Nautical Lore – Modern | Oral narratives of modern seafaring watercraft with multihull pioneer Jim Brown

SPACE-AGE BOATBUILDING This caper features Jim sharing about his trip to New England this week, where he got a glimpse of the most cutting-edge boatbuilding technology on display from his hosts. It's a far cry from backyard boatbuilding, and Jim offers many details on how what is going on at the building shop he visited will likely reach many in the sailing world sooner rather than later. Jim finishes off this podcast by also talking about his encounter with Amaryllis, the catamaran designed by Nathanael Herreshoff that, which launched in 1876. So there you have it ... a Jim Brown capercast that touches the 19th century on into the 21st.

RANDY'S BREAKFAST This Caper is based on a conversation with Randy Smyth recorded aboard Scrimshaw. On the day after Randy finished first in the Everglades Challenge Race, March 2017, we spoke over piles of pancakes, formulated by Bruce Matlack to include berries, nuts and seeds to sustain the endurance sailor, and served by Carla Laney to include jam, agave and maple syrup. This combination resulted in a slightly less than PhD level revelation of the world's most efficient -- yet practical means of propelling waterborne vehicles using the unlimited energy produced by the movements of Earth's atmosphere relative to its hydrosphere, wherein the only pollution is monkeyshines.

CHIEF CHALLENGE AND HIS TRIBE

The first of the field interviews has Steve "Chief" Isaac, progenitor of the Everglades Challenge race, describing how a perceptive teacher and a compelling book eventually resulted in ​his sending hundreds of endurance racers out into Florida Bay and The Everglades to test their boats and themselves in true survival mode.

Ah, survival, the oldest tradition of all, is seen here, ultimately, by warriors of the water, as a sublimation for suicide, a reason for living, and a celebration of life.

STRANDED ON A WHAT?! (Part Two)

How did he get there? What happened while he was there? How long was he there? How did he get back?

This Caper tells the survival story of Captain Guy Asbury, perhaps the only mariner to spend days and nights precariously perched on a dead whale.

He was surrounded by screaming seagulls ("flying rats"), crabs (which he ate as they tried to eat him), sharks (taking giant mouthfuls of blubber) and a choking stench, all in thick fog.

Can anyone find the likes of this in the entire marine literature? If so, please let us know.

STRANDED ON A WHAT?!​ Cruising for the first time without our two sons as crew, Jo Anna and I head north from Virginia to Nova Scotia. After dealing with fog for four days, we discover a netherworld of outlandish people and animals all living in a shack and a castle, where it seems a spell is cast. Realizing that the cruising experience doesn't get any more fulfilling than this, we stay for a month, visiting nowhere else in Nova Scotia. This is Part One of a two-part Caper, the preamble to Part Two, a bizarre survival thriller.

News on New Wing Rig from Randy Smyth

In this special edition capercast, Jim Brown shares news about the development of a new type of Wing Rig developed by Olympian sailor Randy Smyth.

Jim learned about this firsthand from Randy after Randy won the Class 5 category of the 2017 Everglades Challenge Race in Florida.

Lots of fun in this one, as Jim shares details via his cell phone. (Because of this unique recording situation, the audio quality of this capercast is not as clear as when Jim produces them in his office-studio. But as usual, his great storytelling voice and excitement make this special edition a worthwhile listen.

SEASTEADING 1O1 Here begins what we hope will be an occasional, continuing series on how the ordinary mortal can go cruising on a budget in today's world. ​This edition considers the mindset, initial planning and suggests a boat type, designed expressly for owner-building. Listeners with opinions on this subject are invited to participate by sending a contact email to outrig.org AT gmail.com

THE CAVE AND THE DITCH How is it that some of us, probably including many listeners to these Capers, become so enrapt? Committed? Predisposed? HOOKED on our boats? These two Capers tend to support the predisposed explanation, for it seems to me that the lives of many individuals are die-cast by exposure to some copacetic stimulus that occurs very early in life. The quest to identify that stimulus can be futile unless one truly concentrates on her origins. Success in that quest can be quite comforting when one attempts to apprehend the course of life. It may take a special place or a specific time -- such as playing in an irrigation ditch or squirming in a cave -- for such contact with one's "Pre-Disposition," These parables may suggest a way for others to find the source of this formative buoyancy.