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| These links may well be misleading for some time as I work my way through the dark halls of the sites past. I confess to being surprized by some of the things on the site I had completely forgotten about.
ABOUT THE REBUILD Woodenboat Net NZ has been around since about 1998 and has suffered much from my inexperience with website design, changes at the coal face resulting from the software companies changing their game plan and of course the distractions of life. Adobe Go Live my software of choice has been put out to graze in favour of a more widely used programe named Dreamweaver. My choice has been the between simply giving the site a makeover in the old software or taking on the challenge of learning new software and building a new site. I have decided to go with the latter and will build a new site on a spare domain name I have leaving the old one in place for the time being. At some point I will swap them around so heritage material is not lost. My address on this site came in for such a pasting from the spammers the hosts of the website pulled it off their server. You will generally have to use the email for to contact me after which you will have a more direct address to use. |
1st April 2008
I THINK I HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE? Yes, many times. I have lost count of restarts this website has had over the years as my life has gotten in the way of the motivation to keep it going day after day, year in year out. That is not a negative, life is to be enjoyed and you should eat dessert first. My most recent absence was as a result of me taking on a night shift job in the Marine Rescue Centre in Auckland. Overnight radio radio operator for Coastguard Northern Region is an often demanding job working eleven hour shifts, four nights on four nights off . Those types of shift slowly grind you down to the point that extra mural activities like websites become unrequited items on a wish list. Just before Christmas I put all that behind me and retired to a more normal life. My expectation was that I would be 'normal' in just a week or so but it has been a long haul. Fortunately it has been a long fantastic summer and I have made the most of it. By a rather strange chain of events I found myself boating in a launch named Maroro rather than Blue Jacket. The experience has been an eye opener as the two forms of boating are like chalk and cheese. Forget the method of propulsion, yachting and motor boating have very little in common when it comes to experience. Maroro is a 26 foot launch designed and built in 1950 by Charles Bailey as an open launch. Converted to a sedan style launch in 1970 by Lidgards. Maroro has been around a while and had fallen into a distressed state. She was taken in hand by a retired Master Mariner who lavished care and attention and many of his dollars on her and has brought her up to almost brand new condition. But more about that another day. Blue Jacket is still in my 'fleet' but being refitted. Most of the donkey work is done and I could probably have Blue Jacket back in operation in a week but the long hot summer has kind of gotten in the way. The mast is still on deck while I do some work on the chainplates and rigging. Maroro enables me to comply with an instruction to spend less time out in the sun and still have my boating. As mentioned at left the site is having some life breathed into it. Over the last few months I have spoken to many who visit the site and through that have a direction in which I can take the site this time around.At this point I need to acknowledge the crossing the bar of two men who through this website became firm friends. Last year we lost Gordon, the plywood man, who had done much over the years to help people building wooden boats. It has been a while since Gordon departed but I miss being able to drop around for a chat and to pick up exactly the right piece of plywood on need on the day. In particular while building Wairua my Welsford Navigator Gordon was of great help in my interpretation of the plans.
Left.Tony commanding the North Sea to cease and desist. I go back to that story now and then and continue to be amazed with the detail and excellence of the construction of the story. Tony and I corresponded regularly over the years and it can be said he dragged me out of my Antipodean isolation into a greater understanding of Europe and wider world. I will forever be humbled by the effort Tony put in to helping me get things sorted. If a page did not work or my grammar and spelling (or logic) was worse than normal I could expect a note from the headmaster. It's hard to explain how somebody from the other side of the world you never met other than by words on a screen could become such a good friend. But it happened. Arohanui Tony, may your journey across the bar be a peaceful one. |
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At the start of March a man who was a constant supporter and referee of my website work, Tony, passed away suddenly. My first contact with Tony was when he wrote me the story about