Antifouling Paint Study Under Way in San Diego Bay

Port and Knight & Carver continue testing alternative hull coatings.

SAN DIEGO -- In an effort to pinpoint which environmentally friendly antifouling hull paints are most effective in real-life conditions, Knight and Carver YachtCenter has partnered with the Port of San Diego to test a wide variety of these coatings in local waters -- and initial results are expected by the end of the year.

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The builder rebuilds

By BEVERLEY WARE South Shore Bureau
Wed. Nov 19 - 11:47 AM

LUNENBURG - John Steele was anchored off East Ironbound Island in his 17-metre schooner PaPa 1. His cellphone jolted him awake before 6 a.m. on the first of what was supposed to be four days off.

It was Eric Hustvedt, the communications manager at Mr. Steele's Petite Riviere boatyard and a volunteer firefighter in the community. He delivered the most horrible of news.

Covey Island Boatworks had burned to the ground in the early hours of that Aug. 12 morning. There was nothing left of the business Mr. Steele co-founded in 1979.

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I was away during the past week, but here's where we were before I left.

Posted by: Tom Daniels 11/17/2008 11:05 PM

I've been off for a week, and there has been lots of progress since I've been away. Hmmm, this does not reflect well on my presence in the shop...

Here's how things looked the week before I headed to the Midwest.

We had to steam the aft ends of the lower course of planks to handle the twist right below the waterline. We used a flexible pipe, rather than the bag as we had before, to bring the steam to the plank. The water that condensed from the pipe made its own steam trail in the cold shop air.

Read on...

Follow the progress of the project at the Cherokee Blog, written by IYRS graduate Tom Daniels, one of the shipwrights on the project.

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Self Healing Yacht Hulls: One Student's Research

Sounds like stuff from a science fiction movie? In the future, it just may be possible, thanks to a female doctoral student in Lausanne, France.

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Young sailor starts world voyage

Michael Perham, 16, from Potters Bar in Hertfordshire is the youngest person to have sailed across the Atlantic alone.

He set out on his latest voyage from Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth, on his Open 50 Racing Yacht on Saturday morning.

He will be alone at sea for over four months and his only contact with family will be through satellite link-ups.

Michael said: "I'm a little bit nervous but otherwise really, really excited.

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Student-built boats almost ready for sailing

MILLVILLE, NJ - In the playground of his 3rd Ward neighborhood school, R.D. Wood Elementary School Principal Bill Sheridan talked about the almost two-year process of building two nearly identical sailboats with the help of his students.

Friday's occasion was to celebrate the near-completion and turning over of ownership of the 12-foot-long Sharpie sailboats to the Bayshore Discovery Project.

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World Premiere of "Maine Built Boats: Art & Soul"

Portland, Maine - Maine Built Boats presents the World Premiere of the documentary, Maine Built Boats: Art and Soul, at The Strand Theatre in Rockland on November 20th at 7 pm. The event is open to the public.

For almost a year, Maine Built Boats has been working with world class sailor, Gary Jobson to produce a documentary about Maine's boatbuilding tradition, its 400 year old history, its expert workforce and the state-of-the art innovations at work in Maine today. "The best part about this project was the opportunity to interview 32 different boat builders", explained Jobson. "Everyone is very passionate about their work and in the end Maine boat builders build an extremely high quality product. It is the skill and the pride that goes into each boat that makes a Maine built boat so special."

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In bad economy, boat owners abandon their vessels

SAN FRANCISCO -- From Southern California to Maine, the foundering economy, high fuel prices and poor fishing have driven boat owners to abandon perhaps thousands of vessels on the waterfront, where they are beginning to break up and sink, leaking oil and other pollutants.

Boats have long been a barometer of consumer confidence, disposable income and the overall state of the economy. Now, marina and harbor officials are reporting a sudden increase in the past year in the number of deserted pleasure boats and working vessels.

Read the complete article.

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Fuel prices: the bright spot in downturn

It comes too late in the year to be of much help to the marine industry, but the one bright spot in an otherwise economically volatile autumn has been the steady downward trend in gasoline prices.

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30 foot Electric Boat I Designed, Built, Traveled & Lived on for 1-1/2 Years

The following is a link to Albany, NY, channel 9 News Video of my boat at the Castleton Yacht Club, On The Hudson River, 7/23/2006. This was the fourth day on my second journey from Burlington , Vermont . I was going to take the boat all the way down the Intracoastal Waterway to Key West. Instead I ended up traveling from Burlington,Vt to Nyack, New York for a year and a half.

http://capitalnews9.com/Video/video_pop.aspx?vids=55818&sid=1&rid=12

I named the boat "The Inconvenient Truth" as it needed no fuel.

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