Editor’s note: The Thalweg is a frequent blog about boats and the waters we float. It’s composed by TU Senior Producer Josh Duplechian and Tim Romano, an award-winning photographer.
A number of years ago TROUT Magazine published a very sad story of mine about a wooden fishing boat I’d spent years restoring and then tragically lost in an accident within an hour of her inaugural float.
In response, I received an outpouring of letters from people I’d never met. Strangers from around the country wrote me requesting pieces of the wrecked vessel and in return, I received a handmade fishing net, an elegantly carved pen and more notes and letters. It was incredible and caught me completely off guard. I couldn’t believe people would take the time to do such things for a complete stranger. In hindsight I shouldn’t have been surprised. Boats have a way of doing that.
Big, small, wooden, rubber, or glass — expensive or cheap, they just seem to bring people together. You almost have no choice in the matter. Get on a boat and there’s really no place to hide. Most of the time you want to be there. Like, really want to be there…
River people, boat folk, whatever you want to call them are kindred spirits. They are keen to learn, keen to share, can be wonky as hell and love a good time.
As the novelist Kenneth Grahame once said on the bank of the Thames, “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”
Josh Duplechian, my co-author on this weekly muttering on boats, and I firmly adhere to this belief and hope you do to. We invite you to come along and travel with us down The Thalweg, TU’s new online adventure about boats, fishing and everything in between.
More than just screaming into a bullhorn we want conversation, too. Let us know what you’d like to read, see and learn when it comes to boats, and we’ll do our best to make it happen. We’re game to go down the rabbit hole in search of anchors, rod holders, varnish, trailers and whatever else we or you might find interesting.
The Thalweg blog features several posts each week. You can see them all here.