The new plank

Just in case you wanted to see the almost-finished product.


Still has to be shaped, but this might do the trick.
Of course the weather is about to turn bitter cold so "shaping" could be a euphemism.
Don is bringing an odd-looking contraption on Sunday that looks like a big white hookah but which actually might be able to steam the old thing.

Meanwhile, Jeff Brown is still in the water, waiting for Bruce to haul him out.  Let us hope he does not wait till February like the year before last.  That was sort of disastrous. Paul has already had to replace a pump battery.  Sinking at the dock is NOT an option.

Stay tuned!

Don to the rescue

 My friend Don went to boatbuilding school in Eastport, Maine, but these days prefers to loaf around in Florida in the winter, repairing his own boat, and come up to CT in the summer to help his brother do carpentry and help me extricate myself out of all the maritime messes I seem to get myself into. He also loves to fish and figured that maybe Tallulah could offer him an opportunity that the other boats in my yard could not.  He really wanted to “audition” by way of helping replace this plank, so he could prove to Paul and the waterfront gang that 2 years in Eastport Maine was not just one wild party (if you know Eastport, you will understand that I jest).  But we had a difference of opinion when it came to transferring measurements onto the pattern.  I preferred the white sticky-label method of my new idol Lou Sauzedde, but Don preferred the old compass-and-curve method, which I thought depended too much on guessing where the apex of the curve was, and relying on a measurement that is really taken on an angle instead of straight up and down.  But as Paul said, quoting Willets Ansel, there are a hundred ways to build a boat . . . and all of them are right. 

So first we tried to get all the black goo and 5200 out from all the crevices (I’d done most of it but Don was being a madman).   

 

Then we resined up all the ribs, one of which was cracked.  (I used office clips to glue back some of the planks that had gotten knocked off when we removed the old one) Oh well!  Moving along . . . .

Then we mixed up my favorite red filler, which holds Jeff Brown together, along with some silica powder, and put it in some of the rotted bits.

Don brought some very thin plywood and we cut that to match up with the plank hole as best as we could, and glued the pieces together.

 

Then we laid out the sucker on the piece of cedar that Paul gave us, which Don had planed down (he’s a handy lad). You can see Peanut in the background, which got winterized today (and started up! )

Then Don got out his spiling-compass and made the marks from the bottom and top edge of the adjacent planks.  We used a long piece of thin crown moulding for the batten to draw the curve.

 

I have forgotten to take a photo of the cut plank, which is now sitting on the boat in the rain and wind, “acclimating,” and waiting for next week when we smooth it down, steam it up a bit, and fasten it to .  That oughtta be a laugh riot.

But wait! There’s more! Introducing Jeff’s new friend, Tallulah

 I had thought we’d be all done (pretty much) last week when Jeff’s rig came out (and I got a black eye fighting with the boom) but Paul took one of his trips to Maine and came back with a little tender that he actually didn’t want—he was going up to look at a different dinghy which, in his words, was “a real sexpot,” but apparently in need of lots of work.  Now, I have never thought of tiny rowboats as sexpots but that is because I am not one of the maritime elite.  The owner of said sexpot apparently did not want to part with it, but instead led Paul over to another part of his yard where this pretty thing had been waiting for about 5 years for someone to come along and rescue it.

And so, as many boats do, it ended up in my yard.   

 

The man who owned her had us take a photo of the name, which Rhonda and her designer at Boat Lettering to You replicated so that I can buy a vinyl stick-on if I need to, instead of trying to paint it.  At first we thought it could be the dinghy for Jeff Brown but jeezum it’s more that half his size (13’).  Then Paul thought it could be the tender for Peanut, whom you have not met here but which I should probably include here just so you can see the other boat in my yard.

Peanut, whose name we all hate but can’t think of a better one, was built in Noank in 1913 by a guy named Smith and was used as a launch to take the hoi polloi out to their yachts.  It was being offered to the Historical Society and Paul and Bruce went to fetch it from Wethersfield (a town not exactly known for its waterfront) and bring it back home.  We’ve found a slip for it next year, but still, someone has to claim it.  It has a cute little 1-stroke engine in it that has a bit of a compression problem . . . but we won’t go into that now.  So then Paul thought that Tallulah would be a great dinghy for Peanut because its slip will not really be very accessible from land unless you leap over Dave’s boat, and while Dave is a very nice guy and is coughing up the slip, I don’t think he wants much traipsing back and forth across his gleaming white fiberglass and teak decks.

