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" working sail"
I am new to this forum but long before I was aware of the 3 Es etc. I was aware of these trends.
Here is my question: Is there a place in our future for Working Sail? A return to some form of sustainable, wind powered transportation, fishing, etc. I have been a yacht carpenter and wooden boat builder for many years and that is my skill set, plus being a blacksmith and Eagle Scout, Some commodities will always be in demand such as medicines, brick, steel, lumber, salt, emergency supplies. No mater how much of the transportation system grinds to a halt, some things must get through. Any comments?
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Danny,
Dmitry Orlov, who wrote the book "Reinventing Collapse" actually lives on a sail boat now. See these links below:
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2011/05/making-best-use-of-your-energy-elves.html
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2011/06/sailing-craft-for-post-collapse-world.html
https://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dtxqwqr_23grsfpp
So yes, sail boat is actually one of the sustainable pre-industrial mode of transportation. I'm sure a bright future is ahead for your skills.
Best to you.
Awesome - that slideshow of Orlov's boat is really cool.
You've got me seriously thinking about getting a boat!
Cheers,
Aaron
"Subject to no government but that of my own conscience."
American Small Sailing Craft by H I Chapelle has dozens of plans for American small working sail. The one thing that they all have in common is they do not need a modern marina to maintain them.(maintenence starts the day of launch) They do require an industrial or pre-industrial economy. Absolutely necessary materials for a non petro dependant wooden boat are: Hemp for line, sailcloth, oakum; Cotton for fine caulking seams, better sails; Seam compound of some sort for stopping seams, (the stuff we use resembles brick dust mixed withoil or terps, I wonder), a bedding compound like pitch/ pine tar or lead/ oil past or putty. Lots of sawn wood and a couple of tall, straight pine trees for the spars. Paint or linsead oil for the topsides and deack and a bottom paint for below also or she will die of worms and sunlights. Local boats were made of local wood. It helps to know a blacksmith to iron here hull, nails, spikes, drifts and other hardware. We will have to assume that the waterways are not alive with fastener eating stray electricity like now, no fuel= no gensets. The smaller the boat the better for personal needs. For interstate trade, 30 to 45 feet will work, shallow draught for the East Coast and the Gulf, Deep draught for the Left Coats to Canada and Alaska.
Danny
American Small Sailing Craft by H I Chapelle has dozens of plans for American small working sail. The one thing that they all have in common is they do not need a modern marina to maintain them.(maintenence starts the day of launch) They do require an industrial or pre-industrial economy. Absolutely necessary materials for a non petro dependant wooden boat are: Hemp for line, sailcloth, oakum; Cotton for fine caulking seams, better sails; Seam compound of some sort for stopping seams, (the stuff we use resembles brick dust mixed withoil or terps, I wonder), a bedding compound like pitch/ pine tar or lead/ oil past or putty. Lots of sawn wood and a couple of tall, straight pine trees for the spars. Paint or linsead oil for the topsides and deack and a bottom paint for below also or she will die of worms and sunlights. Local boats were made of local wood. It helps to know a blacksmith to iron here hull, nails, spikes, drifts and other hardware. We will have to assume that the waterways are not alive with fastener eating stray electricity like now, no fuel= no gensets. The smaller the boat the better for personal needs. For interstate trade, 30 to 45 feet will work, shallow draught for the East Coast and the Gulf, Deep draught for the Left Coats to Canada and Alaska.
Danny
Danny
You definitely sound like someone to get to know! You have skills for self-sufficiency and for water trade, that is for sure! Whatever skills or wisdom you want to impart, please do.
For long-distance travel, I suspect with the cost of oil and bunker fuel rising, that windjammers will come back into play. The last of them sailed commercially even in the 1950s. What do you think?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windjammer
Poet
This is the only kind of schooner that works out here in the wheat fields of Kansas.
"Even if we are occupied with important things and even if we attain honor or fall into misfortune, still let us remember how good it once was here, when we were all together, united by a good and kind feeling which made us perhaps better than we are." - Fyodor Dostovevsky
I knew my idea to move to the coast, if I can work it out, and live on a boat was a good one. Thanks Danny and welcome to the site.
Ernest
Wind powered ships will make a commercial comeback someday but they wont be the wood and canvas boats of the past. Think huge cargo ships with computer controlled carbon fiber sails. They will require a small crew and little energy use.
Not just yes, HECK YES.
I am from a river town, and there's no doubt in my mind that a person with a sailboat would be significantly better off than a someone with a car, or even a horse in some cases.
A good sized boat would allow you to reach the ocean to fish, clam and give you access to salt, and other areas for trade. It's also relatively self contained so if you really had to get out of dodge for good, you could and you'd have greater mobility than most, with (perhaps) lower risks. The open ocean is a shifty proposition for a few reasons, pirates and weather are the two that occur to me.
In general though, I think your skills will make you a very valuable member of your community.
Wish I knew how to sail - I'd love to have a boat.
Cheers, and welcome!
Aaron
"Subject to no government but that of my own conscience."