Bryn-

I saw Rich's launch in the Register Guard at a price I couldn't resist, so
now it's mine. I haven't got the engine going yet, mostly becuase I've been
busy with other things, but possibly also because of an unconscious fear
that it'll blow up. <g> I've been fooling with it some the last few days
and will give it a try tomorrow or the next day. The boat is in better
shape than your Cruiser, but it's still a diamond in the rough, I'm not at
all sure that it'll float, even after it swells up. We'll see soon. I've
wanted one of those one-lungers for decades! I told Rich about this list,
but I don't know if he's lurking here. Are you here Rich?

Dorena gets its share of motorboating yahoos, but you should have been at
Cottage Grove reservoir last Sunday, they were really churning the lake up!
Fortunately most of them went home late in the afternoon and I managed to
get in some good sailing. The winds at Cottage Grove Lake don't seem quite
as fluky as at Dorena, probably because the hills surrounding the lake
aren't as big. It's a small lake, but I'll probably sail there again--
preferably on weekdays! Dorena can get some good waves just from the wind
if it's coming up the lake, but nothing as nasty as Fern Ridge.

John McCallum at Applegate Boat Works has adapted a steamboat yawl for
plywood stitch 'n' glue construction, he claims that's the kind of boats
that the early McKenzie rivermen used. Does this look anything like the
Helfrich/Pruitt boat, or was theirs a Kaarhus boat?

http://www.teleport.com/~boatshop/mckenzie.html

I picked up that book about Buzz Holmstrom, the gas pump jockey from
Coquille who ran the Green and Colorado alone in the '30s, from one of the
authors at the Portland Wooden Boat Show, an excellent read! I don't think
I'll ever be a whitewater boater, but I can understand what drove people
like Holmstrom and Helfrich and Pruitt. The book is called 'The Doing of
the Thing" by a committee of authors, despite which it reads well. A few
geographical and boatbuilding errors gave me pause, and should have been
caught by somebody, but they don't detract much from the book.

There's no reason to build a nondescript skiff when there are so many plans
for nice ones out there. <g>

I don't have a picture of you (Bryn), but I've got one of your drift boat
and Gloucester Gull.

--
John <jkohnen@boat-links.com>
http://www.boat-links.com/
Nobody ought to wear a Greek fisherman's hat unless they meet two conditions:
1. He is a Greek
2. He is a Fisherman <Roy Blount Jr.>