 

So as you can see, Tallulah is very cute indeed; she was built in the early 1930’s and did a bit of hoi-polloi transport herself. 

But time and tide wreak havoc on one’s bones, and poor T needed to swell up to see if she needed any plank replacing.

You will recall I am an absolute doofus when it comes to this stuff.

Paul apparently is unfazed by my continued ineptitude.

But we also have Don, who actually went to wooden boat school in Eastport, Maine (thank the gods) and he looked Miss Bankhead over and we both decided that one plank was so nasty that it had to come out.

 

But first we had to swell her up a bit so I watered her twice a day; Paul put some felt in the bottom and miracles occurred.

Sadly, the offending plank didn’t get any better, plus it was split,  so Don and I took it out—it was all mushy at the stern (which is not too wonderful anyway).

Since I was still a plank-replacing greenhorn I started watching this fabulous guy on YouTube, Master Shipwright Louis Sauzedde, who has this 8 or 10  part series on repairing one of my favorite boats—the Herreshoff 12 ½--remember me drooling about it a few posts ago?  Paul snorted coffee out his nose when I told him this—apparently they wouldn’t be too good around here—they’re designed for lakes or calm water.  But I digress.

Anyway, I am in love with Master Shipwright Louis Sauzedde, because he is so damn cute, and because I actually understand what he is doing. He teaches us how to make a pattern from plywood and then with some sticky white labels and a black marker how to transfer it perfectly onto our wood, which in our case is a big old cedar plank 13’ long that Paul found somewhere.  I don’t ask anymore.  I just marvel. 

Don is going to plane it down, and also has some ideas about how to transfer the pattern but I really like this method.

We’ll see.

So Sunday I started scraping and sanding the bottom just to get all the crud out of the way, and boy was there a lot of it.  Whoever had this boat before us did not scrimp on the 5200.

Here is a view of one side done, one side not. Note Peanut in the background, behind my laundry.

Because it’s been so dry lately, and because Talulah has been upside down for a few weeks, there are some enormous gaps between the planks which really have me scared.  Our new plank will fit well but what are we going to do with these arroyos between the others, especially between the garboard planks and the keel?

 

Jeff, I take back everything I ever said about your bottom.

Stay tuned—this weekend should be plank replacement day. At least one section will be tight, as we sink to the bottom.

Time to go . . .

Jeff's waiting at Bruce's boatyard a bit before he gets hauled out for the winter. I guess your bottom is better in than out, once you get this old. :)  Another season comes to a close.  Next year I think I will pay lots more attention to the deck, and the scuppers, which are pretty lumpy.  Where did I put my heat gun?
Also, this will be the 3rd year of topside paint, and according to Paul, the 3rd year is when the finish starts to really look nice.
Also, I think we're going to have new travelers.
Can the old thing get much cuter???
Stay tuned!

Jeff enters the Wooden Boat Race--it's a nail-biter!

Actually, I kid.
It was rather sad, especially since these AMAZING wooden boats all converged at the behest of a guy who's this boat-racing and restoration god, and were supposed to race Saturday but it was supposed to blow 30mph so it was postponed till Sunday which was as flat a calm as I have ever seen.

I was not on Jeff Brown, since I had to work at a running race in the morning, but I flew back, scrambling from point to point on the shore, borrowing binoculars and marveling with a few other spectators that the big "Class A" boats had to do this monster loop in no wind at all . . . fortunately there were many "rescue"boats standing by, including my uncle's dragger, to tow 'em all in, poor dears, except for the one or two that had motors. 

But it was a lovely sight.  My new friend Guy, who has forgotten more about sailing than most people learn in a lifetime, took all these photos.  I wish I could identify the boats but they included  some new York 30s, a Stuart Knockabout (oh my god what a lovely boat), some watch Hill 15s, 3 (count 'em) Rozinantes, a cutter, a Fish, a Marlin, a Crowninshield, and a bunch more.
 And of course a Smackee.
Here he is, leaving the cutter in the dust. Look at that roaring wind, willya?

Do you know who was aboard?  I will tell you who--an Olympic sailor (Barcelona) and Don Street, the guy who wrote the definitive book about sailing in the Bahamas.  Plus Charlie, who's like Guy.
I am surrounded by  talent here.  Why oh why won't any of it rub off on me???

