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Frequently Asked Questions and Requests from the JRBF Leadership
• The James River Batteau Festival depends on the generosity of numerous land owners to make this event possible. It is absolutely crucial that we respect and take care of the property which is made available for our use.
• Canoeists are welcomed and encouraged to join us in enjoying the river and celebrating the history of the Batteau Era. (1775-1820)
• Camping for Non-Batteau crew is available and we ask for a $5.00 donation per night or $25.00 per week which can be paid on site at the T-shirt booth.
(We ask for this voluntary payment to help defray the significant expenses of putting on the festival.)
• Portable toilets are available at all sites for your enjoyment!
• Water is available at Bent Creek, Wingina, Howardsville, Scottsville, and Slate River. Some places it is provided by the site, some by the festival, you should figure on carrying a 2 day supply of water and renewing supplies everywhere it is available.
• Where Ice is provided by the festival it is on a first come first served basis for sale in the AM while supplies last. It is difficult to obtain the volume of ice needed and impossible to predict the exact amount needed, so please buy only what you absolutely need and be flexible.
• Trash will be picked up at all sites, some places the county provides dumpsters, some sites the Batteau Festival will have a trailer. Please bring your trash to the location where it is being collected and help us leave the property cleaner then when we arrived.
• Membership in the VC&NS (Virginia Canals and Navigations Society) is strongly encouraged of everyone who enjoys the James River and Batteau Festival. Membership forms are available at the T-Shirt booth. Be sure to check out the new FULL COLOR issue of The Tiller to be in mailboxes soon, and some copies available to view at the t-shirt booth.
NOTICE TO CANOEISTS AND OTHER CAMPERS:
CAMPING FEES
Thank you for being honost and helping support this great festival and paying your camping fees. If you are a crewmember of a batteau OR the designated ground crew, your fees are included in your boat fee. If you are going along with a batteau you know, and are not the ground crew or batteau crew, and are just boating with a canoe, kayak or other floating device or following by car or other vehicle and are camping you are asked to please pay a camp fee.
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JRBF on Yahoo Groups.
Please use the following button to "Join" this group on Yahoo. Many important JRBF announcements are posted on this group throughout the year and members of the group receive email updates.
The crew of the new batteau
"Rocky Creek Wildfire"
Saturday, April 30th, 2011
The batteau "Rocky Creek Wildfire" was flipped over at 1:00 pm on Saturday, April 30th. A good crowd of people from the new crew and old time JRBF people gathered to help flip the boat. After discussing the best method to lift and place on hay bales, the moment finally arrived. The new boat was lifted with ease and turned over with the sound of cheers when the new batteau was born. A birth certificate will be issued soon...lol.... Many of the crew's family members witnessed the event. Proud moments were had by all. A cookout at one end of the barn with hot dogs & hamburgers, etc was good. The new Batteau looks great! This boat is tapered and has one-piece pine gunwales (aka.:"cap rails"). Well done!
Click here or photo above for a photo gallery.
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New Batteau from Amherst County
The Batteau "Rocky Creek Wildfire"
Click here or photo above to
see gallery of construction photos.
There will be another addition the JRBF Fleet for 2011; the Rocky Creek Wildfire is currently under construction in Amherst County. Chip Coleman, Steven Ackerman, Dustin Hinkle, Jonathan Schjonning, Jarrett Rowland, and Alicia Di Cola are building what by all indications will be a very accurate replica of Boat 28 from the Great Basin Dig.
Not only do we welcome another Batteau to the fleet, it’s exciting that the Rocky Creek Wildfire will be significantly different from any boat built in the past few years. One of the things you’ll immediately notice from the pictures is that the 41-foot boat is built with a significant taper, as was the original boat 28. The width of the boat at its center is 7 feet and it tapers to 5 ½ feet at the nosecone joint. Many of the original boats from the dig were tapered but most boats built recently have not been largely in an effort to simplify construction.
Another area where Coleman and friends are making a significant effort to be true to the original boat 28 is in the design of the gunwale or cap rail. They are building a 1-piece cap rail, which is from a 3 x 6 piece of pine, which started in excess of 30 feet. This means there will be no joint in the cap rail and it will make a smooth transition from nosecone to nosecone. Taking it one step further the crew has chiseled a mortise like hole under the cap rail to accept the end of each rib arm. This has been completed and was a significant challenge, but as you can see from the photos is extremely clean and securely holds the end of each rib arm into the cap rail.
