Our new acquisition is a 1970 Balboa 20' sloop in very good condition, shown above with the grey hull. We are currently in Santa Barbara, Ca. She is missing much of her equipment and needs a bit of work. We're on it! Green Shipping reclaims, restores, and re-purposes sailboats and bicycles to transport people and goods without burning fuel. This has been going on forever. However, this project in particular was commenced in 2007 with the Mighty Nib, an 11' sailing dory (a car topper design by P. Bolger), as I ferried dogs, food, guitars and laundry around the north Puget sound in that open boat. Almost a year later, Spot (my dog) and I lived in the NIb for thre weeks during the rainy PNW fall month of October. This is (below) our current (July 2011) target sloop, 20' LOA, and likely built in the mid-seventies. Work that needs to be done: electrical system needs to be re-wired, interior cabinet/wood-work needs to be completed, and not much else. The swing keel is disconnected and may require some attention. Otherwise this is a fine and solid vessel that rendered a promising survey. We are waiting for the owner to get back to us with some answers...
Spot (above) on board the schooner Zodiac in Bellingham when I was painting her. She was dismasted last summer (2010)... This bike was reclaimed a few months ago, around the end of march 2011, one of many we do but I thought it made a good photo this a.m... We are updating this site...thanks for your patience, and park your car! Also new: All-Green! We are affiliating with a fledgling org' that is classifying new products as All Green, meaning green from the ground, green in the gathering and production, green in the transit, and green at the market! Guess what - we qualify with the sage! If you would like to get involved please contact us! See Green Wheels Appendix A for zero-carbon bike transfer data (click on left below Contact Us) Just because people are wedded to their cars , we need not assume they cannot be divorced. - A.Q. Mowbray, Road to Run " Internet technology can reduce the need to travel. Some people are able to work from home, accessing their office computer system. Instead of going to a meeting, they may hold a video conference. People can also shop online. Rather than travelling to stores, they have goods delivered to their home. In this way, one delivery vehicle can replace many individual journies." - Cath Senker, How Can We Save Our World? Sustainable Transportation
A Sensible Proposal What? People were surprised when someone gave me a 24' C & C after more touring, especially since it needed no work. I learned to single-handed sail in the snow of wintery Bellingham bay. I sold her and got a bus after waking up locked in ice too many times. Last spring I was given a 42' antique (1940) wooden ketch in San Pedro, Ca. I brought her back as far as possible but the title was not forthcoming and this blocked further superstructure work (and financing). I left her for the owner, much improved, and published my second novel which, documented the process, materials and craftmanship, called Deja Vu. See a photo essay at www.myspace.com/dancarrigan. The plan: December 11th - see 2010 -2011 page in index for full dossier and photo... The Columbia is looking good after this early mornings' survey, below deck and above. If I get it (free) on Monday she will need to be re-slipped and insured. If anyone can help with this please let me know soon! This means either you have a slip in Oxnard or some money for one and insurance. Her name is LaVita and she requires a mainsail, re-wiring and toe-rail work for now. Spars and standing rigging in great shape. She's a good little pocket cruiser that will sail to the islands and/or move stuff without carbon emissions. I've restored way worse boats than this one! December 9th 2010 I went with a friend to see a free boat in Oxnard yesterday, having returned from Washington and a summer of sailing three dogs around in Ping and Pong about a month ago. It's a Columbia 24'. We both decided it was ugly and undesirable afterwards. Today I'm trying to see how I can get it anyway. It's actually a perfect candidate for Green Shipping! More later... September 7th, 2010 update: Many miles later... Before I left California I bike carted some food from the farmers' market in Santa Barbara, up State Street, to the Food Bank there. We were a traffic stopping 17 bicycles with trailers and such, quite the sight. many photos were taken - I got none though. Eventually I sold both the bike and the cart (after restoring/converting them), and wended north overland by van. I wound up getting two boats, up in Bellingham, Wa. The first, Pong, is a 14' freighter canoe with a transom-end (which proved useful for swimming). It's a stable beamy boat that paddles and rows easily but has a tendancey to spin with heavier wind. The second, acquired shortley theresafter, Ping, is a heavily built fishing skiff made of wood and fiberglass. She's also 14', with a wooden mast and gaff and bowsprit, and is heavy enough to require her own mooring. Pong makes a perfect tender as a light boat with lots of space for three dogs. Ping and Pong - they go back and forth! The canoe was $50 and needed minor glass work. The skiff was $200 and also needed minor work - a bottom job, a new gaff, and a few adjustments here and there. The mast step was reset after it popped out under sail and with building winds. So the summer has been spent working with these boats and sailing or rowing or paddling. Sailing with three dogs can be a real challenge, especially on Bellingham Bay. I may still be moving some stuff with Ping, other than myself and dogs. The season here is just about finished though. We'll see what happens. I also got to paint the Long Shot, a friend's boat and a scow like Ping but bigger, with a cabin and not a sailboat. He takes it crabbing. See photos of the dogs under sail at www.myspace.com/dancarrigan..
The target sloop - the Irwin 32 described below - I discovered this morning, was sold to be destroyed for her lead keel. Unfortunate but not surprising. Bellingham is at the north end of the Bay. Fairhaven is also called South Bellingham (at least at the train depot) and about three miles south along the east side of the water. The farmers market at Railroad Square is uphill from the small beach at Cornwall, which means materials/people could move easily downhill to the beach by bike to a waiting tender or beach-able sailboat. An easy model to try would be a short trip to the water from the Square and then a (hopefully) nice sail to Fairhaven and the Ferry Terminal/Train and bus station. There is also a small dock at the Taylor Pedestrian Ramp leading to the causeway and Boulevard Park. There is also a boat ramp at Fairhaven near the Bellingham Bay Community Boating center and the Coast Guard cutters. Ventura is fifteen downhill miles from Ojai, which is 8 nautical miles from Oxnard, the next port south/east. Add some overage and call it forty miles total. If the sloop is designed to sleep six, which it is, it has space for the carry on baggage of that crew and the space needed for it's provisions. If the sloop is cruising short distances with a crew of let's say, two or three, that space can be re-allocated. Let's say the available space is two by two by six, or 24 cubic feet. In shipping that's called the cube (I had a brief stint as a freight forwarder). The cube is one factor and the weight is another. The calculations are oriented to the greater number. Obviously something like lead would only be granted a tiny cube since it would be so heavy. Feathers, well, stuff in as many as you can! Get it? Other ideas: But You would have a solar powered small ship moving commodities while eliminating the carbon based transfer. That's not just using french fry oil, already used once, to run your bus (eliminating the use of petroleum products and thus lowering the demand and smelling great). It's fostering a sustainable and renewable industry while creating an altrernative to the old one. Switch a thousand miles to the gallon to a milion!
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Green Shipping... Transportation of goods with little or no redundant carbon emmision. The Green part means environmentally friendly and/or sustainable. The Shipping part means just that: shipping, and not coincidentally, by sailboat. It's the future, now! ![]() |
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