The View from the Helm

My Talk in London

Here I am giving my talk at the Cruising Association in London. It went well judging by the fact that everyone was still awake after 70 minutes, and there were a few good laughs (most at my own expense). For the first time in nearly 40 years I divulged the identity of the lovely young lady who was the inspiration for my first design, the Frances 26. That’s her peeking at you, Frances Cairncross, now a world-famous economist and the rector (president) of Exeter College at Oxford. She was a wonderful dancer and turned me from a pathologically selfish 22-year old into a functioning human being.

A FRANCES 26 at Warsash

I’ll be giving an illustrated talk about my yacht designs on 9 January at 7pm at the Cruising Association House, Limehouse Basin, in London. You are cordially invited to attend.

If your friends, crew or spouse love boating, you could give them the best holiday gift ever. Chuck’s book on yacht design is the most informative, most lavishly illustrated, most appreciated gift you could give anyone who loves yachts. Don’t miss out—there are only 128 copies left in print so you will not have this opportunity next year! If you buy it on Amazon by clicking here,

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=yacht+design+paine&x=20&y=16

the shipping costs are slightly lower. If you buy it on this website Chuck Paine will happily endorse the book for the recipient. You can be a hero, but act now… they’ll be sold out by Christmas!

ANNAPOLIS SAILBOAT SHOW 2011

Okay I admit it. Three years into my retirement I still can’t stay away from these things.

I attended the Annapolis show on Friday. The weather was beautiful and in a hopeful sign that the economy indeed may be improving, there were crowds of attendees. The trend towards fewer new boats on display continues, and a greater proportion of them catamarans. And more of the in-the-water spaces that used to house boats had instead rafts under a sheltering marquee selling clothing and boat gear. That’s as it should be- we may well have built enough new boats in the roaring’90s for two future generations, and there are plenty of perfectly good older ones out there looking for owners to love them.

There is, of course, a reason for new boats, and that is to celebrate the ability of a rare subset of our species to design and build beautiful objets d’art whose intrinsic value is beyond measure. My studio designed a few of these, and there are others waiting in the wings for a client to make it all possible again. Yes, it will cost quadruple what you can pick up a similar sized older hooker for on Yachtworld, dot com. But to a guy like me, and the sorts of  persons who found their way to my office prior to the debacle of 2008, the experience is well worth the price.

Here’s Harriet Rose. The first time I ever got to sail a CAROL, something like thirty years after I first designed her. Everyone had told me that she sailed great, and my first impression was, they were right. We didn’t have much wind, though, and we had the engine ticking over to show a little wake, so I’ll just have to find my way to Chichester, England again next year to try her out in a bit more breeze. The interior is tiny but it really does work, albeit with the seat cushions closer to the floor that they would be on a larger boat. Once the depression gets going you could do worse in your unemployment than buy a set of plans for this wonderful minimalist cruiser and say to hell with it all, build a CAROL for yourself, and spend your time cruising.

A 24 ft. CAROL, named JUNO LUCINA

My twin Art and I just returned from England where we attended the Southampton Boat Show. Compared to a stateside show, it was absolutely ebullient. The show was much larger than the last time I attended a few years ago, and absolutely chockablock with customers, who seem to be an endangered species over here.

On Sunday we got to go to Chichester Harbour and sail an example of my CAROL design—the first one I had ever sailed. She’s a scaled-down and reshaped version of FRANCES, the 26 footer that gave me my start as a designer. The boats are built using cold moulded wood construction, and there are actually two of them in Chichester Harbour Marina. JUNO LUCINA is interesting because the owner fitted a little house where the companionway hatch would normally be. It totally transforms the admittedly miniscule interior.

The owners of the two boats invited us back next year for a race between the two, with me at the helm of one and my brother the other. The boats appear to sail amazingly well and I can’t wait for next year’s match race!

PETUNIA AND CHUCK Jim Cleary photo

Here I am this past weekend sailing the world’s best boat… my 74-year-old Herreshoff 12 1/2. Nothing better in the world.

PETUNIA AND FRIEND Jim Cleary Photo

It’s summer in Maine, and when I’m not painting I’m sailing. Somebody once said, “if two sailboats are headed in the same direction, they are by definition racing”. So when Steve Bailey took Jamie and Phyllis Wyeth’s H12 out for some exercise, well….

PORT and STARBOARD

So you thought all I could paint was boats, huh? Thanks to the encouragement of my mentor Ron Frontin, I’m stretching my metaphorical legs into all sorts of new subject matter. If you think it’s easy to catch the way a silver bowl, devoid of its own color, reflects everything around it, think again.