RudderPosts

Catchup

Okay, so we're a little behind here. What say we skip the excuses and get caught up? .

Where to begin,,,?  How about the mountains? One of the reasons we got behind, you see, is that I joined an old college pal for a ski trip in Norway on March 8. It was a rather spontaneous decision to go. The combination of late invitation, cheap plane ticket, and already-planned backcountry ski advnture were impossible to resist. So I didn't. This, of course, has nothing to do with boats, but last summer's dispatches from the same country seemed to pull some eyes to this site, so a winter report seemed in order. I can confirm that it's cold in Norway in winter--especially at Jotunheimen National Park, six hours north of Oslo. That's where we went, to a little cabin in the shadow of a mountain called Glittertind. In addition to the cold temperatures, I can also confirm that, given the right conditions, you can join the concepts of sailing and skiing and cover some serious ground under wind power. I didn't do this, but we met a Swiss couple up there who did.

Back to boats.  Let's turn the dial back to March 18th and 19th, and revisit the Maine Boatbuilder's Show in Portland. This annual event is held at Portland Yacht Services, in a rambling old complex of wooden buildings--a wonderful place, if your tastes lean toward old  and  rambling and wooden. Harry Bryan is in the photo at right, standing with WoodenBoat associate editor Tom Jackson and his wife, Corinne Ricciardi. Behind them is a newly built (by Harry) 21' John Alden-designed pocket cruiser. At left is Alec Brainard's newly built Herrehsoff 12 1/2, surrounded by ferns (Alec is gearing up now to build a 15' Fife daysailer). And below is a Danish seine boat, built for pleasure use by Thad Danielsen of Redd's Pond Boat Yard.

We'll try to be a little more attentive in the future. But it is getting to be spring now, and we're all up to our elbows in bottom paint. And pier building. More about pier building...soon.

You're Invited: Book Launch Party

What are you doing on Friday March 3? If you're anywhere near midcoast Maine, you should consider an early evening visit to the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport. Here's why: There's going to be a book-launch party from 5:30 to 8:30 for the recently-published Encyclopedia of Yacht Designers. Along with author/editors Dan MacNaughton and Lucia del sol Knight, there'll be a gang of real-live yacht designers (including Bob Stephens, Ralph Stanley, Chuck Paine and, perhaps, Bruce King); and there'll be live music, smoked seafood, cold beer, and cool people. All this for just ten bucks per person.

Reserve your spot by calling the museum at 207-548-2529. See you there!

Port Townsend

This was the best rainy day ever. The dire morning forecasts called for "unusual" weather here: thunderstorms, rain, that sort of thing. I spent part of the pre-show hours scrounging a second table for our booth, so that when the deluge began we'd have our vulnerable printed material off the ground and out of the rivulets washing through the tent. The deluge never got past a few sprinkles, and ultimately the overcast gave way to brillant blue skies. You'll note that WoodenBoat General Manager Jim Miller over there on the left is in short sleeves, with not an umbrella in sight.

At right is a gang of students from the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building, rowing a newly launched Chamberlain gunning dory.  Nice work. They cirumnavigated the show at the end of the day, while Jim and I caught up with friend Sam Devlin, who's raised sitch-and-glue boatbuilding to something like high art. His company, Devlin Designing Boatbuilders, has built over 400 boats. One of the recent ones, a 24' raised-deck runabout, will be featured in the next issue of WoodenBoat, in an article by Eric Sorensen. That's Eric at left, tending his notes as we cruise aboard the subject boat at the end of the day Friday.

Okay, time for bed. Early morning tomorrow.

From One Show to Another

Greetings from Port Townsend Washington--a great town that I've always thought of as Downeast Maine's spiritual sister. I'm here with Jim Miller for the town's annual Wooden Boat Festival, which you really should come to if time and geography allow. It's that good.

I'd promised more photos of our own show. But, between attending it, tending to magazine responsibilities, and departing for the West Coast, I managed to let that fall through the cracks. Those photos will come along soon. But for now, stay tuned for news from here in Port Townsend.

