About Mare Liberum
The Free Seas / Mare Liberum is a freeform publishing, boatbuilding and waterfront art collective, based in the Gowanus, Brooklyn. Finding its roots in centuries-old stories of urban water squatters and haphazard water craft builders, Mare Liberum is a collaborative exploration of what it takes to make viable aquatic craft as an alternative to life on land. The project draws from sources as diverse as ocean-crossing raft assemblages, improvised refugee boats built in Senegal and Cuba, and modern stitch-and-ply construction methods which make complex, classic boat designs approachable by novice builders.
We are currently building a fleet of Liberum Dories, a design that we based on the historic 15′ Banks Dory. The frame of this boat can be constructed over the course of a single afternoon using minimal tools and basic building skills. You can download a broadsheet pdf file with basic assembly instructions below, or watch a time-lapse quicktime video of our recent boat building experience at the Neuberger Museum in Purchase, New York. You can also write to us if you would like to request a butcher paper template for all of the necessary parts of a Liberum Dory — just pay for the postage and materials, and we’ll send the full-scale template out to you. You can also download a pdf of the stencils you’ll need below, and then print them out “tiling” or on an oversize digital printer.
The stencils:
new_ml_stencils
If you want help building a dory, finding places in New York to go boating or sailing for free, or just to get in touch and see what else we’re up to, e-mail us at: littleboats [at - anti antispam] thefreeseas.org.
Time Lapse Video of Dory Build at Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY:
I am interested in building a Liberum Dory for use on Newton Creek, which is a couple of blocks from my place. Is there a better way of getting in contact with our group? I would also like to visit your location but I can’t find the address. A friend emailed me an article about Mare Liberum while I was researching boats to build. The download file hasn’t been working. I have plans that will be taking me out onto Newtown Creek which coincide with your goals/ideals.
I hope to hear from someone.
Dave
Have you considered the boats of Thor Heyerdahl as examples for your projects? Finding the natural materials to construct a boat that is sea-worthy is more of a challenge but what did the local indigenous folks use?
I’d love to see more pictures of boats on here. I’d also love to see the video mentioned above - where’s the link to it?
Thank you! I’m psyched to make one of these bad boys!
Thanks for writing, Nick. I posted the video mentioned above. There should be plenty of pix of the boats around the site, though we’ll be adding more in the coming weeks as a follow-up to the workshop we ran here at the Gowanus Studio Space last weekend. Here’s a sampling from our friend E-liz:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/e-liz/sets/72157620798015804
Keep in touch on your boat building progress.
Cheers,
Dylan & the ML Crew