As construction progresses it will be interesting to see how the challenges of planking a tapered boat are dealt with. However given the relative ease with which they seem to have worked to this point, I have every confidence they’ll work everything out with no major problems. I hope in addition to the photos which they’ve provided, they’ll write a narrative outlining their experience, procedures they used, problems they encountered, and things they might do differently on their next boat.
I hope you will look at the photos of the construction of the Rocky Creek Wildfire. I hope you’ll also take time to look at the Batteau Construction portion of this website, which can be found on the top toolbar. It is just in it’s beginning stages, but it currently includes some interesting articles and information in addition to the beginning a collection of photos and narratives from existing batteaux programs. Your suggestions and input in the way of ideas and photos will make the Batteau Construction portion of this site a valuable asset to future batteau builders.
Ralph
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Two of the boatbuilders of the new
Batteau "Rocky Creek Wildfire"
The photo above was taken in Scottsville at the
February,
2011 Batteau Festival meeting. Photo by Holt Messerly
Click here or photo above to
see gallery of construction photos.
COMMENTS on the new batteau:
by Holt Messerly
I would like to give much encouragement and praise to the new Rocky Creek Wildfire crew: Chip Coleman, Steven Ackerman, Dustin Hinkle, Jonathan Schjonning, Jarrett Rowland, and Alicia Di Cola.
Having just sold the last tapered batteau , The 1993 JRBF Boat of the year and most authentic award winner, The Batteau "James River". Even having been submersed in a nearby pond for many years the old boat was brought up in the fall of 2010 and taken away on a trailer. The boat was sprayed down and pumped out and floated fairly well with minimal leaks. This boat also featured the first full length king planks in modern batteau era, and had 3 full length boards. The tapering and steam building we went through to build the boat was a big learning curve but we did it.
NOW, this new crew has in my humble opinion built an excellent frame with an awesome gunwale and the notched rib arms all tied together with the ribs for the frame of the boat are the very best new boat I have ever seen built. The technicality of the gunwale can't be understated. I have seen boats broken up due to only having weak boards nailed around the top of the ribs. That area must be able to withstand many situations on the river. And to actually have a one piece gunwale on each side is a boatbuilders dream. I am very impressed and am thankful that such a fine example of a new batteau done to the original's found in Richmond is being built. I was part of a 1994 dive into the cold muddy waters at the Pump House in Richmond where the original batteau artifacts parts are stored under water. Tracings and video were made from the originals onto vinyl sheets rolled up for storage. Video was taken of Dr. Bill Trout looking at his original steno pad notes taken at the original dig in the canal basin. He looked at the numbers and tags and lined up the front left end of a nosecone of boat #28. This was published in the James River Batteau Festival Quarterly Review in 1994.
Another feature I notice is the slight round in the bottom of the ribs instead of just flat to curve. The gradual curve will help in the waterline planking area. Not having a steep high side is the way the design was in the original and I predict that the boat will ride up in the water and only draft a small amount. The tapered ends will also allow the front sweep to dive into the rapids and have that much more control. The strong gunwales in the rapids will allow much flex as you bend around the curves in the rapids. The taper and the strong gunwale are going to prove to be great assets for the boat.
So let me close by saying, Good job, new crew. I can't wait to see the finished product.
By Holt Messerly, Former Batteau Captain, Former JRBF Chairman, 1996, Current Webmaster & VC&NS Trustee.
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WEBSITE Problems? - Please note that the files were recently moved to the vacanals.org/batteau folder and there are some glitches with some movie files. I just fixed the link manually for a movie in the batteau construction section so it would play correctly. If you find any problems please let me know so I can fix them. Thanks. Holt holt@vacanals.org
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2011 Program Book Ad Sales
Mrs. Elizabeth Davis has agreed to be in charge of the program book again this year. She has released the following form for ad sales.
Click here to download Ad Sales Form.
Please note that the deadline for sales is April 1st.
Also Elizabeth has a new email for dealing with this book:
edavis@vacanals.org
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Where the River Bends – Scottsville Museum
An exhibit at the Scottsville Museum opened in 2010.
The towns history is showcased from indian times, to the
batteau, canal, train, civil war and other eras up to today.
Many interesting displays and artifacts are displayed.
This is a very nice new exhibit that everyone really must see!
The Scottsville Museum's regular hours are:
Saturdays: 10 am to 5 pm
Sundays: 1-5 pm;
Also open on Memorial Day, Batteau Night,
and July 4th.
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