Header Photo Sea Island One Design Scow

Photo taken from an online article on the Rockville Regatta from The Post and Courier.

The previous header photo is of the Sea Island One-Design, a local class of large scows centered around the lowcountry South Carolina, specifically Bohicket Creek, Rockville. The 1948 design is attributed to New England naval architect, Henry Scheel but the lineage goes much farther back.

A sailing competition had started with two boats in 1890 and by the turn of the century the Rockville Regatta had quickly became a sailing contest between the towns that dotted these winding estuary fingers south of Charleston. (The Rockville Regatta also became the summer social event of the year with dances, parties, and romancing; a tradition which continues to this day, though considerably in excess - think the infield of the Kentucky Derby.) The scow shape came to the fore in the competition and Walter Eugene Townshend with his nephew, Oliver Seabrook,  managed to walk off with many of the Rockville Regatta trophies sailing their series of scows named Undine.

From the book Rockville by Alicia Anderson Thompson:

"In 1947, Ollie Seabrook took the best features of three of the fastest and  best sailing scows and gave them to Henry A. Scheel in Mystic, Connecticut, for him to create a set of plans that each island club could use to build a uniform sailboat. This three man scow was named Sea Island One Design, and it united the area yacht clubs, allowing for equal competition among the members to this day"

A scan from a sidebar article in Sailing World. The fleet has grown to nine with the addition of a new build in 2011.

There is a strong similarity of some of these pre-WWII South Carolina scows to the 1899 Charles D. Mowers Swallow scow, which was the second scow featured in The Rudders How-To-Build series. There was at least a borrowing of the general shape. Here are the sideviews of the two starting with the Swallow.

The 1931 Rockville Undine IV.

The 1947 Sea Island One-Design is a different design, though the parentage of the Swallow is very evident. The SIOD is shorter, the transom is wider and the topside panel straighter than that of the Swallow.

For more on the Mower Swallow scow, click here.

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Another Fun Filled Weekend But A Harrowing Problem At The End

Friday, Bob and Laura of our Club organized a fun sail down to The Battery and back in which about ten Club boats participated. We rendezvoused with Bob and Laura and their boat, "Thai Hot," when ILENE was in the West Indies (see Blog, Jan 22, 2012, Sint Maarten).  In addition to Witty and Alpha Girl, we enjoyed the company of Rhoda and Lloyd, Christine and Heather and Mendy. We left the mooring at 5:45 pm and had daylight all the way down, passing many memorable urban sights with a favorable tide. Actually, the timing of the turn of the tide was the key to the success of this voyage; Thanks, Bob!

Hells Gate with Triboro (now RFK) behind

59th St (Now Ed Koch) Bridge

Bright lights in the big city

We had the main up the whole way but the motor was on except for perhaps a bit more than an hour, near the destination and starting back up. I got yelled at by the captain of a tug with barges who thought I was too close when we were near the Statue. He hailed us over his loudspeaker: "Ilene, you are an idiot!"  Well we were not that near to him and in fact I did not hear his yell, though the others did. After the tide turned, we enjoyed favorable tide on the way back as well, arriving on the mooring six hours after starting, at 11:45 pm. Having misplaced the big flashlight (since found), finding our mooring in the dark was a challenge, but we saw it on the first try.

After sleeping aboard, we sailed on Saturday for about four hours with friends I know through Lene: Simone, who had sailed with us up at Mt. Desert Island last summer, and her wife, Alison. They are eager and avid sailors. Also, Susan and Andrew, who were newbies but took the helm and acquitted themselves well. Then dinner at the Club and a good nights sleep. The photos of this group are in my former cell phone which, alas, lies on the bottom of Eastchester Bay. Oops!

Sunday we were supposed to sail with a couple of attorneys who Lene had placed, but the husbands work got crazy at the last minute so they had to cancel. Hey, I was an attorney so I know such things happen. Lene made other plans, not including use of our car and I called Lenes cousin Judy, to find out if her twin sons, Jake and Jared, were available -- and they were.
The lads are about 17 years old. I have been wanting to sail with them for at least a decade and now they are old enough and we had a good sail. The wind had been forecast for only single digits but came up double that. So using the main, we furled the small jib and made plenty of speed with one sail. We were close hauled on a port tack from the mooring to Great Neck, on a starboard close reach to and through Hart Island Sound, reached deeply into Manhassett Bay, past the Clubs, the race in progress and the big anchored party yacht until the water got to ten feet before turning for home. Jake did most of the steering, cast off and picked up the mooring, hauled up the main, and trimmed the sails, giving my sore shoulder a rest. Jake is rapidly becoming a good sailor.

