Re: Joshua Slucum would not agree (was Re: The Cutty Sark - The ship that died of shame.)


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Posted by Alex Forbes on May 23, 2007 at 21:50:18 from 4.242.120.75 user Pitsligo.

In Reply to: Re: Joshua Slucum would not agree (was Re: The Cutty Sark - The ship that died of shame.) posted by JLabaree on May 23, 2007 at 17:18:25:

I have in my dooryard a lapstrake skiff, 14' long, about 115 years old. She is not even remotely seaworthy --her planks are nail-sick and the laps have seperated, her frames are rotten away for two strakes either side of the keel, her starboard clamp is broken-- but she has an extraordinarily lovely shape. Absolutely delightful. I've been lugging her around with me for eleven years now, planning to restore her. In fact, I'll be picking up a new bandsaw for my shop in two weeks; resawing new bookmatched planks for her was the primary criterion for the saw, and the reason it took so long to afford one.

I have been told by several boatbuilders, whose opinions I think highly of, to pull her lines off, chainsaw her, and build anew; a real restoration will take several times longer and, thus, would cost much more. The problem is emotional attachment; not only was she one of the boats I learned to row on, thirty years ago, but I made a very silly promise to her to do all I could for her.

Just as Jonathan writes, if I can still see her shape, throughout the restoration, she'll still be there. The boat I know and love will remain the boat I know and love. And just as Andrew (and Lloyds, and Captain Slocum) says, restoring her piece by piece will ensure she is the same boat.

Restoration of boats is ludicrous. It is far too much time and money, far too much of our natural resources, to be a reasonable consideration. If anyone in power had their senses in order, they'd bring in a crane and an oxyacetalene torch and take away from Greenwich a tremendous haul in scrap wrought iron. Sadly, too many people do have that sort of sense, that's why Cutty Sark is all but the last of her kind.

Boats are not about sense. Old boats even less so. You can scramble about and find justifications for them, but in the end, they are about emotion. And that's what makes them so important. A restoration, IMHO, should be about preserving, to the greatest degree possible, that enormous lump in your throat when you feel the helm under your fingers, or smell the pine tar, or, if at all posible, when you see that first curl of bow wave.

Think, for a moment, how you would feel to see Cutty Sark under press of canvas. Think of the thunder as she moved to weather in a stiff breeze. Think of the glow of her sails at sunrise, or even seeing her at anchor in a still, foggy morning. Now decide whether, and to what degree she should be restored.

Alex


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