Friday, June 27. 2008
Seagull step 1
I have cut out the transom for my Seagull (see below) from an offcut of 6mm ply left from Hookey. I'll add the doubler and reinforcing battens before I buy the 4 sheets of ply I reckon on needing for the balance. Hopefully I'll have enough offcuts for the remainder. I'm using a very light colored soft wood that was used for shipping sheets of glass for most of the solid wood components, including the oars I think.
Thursday, June 26. 2008
Charlie's moving on...
Tuesday, June 24. 2008
Sad news
Early yesterday morning Resolution ran aground on rocks at the north-east side of Great Barrier Island while Charlie was asleep. Its the cruel end of a voyage that started over 3 years ago when Charlie contacted John Welsford about designing a boat to carry him around the word. 2 1/2 years in construction and only recently launched, Resolution had only sailed a few days before bad weather got the better of her and Charlie. Resolution looks like a loss but fortunately Charlie is OK and hopefully his dream will survive too.
See here for the story and video.
There is another update here.
This follows only a week after another sailor was rescued from his yacht off the North Island coast after being rolled several times in high seas. The skipper likened it to being in a washing machine. His boat was recovered a couple of days later when its EPIRB was tracked nearing the coast. Story here
And this morning another yacht was found drifting a little south of where Charlie ran into difficulties. Read about it here.. The yacht had been missing for some time.
See here for the story and video.
There is another update here.
This follows only a week after another sailor was rescued from his yacht off the North Island coast after being rolled several times in high seas. The skipper likened it to being in a washing machine. His boat was recovered a couple of days later when its EPIRB was tracked nearing the coast. Story here
And this morning another yacht was found drifting a little south of where Charlie ran into difficulties. Read about it here.. The yacht had been missing for some time.
Sunday, June 22. 2008
Charlie Whipple's Resolution Inside
Here are a couple of shot's I took when I called on Charlie a week or so before he left Tauranga for Hawaii. As of today he is a few hundred miles north of NZ and the weather will be pretty rough. It's cosy down below though.
Friday, June 6. 2008
Visit to Charlie Whipple
Last weekend was a holiday here in NZ and Jo and I took the opportunity to get out of town and call on Charlie Whipple on Resolution at the Tauranga Bridge Marina. 
I have visited Charlie several times during the last 18 months and have seen the slow but steady construction progress. I was impressed by the photos that Charlie and John posted of the first sail - she is a very trim looking vessel.
Sitting on Charlie's bunk down below and enjoying a cup of coffee I got the sense that Resolution is a solid little boat and she felt ready for the planned trip, although there are a lot of little tidy up tasks still to do. One of the main ones is to get the wind-vane steering tested and adjusted properly.
Charlie is planning to leave on the first stage of his round the world trip within the next two weeks.
I have visited Charlie several times during the last 18 months and have seen the slow but steady construction progress. I was impressed by the photos that Charlie and John posted of the first sail - she is a very trim looking vessel.
Charlie and Resolution, Tauranga June 2008
Sitting on Charlie's bunk down below and enjoying a cup of coffee I got the sense that Resolution is a solid little boat and she felt ready for the planned trip, although there are a lot of little tidy up tasks still to do. One of the main ones is to get the wind-vane steering tested and adjusted properly.
Charlie is planning to leave on the first stage of his round the world trip within the next two weeks.
