Bertrand Russell wrote… “It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.” I’m a huge admirer of Russell’s work and values and so perhaps I shouldn’t be encouraging you to take a look at this auction.

In the months just before and after 1969, as clean-cut crooners and girl bands and Motown acts gave way to long-haired singer-songwriters who filled football stadiums, the Great American Songbook tilted on a fulcrum. At the center was a mustachioed scamp with sparkling blue eyes – and a wooden ship designed 40 years earlier by the great John G. Alden.

I find, in rereading some of the classic sailing books published back then, and which I still love, that I squirm a little. It is indisputable that the Slocum era, was also the colonial era; in fact, in its heyday, ocean cruising throve on the socio-political infrastructure of colonial outposts, as uncomfortable as that is for me to admit.

We love hearing from our readers. The depth and breadth of knowledge out there is extraordinary!

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RHSV) was formed in 1909 and is a community organisation committed to collecting, researching and sharing an understanding of the history of Victoria.

Some of the weekly correspondence. There’s no doubt its a community!

This approach of building brand new boats to old designs can, I feel, sometimes fall between two stools, ending up with a boat without the functionality, systems, volume and performance of a modern yacht and yet lacking the “soul” of a yacht that has undergone a sensitive restoration.

The cover pictures two of the most storied yachts currently based in Tasmania, neither of which has her origins in the Island State… The famous TE RAPUNGA and the Aage Nielsen’s Newport Bermuda winner, HOLGER DANSKE

Every week we get sent gems of information and interesting enquiries. Not every one is substantial enough for a fully blown article but each is worthy of sharing. This is where we do it!

The brownie box camera seen on deck may have been an aide memoir- that diary we all carry around with us. All this when the curve of the earth prevented a view of the city skyline from Mornington harbour.

This is going to be expensive and drawn out. Numbers at this stage are guesstimates, but market chatter suggests insurers should be very pleased if they can keep payouts much below $1bn.

Hope that they will not drag, hope that they will enable the vessel to survive the storms that threaten it, and hope that they can successfully be used to kedge the vessel off of the reef or sand bar she has grounded on before the waves break her back.

Staying on top of the SWS inbox is time consuming, but rewarding. Much of the correspondence covers interesting gems of information, perhaps not substantial enough for a stand alone article, but definitely worth sharing.

Suppose that you are a fisherman from several centuries past. You have built your boat, sewn her sails and made her cordage. The Land Breeze/Sea Breeze fact-set allows you to go out to sea in the morning with the wind at your back—sailing large, a point of sail also known as a Soldier’s Wind. In this case the land breeze.

In the course of its existence, the forecast has saved thousands of lives but its practical application has long been superseded by more precise meteorological and satellite data: the forecast is said to be around 93 per cent accurate. Hence, the vast majority of its remaining 6.5mn listeners today are landlubbers, tucked up safe on dry land.

Three wood specimens were tested and showed no deformation after space exposure," the researchers said in a statement in May. "Despite the extreme environment of outer space involving significant temperature changes and exposure to intense cosmic rays and dangerous solar particles for 10 months, tests confirmed no decomposition or deformations, such as cracking, warping, peeling or surface damage.

The closure of our current location means the end of The Victorian Wooden Boat Centre as we know it. There will never be another opportunity to recreate what we have here and keep it viable. We will wind down the VWBC until its lease ends, at which point it will close permanently.

You look out onto the vistas of forests, or plains or desert and absorb their stillness and beauty, taking it all into your heart and mind. This is made easier if you are horseback or in the company of a good dog.

HOANA, like most old wooden boats, has a tenuous monetary value. Humanity's notions of progress place little value on the thousand-year-old particles in her veins, even less on her vanished forest ancestry.

“A laser is focused inside a droplet that locally hardens in the focal spot of the laser,” said researcher Daniela Kraft. “By moving the laser through the droplet in a controlled way, we can write the swimmer shape that we want.”