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Hot notes (latest: May 6, 2008)

A Welcome to the World of Traditional Small Craft -- TSCA History
TSCA By-Laws (Revised Sep 10, 2007) -- National Meeting Minutes (latest: Dec 3, 2007)
Organization -- Local Chapters (updated: May 6, 2008) -- E-mail Discussion Forum
Chapter Calendar Links -- Members' Writings (last posting: Feb 23, 2008)
TSCA Wares -- The Ash Breeze (Journal of the Association) (updated: May 4, 2008)
The TSCA John Gardner Grant Program (updated: Apr 15, 2008)
International Small Boat Events (updated: Apr 18, 2008)
Download our FULL COLOR BROCHURE! (1.4 MB PDF)

JOIN TSCA!   Individual/Family membership: HTML | PDF   Corporate Sponsor membership: HTML | PDF   LINKS to our sponsors!

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The Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc., is a nonprofit, tax-exempt educational organization which works to preserve and continue the living traditions, skills, lore, and legends surrounding working and pleasure watercraft whose origins predate the marine gasoline engine. It encourages the design, construction, and use of these boats, and it embraces contemporary variants and adaptations of traditional designs. Dues (for individual or family memberships) are $20.00 per year. We also have Sponsor Member categories, designed for corporate entities (e.g., boat shops, boatbuilders, boatbuilders' suppliers) as well as for individuals desiring to support the organization at a higher level than basic membership. Contact Dan Drath for more information on sponsorship privileges and rates. Note: Rates for display ads have been reduced, effective March 1, 2006!

The Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc., is a tax-exempt, non-profit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Dues and contributions to TSCA are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

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A Welcome to the World of Traditional Small Craft 19th-century America saw the development of boats that rank as some of the most beautiful, most efficient, and most perfectly adapted boats ever conceived. Catboats, Whitehalls, wherries, peapods, dories, sharpies -- the list is seemingly endless and filled with wildly different designs and uses that share one thing in common: they each represent a long line of development that resulted in boats that were, and remain, virtually unsurpassable for their intended purposes.

The Traditional Small Craft Association endeavors to appreciate these boats for what they are -- not relics of the past or sterile objects of Museum-quality venerability, but vessels that were designed to be used profitably and with pleasure. While some of our members are professional or amateur boat builders who appreciate the materials and methods that went into the original construction of these boats, we happily embrace the use of new materials and techniques as well. What sets many of the most popular modern boats apart from the ones you will typically see at a TSCA gathering is that the modern boat is more often driven by the demands of modern marketing and the marketplace. They are often serious compromises, heavily influenced by the need to appeal to the largest number of possible users. Our boats tend to be more individualistic and more specifically suited to the actual purposes to which we put them. They also tend to be smaller! The adage that "Bigger is Better" (or in boating terms, "If it won't sleep six it's too small") is a fairly modern concept.

The sense of history and tradition that surrounds these boats is certainly one of the attractions. But, fundamentally, the average member of TSCA simply enjoys the thrill of "messing about" in a boat that performs superbly and without compromise, whether it's passage-making under oars, a sedate cruise around the harbor, a romping sail back from the fishing grounds, or a quiet paddle up a tidal estuary. If this kind of boating appeals to you, we would like to invite you to contact your closest chapter of TSCA and, perhaps, find some like-minded souls and a chance to enjoy some of the finest boats ever created. -- Larry Feeney
 

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TSCA History The TSCA as an organization was first created as a response to a plan by the Federal government to adopt a set of "safety" standards that would, in effect, have declared traditional types such as peapods and dories "unseaworthy". This seemed WRONG to people such as John Gardner and Pete Culler. They were told that protest would be much more effective if they were speaking for an organization, and so they went and built one. We'd like to think that the TSCA had a significant part in the result, which was that the regulations were revised so that traditional boats were permitted to continue to exist. FOR THE MOMENT. Who knows when we'll need to take up the cudgels again? Having got by this crisis, the organization turned to the long-term business of "passing the word" about traditional types to the world in general, or at least that part of it which might be interested. For futher information, see The Ash Breeze Vol 17 No 3.

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