Comments on Bill’s Small Sailboats - The Future : Bill's Log

Happy new year Bill.

Sad to hear you won't be blogging quite as often but you have built up a considerable online resource of great interest that people can delve into from time to time, I certainly know that I will be doing exactly that.

Kind regards - Alden Smith

Thank you Alden. I've valued your welcome input.

By not writing my blog each day, I'll have to time for reading other blogs, including yours - even time for making a few comments!

Cheers,

Bill.

Happy New Year Bill, I trust you and your family find joy, health and happiness. As for the Blog, all the more to look forward to when your posts arrive. Thank you for your wise and knowledgeable articles, they are always interesting and thought provoking.
All the best
Paul

Bill, as Paul says sometimes more is less, your posts are always interesting and informative - look forward to whatever you post
Best wishes for 2016

Max

A happy, healthy, and peaceful new year Bill. Whatever you care to post,be it regular or sporadic, its always most welcome. Id like to extend a heartfelt thankyou for all you have posted.

Yes, many thanks from me too Bill for the fantastic resource you provide and your interesting and thought-provoking opinions and insights.

Stay well and happy.

Stephen.

Thank you people for all your wonderful support that has helped keep me going. The voyage has not yet ended. There is still some life in the old sea dog.

We have a shared interest in things nautical, particularly small sailing boats, building them, sailing them or just messing about with them. These pursuits are healthy, life-enhancing, rewarding and sometimes fulfilling - even challenging at times.

Sailing as a hobby brings one into contact with nature in a way that the normal humdrum of life does not. It is the perfect antidote to the poison of worldly lust, consumerism, materialism and evils found in the concrete jungle of existence, where the natural world is expunged. Out on the water we come into contact with an environment beyond our control. We become subject to it and part of it. We have to go along with it with great respect, even when there is no wind and the water is like a millpond, but if taken to the extreme, sailing can become hazardous, requiring our all for survival.

With good fortune, if we survive, we may learn from our mistakes, and perchance grow in wisdom. We look back and recall testing moments of truth by which we measure the present, and go forward into the future looking for more adventures.

Life is one big adventure - seize it when you can, for it is fleeting.

1 Peter 1:24

Hi Bill
I don't like "the future" as I have really enjoyed reading your posts, checking daily for interesting updates, and now find myself missing them. I can't say that I have been able to find a good alternative yet. Though I can't blame you as I imagine it is a lot of work putting something together every day.
Many thanks for providing me with lots of entertainment, useful suggestions and inspiration( that I can and should do more).
Michael

I join others in wishing you a happy new year, and thank you for the resources you have made available, which, as you know, Bill, have been instrumental in my three small boat builds here in France: Fabio, Brina, and now Kolaska, my Paradox build, which is coming along nicely and may be completed this year.
Richard G.

Hi Michael,

There's a chance I may post a few items in the future, but not regularly as in the past. I'm still hoping I'll be fit enough to launch and retrieve the dinghy for the odd day sail, come the spring and into the summer.

Cheers,
Bill.

Hi Richard G.,

It's great to hear from you. I"m pleased Kolaska is coming along nicely. You've got my email address, so you can always get in touch. I would love to see a few photos of the boat. I think you will be very happy with her.

Cheers,
Bill.

Bill, I have only just caught up on this. Thank you for all your posts in the past. As a novice boat builder and sailor, they have helped so much. As Paul and Max said, less is more......when your future posts come, they will be gratefully received by us all
Steve
Arwensmeanderings.blogspot.com

Well Steve, I want to thank you too for all your informative and entertaining posts at Arwen's Meanderings. You are an inspiration to many.

Cheers,
Bill.

Hi Bill, just wondering if we, your readers, ought to take our turn now and then. Why should you always have to do all the work. I tend to come across something interesting every few weeks or so. as I am sure others do too. Here's an example.

John Harris is unbleievable prolific, and his latest design is a sweet and would be well worth considering by many of us who want a small simple gunkholing boat. Quite close in some ways to Paradox in build and function.

http://www.clcboats.com/life-of-boats-blog/autumn_leaves_canoe_yawl.html

Anyway, hope your keeping well, all the best, Brian

Hi Bill

Hope you are keeping well

Hope its OK but I would like to lift some of your pictures of Talitha as I am going to sell her on Ebay.

I have not been able to sail her as much as I would have liked and not at all last season. So this seems a good time to find another good home for her.

Thanks very much

David

Hi David,

Yes, you may use the photos. Please keep me informed regarding the sale.

Cheers,
Bill.

Hi Brian,

Sorry for not replying before now, but your suggestion of input from other contributors on the face of it is a good one. However, there's one snag; I would be involved in conversations with contributors and with doing the postings, and I just don't have the will and heart for it. Basically, I've run out of steam.

This year getting my dinghy on the water will require energy and enthusiasm, and I'm hoping I can find both. Perchance I may succeed, I many be inspired to write accounts of the outings. You never know. Something may come of it; particularly if there's decent weather this summer. Hope is eternal.

The truth is, I'm enjoying the freedom I have from not having to write the blog, and I value the extra time I have for other profitable activities. By 'profitable' I mean satisfying, rewarding and enjoyable pursuits. Life is good.

Cheers,
Bill.

Great to hear that you are well Bill -- more power to your elbow.

Hi Bill,

You'll remember that Richard Green bought Minnow from you.
I live close to where Richard keeps Minnow,
and we've often chatted about boats and Paradox.

But I haven't seen Richard for some time,
and he isn't answering emails.

Do you know where I might find him?

John Starkie
johnstarkie(at)icloud(dot)com

nice post

All your boats are all doing well somewhere or other Bill! - Talitha has now gone to Scotland - bought by a very well organised committed sailor (unlike me sadly) from the Ukraine I believe, very nice people he is called Gene and he and his partner travelled all the way down to Lymington in massive round trip and packed Talitha up along with all her fixtures and fittings and topped her back to Ayr where he already has a small hobie or some sort of 'cat' I believe in a yard by the river. He was particularly pleased to read all the details of the build in your blog! I think she will get some serious use there!
Best regards hope you are keeping well and getting some sailing in on your river!

Thank you David. I'm sorry I'm slow in replying to your comment. I'm pleased to hear Gene is the new owner of Talitha. Maybe he'll get in touch and tell me how he gets on with her. The big drawback was inserting the keel before launching her on account of the weight of the ballast. Once in the water she was exciting to sail and always performed well. I thought of converting her to a trimaran which would have eliminate the the keel insertion problem. A small daggerboard would have sufficed, or perhaps shallow keels on the outriggers, allowing for the removal of the keel box.