Flotsam & Jetsam

Your letters and such...

May 18, 2026

About our Texas 200 article reader Rick Pratt writes:

Gosh Josh, I am now too old (82) for this awful thing...thank goodness.

But I remember well the year of the Ducks. I elected to fly over you in a C-180 and just take pics. As I reached the Laguna, there was a whole flock of Ducks gathered, several with broken rudders. A small design flaw, corrected on course by the eager and ready participants. Hard to find a better bunch of crazies anywhere...and I know of whence I speak!

On another 200, I was working at the Farley Boat Works in Port A when a sunburned, exhausted sailor came through the door bearing two pieces of what had been the mast on his self-built vessel. A knot rested squarely in the break.

I pulled out a nice bit of spruce and cut him a new stick. No charge. Figured he’d already paid a high enough price hiking several miles in the heat.

The Laguna is a special place, and the 200 sailors are special people. Here’s hopes for fair winds and beam reaches, and may the hot, hyper saline water cure your aches.

From Michael Jones and the TSCA:

The 41^st Annual Cedar Key Small Boat was a perfect demonstration of “the wind and tides control the schedule”. Friday was a beautiful day, partly cloudy with a light breeze. Saturday started out with strong winds that got stronger with a line of heavy thunderstorms bringing some much need rain but keeping small craft ashore for the day. Saturday night dinner had a capacity crowd with good food and much laughter. Sunday brought blue skies streaked with cirrus clouds, but the winds had pushed the low tide much lower than expected making for a late morning start to the sailing, and a light breeze that disappeared by the end of the day.

Everyone left looking forward to next year. April 30-May 2, 2027

Florida Gulf Coast Small Boat Meet is early this year (adjusted for the best tides) November 6-8 2026

Slide show here.

Just some of the excellent books available at SCA:

People of the Sea by James Whrram

Lone Voyager by Joseph Garland

Capt’n Pauley’s Workshop by Paul Esterle

Amazon Extreme by Colin Angus

Our friend Mike Moore is selling his lovely SCAMP. Here are the details:

TOR, John Welsford designed SCAMP for sale. 12 Ft slippery hull with twin skegs. Balanced lug rig with spruce mast and spars and 100 square foot sail. Veteran of 5 Salish 100 cruises. All traditional bronze and Tufnol hardware and blocks. Footwell, off-center centerboard, massive storage, and full cockpit tent. Bronze vintage running lights on 12 Volt deep cycle battery. On Easyloader galvanized trailer with extended tongue. $12,500.

Contact: biddeemoore@comcast.net

Speaking of SCAMPs, saw this nicely finished #751 just launching at the SCAMP Facebook site.