2013 Wooden Boat Show at Mystic

The Wooden Boat Show is to be held at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut again this year. This is the 22nd running of this annual show, which has settled comfortably into this beautiful location as an apparent permanent venue. Mystic Seaport is a wonderful place for a family day filled with a mixture of boats and maritime history. If you have not been there before, this is your opportunity to experience boats of today as well as how they were built and operated hundreds of years ago. Mystic Seaport is a living museum of the sea, so much of the shoreside support infrastructure and industry that went along with boatbuilding, trading, fishing etc. is represented there for visitors to experience.

Our inside exhibit at the 2012 Wooden Boat Show

 We will be there again this year. We have exhibited out Paper Jet prototype (Sail #001) on this show every year since 2007. We have booth 4B in Tent A on the Village Green, where you can see a display of a selection of our designs and buy plans or a copy of my book "Shaped by Wind & Wave". We can also take your order for a pre-cut plywood kit for many of our plywood designs. The first time that we exhibited the Paper Jet it received the "Outstanding Innovation Award" on the Concourse Delegance. Paper Jet will be on the lawn outside Tent A and will occasionally be out sailing.
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Outstanding Innovation Award 2007

Come to Mystic Seaport to see a wide range of wooden boats, ranging from my modern little skiff to beautifully built modern classics or even to take a ride on an old steam-driven ferry. You wont be sorry that you took the time out to visit this place of yesteryear.

P.S. I hoped that we would have the prototype of the DS15  at the show as well but it will not happen this year. The builder is not yet ready to show his boat.

Visit our website at http://dixdesign.com/ .

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Wooden Boat Festival 2013 Port Townsend

The maiden voyage of the Stone Horse, Belle Starr was north from Olympia, Washington to Port Townsend, Washington, on the Salish Sea. What a fabulous week!

This voyage began last Wednesday, in rain and thick fog with occasional lightning and ended yesterday in beautiful blue skies with a downwind run home.

In between was the always satisfying Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. Three days of navigating one hundred nautical miles northward by GPS, with hardly a sight of land, culminated in glorious skies Friday, as Belle Starr set anchor off the Port Townsend wharf.

The festivities had already begun and spirits were high with anticipation of a fine weekend. Belle Starr proved to be in good shape, with few problems and performed as her pedigree predicted. We tried all potential sail combinations and discovered a few rigging shortcomings, but nothing to put a damper on the fun.

Doryman has friends in high places (lucky man) and soon after arrival, Belle Starr was invited to tie-up at the dock inside the Basin and join the Festival, even though that was not her intention. She elected to stay outside, at anchor, the better to spread her wings at a moments notice.

You will discover, therefore, most photos in the Doryman archives are on the water, under full canvas. Shooting while handling a sailboat is not ideal for photography, though looking through the photos might give you the feeling of being there. (Thats my excuse, and Im sticking to it.)

Event Photos:
Dorymans Flickr site
Northwest Maritime Center (facebook)
Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding (facebook)

Thanks to all my good friends for making this a week to remember (you know who you are). Doryman is fortunate indeed, to be a member of such a stellar tribe.

Your happy skipper

Belle Starr on Marristone Island. A happy boat.














  Sleeping Seals on Eagle Island from doryman on Vimeo.

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Sucia 2013

We just got back from our favorite annual event - the Sucia Small Boat Rendezvous at Sucia Island State Park.  Like last year, we launched at Sandy Point Shores marina.  There was very little wind, and it was coming directly from Sucia so we had to motor the entire way there.

We anchored in Fossil Bay and set up camp.

Ive been to Sucia many times, but every visit has been to the Fossil bay area.  This year we decided to hike all over the island to see all the parts weve never visited.

Saturday we hiked for about 5 hours.  Our first destination was China Rock at Shallow Bay.  On the way we had a peek at Echo Bay. 

Echo Bay

From there is short walk to Shallow Bay.  Shallow Bay has some very nice sandy beaches, perfect for beaching kayaks.  Its very tempting to beach Ellie there, but the bay is quite shallow so tides would be a concern.

China Rock is located on the north shore of Shallow Bay.  Legend has it that these sandstone caves were used  to hide smuggled orientals from detection by Customs and Immigration authorities back in the mid 1800s, and by bootleggers to hide illegal liquor during Prohibition.

Lawson Bluff is one of the most beautiful areas on Sucia. The trail skirts the rim of a 100 high bluff that runs along the northwest side of the island.  The bluff offers a spectacular view of Patos and the Canadian Gulf Islands to the West.

Next destination was Ewing Cove on the northeast tip of the island.  The trail to Ewing skirts the north shore of Echo bay.  Echo bay is the largest bay on Sucia.  It has ample room for countless numbers of boats.  Theres plenty of room to park your airplane too.

 Ewing Cove

From Ewing Cove we hiked back to camp.  That 5 hour hike covered about half of the island.  Tomorows, plan:  Tackle the other half!

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