Community-built skiff topic of Oct. 17 meeting
An Apalachicola man has a novel idea for bringing people together to build a boat, and he’s organizing an open meeting to introduce it.
Duncan Blair, a researcher, educator and photographer of traditional sailing, is inviting the community to an open meeting at Belle’s Winery and Saloon, at 252 Water St across from the Apalachicola Ice Company, on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 6 p.m. ET.
Blair wants to share his ideas about a “community coastal rowing” concept that could involve people pitching in to build a St. Ayles Skiff from scratch.
The skiff, a four-oared rowing boat was designed by Iain Oughtred and inspired by the traditional Fair Isle skiff. The boat’s hull and frames are built using clinker plywood and it measures 22-feet with a beam of 5-feet 8-inches, and normally crewed by four sweep rowers with a coxswain.
Blair plans to explain all that at the meeting, and how he’s fallen upon a rare opportunity to obtain kits for building the skiff.
“It’s about going out in a boat that doesn’t depend on fossil fuel,” he said. “And learning how to row with others, in a traditional boat with low-tech equipment.
“It’s about supporting local efforts to rediscover part of Apalachicola’s cultural heritage,” Blair said.
Over 250 boats have been built worldwide, mostly by communities around the Scottish coast but increasingly by groups elsewhere, including England, Northern Ireland, The Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, France and New Zealand.
For more information, reach out to Blair at (520) 604-6120 or email to jstrm2az@gmail.com
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.