I read recently how Keith Leitzke has returned from another cruise to nowhere in particular and it got me thinking about a few things… The first being how that Bill Lapworth’s CAL 20 is still a great minimal cruising design in spite of the fact that it was never really designed to be one. While …
regarding a very long voyage in a pretty small boat… Read More »
I mentioned this book by Keith Carver a couple of years ago but “Sailboat Cowboys Flipping Sail Post-Sandy: The Art of Buying, Repairing and Selling Storm-Damaged Sailboats” is still an excellent read on the subject of buying boats cheap, fixing them up, and selling them for a profit. As it happens I just read it …
So, here’s a couple of interesting project boats someone might be interested in… For starters there’s a Crealock designed Ericson 26 selling for $400 bucks up in the no man’s land between Port Townsend and Anacortes. The Crealock design is, in my opinion, a better boat than the Pacific Seacraft Dana. The beauty of a …
I’m often asked just what a VolksCruiser actually is in terms of solid definition and, for the most part, my answers to that particular question tend to be somewhat vague. It’s akin to Justice Stewart’s famous quote on what pornography is… “We know it when we see it” Which is pretty much how I’ve approached …
Eleven factors that come together to make a VolksCruiser… Read More »
So, while I really like the Lyle Hess designed Balboa 26 I’ll be the first to admit that at 3600 pounds of displacement it’s not quite up to the requirements of long distance voyaging. Now, this Lyle Hess design is a whole different kettle of fish… It’s the 26-foot Falmouth Cutter which has a beam …
Throwing a couple more 26-foot boats into the mix… Read More »
So, the other day, someone asked me what I thought of the Amel 60 which someone was touting as the perfect/ultimate cruising boat somewhere or other. I’ll admit that it caused me to ponder a bit on a bunch of things to sort out an answer. First of all, it took me a while to …
A repost of something that should really be included here… Read More »
So, here’s a question… “What sort of VolksCruiser do you actually want?” Face it, everyone’s different with disparate needs and situations which means one’s VolkCruiser of choice may not be what others need or want. Which I suppose brings us to other questions we have to ask ourselves… “How are you going to use your …
Every once in awhile I’ll get on Search Tempest and type in the words “Free sailboat” just to see what happens… For instance, in Florida, there’s a San Juan 24 without a working motor, another guy with a bunch of Catalina 22’s, and a Seidelmann 30 footer in need of some work all going for …
As it happens, I really enjoy building boats.I find the whole process of boat construction both a creative outlet and deeply satisfying on an emotional level. That being the case, I often recommend to a lot of folks that they might want to think twice before building a cruising boat because there’s a steep learning …
A great way to start the year
