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Ive mentioned before that I have been reading Arthur Ransomes "Amazon and Swallows" books. What I didnt mention was how much Ive been learning from them.

Any Brit reading this blog will have read all of them, but they are relatively unknown in the US. I’ve read dozens of sailing books, but did not discover these until recently. I’ve got the entire set with me (bought second-hand from Amazon), and I am savoring my way through them, as slowly as possible.


My favorite, so far, is called “Coot Club”. In this story, 5 children and an old lady go on a cruise through England’s Norfolk Broads. They have all sorts of adventures, but the heart of the book is an epic dawn-to-dark sail down to the treacherous water’s of Yarmouth, and beyond.

Of course, their small, gaff-rigged sailboat has no engine, and the tidal currents on these river’s are significant, so the crew -- commanded by the oldest boy, Tom Dudgeon -- have to play the wind and current’s for all they are worth. And they do.

They ride the ebb tide down one river to the North Sea inlet of Yarmouth, hitting Yarmouth at slack water, then ride the flood tide back up another river.

In my years of sailing on Long Island Sound, I’ve never given tidal current’s much thought. Maybe that’s because I always sailed in boats with big diesel engines, or because the currents in my part of the world aren’t very fast. Or maybe because no one I sailed with in my formative years ever mentioned them.

But the fierce currents in Florida’s rivers and inlets are a major bother. They sometimes run 3 or even 4 knots. Since the Blue Moon’s hull speed is about 5 1/2 knots, that makes a difference! When you’re sailing with the current, the current’s speed is added to your boat speed. But when you’re sailing against it... well, you might as well drop anchor and crack open a Blue Moon beer. 

Not that I was smart enough to do that. I have to confess that the whole current thing just didn’t ‘click’ in my head. For hundreds of miles, I made no effort to catch favorable tides, or avoid unfavorable ones. As a result, I spent a lot of time gnashing my teeth over my lack of progress and the all-too-common GPS reading of 2 knots SOG (speed over ground.)

I was sailing, as John Walker would say, like a duffer.

But no more! Reading the “Coot Club” opened my eyes to the problems and opportunities of tidal currents.

A Coot, in case you were wondering... wikimedia commons

In fact, the next leg of my voyage posed a similar problem to that faced by Tom. Right outside the marina in Jacksonville Beach is the Pablo Creek (also known as the ICW), which flows 8 miles north to the broad St. John’s River -- a major inlet to the Atlantic Ocean, and thus a major driver of local tidal currents. I needed to cross this river and then head up Sister’s Creek. See chart 11489 for details.

I’d already experienced the current on the Pablo Creek (and not in a good way), so I was ready to put the “Coot Club” lesson’s to work.

Heading out at last photo jalmberg

First, I had to estimate the time of slack water, where the ICW crossed the St. John’s River. According to the tables, low tide at the Pablo Creek entrance -- where it intersected the St. Johns -- was at 3:00 pm. But that didnt mean it would be slack water at 3 pm. Far from it. According to my 1947 copy of the American Practical Navigator, slack water wouldn’t occur until later. How much later was an open question, but given the length of the St. Johns, I figured at least 2 hours. Maybe 2 1/2 hour. I didnt know for sure, but after dithering a bit, I decided 5:30 would be close enough.

I also wasn’t sure how much of a tail wind I’d catch going down the Tolomato, at that stage of the ebb. One knot extra? Two? I wasn’t sure, and none of the dock watchers had a clue, either. If it was one or more knots, I could regulate my speed at around 6 knots, so it should take me about 1 hour and 20 minutes to get to the St. John’s River. Add 10 minutes to cross it. Call it 1.5 hours. I’d leave at 4pm.

After a day of stocking up on food and ice, I finally headed out of the marina at 4 pm on the nose. Once on the Pablo Creek, I eagerly checked the first buoy I passed, and, sure enough, saw the current swirling around the north side of the buoy. At least that part of my theory was right. The current was flowing north, adding to my speed. I set my speed to 6 knots SOG, as measured by my handheld GPS.

