[bolger] Bolger & Payson > Never ceases to amaze me...

You have lucky kids John, that's how people truly learn patience and tolerance (and boating). I learned about small boats as a kid, but not nurturing.
 
The old saying "if you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all" has been invaluable to me as I work to learn to behave and to feel patient and tolerant with other people.
 
While I deeply regret that I kept waffling on which plans to buy from Payson (and so never did buy plans from him), I do have several emails from him and books signed by him, and am very glad to have these. Even though he passed on, I am glad and grateful that his skills and values were passed on to so many people in this group, who in the same tradition are now passing them on to others.
 
It is also sad that the skills needed to build the hugesquare riggers are being lost. However the foundations of these building skills aren't being lost because of groups like this devoted to encouraging the skills and culture for building and sailing small boats.
 
Facing a future of declining resources and increasingly expensive fuel, I find it very hopeful that the building and use of small boats for recreation, transportation, and commercial fishing is being kept alive.
 
A few years ago I read an article about how the last shipping service for palletized freight delivery, up the Inside Passage from Washington to Alaska, quit business. This was a huge blow for the small communities, only accessible by water, that couldn't afford (and didn't have the port facilities) to have containerized freight delivered.
 
I keep wondering when somebody, who would rather sail than do anything else, will adapt one of Bolger's larger designs to delivering small loads of freight in this region. While nobody doing this would get rich, it could help pay for a boat, justify spending a lot of time on the water, provide a rewarding way to spend your time, and guarantee that you would have a lot of friends up and down the coast. This would be extremely traditional because historically most coastal freight services to small villages just barely made ends meet and people kept doing this because they'd rather do that than do anything else.
 
In an era of cheap fuel, sail powered freight didn't pay because the lost time cost more money than the fuel cost. As fuel costs rise, slow intermittent freight will be lots better than nothing for small communities that don't have any other feasible options - having heavy freight delivered by float plane isn't financially feasible.
 
That this discussion group is still actively carrying on and sharing these boat skills and traditions means there is a active support base to encourage people who would seriously consider a traditional freight service to small isolated coastal communities.
 
More than this, that this group encourages so many parents to build small simple inexpensive boats, and take their kids out in them, means another generation is being started down the path to being the small boat experts a half century from now. A lot of people miss this - where to boating experts come from?
 
Maybe some kid, sailing their parent's Teal this summer (one of the easiest and least expensive of the instant boat series)
 www.instantboats.com/teal.htm
Will be making their living with small boats 20 years from now - this group helps keep this possibility real, and I thank everybody here who is contributing to that future for traditional boating and boating culture.
 
Sincerely,
Roger
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent:Friday, April 08, 2011 2:12 PM
Subject:Re: [bolger] Re: Never ceases to amaze me...

I was once a newbie to boats and boatbuilding myself.  I'm honored now to be a veteran, and to share anything I know that may be helpful.

Patience and tolerance are powerful nurturers. We use them with children, we should use them everywhere.

Be happy!
 
John "Chris" Balch
Balch Boats
www.explorearth.org

Travelin' Light
Torneremo
ALF II (A Little Fun)