Jared felt a bit under the weather especially on the beating courses, but he hung on bravely. His face does not look as green as he felt.

The two cats stayed mostly below, in each end of a long narrow cabinet on the port side of the forward head, where we store towels. It is closed by two sliding panels and by pushing them toward the center, the cats have openings into two snug padded berths. They both briefly stuck their noses out of the companionway, on the way back, to look around. On the way out, during the port tack, two of the transverse drawers under the pullman berth slid out onto the cabin sole and I had put them back -- more securely.  Once on the mooring, sails and lines all secured and stowed, the wheel locked in place, the instruments turned off, and the next question before calling the launch was: "Wheres Alphie?"  The boys and I spent at least an hour looking in every conceivable place. All of the stuff in the aft cabin was removed and, not finding a cat there the stuff was replaced and its door closed. All of the towels were removed from the cats hiding hole. Compartment by compartment, we systematically but frantically searched, with no luck. Not in the fridge either. Nor topside. Knowing Alphies penchant for crawling into the stack pack (see prior post) we searched there too and raised that sail and felt for bulges on the sides of the lower sail. Many searches were repeated.

Finally the call to Lene that I dreaded ever having to make. Lets just say that she did not take the news that Alphie was missing calmly. I drove the twins back to NJ and returned to the boat; Lene took the number six subway and 29 bus, arriving two minutes before I did. We resumed the search. Within a few minutes she heard a faint mewl, not the MEEOWWW!!! that Alphie is capable of. Thank goodness! She was aboard!  What a relief!  But where?  We tried to localize the sound and concluded that it was coming from the compartment with the pullman berth, where we sleep. So we took off the huge mattress and bed clothes, and moved this into the salon and then I unscrewed the part of the plywood panel on which the mattress lies that covers, among other things, the six drawers, two of which had slid out. But these drawers slide in cubbies with 1/2 inch plywood on the top, the bottom and both sides. here is the front of the forward ones with the drawers out:

So how could Alfie have gotten into wherever she was through there? Oh, I did not know this but the cubbies have no backs and there is a narrow space, perhaps 2.5 inches wide, between the back of the cubbies and the longitudinal bulkhead behind which the water maker lives. She had squeezed through that gap!

Back of cubbies, from the top - where she had squeezed through

Next removal was a large tray about 2.5 by 3 and four inches deep, that fits over the drawers but under the plywood platform for the mattress and is held in place by a dozen screws. This tray opens through a covered cutout in the top and we store my wet suit in there. And then Alphies head was visible in the dry but dirty bilge under the drawers at the front end.

Fiberglass stringer seen from above

 But the next couple of hours of trying to coax her out were unavailing. She had jumped over a strong longitudinal fiberglass stringer into the lowest part of this bilge, below where my arm could reach. We tried coaxing her out with hands containing a few kibbles but she reached this food with her head without providing a way to grab the scruff of her neck. The same with a line: she loves chasing strings and put out paws to play, but did not come out far enough to be grabbed. I sawed a six inch square hole in the bottom of the forward lower cubbie with the Dremel tool, using up three carborundum discs, but there was still a ply of the plywood that was not cut and hammering down with the rubber mallet did not create the hole I sought. The sawing and hammering probably scared the poor kittie half to death, though.  Lene called friends, including Bob, of  "Pandora", another Saga 43. He is a master woodworker. He advised against tearing the boat further apart; I agreed, not being able to see what was connected to what - how to do it. It appears that glue was use in addition to screws. So we sat and waited and in a half an hour -- out crawled Alphie. It was after ten oclock; we called the launch and went home, leaving ILENE a wreck.

Next day I spent three hours cleaning, putting her back together, making the bed, and putting a thinned coat of  new varnish on one side of the cafe doors, using the newspaper covered salon table as the work bench. Here they can dry without cats footprints. Several of the books I have read about the exploits of cruisers have chapters entitled to the effect: "The Night [insert name of cat] Went Missing." Most people would say that sailing with cats is not worth the trouble. We love them though.

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Breaking News Witty the Kitty Is BAACK!!

Approximately four days after his sudden disappearance, Lene was walking the 150 yards to the shipyards shower/head/lounge when she heard a cat sound. Not the loud yowl Witty is capable of, nor the weak mewl either -- but a cat sound. I got our strong flashlight and we saw what seemed like an orange cat running along a low "catwalk" at the near side of the big building that houses the yards repair shops and parts department. This is 200 feet from us by the docks or 100 as the crow flies.

From bow of ILENE you turn left, right and then right before getting to the right corner of the big building.

I had walked this catwalk

and my had leg crashed through the plywood decking when I put my foot on a spot that was not directly over one of the horizontal 2 x 4s that  support it.