Here they are earlier, with a bit of a breeze.  That was about as wild as it got.

I am praying that this is held again next year.  Jeff and I will be ready.  I have GOT to see more of those boats close up.  Paul was skipper of the Crowninshield, called The Kid.  The Knockabout was a famous boat called Ben My Chree, which I think means "My dear heart" in Gaelic; anyway it has had tons of documentaries done on it because it is such a fabulous restoration.

So now unfortunately I have a new favorite boat, based on all the prettiness I saw Sunday. It's a Herreshoff 12 1/2 fiberglass hull, gaff rig.  Sigh.

The three smacks go for a stroll . . .

. . . in the Wooden Boat Parade down the Mystic River at the end of July.

Here's Jeff Brown behind Winsome--both have to be tied to launches because they don't have motors.

 

And here's dear Emma C. Berry looking like she really wants to go for a sail.  She's coming back up the river in this photo, which was taken from Sixpenny Island--best seat in the house.

Finally . . . the first sail of the season

. . . although I found out that Paul had taken JB out last Thursday, the sly dog.  And now that Dane has gone with us, he'll also probably be borrowing.  I cannot borrow alone.  I am a doofus.
I wouldn't get out of the anchorage without causing a million dollars in damage to everything around me.
To remedy this, someone dropped off a small, indestructible boat in my yard about 3 weeks ago.

Which I can practice on.  I cleaned it up a bit. It is a Galilee 15, built in 1983 by a company in MD that no longer exists.  But I have the owners manual and it says they can never sink.  Which is key, when you are me.

In the meantime, here is Jeff on a very hot Sunday (yesterday), "racing" against Winsome (which has a centerboard so we were kind of dusted).


 but that didn't last long because soon there was no wind at all and I was asked to whistle a few show tunes (apparently that calls the wind); Don told me you should drop coins into the water to buy a bit of wind but I didn't know that at the time. Plus, I don't think the wind was selling yesterday.

This is Fishers Island and North Dumpling island on the right, looking, as always from this angle, like a battleship, even in the haze.
 
 Dane did a nice job on the bowsprit. Which I was out on the end of, clinging to, as we came in, looking for rocks since we were going so slow and couldn't maneuver very well.  At least I was useful.  Clinging, watching, whistling, wanting another day when just me and Paul would go out so I could humiliate myself in private.  Except for everyone with binoculars on shore.  That's why Winsome came out--they saw us and got shamed into it. :)
 

Jeff Brown's debut at the Wooden Boat Show

Gosh, I almost forgot to post these.  Last weekend was great--perfect weather, big crowds at the Seaport, and Jeff moved to his rightful place beside the Emma C. Berry for all to admire.

Jake the caulking god just happened to be rowing by in a "crimping" boat with his mom, invited me to hop on and take some up-close photos (which is how I got the one above).

Then we went on a little tour andI took some more from different angles

Jeff and Emma had many admirers, although I have to admit that the amount of gleaming varnish, perfectly-faired hulls and blinding brass on the other boats there drew some of the attention away . . . but they were mere flashes in the pan compared with these two dignified smacks.  Unfortunately Winsome was not able to attend, but she's now in the water so we'll see her zipping around the Sound shortly.
When will the sails go on, you ask?
Je ne sais pas, but I'm hoping soon.

Happy 4th of July to all the boats in the harbor!

JB goes upriver

Wow, what a pretty day today.  Paul and I took Jeff up the Mystic River to the Seaport, where hopefully he will be sitting beside the Emma C. Berry tomorrow in "Smack Alley."


So we get underway and slither out of the harbor . . . 


First stop: the Stonington train bridge, which always reminds me of the Gulag.  Paul was impressed by my ability to whistle (3 times) for the bridge to open (we'd forgotten the air horn).  This is a very cool bridge, which rotates around on its axis so it is parallel with the river and there are two "lanes" to pass through for those coming and those going.


Then on to the Bascule Bridge in Mystic, where we twirled around a bit waiting for it to open (at 20 minutes to the hour).



Here comes the Seaport.  The amount of gleaming brass and perfect varnish lining the piers was making me a little woozy.
 
I have to say, this was thrilling me to death.  I don't get up the river much, and never on an old smack being pushed by a skiff.

