We just came back from a chilly walk and watched the boats anchored
out in St. Augustine's harbor bouncing around, can't imagine being
offshore today... actually I can imagine it quite well, and would even
consider it fun in a daysailer or racing class boat, for a few hours,
but not for a long run and especially not in a vessel that was also my
home! I hope that Skip will reply from Miami after a great run, being
already south of us, or that they're snug "inside" somewhere.


One thing I'm curious about and haven't seen you mention- you had a
molded lapstrake pulling boat (a 12-footer IIRC), are you using that
for a dinghy?

Skip Gundlach wrote:
If, by "pulling" boat you mean rower, I don't have one of those.
Memory fails me if it was you who was building a 20 pound carbon fiber
rowing dink, but at that time I'd been considering a Little River
Marine 12' Heritage for a dink. I never owned one...


Ah so, my mistake, thought you did have one. There were a bunch at a
rowing event on the Tennessee River. There are a number of things I
don't like about the boat but apparently they've caught on.


....We have a new 10' PortaBote which I've modified to take
rowing sculls (10' carbon fiber oars, and appropriate rowlocks, but
still floppy sides to the PB) and which uses a 6HP very effectively.
Our day-to-day, davits-slung, dink is a Walker Bay "rib" (same basic
material as their "hard bottom" boats, but with tubes around) with an
ancient 15HP 2-stroke. The oars and its rowing characteristics are
strictly from hunger, but otherwise we're very pleased with it.


Y'know, everybody says "all *serious* cruisers have an RIB with *at
least* a 10hp outboard. When you all have some experience, you'll get
one too." I guess my 40 years of experience isn't enough? I suspect
that my temperament is far different from most "serious cruisers" and
we have done very well with our rowing-only dink.

All that said, LRM now makes all of their Heritage line (also) in
single hull models, making them very much lighter.

They're great at marketing but frankly I am not impressed with their
design or boatbuilding. They could make the boats much lighter &
stiffer if they wanted to. I spoke with them by phone and in person
(at a boat show) about building a semi-custom boat out of their molds
for me, but they really had no interest.

It's nice to see a boat like that become popular, but I also hope that
some of the folks who like them will go a bit further into the sport
and see what a real Whitehall (or any other classic *working* pulling
skiff) is/was like.


.... we'd get the sliding
seat, as it's orders of magnitude more efficient for propulsion and
overall workout; only someone with leg problems wouldn't benefit from
that sort of exercise).

Me too, except that it's not an option for a working tender/dinghy and
wouldn't be practical on a 9' LOA anyway.

It would be awesome if we could have a workaday dinghy, a speedy RIB
for long-distance grocery or snorkeling runs, and a sporty rowing boat
for exploring. Then two Lasers for fun sailing. Let's see, I need
about a 55' cruiser!!


Thanks. We're not going near the Stream. It will truly be a mess in
that time - forecasts in the stream call for 15-18 feet after
midnight, with gale gusts. We'll hug the coast where it's forecast for
20K, 3-5', and by late dark-morning/midnight+, potential 40 gusts.


That sounds ugly enough that it would keep me in port... in fact it
*is* keeping us in port!
Call us wimps

As of this minute, we're considering sailing down the ICW, which will
take longer, of course, but if the wind holds, could be done. I have
less than no enthusiasm for driving this boat to Miami! :{)) - but if
we have consistent 15+ winds in any of the directions forecast, it's
do-able, bridges being a serious nuisance, but not a problem...


Right, the ditch is far less fun for most of this stretch and
troublesome for a boat like yours... we go right under most bridges
and have yet to run aground in the ICW (we have bumped occasionally
when exploring off the chart).

Anyway am looking forward to hearing from you all. Maybe our paths
will cross.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King