Tropical storm Noel swept by New England in late October and sent some fun waves towards Napatree Point. I didn't get much good footage while paddling, but the resulting video is still fun.

Nymph

With the publishing of my article about building Nymph in WoodenBoat Magazine I now have plans for this little canoe ready to go.

This little boat is well intended to be a light weight, easy to handle, minimalist boat for exploring sheltered ponds, lakes, and bays. I built the prototype using basswood and walnut using 1/8 inch thick strips and it came in at about 15 pounds. Even using thicker cedar it should be easy for most builders to keep her under 20 pounds. Skilled builders willing to push the limits may be able to shave a couple more pounds off.

More video from the reefs in the passage between Watch Hill, RI and Fishers Island, NY. This is out near buoy #2 on a day with about a 3 knot ebb. I'm paddling my Petrel. Also on the water were a Chatham 18 and a couple NDK Explorers.

I got a call from Bob Van Dyke of CVSW the other day. He said he had just been reading a book by Clive Cussler called Polar Shift. He had just picked up the book recently and was shocked to read the following:
"The latest addition to his fleet was the custom-made Guillemot kayak. He had bought it on an earlier trip to Seattle. He liked its natural wood construction and the graceful design of the thin hul, which was based on an Aleut craft. Like all his boats, it was fast as well as beautiful."

After teaching my class at the WoodenBoat School, I got a chance to head up to Blue Hill for some play time. There is a reversing falls that has a nice play wave popular with the whitewater crowd. I took my Petrel in for a little surfing action:

Internationally recognized kayak and small boat designer Nick Schade, owner of Guillemot Kayaks, has teamed up with the largest producer of kit boats in the country, Chesapeake Light Craft, to create high quality boat kits based on Schade’s designs. With customers in over 60 countries Guillemot Kayaks has earned worldwide respect as a source of beautiful, high performance boat designs. Since 1993 do-it-yourself builders have used Schade’s plans and instructions to craft their own small boats at home. Chesapeake Light Craft (CLC), established in 1991, is a boat kits-and-materials specialist, with broad experience in kit fabrication and distribution.

I decided to enter my Petrel into this year's Woodenboat Show Concourse d'Elegance. I am pleased to report that I ended receiving a nice 1st place mug in the professionally built manually powered boat group. There were a lot of beautiful boats there so I feel quite honored.

The show was held at Mystic Seaport this year under sunny skies. It is nice be talking boats among so many beautiful craft. I really enjoyed the chance to talk with so many people who had built or were building my designs, as well as those who are planning to. The word is that the show will be at Mystic again next year. If you were unable to make it this year, it is well worth the effort to try to attend next year.

I put together a somewhat longer video of a trip in Frenchman Bay, Maine. It starts along Long Porcupine Island near The Hop, and ends along Mt Desert Island near Otter Cliffs.

I hope this gives non-paddlers a feeling for what it may be like taking a small human powered boat into the water in a beautiful location. Sit back and let the shore move by.

ConnYak the local paddling club is having their annual slide show tonight, so I put together a couple videos from last summer's paddling.

The first shows the trip out to Ironbound Island from Gouldsboro, ME and shows the group paddling along Stave Island and Ironbound: