Would you like a pleasant alternative to Black Friday

 
You may not know about Chincoteague...

but, its a place near and dear to our hearts. If you are trying to avoid the mass hysteria of "Black Friday", I recommend that you consider a trip to Chincoteague, Virginia instead.

Years ago, when we started to go to "carving" shows, many of our friends and colleagues, in particular, the late great Lee Scheely, told us: "Youve got to go to Chincoteague!". The way it was put made the show a bit intimidating. We didnt know if we could even get in, especially where our subject is boats, rather than birds. There is, however, a good deal of carving that goes into our work and so we started "doing Chincoteague". It may have been one of the best things weve done.

There are actually three of the Chincoteague carving shows each year: Thanksgiving, Easter and Labor Day. Weve never been able to do Labor Day for unrelated reasons. Weve discussed the Easter show on our Facebook page. This weekend (Friday & Saturday Nov. 25th & 26th) is the Thanksgiving show. Its also a Christmas show.

Let me tell you about these shows. They are held at the Chincoteague Combined School in its gymnasium. No huge signs out front. You might think that youre looking at a Holiday Bazaar or other Craft Fair when you only look at the outside of the building. A school with a lot of vans and trailers parked outside. Sounds like a bunch of amateurs???

When I first came to these shows, I was blown away. The exhibitors represented the Masters Masters of carving, many that I knew from Havre de Grace and The Waterfowl Festival and other great nationally recognized shows. Among them were Bill Veasey and Shannon Dimmig, Vince Ciesielski (I probably spelled his name incorrectly), Bill Cowen, Jennifer Daisey, Russell Fish, Walt Schmitz, Bill Hickson, Rocky Detwiler and scores of other truly great carvers. The painters and sculptors were no less amazing. Other artists, such as Donnie Thornton and Don & Donna Drew really rounded the shows out nicely. There is no room to mention many of them, no less to describe their work.

What was also amazing was to find such a low key atmosphere, where you didnt just have the opportunity to see some amazing art and artistry, but the opportunity to spend time talking with the artists and getting to know them. Over the years, weve made a lot of friends and weve learned a lot of things from being in the Chincoteague carving shows. Unfortunately, weve lost more than a few of those friends over those years, such as Lee, Don Repsher and some others who we came to expect to see when we arrived and now really miss. We were lucky to have the opportunities to learn from them and to be able to call such great people our friends.

These shows have changed over the years. Everyone used to know about them - they were legendary. Word of mouth has been overcome by electronic media and low budget shows cant buy the advertising that the large retailers can. The Deborah Waterfowl Show and Auction is a truly great show with truly great carvers and artists of many kinds. Its an honest display of high quality things, in some cases among the best in the world of those things.  They are reasonably priced and made with precision and care. If you are looking for gifts, you will be amazed at what awaits you.

As you consider the idea of patronizing small businesses, I recommend that you consider this show, full of hard-working people, who, although they may not be immediately recognized as such, are small business owners. Proceeds from the show benefit the Deborah Heart & Lung Center in Browns Mills, NJ. As with the eggs that we carve for the silent auction at the Easter show, we apply our talents to wooden balls such as the one below. Come to the live auction on Saturday night to get your hands on some very special things...

The show is only a small reason to come to the island of Chincoteague. Its a beautiful town with shops, restaurants, hotels, B&Bs and beautiful views. The Wildlife Refuge opens up miles of road that are only open for Thanksgiving weekend. You can see the famous ponies (dont tell me that youve never heard of "Misty of Chincoteague"), Snow Geese, deer, beaches and... Ive told you enough.

Again... Avoid the Malls! Come to The Deborah Waterfowl Show and Auction, Friday and Saturday, November 25th & 26th, 2011 at the Chincoteague Combined School in Chincoteague, Virginia. For more information call (757) 336-6161

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Black Cat Launch Video

In November 1997 we launched our Didi 38 "Black Cat" after 2 years of building, only 2000 hours for an amateur-built ocean-crossing sailboat. That boat launched a whole series of designs and new developments in plywood boat construction.

That was 20 years ago. I had video of the occasion that was recorded off the TV with a VCR. It was bad quality and it was recorded on the PAL system used in South Africa. Attempts to convert to the NTSC format used in USA were pretty disastrous, resulting in unusable files.

Today I have received a good copy of the video, in a usable format. Watching the video now reminds me just how long ago this all happened. I didnt even have much grey hair then, now it is totally silver.

This video shows the shape of "Black Cat" very clearly. So many people came to me at that time and would not believe that this beautifully rounded shape was a plywood boat. Nobody had seen a rounded plywood hull before and they would only believe that it was not fibreglass after going inside to look at the structure.

Now my radius chine plywood designs are well-known and have been built in many countries. "Black Cat" is no longer unique but she remains the leader of an exciting time for plywood boatbuilding.

To see more of our boat designs, visit http://dixdesign.com/ or http://dixdesign.com/mobile

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Black Cat wins Governors Cup Race

Yesterday "Black Cat", the Didi 38 prototype that I built in my back garden in 1994/95, finished the 1720 mile Governors Cup Race from South Africa to St Helena. At the time we had not yet seen any photos of her finish. Now some nice photos, taken by Trevor Wilkins Photography, have been posted on the Governors Cup Facebook page. Here is one of them, see the others on the Governors Cup pages.

"Black Cat" finishing the Governors Cup Race. Photo courtesy of What The Saints Did Next.

When I wrote my piece yesterday I was still seeing the breaking news about "Black Cat" being the true line-honours winner instead of "Avanti", which finished ahead of her. I was concerned that there may have been a measure of speculation in the reports and that they may prove untrue. Now we know that the reports were correct and "Black Cat" is the true line-honours winner in the racing division and likely handicap winner as well. We wont know for a few days yet if "Iechyd Da" can catch her on handicap.

