Low Tide

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

Maritime History

What is a “Bristol Channel Cutter”?

By admin | Published: April 26, 2021
Marketing doublespeak…….We’ll build a fat little boat and call it a “Bristol Channel Cutter”, that’ll bring in the rubes……And it did and still does. The Hess designs are in reality pretty much the exact opposite of the original Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter’s, in that they are wide with lot’s of form stability and minimal outside[.....]

SISTER KEELSONS

By admin | Published: April 13, 2021
Sister Keelson installation by Sterling Shipyard. The sister keelson’s were a west coast substitute for floor timbers, adopted to do the floor’s job and deal with some other problems. Floors do at least two things; connect the two sides together across the centreline, and connect the keel to the hull bottom. The sister keelsons do[.....]

Saving Old Boats

By admin | Published: January 14, 2019
Assessing the significance of a vessel From: Recording Historic Vessels by National Historic Ships, UK. The goal of researching a vessel’s history is to gain a fuller understanding of the significance of: A) The vessel’s uniqueness or typicality in terms of its type and function. Is she a surviving example of a once-common type or[.....]

BLUENOSE AND COLUMBIA

By admin | Published: February 2, 2017
Bluenose and Columbia raced against each other in only two races in 1923. Bluenose was then 2 years old and Columbia brand new. Bluenose won both those races but the committee awarded the second race to Columbia due to Bluenose rounding a mark improperly. Angus Walters took exception and left Halifax without the issue being[.....]

Post Class Patrol Boats

By admin | Published: February 8, 2016
Once again our Federal Government is selling off what I think are irreplaceable assets at a bargain price. Five of the 65′ x 17′ Post Class Patrol boats were built by Philbrook’s Boatyard in the early 1970’s. The next few days will see what I believe is the last one still in government service, the[.....]

IDAHO – A Lee & Brinton Halibut Schooner

By admin | Published: October 5, 2015
A couple of beautiful prints sent to me by John Rawlings. This is the Lee & Brinton design for Idaho, launched by Nilson & Kelez in Seattle in 1912. Idaho was 78’4″ x 19’5″ x 9’3″ and 76 gross tons. In the drawing the engine appears to be a three cylinder, and John reports original[.....]

Edwin Monk Sr. and Lorne Garden

By admin | Published: August 22, 2015
From the late 1940’s into the 1950’s, Edwin Monk Sr. and Lorne Garden were partners in the firm of Edwin Monk Naval Architects. Lorne was the older brother of better known Seattle/Victoria designer William Garden. Very little is said about Lorne in the available printed references. Ed Monk Jr. recalls visiting the office as a[.....]

Lumberjack, an ocean racing schooner

By admin | Published: December 22, 2013
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 Hon. Sir[.....]

Kedging, Another Lost Art.

By admin | Published: September 6, 2013
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[.....]

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[.....]

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