So we anchored Jeff on "the flats" right off of the main area (the show had started today, which I didn't know) and presumably the staff will move him to his rightful spot by Emma this evening.  Said Paul, on our way back, "At least it's in shallow enough water so if the pumps fail it doesn't have too far down to go."  Ever the optomist.


JB looks right at home!

On the mooring . . .

. . . and ready to go to the Wooden Boat Show tomorrow and have a side-to-side confab with Emma C. Berry. 

Although I'm a little nauseous . . . I've seen the photos of those boats that are going on display and there is not one grain of wood or particle of brass out of place on those things. 



Here's our current neighbor at the mooring.  Kind of a monster . . .


And here's a kayak view of old Emma at the Town Dock, the day before she went back to the Seaport.

Paul tells me that visitors will like seeing what a "real working boat" is like. I just hope Jeff is not too embarrassed by my efforts this year.  But he'll be far enough away so the "10 foot paint job" might fool some of the people most of the time . . .

If you can't join the party from the mooring . . .

. . . watch it from the shore, that's what Jeff Brown will be doing.  Bruce (my new idol) got this idea yesterday, since he feared a quick descent to the bottom-o-the-cove if we just threw Jeff in the water and dragged him out to the mooring.  He has to sit in the straps for a few days, for the electric pumps to do their work.  He normally has three solar pumps  but Bruce made that sort of waterfront-skeptical face that I am learning to recognize in these old maritime types, and I trusted his judgment.  Was just abut to give up when he shows up at the house and outlines his plan: why not bring it down to the town dock, where there is going to be a celebration for Emma C. Berry's big 150th-birthday weekend--and the 50th anniversary of the Historical Society, and the two old things could attend the party together.
So that's what we did.

Here's Emma all refurbished and coming down the Mystic river to Noank, ready to go through the bridge.  Louisa Watrous took this great photo.


Louisa was also standing on the original railway where Emma was launched when she took this photo.
 

And from the sublime to the fairly-ingenious: here's Jeff getting towed down to the Town Dock:

and here's Bruce sliding Jeff into his temporary party spot (the sunbathers were mildly amused.  You can see the Argia going by in the background.)
















 
Party time! Emma C. Berry is to the left.  And the weather is perfect-- they're both ready for their close-ups.

I just hope Paul doesn't have a cow.  We couldn't find him to ask if this was okay, but I've got oatmeal cookies ready, to soften the surprise. Paul was on the crew of the Berry when she was sailed from New Jersey to the Seaport after she was donated in 1969.  This is a very big day, and I'm so glad Jeffie gets to be part of it.

Tick-tick-tick-tick . . . .

3 more days till the 50^th anniversary celebration of the Noank Historical Society . . . and the arrival in Noank of the Emma C Berry, who’s 150 this year . . . and Jeff is supposed to be in the water, right out on the mooring for all to see . . . and Bruce has not showed up yet!  Paul says don’t push him, since he does everything for free, which is incredibly nice (I have no idea what storage, launching, trailering and hauling fees are but I suspect I could not afford them), but the man has got to shake a tailfeather.  We won’t be able to get the rig on in that amount of time (ie, a day).  Geez, it’d be nice if he got it in in time for the wooden boat show.  Oy!  I suspect it’s time to deliver another pie.  Worked the last time.

The Memorial Day Parade was cancelled due to rain so the anniversary and boat show are JB’s only chances to vogue in front of a mesmerized crowd.

Jeff’s all painted and ready to go but I wanted to include this photo of the seam compound—seems that roofing tar was the material du jour after all. And, I might add, it is not leaking like it did last year when we put a garden hose in the bilge.  Just a trickle.  Amazing!!!

 

Dane finished all the varnishing last week and both the mast and bowsprit look swell.

 

 The white paint on the tip of the bowsprit  is a new addition this year--it used to be old nasty weathered black (I didn't do anything with it last year), and the jury is still out regarding the white--we may go back to black--but I think it's kinda spiffy. A white tip for the mast, however, was soundly vetoed.

 

Look at that mast--it's positively gleaming!!!

I should take more photos, but you’ve pretty much seen what the deck and topsides look like all done, and I feel like a mom at her 5-year-old’s school play, so I’ll wait to take more when he’s being admired by his public (or being transported to the Seaport).