising or lowering sails; just mast&sail on, or off.
She’s simple, but boy: can she go fast! Ahhhh: Boats ….
Today, Saturday, early in the morning at my beloved Halifax Seaport Market, I ran into Mark Doucette, the official photographer of the Bluenose II reconstruction project. I had been drooling over his photos online, and had been thinking about involving him if and when I get closer to the stage of actually beginning (or especially exhibiting!) a body of work based on hull lines, or the Bluenose hull lines, specifically. It was a pleasure to meet Mark in person. I really like his photos! You should check them out (click here).
I can’t put my finger on what it is I like so much about hull lines in ships. I think it’s their elegance. Strength combined with elegance: this is what I also admire often in women, mothers specifically.
I am getting a hunch of why boats might generally be referred to as feminine!