This had been a few days before, during one of my many expeditions shaking Wittys plastic box of treats. Lene ran back to get the treat box and we made our way to the back of the big beehive of bustling activity, now quiet for the night.
Fifteen feet behind it, hidden in woods that have encroached it, is a decaying one room structure (seen at the left in the photo above) under which Witty had apparently found shelter.

He was skittish or fearful and of two minds whether he wanted to be brought back into domesticity/captivity. But eventually his desire for food won out and he approached Lene and after giving him a hand full of food she grabbed him and I carried him back to the boat where we could see him better in the light.
He really looked none the worse for wear, his coat clean and not infested with brambles, though in need of a brushing. No apparent wounds or loss of weight. Alfie, normally diffident toward him as well as toward us, licked him lovingly. We gave him a big portion of food, though not too much because he regurgitates when he wolfs down too much.
Lene is elated!
 The gloom of mourning that had settled over our expedition is vanished.  We are both so happy to have him back,  though he seems to be eyeing the companionway as if he enjoyed his four days of freedom.
We have been notifying all the folks who gave advice and support that the search is successfully concluded. How many of his nine lives are left?

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April 23 24 Wrightsville Beach to Beaufort NC and Lay Day There 80 5 Miles

Underway from 6:45 until 4:00, outside in the Atlantic. Raised main in the harbor, because we were motoring directly into the wind. Then a brief two minute torrential downpour, a right into the inlet and another right outside put us on course for Beaufort. A straight shot at about 60 degrees for 69.1 miles across a good part of Onslow Bay, which is an 80 mile crescent from Southport to Cape Lookout. Out came the genoa and we were doing fine, on a port beat. But the wind was veering very slowly to the right, forcing us a bit more and more off course, not that this was dangerous: thousands of miles of the Atlantic were to the right. But then the winds came up strongly. The clinometer measures us while heeling 39 degrees.

The effect is more dramatic than shown of the clinometer.

We "buried the rail", i.e., water was rushing over the side deck on the leeward side.

So we furled the genoa, put a reef in the main and put out the small jib. Normalcy and safety restored. When the wind diminished a bit we were at a slower speed. Our objective was to be on our dock before night fall, so we turned on the engine and motorsailed. At one point we were pushed so far off course that it was time to tack. Then, instead of being pushed to the right of where we wanted to go, we were being pushed toward the left. As the wind continued to veer or "clock around" to the right, we were able to change course to the right, two degrees at a time, until our course over the ground matched the bearing to the Beaufort inlet.
We met two interesting boats in the inlet, a tug going in and a shrimper coming out.

Beaufort Docks is the municipal marina of Beaufort, with a large,friendly and knowledgeable staff. They gave each of us a wooden nickle, good (with a dollar for a tip) for a free glass of wine at the restaurant/bar of the marina. I had the house red both nights because Lene does not drink. Their showers are not fancy or spacious but clean, with lots of hooks, seats and plenty hot water. They provide a quality wifi at the docks. We used their courtesy car to get a propane refill at a fish store. And also, a delicious fresh flounder that the store fileted for us and Lene cooked that night. We also got groceries. and fresh engine oil for the next change. We each got haircuts from Rachel of Enchanted on the Lane. A mechanic came over to try again with the engines intermittent rattle and did less but charged more than Leo of Jekyll Island -- nothing, except he gave his opinions.
Our other diner was at a restaurant called Queen Annes Revenge, its food adequate. It was named after Blackbeards pirate ship, that sank just outside the inlet through which we had entered.
The North Carolina Maritime Museum had a good exhibit on the recovery of the remnants of that ship along with pirate life generally -- free admission.

There is also a lot there about commercial fishing and outboard engines, but the best part of this museum was about what they called "indigenous boats." These are boats built of locally available wood and designed to do the work needed by the local population and the water conditions they are likely to face. It started with dugout canoes with the best explanation I have heard on how they are created and ended with the sharpies, a type of flat bottomed fishing boat first built in New England but modified and popular in NC waters. They had several full size boats and models in the display. Worth a lot more time than the two hours I had for it.
I also had taken a stroll through the historic town, three blocks by ten blocks in size along the waterfront. Strip shopping malls and other attractions and probably some lovely suburbs are outside of this historic area. Front street is at the waterfront, its business side full of restaurants and shops and, across the small park area to the right, the marinas docks. The kitties did not enjoy it here as much as they had hoped to because a man on our neighboring boat is allergic to cats and was not pleased when he discovered Alfie exploring his cabin. They had to remain aboard.

Old placarded homes, are on the other streets.

