As mentioned previously, my sister is doing some pretty remarkable anthropological documentation on the early Southern California surf culture, which I can’t help but see as related to the same yearning that led our project designer James Wharram to look…
The Voyage of the Kon Tiki
Probably like me, you read all or some of Kon Tiki in school. But it was only a few years ago I learn that Kon Tiki was also a documentary movie; that the expedition took along photography gear and that…
First Things First (the cult of slack)
As related in my last post, it looks like we have a place to build our boat. I saw the place last Sunday, and emailed the specifics to my insurance broker on Monday, she sent the info along to the…
A Project Update, and another observation on charter sailing regulations.
A Tiki 38 with mainsail reefed makes good time on a sparkling sea. Since my last, good news on several fronts! It looks like we have a place to build our boat. It’s a barn cum wood-working shop in Bridgehampton,…
Feasibility, Normalization, Carbon Footprint, and Buyer Beware
Our project engineer has completed the initial feasibility study of the Mon Tiki design and it’s mostly very good news! The scantlings (that’s boat talk for the size of the lumber used) look good, the distance between the bulkheads looks good, everything…
Introducing Stokology
My sister is doing graduate work on a group of surfer-musicians who maintain a more than seventy-year-old music tradition on the beach at San Onofre, California. She’s an amazingly talented writer, with incredible insight into what she calls “oceanophelia”; something…
Did you build that? Did you buy a kit?
I build my first boat, a Bolger Teal, the Summer my wife was pregnant with Maggie. It’s a simple boat to build; all straight cuts and easy to assemble. Three sheets of plywood, a few 2x4s and a couple of…
Introducing the Mon Tiki Project
Hello, and welcome to the website for the Mon Tiki Project. Let me tell you a little about myself. My name is David Ryan and I’m the captain and owner of Sailing Montauk, a charter sailing company in Montauk, NY.…