Sailing with Purpose: The Pursuit of the Dream

I have seen Jay described as ‘an opinionated SOB’ and I doubt he’d contest such a label and with all such characters you can guarantee that their views will always provoke discussion!  One of Jays early crusades was that of engineless sailing and his foundation of the ‘Oar Club’. This is actually a topic I have been interested in for quite a while and I still haven’t decided if ‘Gleda’ will be engineless or not, but I’m saving that for another day.

Today I wanted to highlight an interesting talk that Jay gave recently gave to a Tedx audience in Hilo, Hawaii.

Jay now lives in Hawaii on a farmstead hacked out of the jungle and posts occasional articles about responsible living, and sustainability on his blog Sensible Simplicity.

One of Jays other crusades has been centered around something called ‘sea-steading’ which was the subject of another book Sea-steading: A Life of Hope and Freedom on the Last Viable Frontier and when he moved to Hawaii it seemed that his intention was to stay land-locked only as long as it took to build his new boat which may well have been a Wharram Pahi 63. It seems he’s changed his mind and he explains why in his talk. He goes further and suggests that we should all take responsibility and demonstrate by example that sustainable living in the way he lives himself  is the only way that our children will have a planet left to enjoy.

I admire his strength and call to action but equally I believe my own plans will enable me to live authentically, to contribute and to show that there’s a better way to live.

Here’s his video, I’d love to hear what you think.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Actually this one is quite old in that it dates back to January of this year but Warren has only just put it up on YouTube

It’s his brand new Wharram Tiki 38 ‘Natural High’ on a test sail out of his home port of Christchurch New Zealand. Short but very sweet.

I haven’t seen the sea since January 2nd and the dream of launching and sailing ‘Gleda’ seems as far away as ever.

My spirits have been lifted however by the fantastic news that Jacques Pierret, and his crew Christophe, Gilles, Alexis and Sune, have safely arrived in his home port of L’Estaque, Marseille after a 4,500 nm, 31 day crossing of the Atlantic from Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey.

It took Jacques 5 years to build ‘Pilgrim’ and I can only imagine his feelings now that he has completed this voyage. He is a shining beacon for those of us that are attempting to emulate his success and I wish he and ‘Pilgrim’ many happy years of sailing adventures.

You can watch a brilliantly edited video of the voyage on YouTube HERE

Watch and feel guilty just as I did!

I’ve cheated a bit with my post today as I don’t want to interrupt my work flow too much however I suspect you’ll enjoy the little video I’ve posted better than my ramblings anyway!

I picked this up on Twitter and because I’ve had a strange urge to get hold of a Ukulele and learn to play it for a while now I decided to watch it. It’s amazing! Just another example of why it’s not about what you’ve got but how you use it

Anyway I felt better for watching it and I hope you do too. (By the way don’t feel obliged to watch the 3 minute Rolex promo at the end, I had to use the You Tube version as the shorter TED embed won’t work on iPad and that’s a no no!)

Today I just spent a couple of hours sanding and tidying up from yesterdays gluing and also corrected a slight miscalculation I’d made at the cabin side/mast beam trough interface!

I thought the time was right to post a new video update for you to enjoy, watch out for the point where I bump my head in the saloon!….Enjoy.

Given my recent post about ‘sense of scale’ it’s interesting to note how big a Tiki 46 is compared to a Tiki 38!

Many many thanks to Jacques and Alexis for sharing this, I can’t tell you how inspirational it is for this lone builder longing for the day when ‘Gleda’ takes to the water!

Sunrise Sail from Alexis Pierret on Vimeo.

Its been all go elsewhere in the Tiki 38 world over the past few weeks. Martin Hivon now has ‘Al Raso’ on the water and there are some great photos on his website, also, in the past couple of days, Jacques Pierret has launched ‘Pilgrim’. His son Alexis shot a fantastic video of the whole event and I’ve embedded it below for those that haven’t seen it. I confess to having a lump in my throat watching it, Jacques has worked for 5 years with a small budget to get ‘Pilgrim’ built and I feel a close affinity with him. Equally Martin has worked hard to finish ‘Al Raso’ not least as he had to finish one hull completely before clearing the shed and starting on the second! I can’t imagine that. These guys have set a fine example of what is possible and I’m proud to follow in their footsteps. Another notable event is the departure of ‘Aluna’ from Hawaii bound for the Polynesian Islands, fair winds to Beat and Beatrix. Look out for news of the voyage on the Aluna Blog

The Pilgrim from Alexis Pierret on Vimeo.

I hope you all like the new site, please let me have your comments good or bad I’d really like to hear what you think. I had a tough task extracting all the journal entries from my old site as they were locked into a subscription server with no easy way of removing them. Luckily I was able to employ a programming wizard from Vietnam who did a fine job of getting them out and onto this new site. I was desperate to save all those precious journal entries and happy to pay the $200 it cost me. I get great satisfaction from posting all this information and hopefully helping others planning or building their own boats. Now I have full control over this site I want to build it into something of value to others so again, please let me have any thoughts or ideas.

Today I’ve spent a large chunk of the day clearing and cleaning the barn from one end to the other in readiness to re-start the build, it was hard graft but it felt immensely satisfying to finally get back in there and I’m super excited about the progress I’m going to make this year. Did you notice the countdown to launch over on the left hand side of this page? I decided that I wasn’t prepared to leave this project open ended and I needed a real target to aim for, so there it is ….. no excuses!

I put together a little video today after I’d finished just to refresh everyone’s memory (including my own!) of where I am in the build. I plan to include far more video updates so if there is anything in particular you’d like a closer look at just ask.

To watch the video on You Tube  CLICK HERE