My husband and the Scamp

Today is as much a story as a photo op, so I’m posting differently than usual. Today I’ll provide background first:
My husband is a boat guy. One of his earliest memories is riding in the back of the family car as it passed another car towing a trailered boat. “Daddy,” he said. “Why can’t we have a car like that?” as he pointed to the boat. Since then he’s run off to the Navy, then the Merchant Marines, and then he became a commercial fisherman. I met him after he came ashore, after those adventures. But his dreams and preoccupations remain focused on boats. And over the years we have adopted many project boats, a good many of them in their final days as boats but still good for a little tinkering.

Some people have an ailment called “Seasonal Affective Disorder” which hits in the dark depths of winter. My husband gets boat fever and it too hits with seasonal regularity. He obsesses over boats. He pours over boat plans. He surfs websites and watches boat videos. And he cycles through what we now call Boats du Jour: the latest one to catch his fancy. Would this one suit? Is it right for local conditions? Could he easily launch it? Is it stable and sensible? Is it big enough? Is it too big? Would he really like to build it?

So, now let me introduce Scamp.

Scamp is the work of John Welsford, a New Zealand boat builder and designer. It is a small (11 ft.), tubby little vessel that looks a little like a shrunken tugboat. I’ve shown it here being sailed by Howard Rice at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival last Sunday.

Scamp is an unlikely Boat du Jour for my husband. After seeing it for the first time at the last Wooden Boat Festival, he came home and thought about it for a year. It lacked the truly graceful lines of other Welsford boats. It’s been joked that the front fell off. Yet, built with a hull filled with floatation, it’s virtually impossible to capsize. It’s wide, comfortable, practical to excess, and suitable for local waters. It’s not capacious, but there’s room for me and the dog. And, as he ages, it’s a stable boat in which my husband can easily move as he sails.

Howard Rice sailed this Scamp in the Port Hudson Marina to demonstrate how to recover from capsizing. He tried repeatedly and this was as close to capsize as he got. It refused. Howard went into the water after standing on the boat’s side. . .and the boat bounced back upright.

My husband bought plans for the Scamp during this demonstration and John Welsford signed the carrying tube. This Boat du Jour has committed to sticking around for a while. We’re both very excited. I’ll probably post photos of the boat as it takes shape in the months to come.