The American Craftsman Project - Graeme King, King Boatworks

[Charles Carroll]

Dear all,

I know some of you have an interest in wooden racing shells. Here is a
brief video of one of the great craftsmen of these shells, Graeme
King, puttering around his boatworks in Putney, Vermont.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM2NQDN-VSE

Cordially,

Charles

[Carl]

Errr.... "A Portrait of the American Craftsman"?

Graeme king is an Australian, from Adelaide.

Yes, he's a magnificent craftsman. And deserving of greater
recognition. But an American craftsman......?

There are many fine craftsmen & craftswomen in the USA. It would have
been better, & a tad less jingoistic, to have taken a different tack &
underlined the fact that America provided a setting in which this highly
original & innovative Australian has been able to practice his craft and
his trade.

Cheers -
Carl

--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
Find: http://tinyurl.com/2tqujf
Email: ca...@carldouglas.co.uk Tel: +44(0)1932-570946 Fax: -563682
URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk (boats) & www.aerowing.co.uk (riggers)

[Charles Carroll]

> Errr.... "A Portrait of the American Craftsman"?
> Graeme king is an Australian, from Adelaide.

Carl,

Now this is very interesting. What does it take to be an American?

Graeme King was born in 1947 and grew up in Adelaide. He was inclined
towards engineering at a very early age. But he was 15 years old
before he got his first glimpse of a racing shell.

He tried building his first shell three years later in 1965. He was
eighteen years old. The plywood he used came from leftover plywood
used in the construction of Mosquito Bombers.

Six years later, in 1971, he built a shell for Norm Talbot, an
Australian sculler.

After his National Service, Harry Parker recruited him to serve as
boatman for Harvard University.

Three years later in 1976 he returned to Adelaide and bought a large
boat building shop. One of the first singles he built in that shop was
for the Cambridge Boat Club in Cambridge Massachusetts. Some thought
it was so fragile that it would fall apart right away. Thirty years
later with 80,000 water miles on it, this single is still in use at a
rowing club in Putney, Vermont.

King returned to the states 4 years later in 1980, where he has lived
ever since

In 1984 he sold his boat building shop in Adelaide to Alan Smith. For
a while Smith used King’s design and specifications, but gradually
replaced them with designs of his own. Smith, however, continued to
use Kings’ name and logo on the boats he built.

The video you saw is just a part of a series of videos on contemporary
craftsmen who happen to reside on this side of the pond. Nothing more.
It is merely meant to honor gifted craftsmen who live and work on this
side of the pond.

Among rowers and scullers I know here, Graeme King is revered and
honored. He was recruited to come here, and here he found, and still
finds, his craftsmanship admired and valued.

But does all this make Graeme King an American? Why wouldn’t it? But I
don’t think that is the question. I am inclined to ask instead, what
does that mean?

Cordially,

Charles

[Carl]

What does it mean? Dunno. The Graeme I know speaks like an Aussie (as
that tribute confirms), reacts like an Aussie to the usual points of
conflict between Brits & Aussies, tells me he's an Aussie, takes regular
furloughs in Adelaide. So it's back to the old question - about the
thing which quacks like a duck.....

In reality, all this nationality stuff is a regrettable, often petty
distraction. I see Graeme, & you Charles, & all of us who wish to be
so, as world citizens. We form into loose teams we call nations, but
unless we care for the whole world we are less than we could & should
be. This is why I prefer to salute Graeme as a craftsman who happens to
work in Putney, Vermont, serving those who appreciate the true quality
of his work, & a fine example of what a human can achieve.

As it happens, & as a shining testament to the quality of his work (& to
the longevity of his boats, & of wooden shells in general) we are about
to build a set of our AeRoWing riggers for a 1981 King eight, owned and
still used by a school in the NE of your country. 30 years' service &
still gong strong. Not bad, eh?

[Charles Carroll]

> all this nationality stuff is a regrettable, often petty
> distraction.

Carl,

I could not agree with you more. That's why I was surprised to see the
word jingoistic in your post. We are all world citizens, as you say.

It seems to me that whoever made this video series just wanted in
general to call our attention to all the great craftsmen and women who
live among us on these shores, and in particular to Graeme King. That
he happened to make an mistake with the title is unfortunate. But it
seems to me that to make too much of this mistake would be akin to
making too much of a typo in this newsgroup. Lord knows if everyone
held every typo that I have made over the years in this newsgroup, I
would probably be put in a lunatic asylum.

Warmest regards,

Charles

[leejohn7]

On Nov 5, 1:47 pm, "Charles Carroll" <charles_carr...@comcast.net>
wrote:

Hello rowers
I just linked into this discussion.
My cousin and I built the Kingfisher single two years ago; one of four
wooden boats I've put together.
Regrettably, it became too expensive for us to belong to a club and
rent storage space, so it is up for sale. If anyone is interested i
can provide photos. I'm in the San Francisco Bay area.
Many thanks
John Howard

[snowit...@gmail.com]

I am interested in the Kingfisher in S.F. and would appreciate hearing from you.

LM Stephenson

[jesus...@gmail.com]

I have seen his wooden boats and they are beautiful and I read they last a long time. I also read many times that they are fast.

My questions:
Have King boats won any big races like Olympics or World Champs?
If not why does everyone say he is a legend?

[Carl]

Let me speak for Graeme King as I am sure he will not waste his breath
speaking for himself.

His work is a proof that rowers follow fashion, gossip & whim, rather
than methodically evaluating racing equipment for the one aspect which
matters above all to a real racer - Performance!.

Graeme loves building shells in wood, he loves designing fast shells, &
he is unwilling to compromise. But some years ago he designed what
became the Quantum eights & fours. They have a keen following in the
USA, despite the sorry way in which the actions of others destroyed a
good business & threw a fine team onto the scrap-heap. His designs now
see a wider market in a new line of imported shells that bears his name.

But Graeme (an Australian professional although plying his many talents
in the USA) still designs & builds his own shells - single-handedly & in
small numbers. They are good.

If a shell builder & designer has the professional integrity to _not_
make outrageous performance claims for his boats, & if managers of top
squads decline to research, evaluate & race in anything that differs
from what everyone else uses, the best shells will be chosen by the
really thoughtful & discriminating rowers and not by the herd.

And then people may even start asking the very questions with which you
began this thread. But the simple truth is that there is precious
little logical connection between those 2 separate questions.