The AshBreezeJournal of the Traditional Small Craft Association Gardner Grants IN THIS ISSUE On-Water Training Standards MASCF XXXII Wrap-up Bevin's Skiff VOLUME 35, Number 4 • Winter 2014 • $4.00 The Breeze Ash President’s Message The Ash Breeze (ISSN 1554-5016) is the quarterly journal of the Traditional Members and non-members often Urban Boatbuilders, Inc., an at-risk Small Craft Association, Inc. It is ask what the Traditional Small Craft youth development organization in published at Mariner Media, Inc., Association does. We have expended Minnesota helping at-risk youth build 131 West 21st Street, Buena Vista, VA considerable ink communicating the four traditionally constructed skin- 24416. value of our organization. You may on-frame canoes. The second $2,000 Communications concerning have seen the John Gardner Fund on grant was given to the Antique Boat membership or mailings should be the list of benefits. I will devote this Museum for the St. Lawrence River addressed to: PO Box 350, Mystic, CT column to dive deeper into what the Skiff Documentation Project in New 06355. www.tsca.net John Gardner Endowment Fund is York. The third recipient was the Lowell Volume 35, Number 4 all about and why it is a an important Boat Shop. They received $2,000 for aspect of our organization and why it the preservation (by digitization) of the Editor: is worthy of your support. Lowell Boat Shop Historic Ledger. Andy Wolfe The purpose of the Fund is to We are grateful for the committee’s [email protected] preserve, continue, and expand the work in 2014. They studied many Advertising Manager: achievements, vision, and goals of applications and made recipient Mike Wick John Gardner by enriching and recommendations to the TSCA [email protected] disseminating our traditional small Council. I would like to recognize and craft heritage by making grants thank Dana Hewson, Sandy Bryson, Editors Emeriti: available for worthy projects. Sydney Whelan, Dick Wagner, and Richard S. Kolin John Gardner Grants are designed committee chairman, David Cockey, Sam & Marty King to support projects that broaden our for their service. David & Katherine Cockey traditional small craft heritage, and Our bylaws specify the John Ralph Notaristefano for which sufficient funding would Gardner Fund Committee have not Ken Steinmetz otherwise be unavailable. less than five members. We urge John Stratton Eligible projects are those which members to consider volunteering for Dan Drath research, document, preserve, and this committee. We are anticipating Ned Asplundh replicate traditional small craft, two member’s departure and need at The Traditional Small Craft associated skills (including their least two replacements. If you have Association, Inc. is a nonprofit, tax- construction and uses), and the skills an interest in small craft heritage, exempt educational organization of those who built and used them. you should consider lending that works to preserve and continue Youth involvement is encouraged. your efforts to this committee. the living traditions, skills, lore, and The John Gardner Grants are Last year I donated to the Gardner legends surrounding working and competitive and reviewed semi- Fund because I want to preserve and pleasure watercraft with origins that annually by the John Gardner Grant carry on the tradition of wooden predate the marine gasoline engine. We encourage the design, construction, Committee of the Traditional Small boat building. I encourage you to and use of these boats, and we embrace Craft Association (TSCA). Thejoin me in supporting the Fund. contemporary variants and adaptations source of funding is the TSCA John Your donation, in any amount, to of traditional designs. Gardner Fund, which was established the TSCA John Gardner Fund will TSCA is an enjoyable yet practical in 1997 and is managed by the Maine increase its endowment, and thus link among users, designers, builders, Community Foundation (MCF). our ability to support these worthy restorers, historians, government, and Funding available for projects is Grants. Tax-deductible donations to maritime institutions. determined annually. The funding for the TSCA John Gardner Fund may be ©2014 by The Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc. any individual project is estimated to sent directly to the Maine Community be $200 to $2000. Foundation (www.mainecf.org). TAB Layout Design: Karen Bowen We awarded three grants in 2014. I wish all of you well, Cover Photo: © Tracey Munson The first, a $2,000 grant, went to Frank Coletta, President, TSCA The Ash Breeze, Winter 2014 2 A Dory for the Schooner Adventure by Paul Schwartz Landmark is a school for students with require a mooring or trailer and a place The TSCA awarded a $2,000 Gardner language based learning differences. to store and so forth, so they are not Grant to the schooner Adventure to They all have above average IQs. They so practical. Now our stock project is purchase stock to build a dory. Students excel in the shop, theatre, the