Let the Show Begin

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here, with lots to report on about racing and good boats and good people. But I've been busy enjoying these, and not taking much time to post about them. But now comes some big news: the opening of the WoodenBoat Show in Newport, Rhode Island, tomorrow. So we're going to skip over the past few weeks, for now, and get right to the show. Today was setup day, with its usual congestion and camaraderie, ending up with a beautiful show site. I'm not just saying that because I get paid to. The photos say it all. Scattered about this post you'll see, clockwise from top left: 1) Harry Bryan setting up his booth, salt encrusted Fiddlehead in the foreground; 2) the 1911 Crowninshield schooner Heron getting her transom scrubbed; 3) YNOT, the power launch that graces the cover of the September issue of WoodenBoat (this is the ultimate family boatbuilding story);4) the Tancook Whaler Vernon Langille--which I haven't seen for years, being rowed into her berth. That's Geoff Kerr, author of our Caledonia yawl construction series, standing on the stern of his own Caledonia yawl and giving the Langille a helping nudge. Lovely boat, the Langille. Smells great, too. But you'll have to come here to Newport to experience that. The show runs from Friday through Sunday, and it's at the Newport Yachting Center, right downtown. See you there.

A Mystic Experience

I had a friend in college who had a theory about clipboards and neckties: These two items, used together, could get him into just about anywhere. He tested certain limits with this idea--especially when it came to jumping long lines at registration.
    I was issued a clipboard and a neck-hung nametag this past weekend, and these two items were my personal ticket onto some spectacular motoryachts at Mystic Seaport's annual Antique and Classic Boat Festival. There were sailboats at the festival, too, and runabouts, but my focus was on large motoryachts. I was a judge, you see, and in this capacity, along with Roger Hellyar-Brook (the Landing School's encyclopedic systems man--at far right, deliberating with Jim Giblin) and John Weeks (proprietor of Frank M. Weeks Yacht Yard), I inspected five opulent boats of over 50' in length—most dating to the 1920s. Under the guidance of Jim Giblin, we crawled and poked and queried and peered. And then we checked boxes and made erasures and checked more boxes. It's a tough thing, passing such judgment. These boats are all well kept by passionate owners, and they're all a little different from each other. The real treat of this experience is the privilege of examining so many nice boats in so short a stretch of time. Lots of awards were made at dinner on Saturday night, but I think I'll refrain from running down that list. Instead, I'll make a few observations:

1) CANIM, the 96' Ted Geary designed motoryacht built by Lake Union Drydock in 1929-30 is spectacular. And here's a little secret: The moldings and roof beam extensions surrounding her pilothouse are fiberglass. They weren't always, but during restoration, the decision was made to take impressions--molds--of the original wooden items, and to cast new ones in fabric and resin. The owner recalls that workers had to be restrained from over-smoothing these composite pieces. The objective was to maintain the organic imperfections of wood--the stray tool mark, the bit of printed-through grain, the slight dip or hollow. They succeeded. I think that if I didn't tell you about this little material license, you'd never know that the pieces weren't wood.

2) It's good to have a pipe organ on your boat. ANNIE LAURIE, a 60' Albert Condon-designed motoryacht has one, and it provides great ambience when the owner's grandson shows a silent film on the afterdeck.

3) It's good, too, to see VIOLET back in these waters. She's the Scottish Zulu-type fishing boat that Gary and Kristi Maynard converted into a yacht over a decade ago. They sailed her out to Port Townsend, and have flown out there regularly to sail those waters. But now she's back here, and looking impeccable, as always.

4) I really like the 47' Starling Burgess designed schooner named, appropriately, STARLING. She's spare and elegant and well kept. Her owner of 25 years has made five cruises from New England to the Bahamas.

There's more. Lots more. Maybe you should go and have a look for yourself next year. The dates for 2006 are July 22-23. If you went, you could sail Fenwick. She's the 11' dinghy we built on the magazine's pages several years ago (Nos. 166-168). It graced the cover of the final installment's issue, and it lives at Mystic Seaport now, in the boat livery.