Egg Boat
I heard an author today saying how she wrote in various genres, and was not ashamed of switching between ad the mood took her. Well after the wettest summer I can ever recall, I've had little time to work on my Tiki21 refit, and lots of time to count my money (a few minutes for that) and dream of building a microcruiser.
It was early today in fact that my motivation peaked. For years I have been fascinated by tiny boats, those miniscule yachts that of men sail across vast seas. Robert Manry in "Tinkerbelle" a quirky guy that built and sailed "Yanky Girl", first across the Atlantic and later across the Pacific. Wow! Strangely these two guys were probably very normal, the latter a school teacher from mid west USA. I remember reading how he would, after dinner with his wife, go down to the garage and bunk down in YG. When strong wind warnings were issued, he would take YG to the lake and sail her through the storm. Heavy duty familiarizing techniques that obviously served him well. Being a journalist adept at beating you a story, Manry painted himself as total novice in a dinghy with a lid that surprisingly made it across the Atlantic Ocean. Mmm, it made a good story, but I suspect he knew more than he let on to his readers.
Forwards in time to a week ago, and as usual I was riding over in my mind what a perfect cruising boat would be. Cruising would include rivers, lakes, coastal and offshore. The boat would be enclosed, and small, way small.
I revisited Fafnir by John Welsford. A 13 foot mini, that JW himself seems to discourage anyone from building. One builder in Estonia goes further by referring to his Fafnir as "wobbly" and too heavy. After wading through all this discouragement, you're left with a boat that looks like a small yacht. It still tries to fit the mainstream mould.
The best micros for me are the egg boats. Unmistakably odd looking boats, purpose built, with no respect for graceful lines or resale values. I regret not asking to go aboard "G'day 88" when I met the skipper all those years ago. I very believe that it would have changed the course off my life. The 8 foot long egg, sailed by Ashley Coulson almost reached New Zealand but had to be rescued after a battering by a cyclone in the Tasman that blew itself way of course. The Tasman, my local waters, had been tough ground for micros with more than one being wrecked on those waters.
So today, while searching for information on tiny boats I became increasingly frustrated by how the industry pushed sailors to believe that 27 feet was tiny and 34 feet was small, and how many boats were Marconi rigged with large cockpits. The lack of information about micros began to make more question whether the authorities were cleansing socially media to exclude Bluewater craft under 25 feet. This inflamed that party of my personality that takes umbrage at being told I could not/ should not so certain things.
In various boat design forums, the odd bohemian would emerge with their micro dream only to be shot down in flames for being stupid. I can feel the motivation building.