Goodbye Florida! photo jalmberg

As I flowed down the creek, towards the St. John’s, I kept checking the buoys. Gradually, the current slowed down. As I approached the crossing, my SOG dipped under 6, down to 5.5 knots. No current. Slack water! It was almost exactly 5:30.

Once across the St. John’s, and up into Sister’s Creek, the current gradually reversed and started pushing me up the Creek. It worked! I had duplicated the Coot Club trick, and taken advantage of the currents, rather than ignoring them, and being their unwitting victim.

This strategy would come in handy in Georgia, where the currents were said to be even worse.

Who says you can’t teach an new Coot old tricks?

>>> Next Episode: I Am Captain

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Follow me on Twitter! My son Chris has been bugging me for a few weeks to use Twitter to make short, more frequent posts from my iPhone, for when I dont have the time for longer blog posts. I dont know how it will work out, but Im willing to give it a try! My Twitter ID is UnlikelyVoyager (UnlikelyBoatBuilder is too long, apparently), and the URL is http://twitter.com/UnlikelyVoyager. Twitter me back, or leave a comment below, if you think this is worth while. Thanks, Chris!

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Earlier I posted an article about design #2381, racing yacht Challenge. This design was also utilized for two other boats, designs #2381-C1 and C2. Lets start with design #2381-C2. She is a near duplicate of Challenge, but built of wood using cold-molded Epoxy methods by Muir of New Zealand and launched in 1980. She is named Ngaruru and is seen in these images.



Design #2381-C1 was a completely different boat with a cruising interior. The only things that were utilized about this design were the hull, appendages and rig. Even the drive-line is different. Her transom was changed slightly which resulted in a longer overall length but otherwise her hull is identical. I cant find a record of her name but she was built of aluminum by McMullen & Wing, Ltd. of New Zealand. She was also launched in 1980.

Here are the plans.

Georgetown Wooden Boat Show takes place on Front Street, in the waterside tourist area of the very quaint Georgetown, South Carolina. We exhibited the Paper Jet there in 2009 and won the Special Award because of the innovative features of the new design that hadnt been seen in those parts before. Our very modern little yellow boat stood out in the midst of traditional wooden craft.

Paper Jet set up and waiting for the 2009 show to open.

We are going to be there again this year and we will have company. Two local Paper Jet builders will have their boats on the show also. This is a great opportunity for those who are interested in building this design to see the boats in the flesh, look at the details and discuss the building process. Or just to come along and look at what has proven to be a very eye-catching and interesting design. It never fails to draw crowds wherever we show it. The PJ is very different from any other boats that are normally seen on wooden boat shows.

At the time of our last appearance in Georgetown the Paper Jet sail numbers had just reached 35. Now we are at more than twice that number, with numbers 77 & 78 supplied in the past few weeks. We now have 13 PJs on the water or being built on the US East Coast and those numbers will continue to grow.

Kits are now available through our office, cut for us by Chesapeake Light Craft (CLC) in Annapolis MD. Dont try to order from them, they will not sell it to you. You must order from us, via our USA plywood kits page . CLC have cut 6 kits for this design in the past year and delivered very high quality along with excellent service. You can order just the plans to build with your own materials or you can order a plywood kit that has all plywood components accurately cut on a CNC machine, packaged and shipped to your door ready for you to start building. You can also order a kit of epoxy, fibreglass and consumables needed to build the PJ.

Our East Coast PJ numbers are now growing to where we can start arranging regattas. We have a tentative arrangement in place to hold the first Paper Jet East Coast Championships in 2014, as part of the WOOD Regatta on Charleston Harbor. With enough support, that can become an annual event.

To see more about this and our other designs, please visit http://google.com/ and please also come visit us at the Georgetown Wooden Boat Show if you are in that area.