In the fall of 2000 I saw notice of an exhibition of invented musical instruments at the Crucible Steel Gallery in San Francisco which featured a photo of the Blue Boat. Both the idea and the photo were so compelling that I got over there to see the show and found that I was completely in love with the Blue Boat, which was one of a set of boats converted to instruments by artists Judith Blankman and Marilyn Hudson.
I arranged to borrow the Blue Boat for several months, set it up in my garage, and spent many hours playing it. Besides plucking the strings, I bowed them with a bass bow, used e-bows on them, hit them with mallets and did some sliding along the strings with rosined fingers as is done by Ellen Fullman on her Long Stringed Instrument.
One of the nicest things about the Blue Boat is that the boat itself is a fairly decent acoustic instrument. I did have to amplify it for a live performance, and for input to a digital delay effect, but not for practice. I used a pair of microphones over the boat, which worked reasonably well. If I had another opportunity, I'd like build a pickup system for it and have several performers play it at once.
My boat tenure concluded with a performance on March 3, 2001 at the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek, which was having a show called Adrift, featuring nautical themed sculpture. Anandha Ray and Moving Arts Dance collaborated in two improvised performances which were free, and seen by several hundred people. Each performance included some talking by the boat artists, and by me, and was followed by some show and tell time for the gallery visitors to try out the boat.