John Storrow

Is there more to life than boats? Duchamp was afraid of repeating himself. The other day I took a picture of a Praying Mantis bug that was right by the staff entrance to the Museum. He was standing at eye level as people walked by him. I said to my Supervisor “Did you see that Praying Mantis?” He had already taken a picture of it. Hard to beat nature itself when it comes to sculpture.

“Without the idea Of a sailboat Dancing in the wind There would be no order In the universe, Only chaos” . Me. ——- About a month and a half ago I finished building a model of Herreshoffs “Quiet Tune”. She’s one of the loveliest shapes ever to kiss the waves. I’m finding it hard to think of any other boat To build a model of. She has that little bit of flair at the waterline right whare she starts cutting the waves, and a long low graceful sheer (profile deck curve) which sweeps all the way back to her perfectly proportioned stern. Her mizzen sail echoes the proportions of her main sail, and her jib balances the whole picture. To build  my Quiet Tune model, I needed to overcome a few interesting technical challenges. Should she have a modified modern keel and separate rudder well aft? Should the cabin top be removable like other boats that I’ve made for easy access to electronics at deck level? Should she have working scale brass turnbuckles for easy set-up and take-...

My new sails. (A story) The Vintage Marblehead National Championship Regatta was to be held that June, so I emailed my entry. Luckily I happened to have a good straight piece of Sitka spruce on hand which I planed and sanded as thin and aerodynamic as possible for the new mast. It took me a whole sick day from work to set up the new sails. The only rigging wire I had was this rather twisty bendy stuff, which wasn’t really supposed to be rigging wire for a model yacht. I had to secure it to the turnbuckles the same way you secure picture wire to the back of a picture frame. I didn’t have any time to test the new sails, except to rig them on the boat in the living room, the night before the regatta, to make sure everything worked right At least I was able to practice for about ten minutes before the first race. She went like a dream, like she was on rails, like a real thoroughbred, the way she silently made her long graceful wake through the mirror smooth water, grabbing her ...