Sinking 'RAWFAITH'

The point I am making is that its quite possible that a regulatory regime that strangles in fact encourages people like 'Captain' McKay to go their own way regardless of consequences, and the result is too predictable. A lighter more user friendly regulatory rein might encourage people to stay within the bounds of good construction practice instead of feeling forced outside it..for reasons good or bad.

Tim, I don't think the example of 'Endeavour' is a good parallel. She was constructed by proper shipwrights using appropriate materials and techniques, whereas 'Raw Faith' was constructed by people who - judging from the extensive photographic record - did not really grasp the fundamentally different requirements of 'building' (construction as they would probably describe it, and shipbuilding. A lighter regulatory framework would mainly mean that people building and operating vessels for profit would use the opportunity to minimise costs and maximise profit, or in cases like 'Captain' McKay's to place even more reliance on divine guidance.

I am happy to treat this whole story as further evidence of the non-existence of god.
 
And if you read his book, James Wharram

Not too sure if you are thinking that Wharram is Heath Robinson. If you are, you would be quite mistaken. Wharram's vessels have a good reputation as safe, strong boats.
 
But it tends to disprove the corollary to Darwin's survival of the fittest.

I don't imagine Darwin foresaw the possibility of helicopters rescuing fools from the consequences of their folly. Anyway I think Captain Mackay is a man of mature years who has already passed on his genes so I'm not sure where differential reproduction comes in?
 
Tim, I don't think the example of 'Endeavour' is a good parallel. She was constructed by proper shipwrights using appropriate materials and techniques, whereas 'Raw Faith' was constructed by people who - judging from the extensive photographic record - did not really grasp the fundamentally different requirements of 'building' (construction as they would probably describe it, and shipbuilding. A lighter regulatory framework would mainly mean that people building and operating vessels for profit would use the opportunity to minimise costs and maximise profit, or in cases like 'Captain' McKay's to place even more reliance on divine guidance.

I am happy to treat this whole story as further evidence of the non-existence of god.

Maybe I put my point badly. In the States the dislike of government per se is often what drives the Mckays of this world outside of the sensible. I only used Endeavour as an example to highlight the antipathy of unbending US bureaucracy to anything that doesn't fit their tick boxes, and I have a feeling this is partly what drives Mckay types...bogus religious fervour aside. I wasn't trying to compare Endeavours construction with that of Rawfaith, not for one moment. Perhaps I could substitute ' more user friendly' for 'lighter' regulation.

Tim
 
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Its worth looking at the long thread on the wooden boat forum and the Raw faith website, despite being built in an area where vast experience & heritage in wooden shipbuilding was available & offered to him, Mackay insisted on doing it his own way. You only have to look at the extensive photos on his site to see that from the outset the thing was not designed with any regard to any shipbuilding conventions & was fundamentally flawed and an unmitigated disaster.
The sad thing is that he used hundreds of trees that took centuries to grow & wasted them totally. Best place for it is at the bottom of the ocean. The amazing thing is he will probably do it again.
 
Its worth looking at the long thread on the wooden boat forum and the Raw faith website, despite being built in an area where vast experience & heritage in wooden shipbuilding was available & offered to him, Mackay insisted on doing it his own way. You only have to look at the extensive photos on his site to see that from the outset the thing was not designed with any regard to any shipbuilding conventions & was fundamentally flawed and an unmitigated disaster.

Indeed. It looks as if she broke her back almost as soon as she was launched. It's worth (if you like nightmares) having a look at the construction photograph sequences on the Raw Faith website - in particular the bulkheads made out of cheap plywood. The pictures of the steering linkage on WBF are even more terrifying.

The sad thing is that he used hundreds of trees that took centuries to grow & wasted them totally. Best place for it is at the bottom of the ocean. The amazing thing is he will probably do it again.

He sold his house to build the last one - with any luck he won't have another to sell, which will save the almighty from doing another well-earned smiting and allow Him to concentrate on the bugger who unplugged the Jouster (no reasonable offer refused) at Kirkcudbright Marina over the cold snap. OK, there was only a trickle charger connected, but what the heck, it's a bit damned rude.
 
Well, apart from the fact that it wasn't seaworthy and that it eventually sank and that it didnt look good, I was quite impressed from a boat building point of view ... considering he had no experience of building boats.

I'm fairly certain that if I built a 3 masted tall ship that it would look worse than the one he built.

I mean, how many people with no boat buliding experience could build something similar that was better.
 
Well, apart from the fact that it wasn't seaworthy and that it eventually sank and that it didnt look good, I was quite impressed from a boat building point of view ... considering he had no experience of building boats.

I'm fairly certain that if I built a 3 masted tall ship that it would look worse than the one he built.

I mean, how many people with no boat buliding experience could build something similar that was better.

I'm sure I could .I followed the building of a sailing Junk in Macau some years ago and in 4 months they had a much better looking hull that to my knowledge never gave structural problems.It was (is) about 60ft in length.
 
Well, apart from the fact that it wasn't seaworthy and that it eventually sank and that it didnt look good, I was quite impressed from a boat building point of view ... considering he had no experience of building boats.

I'm fairly certain that if I built a 3 masted tall ship that it would look worse than the one he built.

I mean, how many people with no boat buliding experience could build something similar that was better.

I'm not certain it could be described as Boat building - rather, building a boat-shaped object
 
The earlier rig had booms that were too long to go between the masts, that went over the side( with shorter booms) in an earlier event that needed rescue. The rig it had when lost was more or less conventional. But the rudder tackle defied reason. It had no engine, could not sail upwind, no paint anywhere including antifoul. Just needed a place for the sinking.

Edit: actually Herreshoff used the rudder tackle on one of his own boats. The little Coquina, around 15ft. But for an 88fter??
 
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Fuss, yes. But if you decided to build such a 'thing' would you not read a couple of books first (other than the bible) on 'how to'? Plenty out there. Still, it helped popcorn sales for the many watchers.
 
Fuss, yes. But if you decided to build such a 'thing' would you not read a couple of books first (other than the bible) on 'how to'? Plenty out there. Still, it helped popcorn sales for the many watchers.

The bible is plenty enough.If not how did Noah build his ark?
 
Well, there is a giveaway - Ark means "box" or "chest"! Nowhere does the Bible refer to it as a "boat".

The Bible has little to say about boats, beyond Jonah, the stories of Jesus and the Disciples on the Sea of Galilee and the story of St Paul's shipwreck on Malta (Acts) - that's actually quite a good read!

Most serious students of the Bible would regard the story of Noah as being a retelling in monotheistic terms of pre-existing flood myths.
 
Ark means "box" or "chest"! Nowhere does the Bible refer to it as a "boat".

Would 'Ark' be the ante-diluvian equivalent of calling something a floating caravan? "I don't like these modern boats made out of bits of wood, you can't trust them. The only decent boats are hollowed out of a single log".
 
- and the rest of the text as a further collection of retold myths, we presume?

No; most of the rest of it (after about the book of Judges) can be correlated with history known from elsewhere and archaeology. The New Testament is firmly rooted in history, and events in it are mentioned by other (non-Christian) authors; notably Josephus.
 
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