WB show at Mystic

I had a great time at the Wooden Boat show in Mystic CT yesterday.  The small craft collection is just beyond amazing.  The weather was glorious, the people were friendly and the boats, they were magical.

WoodenBoat & Launchings!

I got a package in the mail from Wooden Boat Magazine.  In the package was a very nice letter, a copy of issue #239, July/August 2014, a decal that says "Proud Wooden Boat Builder", and a cap with the Wooden boat Launchings Logo and the issue # embroidered on it.  The letter stated that my pram was included in this issue of the magazine.  And so it was when I looked inside.

WoodenBoat Magazine | WoodenBoat, Small Boats, MotorBoats, Getting Started in Boats, and Professional BoatBuilder

I didn't set out to be recognized in anyway when I started building these boats, but the admiration they have received when I launch them at the lake or river and from a few comments on this blog has been appreciated.  It is true that I offered up the pictures and descriptions of the boats, so that they might be noticed, but it was only after I had completed them and been presently surprised by the result and impressed by how easy and inexpensive, and enjoyable the boat building and designing process was, that I thought to share that discovery with others, and see if others saw what I appreciated in these boats.

The Sam Pram, Tartlet

It is fun for me to see the boat in a magazine.  It is still fun and amazing to me each time I put her in the water and climb in, and she floats, and rows, and takes me away from shore to be in that place where men often go, where we are not exactly welcomed, but not turned away, somewhere between beneath the surface, where we can't breath, and below the sky, where we can't fly.  Neither place is really ours to inhabit for very long, but in a boat we can dance between them and for long periods of time.  Even the slightest little boat, such as this pram, is a "magic carpet" that can take us, under our own power, to that place between and a part of sea and sky.