Wooden Boat Museum, Clayton, NY

It is well worth a trip to the 1000 Islands just to see the Wooden Boat Museum in Clayton.  Their collection has a wide array of boats displaying the engineering and craftsmanship of wooden boat builders.  Multiple buildings house the collection.  Two of the buildings are dedicated to the restoration of boats, operated so that the museum visitors can not only see the work in progress, but also talk with the craftsmen who are accomplishing the work. 

Atosis is displayed in the lobby of the museum.  One of the interesting aspects of the 1907 racing boat is that it is original, not restored.  Even the paint is original 1907 and obviously well aged.  Long and skinny was the design of the time.

Snail is an interesting name for a boat.  A number of trawlers have “turtle” in their name indicating the slow and steady speed at which they travel.  Snail is not descriptive of the speed of this boat as it is powered by a WW1 Packard-built Liberty V-12 aircraft engine.

One of the boats spent some of its life in Florida, with St. Augustine as its hailing port.

A section is dedicated to the history of outboard engines.    Some of the earliest outboards probably did not power boats much faster than rowing.  Outboard racing hydroplanes from the 1950’s and 1960’s were featured along with a display of many highly modified engines.  There is an interesting prototype of a diesel outboard.  Outboards are notoriously fuel hogs.  To create a more fuel-efficient outboard, Scott along with McCullough, built a diesel outboard.  It produced 15 horsepower and weighed 200 pounds.  With such a poor power to weight ratio, it never saw production.

Inboard power plants are scattered around the museum.   As today, many marine engines are converted from land-based vehicles such as cars and tractors.   Some engines have been designed just for marine use.  The Scripps flathead V-12 powered many fast runabouts of the 1930’s.  A most interesting engine was pushed off the side behind a cruising boat.   Horace Dodge, who canoed across the Northwest United States, developed a marine turbine engine, producing a working model in 1938.  The aircraft industry did not have turbines in planes until the end of WWII.

One of the outdoor displayed boats is Boldt’s houseboat.  Housebarge may be a better term, as it never was self-powered, having to be moved by a tug from one location to another.  Boldt had the houseboat built to live in the 1000 Islands while he was building a castle for his wife (another story on another post).  Unimpressive on the outside, the inside is quite ornate. 

Another Boldt boat, That, is on display at the museum.  Twenty identical runabouts were built for racing in the 1000 Islands.  Bolt had two, one raced by his daughter and one by his son-in-law.  Since he referred to them as “this” and “that” boat, his references became the boat names.

One building is devoted to racing.  As soon as two boats are on the water, challenges as to speed have been made.  Racing hydroplanes, including some unlimited class boats, make up much of the display.  Large, supercharged WWII aircraft engines which powered many unlimited boats were exhibited on the floor for a closer view.  One wall had a display of top speed records for boats throughout the 2oth century.  It is a well-done display of water-based speed.

One of the restoration buildings was filled with just one boat, Pardon Me, built in 1948.  It is a triple cockpit runabout like no other.  While at a distance, it appears to be similar to other triple cockpits, close up you realize it is a huge boat – 48 feet.  It was built to be the ultimate runabout.  Such a large boat needs a large engine to have the speed expected of runabouts, so a Packard-built, supercharged V-12 PT Boat engine producing 1500 horsepower was selected for this boat’s design.  The engine is sitting in a cradle as the restoration of the boat is in progress.  When completed, Pardon Me will be an in-water display, taking museum visitors on rides through the 1000 Islands.  This opportunity is worth a trip back to the museum.

Big Map

A number of requests have been received for a larger map that tracks the progress of the trip along the Great Loop.  The "Traceless Path" map in the right column would expand when "clicked" if it were liked to an URL.  Google, a talented company that makes software most user-friendly, seems to have missed the mark with Blogspot.  But, it may be the best of the lot.

As of August 2, 2011, Last Dance is in Little Current, Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada.

Communing with Nature

Being in natural environments creates many benefits, both psychological and physiological.   We feel better and refreshed when interacting with nature.  It is why we build parks, spend time in those parks, hike, camp, and plant shrubs and flowers in our yards.  Most of the benefits of this nature/human interaction are intangible and difficult to measure.  A few are quite tangible.

The hikes ventured through some of the rocky 30,000 Islands of the Georgian Bay have produced some great tangible benefits – berries.  Wild blueberries in this area grow on low plants resembling a ground cover more than a bush.  The berries tend to hide under the foliage, making gathering challenging.   A bit of patience produced over a quart of blueberries during a hike of an island along the Bad River.  Jill’s skills turned these berries into an apple/blueberry pie and delicious blueberry muffins.

The photo of the collected blueberries includes a dime to provide a size reference.  The wild blueberries are tiny in comparison to the domestic, cultivated varieties that are in u-pick fields and the grocery stores.  Picking these minuscule berries requires extreme patience, dexterity, and time.  In the small Georgian Bay community of Point Au Baril, the general store had wild blueberries for sale at $15/quart.  The price seemed high until the back-breaking labor of picking a quart was experienced.  Now, $15/quart seems a bargain.

An island in Mill Lake on Phillip Edward Island had a field of wild raspberries.  They have their own gathering challenges since they have thorns and chose to grow interspersed with thorny, wild roses.  Phillip Edward Island had more blueberries.   That hike’s results included a blueberry/raspberry pie and an additional dozen muffins.

Communing with Nature – tangible benefits.

Oh.  It has been reported that a local animal is also fond of blueberries and roams the islands in search of the same sweet fruit.  

Little Man

It began in New York City.  While standing on a street corner, amid heavy pedestrian traffic, cars whizzing  past, and horns blowing, Jill would say, “Little Man.”  It was puzzling.  Jill, who has always worked with people with differences, would never call attention to a person’s differences, even stature.   Another corner, another “Little Man.”  Finally, the light clicked on.  On the pole across the street, the sign had changed from a red hand to a white stick figure.  Jill was announcing the change in crosswalk signal, indicating to the old guy standing next to her that he should step off the curb and cross the street before the red hand appeared and cross traffic began flowing again.

Cruising the Georgian Bay, the announcement of “Little Man” began again.  Puzzling – there are no traffic signals on the waterways.  Looking over to an island, the object of the announcement became clear.  It was a stacked-stone man, a Canadian Native welcoming symbol.  The Inuit statue is an Inukshuk (In-OOK-Shook), with many translations, including: “Stone man that points the way,” “Someone was here,” and “You are on the right path.”  The rock stack was used by the Inuit from Alaska to Greenland.  The Inukshuk is a symbol of hospitality and friendship, and was chosen to be the symbol for the 2010 Vancouver Canadian Winter Olympics.

Canadians have built Inuksuit throughout the Georgian Bay 30,000 Islands.  They stand on islands with homes and on small islands that are only a rock.  Seeing an Inuksuk does make one feel welcomed.

Our favorite Inukshuk is one built of quartz on top of a mountain near Topaz Lake.  It is newly constructed by Jill.  Now, those who chose to climb this mountain will be welcomed by a “Little Man.”