Author Archives: admin
Cruising Speed Under Sail
I’m starting to think it’s all rubbish. Sailors love to compare boats, “that’s a fast boat”, “That boat is horribly slow”. One of things that constantly amazed me when officiating during the Shipyard Raids was how close the speed of the various sized and shaped boats was. This was longer term speed, not[.....]
Drawing Signe
I started drawing Signe in January of 1987, the day I started work in Bruce King’s office. Years later I counted through our drawing file and I think there were over 80 sheets in the set. Joe Artese (interior design) made 3-4, Bruce made one, I did the rest. It took me[.....]
Lumberjack, an ocean racing schooner
Black hull, teak house, and tanbark sails is the proper look for a schooner. Few look the part as well as Lumberjack.
Lumberjack is a steel schooner designed in 1935 by Victor Brix. She was built by G. De Vries in Amsterdam, originally under another name and ketch rigged. Just after WWII the[.....]
Kedging, Another Lost Art.
Summer has flashed by once again with one quarter of the anticipated projects actually completed. We did have a fair amount of painting weather this year and I got almost the entire outside of the boat painted. A slow leak gradually worsened causing great worry until I bit the bullet and we kedged across the[.....]
The Wanderer Class Diesel Cruiser
The Wanderer Class cruiser was designed by William Garden in about 1963. The idea of a tri-cabin diesel cruiser of a West Coast style was arguably originally created by Edwin Monk Sr., but there were others before him I’m sure. The tri-cabin arrangement (boats with a foc’sl, raised pilothouse, and aft cabin) was[.....]
Norgale, a Troller design by William Reid
The Norgale is a William Reid design built in the Williams Boat Works shop in Sointula and launched in 1964. Actually this is the second Norgale built by the Williams family, the first one (41′ troller built by Albert W. Williams in 1949) became the Evelyn Gale. This Norgale is a big boat,[.....]
Falcon Rock, Fisheries Patrol Vessel
The Falcon Rock was built for the Minister of Fisheries in 1960 at the McKay-Cormack Ltd yard in Victoria. She served the Department for 37 years, much or all of it out of Prince Rupert. I believe she had 2 or 3 sisters, all built in BC yards around the same time. [.....]
George Bruigom, Boatbuilder
George Bruigom built boats in Comox from about 1970 to 1985. Senang Hati, the 45 footer above, is rumored to have been his last boat.
I didn’t know George but I did stop by his shed a few times. George was a busy guy, I remember at least once going by and[.....]
Sterling Hayden and Wanderer
Any story telling session among sailors out here on the West Coast will not go long before someone mentions Sterling Hayden. Writer, Actor, Father, and mostly Sailor, he was a larger than life character who touched the lives of many, but perhaps especially those concerned with boats and sailing. It seems that many[.....]
Boats designed around Old Engines