April, 21, 2021, In checking links on updating this site I’ve discovered that The Philadelphia Wooden Boat Factory website is down. The Philadelphia Wooden Boat Factory, its kids, and the first Factory One Design featured at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I’m going to give a short talk. Here’s a draft: How boats inspire. It’s fittingContinueContinue reading “Factory One Design at The Philadelphia Museum of Art”
Tag Archives: the Poetics of Boats
The Surface of Mortality
Looking out across an unfrozen yet still icy-cold salt pond, a boat goes by, reminding me of times on the water in winter. Winter sailing makes one thing supremely clear. Every time we leave dry land there is a realization that this reflective, undulating surface not only buoys us up. It is how and whyContinueContinue reading “The Surface of Mortality”
Floating, Flowing
Yes, it’s possible, indeed urgently necessary, to act from listening and stillness, which is an intelligence beyond knowledge. Such action is the basis of freedom and right action. Freedom can then be defined as the state of being in which one does not act out of conditioning and programming. But how does that come about?””EndingContinueContinue reading “Floating, Flowing”
Thoughts on Craft
Recently I’ve been looking into the meaning and origin of Craft. I began with this definition of the term.Craft means making. It is also a vessel that transports us. It denotes a variety of disciplines and an attitude towards making. Craft hovers around our conceptions of technique and technology, but I’d say these connections areContinueContinue reading “Thoughts on Craft”
Banks Schooners
This passage speaks to the ambivalence I feel towards our position today, looking back in admiration, wanting to somehow participate in what remains of the grand tradition these boats epitomize. I’ve spent my adult life in the shadow of the Banks Schooners. Growing up looking out across one of their greatest harbors as the dwindlingContinueContinue reading “Banks Schooners”
Play
Howard Chapelle’s American Sailing CraftThe creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves. Carl Jung, Memories Dreams & Reflections I collected this quote and began this post because I’ve long felt the connection between playContinueContinue reading “Play”
Boats for difficult times 