Sunday, October 13, 2013

Stay Tuned.....

While I was in Japan this past summer I received a deposit for another Japanese boat.  Its for a formal Japanese garden in the Midwest (as in USA Midwest).  I will be building it this winter in my shop here in Vermont.  Please look back for detailed updates on its construction.

The boat will be a slightly scaled down version of one I built with my teacher in Tokyo.  My web page on this particular boat is: http://www.douglasbrooksboatbuilding.com/tenmasen.html

These were cargo boats, but they feature (at least they did in Tokyo) lots of copper plating so they are pretty dramatic.  Again, keep in touch and it should start appearing here at the blog sometime in December.


Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Sabani sailing!

Soon after I returned from my summer in Japan, I was sent a photograph showing the sabani that I helped build in Okinawa two years ago racing this summer.  It was great to see, as the boat was sent directly to a museum in Tokyo after my teacher and I finished building it (a process I chronicled on this blog back in 2009-2010) where it went on display.

The museum later agreed to donate the boat to a sabani racing team back in Okinawa.  Its great to see that its in the water and competing.  No word on how well it did.

It's my fervent hope to get back to Okinawa next July for the 15th Anniversary Sabani Races, an open water event in which boats race 35km from Zamami Island to Naha.


photo by Mr. Yoji Mori