Dont let the small size of the racing fleet at the finish detract from the achievement of Dave Immelman and crew. All boats in the original racing fleet were well behind them and most jumped ship when the breeze went light and their sailing progress became too slow, deciding to change to the cruising class and motor through the calm patches. The NOR, as amended, did allow the racing class boats to do this but they had to notify Race Control of having motored at the "earliest opportunity" as well as in their declaration at the finish.

"Black Cat" was committed to racing and that is what they did, battling through the calms. It must have been soul-destroying to see another competitor in their class sail around them, apparently in stronger breeze, then continue to take line-honours in monohulls and racing class. Declaring hours after finishing that they had in fact motored and then being allowed at that late stage to drop down to cruising class is just wrong on all levels.

Did they in fact advise race control in the next daily position report after motoring and race control forgot to move them into the cruising class? This would seem odd because they would have seen themselves still in the racing class in the daily results and should have again told Race Control of the change that they had made. If they didnt tell race control then the act of motoring was an immediate DSQ from the racing class. If they didnt transfer correctly into the cruising class in the way permitted by the amended NOR then they should not be allowed to do so after finishing the race either. My opinion is that they are DSQ in the racing fleet and did not join the cruising fleet because they did not act according to the amended NOR. It follows that they didnt complete the race even though they completed the course.

Their continued listing as apparent leader of the racing fleet added interest to the race but skewed the daily results of both monohull fleets. It also had considerable effect on the moral of other competitors. I believe in absolute fairness and sportsmanship in yacht racing and all other sports but there appears to be something lacking in that regard with this situation.

I will watch with interest to see the final results.

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Wooden boat plans .com

Wooden boat plans .com Small Wooden Boat Plans Wooden Toy Boat Plans Wooden Boat Building Plans Homemade Boat Plans Wooden Boat Plans

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Black Cat in the Governors Cup Race

In my last post I wrote about how well the Didi 38 "Black Cat" was faring in the Governors Cup Race to the South Atlantic island of St Helena. I am writing this post based on information that I have read on the official web sites of the race and False Bay Yacht Club.

They were going like a train in showing the way to all of the monohulls. Then they sailed into a hole in the otherwise good tradewind sailing breezes. This was created by a rather odd shape to the South Atlantic high, as an elongated sausage running east/west and in two parallel bands of calm not far apart.

Skipper Dave (Wavy) Immelman was kicking himself for having missed a crucial weather download that may have helped him evade the holes. They sailed slowly through the first calm then the winds started to pick up and they thought they were through, only to be trapped by the second calm.

"Black Cat" rounding the Cape of Good Hope en-route to St Helena.

We watched in dismay as the Vickers 41 "Avanti" sailed a big arc that took her right around the hole in which "Black Cat" languished, at pretty much twice the speed. We despaired for the chances of "Black Cat" even catching "Avanti" before the finish line, let alone getting far enough ahead to beat her on handicap. In the end "Avanti" crossed the finish line about 7 hours 10 minutes ahead of "Black Cat".

I went to bed last night feeling sad that the hard sailing done by Wavy and his crew for so much of the race was thwarted by the fickle winds. I woke this morning to the news that the skipper of "Avanti" declared some time after finishing that they had motored and were dropping down to the cruising division. That leaves "Black Cat" as the likely winner of the racing division, with only "Iechyd Da" with a very distant chance of beating her on handicap.

Congratulations to Wavy and crew. You sailed an honest and honourable race. You didnt deserve the heartache that came from watching your opposition apparently sailing right around you when they had actually motored into a more favourable position.

This brings up two questions that need clarification.

1. Why did "Avanti" wait until after the finish of the race to declare that they motored? They should have done so immediately that the motor was started. That action disqualified them from the racing division. They didnt declare at the time that they were dropping to the cruising division, so can they be considered to have been racing in that division? None of the other cruisers knew that they were racing against "Avanti" so they couldnt take her into consideration in their tactical decisions. The knowledge may not have had any effect but it should have been open knowledge throughout the fleet within hours of "Avanti" starting her motor.
2. What is the sense of allowing boats to change their racing division on the water? It may have seemed a good idea at the time that the rules were written but has created a very unfair situation on the water, unfair to those boats that were in the cruising division at the start of the race. The entry list shows 9 boats in the racing division and 4 in cruising. As the race has progressed and the boats ran out of wind, racing boats have chosen to motor and change from racing to cruising division. The leading boat in cruising division changed class after finishing and the 2nd boat changed very late in the race. The whole balance of the event has changed, with the original 9 racers reduced to 3 and the original 4 cruisers swelled to 10 boats. Three of those 4 cruisers have retired and "Tallulah" should get the trophy. Instead she is lying 3rd, with "Avanti" and "Strumpet" having jumped in ahead of her. Maybe the rules of the race have not been broken but I dont agree that this is the right way to do it, in the interests of fairness to all on the water.

OK, I am getting off my soapbox now.Once again, congratulations to Wavy and crew on sticking it out in racing division when it looked like you had been beaten but could have had a clear win in the cruising division by simply starting your motor and changing classes.

See more about the Didi 38 and our other designs on our website at http://dixdesign.com/.

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Liquid stitch fabric glue review Info

one photo Liquid stitch fabric glue review using the Deck The Halls Fabric from the holiday mini-catalog Plywood Types Fabric Easter Bunny Applique using the Deck The Halls Fabric from the holiday mini-catalog Variety of Flowers Cross Stitch

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