The Allen Davis house of 1774, picture above was used by General Burnside in the Civil War but it did not say which side he fought for.

A historic triumph for this rural town was when the Railroad was built here, allowing inland produce to be shipped to market. The Depot remains beside where the tracks used to run

and is now a civic meeting place with a museum including this recreation of the RR office. Both the Railroad office and our barber reminded me of my maternal grandfather who was a barber when young and retired from the railroad office when he got older.
As sections of the Atlantic coast of Florida have been nicknamed the gold, treasure and space coasts, Beaufort and several surrounding towns now call themselves the Crystal Coast. Someone told me this was because the Atlantic water is so crystal clear.
In 2012 we anchored out off the docks here and did not go ashore. We made up for that oversight this time. From here on until Norfolk we will be inside.

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October 27 November 14 ILENE Is Ready for the Winter

White, unpainted bottom.  Six work days took place during this period, (totaling 30.75 hours - so Im not working too hard) and two fun days as well.
Why not start with the fun. There was an emergency meeting at the Club because of a failure of a quorum at an earlier meeting. This one took only five minutes and we accomplished two ministerial tasks so they can be acted upon at the next meeting. And then a delicious Moroccan style buffet was served. So this not being a food blog, I will refrain from telling you about the menu -- except for the apple cake, which, based on the flavor and moistness and icing I would have called a carrot cake, except the moistness came from chopped apple instead of grated carrot. And I ended up sitting at the table with the Clubs book group, twelve women and three men, and enjoyed their discussion of "A Man Called Ove" even though I had not read the book.
The other fun event was the 20th Annual Gow Dinner, sponsored by Tex and Maria, who we dined with in Marathon Florida last winter. Tex pays for the whole meal so the full price of the tickets, $50/capita, goes to the Dow School to sponsor a scholarship in memory of their son, who was a student there, until he tragically died in a motorcycle accident. Tex and Maria flew up from where they had left their boat on their way south. I have contributed the cost of two tickets every year for the last twenty, including those when we were south and could not attend in person. Tex is a PC at the Harlem and also a member of the Huguenot, and this year the event took place at the Huguenot. Tex and Maria have a large circle of friends at both clubs and elsewhere, so attendance was good. Somehow, I had forgotten to send in the check so they had no reservation for us, but another PC, who did have reservations could not come at the last minute so we were seated at a table of Harlemites. Tex made a speech, and in his tradition, cried.

Basically the work involved winterization of the water systems and installation of the blue canvas cover with a few other chores started or completed. I had a big problem with the winterization, having sort of forgotten one important ingredient: It is a two man job, one to pour in the pink propelyne glycol and the other turning on and off swtches and faucets and waiting till the discharge appears pink. I got stuck and called upon Ed Spallina, who came in from Connecticut to help me. I used four of his very inexpensive hours and had the pleasure of taking him to lunch at the New Rochelle diner, sort of hidden in plain sight near the Home Depot. Ed is not "certified" as a technician, but he is magically able to figure out how things work. I had drained the raw water strainer, of its sea water through a screw at the

bottom, but had never been able to remove its stainless steel filter basket, because I did not know how to get it open. Well now I know that the top screws off and it is a good thing we looked inside because the basket was substantially corroded away. With this picture and a few measurements, I expect to be able to get a replacement basket that fits. Without its straining, particles are likely to be sucked through the engine causing major problems. Ed also bypassed the hot water heater after draining it, by detaching the two hoses that (1) feed cold water to the heater and (2) take hot water from it and connecting them to each other with a black plastic piece with hose barbs at both ends. I had the piece but had not figured out how to use it. Also, we detached the hose that takes fresh water from the tanks to the fresh water pump, and inserted a three foot long piece of hosing cut from the spare hose left over from the water maker installation job of 2010, and inserted a funnel at the top end. So now I do not need to pour so much of the pink stuff into the tanks, but can pour it directly into the pump. This year I used 14 gallons of the stuff. Next year, half that amount!
The cover comes in two pieces and installing it is a bear. On the day before, I scrubbed the topsides, and removed most of the stains in the fiberglass deck caused by the decay of fallen maple leaves -- they put ILENE under a big maple. Im on deck, about 14 feet above ground with the life lines removed and have a lot of lugging and heaving to do to do to get the cover into place and zip the two halves together. It took me four hours. And the problems involved the zippers. In the spring of 2014 when I took the cover off, I noticed that the aft most zipper on the port side was broken. I meant to take the big piece in to Doyle Sailmakers to get it fixed but I forgot. So at the end of the day, the cover was on, but with one inoperative zipper, about ten feet long. I was too tired to take it that half off, fold it up, put it in the car and take it to Doyle. Plan B was to sew across the gap and that took several hours the next day, with a tough job of pushing the needle into the fabric, using the palm to get it most of the way through and then pliers to pull the end through. Good exercise for the core muscles, doing this while balancing on the top of the step ladder. And at the end of the day I noticed another bad zipper, the one that closes the cover up above the swim platform, through which we enter, though it will hold this season.
I could not remove the sensor that measures speed through the water from the through hull where it had been painted in over the years. But Ed had a pliers with a large enough jaws to grab it and that is done. And I bought butt connectors and shrink wrap tubes and spiced the five wires from it to the five that lead from there to the power source and display. Final test: I asked a man working on a nearby boat to spin the wheel that protrudes from the bottom of the boat after I turned on the instruments and got to the cockpit where I could observe the display for boat speed. When he spun the wheel with his finger the instrument changed from zero to showing speed. Hooray! Then I took the tube with the wheel out and replaced it with the attached plug. The reason that the wheel kept breaking until now was the pressure of the heavy lifting strap against it. And the boat has a little plastic sign saying "Strap" telling the yard guys where to place the straps, so that the boat will be balanced in the two straps. Yep! -- right where the speed instrument is. So next spring, after the boat is back in the water, I will pull out the plug and then quickly insert the instrument into the hole through which the water will then be spurting.
The last part of the work involved the anchor and chain. The anchor was where the gap is in the cover at the bow.