arts, etc. a double paddle canoe that graduating at Landmark School in Beverly, MA, There’s no fixed curriculum in the shop. seniors take home. A couple of years ago were to provide the labor. Adventure is Students generally choose their own we built a glued ply Swampscott dory of the sole remaining dory fishing schooner projects and often work together. They John Gardner design. and is a national historic landmark. do a range of projects including carvings, We purchased lumber from Harold When fishing she carried true banks 1/2 hulls, cutting boards, Eskimo Burnham. He has a sawmill at the dories nested together on deck. We have sleds, signs, dovetailed sea chests, misc. boatyard and gave us a good deal. The one unheated room in the shop where furniture, and of course boats. Most pine was all live edge stuff as wide as 19" we store lumber and various projects. work is hand work. We used to build and 16' to 17' long, all clear. He threw Due to these constraints, we could only skiffs. The good thing about that was in the oak for frames for nothing. We fit a 16' l.o.a. banks dory in there. The that they had a blueprint, would carve a used bronze ring shank nails to fasten design was straight from John Gardner’s 1/2 model, would loft it full size, would the garboard to the bottom. Bronze Dory Book. The room that we use for set up the moulds, and then build the screws fasten plank to frames, stem, and glued marine plywood boats is heated, boat. They experienced the whole thing transom. Copper rivets and roves fasten so that’s no good for a lumber boat. from a piece of paper to a boat. Skiffs the laps. The oarlocks and bow eye are bronze. All the lumber was air dried. We also had white oak, Douglass fir, and local white cedar in the shop. We picked up the lumber in October of 2010. That December we planed three planks for the bottom to just over an inch thick. These were the only ones in the pile that were less than 15" wide before milling. One edge was cut straight with a skillsaw and straightedge to get rid of the sapwood then the second edge was ripped in the tablesaw. Plank edges continued on page 11 Top: Finished dory. Left: Students working on the dory. 3 The Ash Breeze, Winter 2014 Oh we had so much fun! Reflections on the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival XXXII by Tracey Munson There’s an almost giddiness in the air as Mid-Atlantic Small year after year.” After Greenaway’s first festival, those bonds Craft Festival (MASCF) participants arrive on the waterfront and friendships seem to have already taken hold. campus of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. “The room filled with applause when Kristen shared that Michaels, MD. For 32 years, this annual October weekend she felt the same sense of community as she did from her event has made small craft a big deal to participating families WaterTribe experiences,” said CBMM Facilities Manager and and museum guests alike. Festival Coordinator John Ford. “They really appreciated seeing What’s making everyone so happy is not necessarily the Kristen at the event and the interest she took in so many of the 125-plus small craft gathered from throughout the eastern programs and events. They instantly connected with her.” seaboard and as far as the Midwest. As you walk through the Kristen’s seven-year-old son, Andrew—an accomplished campgrounds or share in steamed crabs or raw oysters at the kayaker himself—sums it up perfectly. “When do we get annual cook-out, it’s clear the heart and soul of this festival to do this again, Mum?” And just like all those growing is exemplified in the way people greet one another. Their big up in MASCF before him, he will experience his first year smiles and long-held hugs tell you that these folks have a great of anticipation, with building excitement over a fun-filled history of shared memories at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime weekend, now marked on the calendar in red. Museum, and that’s what truly makes MASCF so much fun. Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival XXXIII comes to the Chesapeake The festival’s joyfulness is especially felt while watching Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD, October 2–4, 2015. grandparents introduce the newest babies—the festival’s For more information, bookmark www.cbmm.org/mascf. fourth generation, and the second generation of children Winners growing up at MASCF. You can feel it when you see them First place winners of the judged categories include James out on the water together, or overhear a four-year old asking Del Aguila, with his Rushton canoe Plover in the traditional her father, “How much longer ’til we build our boats?” Her design and construction class; Joe Manning with his marsh father asked his father the same question, at the same age, cat in the traditional-contemporary class; Larry Haff with when he and his brother were coming to MASCF during its his outrigger canoe for the contemporary class; Frank Stauss early beginnings.