Low Tide

Yacht Designer Tad Roberts' Web Log
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Wooden seine boat Chelsea Lake. Sank 1987Documenting Historic BC Boats

Monthly Archives: April 2013

George Bruigom, Boatbuilder

By admin | Published: April 30, 2013
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 finding three boats[.....]

Sterling Hayden and Wanderer

By admin | Published: April 28, 2013
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 true sailor’s[.....]

Westcoast Troller hull form

By admin | Published: April 26, 2013
Above is the troller Anna B, built in 1968 at Maderia Park by Fred Crosby. Apparently Fred built 5 or 6 boats in the late 60’s, but that’s about all I know of him. The Anna B is the only one I can find in the Ship’s Registry. Other boats built by Fred Crosby include;[.....]

Wapama, Last of the Steam Schooners

By admin | Published: April 7, 2013
The Mercury News for Saturday April 6th, 2013, reports that Wapama will be broken up next week in Richmond, California. She is the last existent West Coast Steam Schooner, at one time this fleet numbered over 220 ships. Built at St. Helens, Oregon of fir in 1915, she is 216′ long with a beam of[.....]

The Le Clere’s and Pacific Yew

By admin | Published: April 6, 2013
Sometimes it’s hard to believe the riches we in BC are blessed with. I’m thinking about boatbuilding materials today. Many countries or parts of the world have one or no indigenous high quality boatbuilding woods. New Zealand has Kauri, the Philippines have their Mahogany, Africa has Iroko, and Burma Teak. But we have 5! Western[.....]

Varua and Starling Burgess

By admin | Published: April 5, 2013
From The Circumnavigators by Don Holm “Varua, which means “spirit” or “soul” in Tahitian, is considered by many aficionados to be the most beautiful and functionally perfect sailing yacht ever built.” Above are the hull lines of Varua, designed by Starling Burgess in 1940. In More Good Boats Taylor reports that Burgess and Robinson tested[.....]

Island Raven, a Garden designed motoryacht

By admin | Published: April 3, 2013
Island Raven was launched in 1979, the last plank-on-frame hull built by Bent Jespersen before their exclusive adoption of cold-molding. Her length is 36’7″, LWL is 34’3″, beam is variously reported as 12’0″, 12’6″, and 13’3″, and draft around 4’3″. The framing elevation is interesting for the great depth of wood aft of the stem[.....]

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