I lowered anchor and chain to the ground using the windlass. Then I used (1) rust penetrating oil, (2) heat and (3) a hammer to break the seal and detached the anchor and its shackle and took them to the locker. The surprise was at the bitter end of the 300 feet of stainless chain, the end where it it attached to a "D" clamp it the locker. It was tied on with a square knot in 3/16 inch line, and not that strong Spectra stuff either! When I put it back, this attachment will be made fast with a stainless steel shackle. I have sawed off a large part of the horizontal 3/4 inch thick plywood platform on which the former Lectrasan was seated. This gives me better access to the chain locker and, I hope, will reduce the problem of the chain piling up and jamming the windlass while we raise the anchor. By sawing this off I got the vacuum cleaner hose and my arm into the locker to remove accumulated sand and rust particles and then scrub the rust stains of its interior walls. The half of the chain that goes into the water with each anchoring, is heavily rusted but otherwise still in good condition. The other 150 feet that have lain in the locker is white in this photo.

First I tied loops of it up behind the car and dragged it several blocks through the streets to grind off the exterior rust particles. The remaining work, in addition to installing the new brackets in the spring, is to scrape off 90 percent of the rust on the interior surfaces of each link.





Below is part of the boat, with its cover. At the top is the bottom of the blue canvas. below that, to the right is the aft portion of the bottom with its several coats of grey barrier coat, partially covered with what is left of the blue anti-barnacle paint. To the left, going forward, is the white gelcoat, after the paint was removed. After I touch up this surface it will put on several coats of barrier coat and then several coats of bottom paint. But that will take place in the spring.

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Trinidad

On a recent trip to Trinidad for a survey I was pleasantly surprised with the services available for the boat owner there. This is not the Caribbean Island you might be used to. You will not find an island crowded with tourists or your typical anchorages. In Chaguaramas you will find an assortment of boat yards and chandleries. My survey was at Peake Yacht Services where I found the staff to be very helpful. This yard is capable of repairs on any type of yacht. If you find yourself in Trinidad make sure you hire Jesse James as your taxi driver. Jesse is a true friend to the cruiser and he and his drivers will take good care of you.http://www.membersonlymaxitaxi.com/about.htm

Peake Yacht Services

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Zen of Daysailing A Dutch Valk and Jolle Segeln

Every once in a while I intersperse all my posts about planing boats, or racing, or boatbuilding with videos of people just enjoying a daysail and a day on the water. The wind is perfect, not too strong, not too light, the sun is out, the water temperatures are good for swimming. Sailing is best done with the feet up and a smile on the face.

The Dutch Valk klasse is similar size and original concept to the U.S.A.s Lightning class though with a squat traditional gunter rig. It appears the Dutch build them in fiberglass for recreational sailing - the PolyValken. (I think they reserve the wood ones for racing.) By the looks of this video, the Valk fits the recreational role superbly. (I like the cross thwart at the aft end of the cockpit allowing the skipper to recline and steer at the same time.)


Zeilen op de Kagerplassen from Muxio on Vimeo.

Jolle segeln is German for dinghy sailing. Here is a daysail in a true classic German dinghy, wood with traditional fittings. (Video settings doesnt allow me to embed.) Im not sure what the class is, maybe a reader can help out.

