Greetings

[Mi Find]

Howdy All

I am first of all a believer in and follower of Jesus Christ. I am not religious, but I am informed, convinced, and faithful. If I had a meme, or whatever it is young people call it, it would go like this:

Hand Behold Nail Behold

I am a retired commercial fisherman with lots of sea time in the Eastern Gulf of Alaska and environs. By lots of sea time I mean between 200 and 250 days at sea for 28 years in boats I owned and operated.

We beachcombed firewood logs and venison for a quarter century+ to warm and feed the hungry household. We homeschooled the wee ones aboard our fishing vessels. I was blessed to live the dream I had since early early memories.

I am a big fan of bank fishing dories. I had an Aeolus dory I rowed around and across San Francisco Bay and towed to Alaska. It is still used every year by little ones (grandchildren now) in Secret Cove.

My current Aeolus dory is being transformed for trucking duty, and voyaging possibilities in Alaska.

I built an aluminum pram from Bolger/Payson Nymph offsets scaled up to 10' OAL. Another truck in its own way, not yet outfitted but recently used to decomission the Ariel that is resting on my mooring buoy.

After sitting neglected for countless years up the Columbia she called me up and we got hitched. Put 650+ NM under her keel recently. She is a great teacher and stern disciplinarian. I am considering sailing her to Japan eventually, but before that I am planning to motorsail to Alaska in the spring.

I am well read, opinionated, crusty and salty, a lover of
truth with unlimited curiosity. Somewhat similar to some of you'all I'd guess.

Regards

Michael

[Don C L]

Welcome aboard Michael!
Is that dory you mention from the Aeolus boat shop in Davenport? I doubt the shop is still there but I went there many moons ago when I was a teenager hoping to ask them to build me a St. Pierre dory that I could sail up and down the California coast! I grew up rowing dories on commercial river trips in Idaho and the Colorado river. That Ariel is a fine little boat too. Instead of trying to build a dory a family friend sold me a Columbia 24 for the Cal coast, that I ended up dropping out of college for, much to my parents' consternation at the time. Good luck to you and glad to see you here. I bet you have some great sea stories to tell!

[Mi Find]

Thanks Don, Pleased to meet you.

Yes, both dories were built in Davenport.
That man had a terrific eye for lines.
there are many dories that are ugly.
grunwald's are among the most perfect in form to my eye.

your columbia sounds wonderful. lots or elbow room and stowage compared to my little Ariel.


Do you cruise, or plan to?

Regards,
Michael

[Don C L]

It's funny because I just came across the little brochure of the Aeolus boat shop recently in the collections of old items from my family home up there in the Bay Area. I don't suppose there are too many folks who know of the Aeolus boat shop outside of older folks from the Santa Cruz area now. My father had his first boats built by a man in Oregon who built McKenzie River drift boats. Later boats were built by another man down in Grant's Pass. Those were my favorites. They became the origin of his little fleet of what are now called whitewater dories. You can google "Grand Canyon Dories" and you can see many of them have some beautiful lines. Now my passion is the lines drawn by Olin Stephens for the Columbia 29, like yours it is an old school long keel, and not too much more room inside than your Ariel! I just came back from a week out at the local Channel Islands which are my grounds for cruising and training grounds for my wife and two kids. I am sailing on a shoestring since I have so many other expenses, but like your Ariel, she is a strong, capable and simple little boat. Feel free to check my albums of photos in my profile if you are interested. And how about some shots of you Ariel?

[Mi Find]

Thanks Don.... a lot of boats were built at the Aeolus shop, not all dories. My dory has a pair of ash NINE FOOT Aeolus oars that balance about two feet outboard. They are branded with the Aeolus logo, which makes me hesitant to cut them to proper size and install lead in the grips. If I find a really cheap hobiecat with good hulls I might make an ad hoc trimaran, which would be a big improvement for sailing the dory. Especially so if I ever want to beach cruise.

I have an old foto of Ariel with the PO aboard for scale. But don't have a photo storage spot, so no go. She looks almost like every other Ariel. Unfortunately she appeared to have been actively raced, meaning all the easy-peasy cruising rigging is replaced with high performance racing stuff that I don't favor for cruising.

I have my eyes open for a Triton if one comes my way. I could use the extra volume.

I would prefer to have a completely different kind of boat. Ocean going but shoal enough to beach consistently while alongshore. Something like a half-size version of Gaslight. With a droppable ballast keel if that were absolutely necessary. Although I can't see why it should be. Catamarans are unballasted, a proper sailing scow should have the same form stability, at least it seems so to me.

I doubt I will ever build new, but stranger things have happened. I would use aluminum. It could not be overbuilt. The bottom could be 1 inch plate, probably eliminating the need of structural bottom framing. With massive insulation I could spend many happy years in high latitudes exploring, gunk-holing, beachcombing the fringes......

too late or too early to be this distracted.

regards,
Michael

[Don C L]

Hi Michael,

Perhaps a St. Pierre Dory is in your future? I could see gunkholing up north...a kick-up rudder, outboard in a well to lift up, anchor off 50 yards and run her up on the beach and then pull her off when the tide's up and you are ready to go. Centerboard or perhaps leeboards. How about a Dutch canal boat design with leeboards? Just thinking...
A tale of two men and a wooden boat - The San Diego Union-Tribune


Building a custom wood sailboat, the 25' Black Skimmer

http://www.leeboards.com/