Pathfinder build , spring jobs .
Name the boat.
As I write……it’s the coldest, grayest and dankest of days in late January 2023 and today I officially named the boat and had her name painted on the transom. Even having owned several boats and where three of them have carried the same name this is the first time that iv’e ever had the name painted on and somehow it feels a bit special. Today then was the culmination of lots of fruitless searching around to find a traditional local sign writer who could pitch up here and paint the letters of her name and home port in a neat arc across the transom. When I asked around I kept getting referred to people who could do nice vinyl lettering or really sporty graphics – I didn’t want that partially because I thought that the painted letters might have to cross the blanking plate for the unused boomkin.
This is also by way of a personal record – that this will be the shortest blog post on record except that I wrote it while the short video I filmed was rendering and uploading.
The legend of WABI.
WABI can mean several different things apparently depending on it’s contextual use and even in the way that it is spelled in it’s original text. With my first WABI I took the meaning as ‘austere simplicity’ which seemed to suit the little Wharram catamaran that carried it. With my second boat of the same name I discovered it’s Zen expression where WABI can have a triple meaning thus :
Nothing is complete
Nothing is perfect.
Nothing is permanent
If you think about just for a moment that is a pretty good definition of a boat in that : it’s never finished, never quite right and always needs something mending, fixing or changing. Just in case you are wondering about the pronunciation the ‘A’ is sounded long although not as long as ‘WAA’ …..but close enough. I joke a bit but today I had to put on my (ex) queenie voice and declare…..may gawd bless har and all who sail in har.
Calstock is my local ‘port’ name, for those that don’t know the Tamar that’s the river that I can hear from the house sometimes when the tidal weir is running fast and Calstock is the last village on the river before the head of navigation. It’s unlikelyWABI IV will ever be based there or even launch there because the slip in the village has a very high pitch, is difficult to access and usually has some prat in a BMW parked on it !
Job done I guess.
Local sign writer Chris Clarke on the job.
Postscript and other posts.
I originally thought to write a much longer post about the names and naming of boats but I have written about the subject before so instead of repeating myself here is a link to an earlier post. While written blogs are still my main output i’m trying to make the effort to film and produce a video clip once a week that goes with the subject that i’m working on – the great thing for me is that the video clips can be quite short and don’t take an entire earth age to render and upload.
Best wishes Y’awl.
Dirty Wet Dog, the great adventure. 