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May 26 to June 21 Its Been A Long Time with Little Sailing But

Normally the summer time is the busiest blogging time, but after 146 days afloat this calendar year before May 27, this is a decompression time. I do not feel the urgent need to get out on the water every day, not that nothing water related has taken place.

I have gone on two of the Wednesday afternoon sails with the Old Salts, the new name for the revived Old Farts. First on PC Marks "Deuce of Hearts", a catamaran, and then on ILENE.  Mark has been instrumental in reviving this group this year. Four people came the first time and seven the second (me, Mark, Mike, Richie, Dave, Morty and Clara). And the G and Ts are just as good as ever. Both days we were graced with moderate light wind after lunch at the Club. The food at the Club is a bit pricier than last year, and the portions a bit smaller (which is good for our health). The food is simply much better quality and better prepared. On ILENE we cut through the channel behind Stepping Stones Light where there was very light wind and we were near a run, before heading to the Throggs Neck Bridge and back to Hart Island before heading for home. The wind changed direction with the result that we only did one jibe and one tack.

I also had a pleasant afternoon with Ilene, and Bennett and Harriet aboard their Beneteau, "Ohana". She moved nicely in very moderate air. Come to think of it, we have had a lot of very moderate air for June. The four of us had a good dinner at the Club after, trying out our new chef, Ann, who does good things to food.

And I crewed for PC Mark on Deuce of Hearts

with PC Erwin, visiting from Florida, and PC and Ms. Bob and Laura in the Clubs annual Rear Commodores Regatta, which was set up as a pursuit race of slightly less than five miles.
Lene and I had won this race on ILENE back in about 2008, on a pursuit-destination race to New Rochelle with, miraculously, only one jibe. In a pursuit race, the handicaps are computed for the given course in advance and each boat starts at a different time, reducing the collision-inducing madness when several boats want to be at the favored end of the starting line at precisely the same time. So, if everyone sails as projected, all of the boats should arrive at the finish line at the same time. ILENE had the biggest handicap back then and hence started last and passed every other boat in the fleet on the way to the win.
Alas, this year we came in tenth of twelve boats because we made two mistakes. The first was not getting to the starting line until almost a minute after our time. Stuff happens and this has happened to me. The second mistake was using the small jib until the third leg of the triangular course. Deuce of Hearts is set up like ILENE, with a larger headsail set forward of the jib; it has to be furled between tacks. With the smaller headsail we were just too slow. Another great feature of Deuce of Hearts is that the tack of the big headsail is mounted on a track and can be moved to port or starboard  from the cockpit to catch wind without messing up the wind in the main. We were untrained crew and the PCs figured out how to use this neat trick, but too late. I think Deuce of Hearts has a lot of potential to be a fast boat on the race track.

Part of the reason for relatively little sailing was the visit by Lenes niece, Barbie, her son Trevor (who we hung with in Amsterdam last June) and Anna, a 16 year old exchange student from Denmark who lived in Barbies home for the school year. So we had five folks in our apartment and they made it very clear that their jam packed week in NYC did not include sailing. But we did see sailboats  -- at the MOMA -- Seurats pointillist masterpiece.

And there were several days of planning for the Club cruise plus a Club weekend excursion to Sheepshead Bay in August, and Club participation in the July 4th parade up the Hudson with a full wooden replica of "Le Hermione", which brought LaFayette to these shores and participated in winning the battle against the British fleet that was intending to re supply and reinforce General Cornwallis at Yorktown. When deprived of such aid, Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington, thereby ending the military operations of our war of independence.

And four workdays, pickling the water maker, which we will not need this year, cleaning out the refrigerators and the bilge, putting up the new plastic enclosure to the cockpit for measurement for straps to tie it up out of the way in the rolled up position when needed and snaps to mate it with the sides of the dodger. Finally I did work on the solid cherry batten that holds up the ceiling in the salon, to accommodate the new hatch screen enclosure.

And arranging some sail dates, sending back the new stainless steel snubber line hook which was replaced with a smaller one that fits and holds onto the anchor line, reducing the cruising area of our insurance policy to save money and other boating related chores.

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Building the Optimist dinghy frames

Winter is flying by, and we are diving into our three-boats-at-once project. We have spent some time getting to know the CABBS plans. Its helped to have found some pretty nice images of other folks working on their Optimists. Nothing like a picture to make things clearer.

Here is where we would like the project to be the next time we get to work on the Optimists:

Pictured below in red are the frame stations that we are working on in the accompanying video, and how they will support the other members. We have completed the bow frames (1) and attached the bows to the strongback. The bow must be angled back at 22 degrees as can be seen below. The rest of the frames (2 and 3) are perpendicular to the strongback.

