Sail, Oar & Canvas.

The repurpose, remake and relaunch of my currently moribund Youtube channel.

Sailing, rowing and foreshore campcraft in the rivers and creeks of south west UK.

Good morning everyone I hope you are all well. In a few days time, from the time that I post this introduction, i’ll be scheduling the introduction video to my new series of short video segments on Youtube and following that introductory piece I hope to be scheduling the first episodes every couple of weeks.

This week, as I write, is the week that, hopefully, I take over the CLC Skerry from her current owner over in west Devon and get her on the bench here for planned modifications and refit. At this stage i’m intending it to be quite a quick refit and because there won’t be much epoxy work to do I plan to work through the winter months as the little CLC Skerry is going to be on the big workbench under my boatbuilding shelter – if it gets very cold here, and winters in Cornwall are often wet and English-cold rather than really cold, then I might even throw up a temporary build tent under the outside shelter to protect the work that I plan to do.

What’s the big idea then ?

Well, it’s knda-sorta like this in my own mind ‘the project is dead-long live the project’, the dead project being the Pathfinder project and my aim to sail and row around parts of the UK coastline in expedition style. The live project is to sail, row and practice foreshore campcraft mostly locally in the south west where I live. The old project was based around the Pathfinder which is now, sadly. too much boat and too heavy for me to manage and move around at home without doing some major groundwork which I don’t really have the strength for. The new project is to be based around the little CLC Skerry which is only just a bit heavier than an open canoe and which I can handle relatively easily on my own and manually rather than relying on a car.

You might ask why I think it needs a different boat when the CLC Passagemaker dinghy is now finished and ready for the same kind of task ?. Well, it’s based on 2 reasons : the first is that I know I need a winter boat project to work on and one which I can work on under cover and is small enough a project to complete in a winter. The second reason is that it should be possible to modify the Skerry to sleep aboard by modifying it’s internal layout to becoming asymetric like my big Pathfinder has an asymetric layout – all that part takes is to move the daggerboard to one side – in fact to have a daggerboard case and ‘tank’ one side and just the ‘tank’ on the opposite side to act as extra buoyancy. From what iv’e learnt from the Skerry’s previous owner it should be a better boat to row longer distance as well.

That one modification should give me a sleeping space down the middle of the boat – space for a generous camping mat and enough space and carrying capacity for my kit as well. One thing that that idea relies on is to make some kind of tent/cover for when I need to sleep aboard. Iv’e already had good advice from John Welsford about increasing the overall buoyancy to aid potential capsize recovery and aim to set it up just as my working instructor open canoe used to be.

I think I can work that one out as I know my way around tent and tarp design and in this case can use the lowered mast as a solid ridgepole. Most of the time though my plan is to make camp ashore in micro-bivvi sites along the foreshore above the tide line : I know of a few sites on the local rivers having visited many of them during my open canoe days – this project takes a lot from my former canoe and bushcraft skills.

Now, I don’t like to ‘strut my stuff’ while the whole thing is still essentially a daydream except that we’ve already moved everything around the yard to accommodate the project, the Skerry is already here being worked on and there’s a big pile of kit gradually forming as I get all of my camping and bushcraft kit together. The other side is that I have the bones of the first video episodes already done and know which way i’m going with the content : there’s also some 42 sections of the potential writing project already done to first draft stage.

My overall intention is to be ready to hit the water with the Skerry launch and first river micro-expedition in the spring of 2025. So far, 2024 has truly been my annus horribilis so i’m hoping to make 2025 a much better one.

Best wishes Y’awl

Afterword – the slight twist in the tale.

So……I really don’t need and can’t really accommodate 3 boats here. Although the big Pathfinder will be advertised at a much reduced price some time in the spring I feel that I need to pass on the little Passagemaker to someone whom is maybe hurting for a boat. I could just advertise it for sale but to be honest i’d be much happier gifting it to a good home.

Here’s the deal then : my Youtube channel is moribund for several reasons and even as I cautiously go and look to see how it’s doing I note that it’s already slowly losing subscribers. I had this slightly nonsensical idea that I always hoped to get to a thousand subscribers and it’s currently sitting at around 850 and dropping. My final thought for the day is that if, and it’s a very big if, my revamped Youtube channel passes one thousand subscribers that would mean that the channel is succeeding – at least in my personal view, and if it gets there then i’ll simply give the Passagemaker away to someone whom will use it.

Sail, Oar & Canvas.