boat dreaming

[Sam Jones]

Can't remember if it was you or not, Mike. Probably not, Our boat sailed
just fine to windward and we didn't haul it back and forth to the coast. We
sailed on Town Lake and Travis a few times then it went to the coast and it
stayed there. We rejected the cuddy in the design and curved the forward
coaming, a la Winslow Homer's "Breezing Up". The foredeck and short
afterdeck was mahogany with a white oak king plank. Hull planking was
western red cedar. We spent four days culling out knot free boards in two
lumber yards to get enough. The nicest thing that happened was this stranger
that stopped by and gave us the spruce mast, boom, a set of useable sails
and most of the hardware. His father had wrecked his boat and the parts were
stored in his barn and he didn't want them to go to waste. Wasn't that a
nice thing for him to do? We sure appreciated it since we didn't have enough
clamps to lay up a mast or boom.

Sam in Austin      

-----Original Message-----
From: austin-ghetto-list-bounces at pairlist.net
[mailto:austin-ghetto-list-bounces at pairlist.net] On Behalf Of Michael
Eisenstadt
Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 11:42 AM
To: survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s
Subject: Re: boat dreaming



The Titmouse is a nice little sailboat. Ed and I built one in my driveway
in 1975,76&77 from the Rabl book we got from the library. See photos. I
don't know about a motor.

Sam in Austin 

Dear Sam,

There is considerable charm in not remembering at all 
clearly various things 30 years ago. 1977 is a long time
ago at least nowadays. I have seen a number of titmouses 
other than the one I built because it is a very pretty design 
and the design is free if you get Rabl's book out of the 
library. Still and all it is a humongous project, being a
very large small boat, 6 foot wide and weighing over
700 pounds. I was invited to check out Sam's titmouse,
I assume it must have been Sam Jones although I retain
no memory whatsoever of the 2 guys that showed it
to me in a driveway. I do remember they said they 
usta haul it to the coast and back and that it was way
heavier thus harder driving back because the wood 
soaked up lotsa water for having just been being in the 
water as compared to when it was drying out in the 
driveway. I mentioned this to Hershey and he laughed 
and said, "It is uphill from the coast and downhill
going the other way, ya know."

The pictures Sam sent jibes with it being sailed on
the coast.

I also remember they said the right and left sides of
the hull were not exactly the reverse of one another
and that the boat therefore beat to wind better on 
one tack rather than on the other.

I also remember that they built the coaming around
the cockpit at right angle to the seats as per the 
design but I knew then that was a mistake and I
angled the coaming on my boat back somewhat
for more comfortable seating. 

But i remember nothing of the guys in the driveway.
That was you, Sam, wasn't it?

Mike