If any readers happen to stop by and read this post and watch the accompanying video, feel free to leave a comment about the "real" way to build these prams. My brothers and I have sailed boats and fixed-up wooden boats, but weve never attempted to build any from plans. This has been a fun and challenging experience so far.

You may notice from the video that we have been using scrap lumber. We have a lot of odds and ends of wood lying around, so to save on cost we have used old lumber as much as possible. We need these boats to last about ten years - we will see...

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August 10 to 24 Not Much Sailing

We began by going to a lovely wedding of friends daughter, out on Long Island.

Lene, Lianne, Ellen and Rudy

Then came Lenes successful surgery: laperoscopic removal of the malignancy in her left lung and her return after two nights in the hospital. We were very lucky to have such a good outcome due to an accidental early detection.

There was also a membership meeting at the Harlem YC to discuss our need for an assessment to pay for mistakes of the past such as forgetting to pay the taxes we collected and the need to come up with not just the taxes, but  penalty and interest as well. Self inflicted wounds caused by volunteers who are human and hence fallible. Been one; done that. The more important issue was how to create a mechanism to try to insure against repetitions of such debacles. Creation of a new position: A designated Pain In The Butt Officer who will have a calendar of dates when payments and license renewals, etc. are due and whose sole function will be to bug the other members of the Board and demand to see that the checks (taxes, payroll and insurance) and applications (occupancy, fire safety, etc.) are written.

And a visit to Fran, in Western Connecticut where a smaller boat was involved.

Mendy in the bow; can you see his muscles?

Also, I worked about thirteen hours during three days on many small projects involving electrical, carpentry, plumbing, sanding and varnishing. Ill spare you the details.

And there were three days of sailing though short ones, totaling only about eight hours.

1)  With Bennett, bringing his boat, fresh from the repair of damage caused by a close encounter with a rocky bottom, from Barrons Yard, on the other side of City Island, back to the Club, but with a sail through the channel off Kings Point and to Throggs Neck, about two hours, in light winds and smooth seas. A pleasant day.

2) With the Wednesday afternoon sailing club (formerly and sometimes currently called The Old Farts). This group assembled automatically and organically in prior years but has had a rocky start this season so I organized this outing, the second one this year. While still not a success, we did get nine folks out on two boats for a couple of hours. With me on ILENE were Richie, who no longer owns a boat, Rhoda, and Alfred and Leona. The latter two are older, averaging in their higher 80s,  and while Alfreds ability to steer, learned in German waters before WWII, is unimpaired, his ability to see is not as good and I had to stand close while he was at the wheel to get us back on course. Leona had great difficulty in the transfers between the launch and the boat -- knee problems -- and actually hurt her arm on the way off. Sorry Leona. Both great sports and Alfred will be back. The other vessel was Brian and Angelas "Debut," a Bristol. With them were Morty and Clara. The G&Ts were supplied by Alfred and Leona after two hours of sailing in light winds to the east coast of Mamaroneck Bay and back.

3)  We sailed in the Clubs 60th (or so) running of the Sidney J. Treat Regatta. Lene steered, our nephew, Mendy, did most of the winching and Rhoda and Lloyd helped out as well.  But we are the scratch boat and have to finish far in front of the other boats so our time after PHRF handicap correction, will still have us as the winner. Specifically we were assigned a handicap of 87 compared to the others in our division, which ranged from 123 to 234.  And the upshot is that of the five boats that finished (out of six that entered), we were next to last in actual time and dead last after corrected time.  So I guess I better explain why we lost. These are the reasons, not excuses. The biggest problem is that due entirely to my fault, we were way out of place and did not get to the starting line until about two minutes after the race started. In a race that lasted less than 43 minutes, this is a deadly sin. Another thing was lack of crew training and practice. Mendy is very strong and very willing, but I had not trained him so I had to tell him what to do which slowed things down.  The last reason other than my mistakes was the nature of the wind on race day. In very strong wind I can use ILENEs small jib, which is self tacking, making the tacks and jibes very fast, i.e., we do not lose much speed. But in lighter wind, as on race day, the power of the big Genoa is needed and to tack or jibe with it, one has to furl it, do the maneuver and then let it out on the other side, which in such a short race takes ages. For long distance ocean racing, where a tack of gybe might be needed every few hours or even every few days, the loss of a few minutes per maneuver is no big deal and ILENE can do well. Every boats handicap is computed based on the performance of other boats of the same model in all kinds of races. These results are averaged out. In strong winds ILENE will do well against her handicap but not today.
After the race we took a long loop into Littleneck Bay before returning to the Club to congratulate the winners. ILENE has won Club races but this was not our day. Nevertheless, a good time was had by all.

