It’s been a while since I posted about the goings on in the design office here a Rockport. If you’ve been keeping tabs on us in other ways—Facebook, newsletters, or out on the water—you already know it has been a busy summer here at Rockport Marine and I hope you’ll forgive us for the radio silence from the design office. Every project is an all hands on deck effort as completion dates approach, and ADVENTURESS has proved no exception. We had a spectacular turnout at the launch, engine trials and sailing trials went smoothly, and we got to show her off at the Fife Symposium in Castine alongside a few of her cousins. Perhaps most memorably we had a fantastic few days of casual racing in the Castine Classic Yacht Race, the Camden Classic Feeder Race, and the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta. In fact, if there was a downside to that whole week it was that from the foredeck I never got to see how good she looked going about her business. It would be fair to say she was well received. In fact I think ADVENTURESS is the first of our projects to draw enough traffic to the website to crash the server. She did it twice.
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Late last week I went to an event at 10 High Street, an art gallery here in Camden, Maine.

I was there to support a friend whose paintings are featured there this month. At one point during the evening, I found myself on the receiving end of an inquiry about Spirit of Tradition yachts. You might expect, as my conversation partner did, that given what I do for a living and where I am permitted to do it, that I would be able to define that term. No sooner had I stammered something about performance underbodies coupled to long overhangs and modern sails, rigging, and mechanical systems, that several exceptions to my supposed rule sprang into my mind. As I prepared to extract myself from the conversation and further embarrassment, my interlocutor followed up with “Are there Spirit of Tradition powerboats?”

At this point Jessica Stammen, my friend whose work I had come to admire, came to my rescue and I was permitted to talk art instead of boats for a few minutes. Now I know considerably less about art, but the difference is that I am not expected to be able to speak intelligently on the subject and this was much more to my liking. By the way Jessica’s work is exceptional and I encourage you to stop by Ten High Street if you happen to be in the area. If you’re not in the area you can check out her work here…
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“Layla and Majnun” or “Layla and the Madman” is the story of a Bedouin poet and the woman he loved. They lived in the 7th century under the rule of the Umayyad Dynasty in what is now Iraq. Consumed by his love for the astonishingly beautiful Layla, Majnun set out to woo her with his poems. Local traditions forbade the match however and Layla married another man. In his anguish Majnun lost his grip on reality and abandoned his family and community to wander in the surrounding desert, reciting his poems to the sand. Majnun’s body was discovered in 688 AD at the site of his beloved Layla’s grave. Before he died he had carved three verses of poetry into a rock nearby. 

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Last week, I was doing a little digging around about William and John Atkins for my last post, and I came across a reference, actually a curious insult of sorts, used to describe the efforts of the two men. They were, at least according to some of their detractors, designers of character boats.  If you spend enough time in the pages of the boating press you’ve likely come across this term before. I think the first time I came across it the author was describing the Lyle Hess designed Falmouth cutter/pilot cutter type favored by Lin and Larrey Pardey and much heralded in their many books recounting their adventures.

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In 1942 a man named William Atkin designed a 19’ skiff for the purpose of landing on far away beaches to collect American servicemen wounded in battle. The aim was to get in, load up, get out and do it quickly.  Atkin named the design RESCUE MINOR. Plans for his design are available here.

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