I was very interested in building a Rapid Robert (RR), back when I was in
full conversation with Roger Fletcher and Ray Heater at the Depoe Bay boat
fest. There's some great history. I actually wanted to build a
spruce-planked rapid robert, the kind that Veltie Pruitt and Prince Helfrich
used on their first journey down the Smith (a trib of the McKenzie). I had
a dream of doing an OPB special on the driftboat, split into three parts,
the first is the boatbuilding part, the second is the historical, and the
third would be the adventure part where the completed boat would get dragged
up (supposedly three miles through old growth) to the top of the Smith
recreating the first journey back in the 30's, I think. Well, as usual, my
bubble was burst when I found out that half of the Smith is damned up.
We'll see, maybe some day I will still try something like that. Roger
thought it sounded kind of fun and interesting, but I got the feeling that
Ray thought it was a pretty silly idea, the part about building a planked
driftboat, (leaky and heavy). Oh well

Also, the Greg Tatman pram has the same, or nearly the same, transom as the
RR. The lines look very similar, even the bow, if it existed, following
the sheer and the chines, would have the same goofy shape as the RR.

I just found some old copies of Woodenboat at Smith's Family Bookstore and I
bought them thinknig that I did not recognize the covers, meaning that I
didn't already have them. Oops, well I did have them, all five of them. I
can't beleive I don't know all the covers of all the woodenboats. Just
kidding. Next time, I need to have my list of missing issues in my back
pocket.

I also got Roy Underhill's 1981 book, "The Woodwright's Shop", it's much
like the country woodcraft book. It's great and there is a picture of Mr.
Underhill froeing a white oak log of significant length, but the diameter is
no where near Gardner's sandal-wearing Roman. I think Mr. Underhill needs
some sandals.

Jack - where did you get that book you mentioned awhile ago about the
Atlantic dory adventure?