For a more interesting post than this one, Google: "Sail Pandora" for an account by our friend, Bob, of his sail on a 180 foot luxury yacht out of Newport RI.

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April 6 8 Three Lay Days in St Augustine Zero Miles

Laundry, cleaning and shopping, the usual, except for the shopping which we did by dink to a Publix less than half a mile from a dinghy dock which was about 2.5 miles north of our mooring and on the other side of the shoal infested harbor. We took Lenes i-Navx with us and ended at a boat ramp where Arnis met us with his truck and trailer, took our dink and gave us and our five bags of groceries a ride back to the marina. Two days later he picked us up on the street in front of the marina, drove us back to the boat ramp and launched the dink so we could drive her home to the marina and later to our boat. Hopefully, the gash is history. He said he put a patch on the inside (how the heck is that done) and then a larger one on the outside in addition.

But life is more than chores and repairs. We visited the Villa Zorayda, built by a wealthy Boston man in the 1880s to resemble the Alhambra palace in Grenada Spain, where he had traveled and fallen in love with things Moorish. Of course it is much smaller than the original but its rooms have the same names including a two story central atrium, like Viscaya in Coconut Grove, a harem room with an overhanging window through which inhabitants could look out without being viewed. The house was stuffed with furnishings from throughout Europe and the Middle East, including a "cat rug" in which a mummy was found buried in a pyramid. The house later passed into the hands of a Mr. Mussalem, a respected dealer in antique Oriental rugs and later became a hotel, speakeasy and gambling club. I just loved the floor, composed of square tiles that are each identical but arranged to form two patterns.

I walked to the Lighthouse and back, about four miles round trip. But I could not climb the  219 steps to its light room which was closed for painting. So we were given a guided tour by Don, a retiree who seemed to love his subject. Much of his talk had to do with the work done there and the processes of the preservation of parts of sunken ships, as was done the The Vasa in Stockholm (Blog June 2014) and about a wooden boat building project.

We toured the home that the two lighthouse keeper families and their assistant shared and I thought of the similarities of the US and Scottish lighthouse services. The lighthouse is on Anastasia Island and I checked out the St. Augustine YC, on its eastern side, behind the barrier island, while there.

I visited two historic houses, first the Pena-Peck house, built as a Spanish style open home around a courtyard with shutters but no windows behind them for the Spanish Tax Collector, Senor Pena. After a second story was built in the English style, it became the home and office of Dr. Peck of Whitestone, New York and his family. His decendents lived there until 1931 when the last died childless and the house was given to the city. My docent there was a Ms. Policer,

who had moved back to this area after her husband retired from his work in California. She mentioned that Dr. Peck had lived in the Ximenos-Fatios House, a few blocks away (everything is only a few blocks away in the center of this historic town). I had planned that as my next stop and learned that the house had been one of several boarding houses that competed with hotels in the mid nineteenth century. They were run by women and served nine course dinners as well as multi course lunches and breakfasts. The two names represent the names of the first and last owners during the period that was of interest to the preservationists and in reading the placards I learned that one Menorcan (I would have said Minorcan) woman whose surname was Policer, had married a man who had built or owned this house early in its history. So maybe, my docent at the first house was of Menorcan descent and has roots in St. Augustine that go way back, which she did not mention. Another thing: tourists did not arrive by railroad, car or boat (or airplane); they took a steamer up the St. Johns River past Jacksonville and then by stagecoach, east from that river to St. Augustine.

One attraction that I did not visit was El Galleon, from Spain, which will be here until june and plans to visit Philadelphia next. To get under the Bridge of Lions, she had to trim her spars fore and aft and squeeze through with inches to spare.

Anchor is "catted"

We had two good restaurant meals, the first at Columbia,

which we had visited in 2012, and the second at Collage, a newer place which was one of the few "fine dining" experiences we have treated ourselves to on this trip. Excellent service by well trained, well dressed, efficient, lovely, young ladies and interesting imaginative food. In New York such a dinner would have cost $100 per person; here it was half that. In hindsight the two meals share one thing in common: local spicy smoky red peppers. At Columbia they were stuffed with chorizo and spanish ham and baked under an almond sauce and at Collage they were pureed with carrot in a soup.
And we had a pumpkin/mango pancake breakfast
aboard ILENE with Earl and Kathy of s/v Seeker, friends of Dean and Susan who introduced us to each other in St. Augustine on the way south. One of my favorite feelings is the joy I get when I introduce friend A to friend B and they hit it off. Thanks, Dean.

St Augustine still has several attractions that, even after three extended visits here, we have not seen.
Sunset from our mooring.

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