Spring 2023
Number 38
WILLIAM H. ALBURY circa 2019
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MICHAEL RUTSTEIN
Spring Lines What have I learned from sailing? A lot! And although I sometimes struggle to retain these lessons, and have to relearn them occasionally, I decided to write some of them down. A new sailing season is beginning here in New England, and we can always hope to do better this time around... so here goes! Do the recommended maintenance. Don’t burn the locals. Reef the minute you consider reefing. Never put the schedule ahead of safety. Check the forecast. Check the radar. Pay everyone promptly, and be generous whenever possible. Treat every guest like they’re going to write a review. When a refund is in order, give it quickly and cheerfully. Don’t cut corners. Talk less and ask more questions. Be proactive in avoiding collisions, no matter how badly the other boat is being handled. Corollary — Don’t handle your boat badly. Every now and then, look in the bilges. Don’t employ people unless you can treat them with respect and courtesy. Don’t play favorites. Be on time — that way you’re not in a hurry. Captain, crew, or counselor, people look up to you. Behave accordingly. The less you swear, the more impactful it is when you do. And lastly — don’t give advice if you’re not willing to follow it yourself :)
MARLINSPIKE MAGAZINE Spring 2023 • Number 38 Michael Rutstein, Publisher Marlinspike is published quarterly for $29 by Pennant Publications, Inc., 98 Washington Square #1 Salem, MA 01970 Cover Photo: Gabrielle Manni Postmaster: send address changes to Marlinspike 98 Washington Square #1, Salem, MA 01970 Copyright 2023 by Pennant Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Fair Winds,
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Michael Rutstein, Publisher
4 b Sea of Dreams
30 b All Hands On Deck
An ApprenticeShop-type program in the Abacos?
Will Sofrin revisits the final voyage of ‘HMS’ Rose
12 b Song of the Lakes Traverse Tall Ship Co. is under new management
16 b A Prickly Path BMC’s Porcupine project is getting back on track
20 b Things that go BUMP Our readers share tales of trespassers on board
34 b Boats, Bars & Beaches 40 b Boatyards 44 b Name That Boat 46 b Show Us Your Spike 47 b Show Us Your Tattoo
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Sea of Dreams Down in the Abacos, there are fond hopes of restoring the WILLIAM ALBURY and building an ApprenticeShop-type program around her
After being sunk by Hurricane Dorian, the schooner is afloat in her home port of Man o’ War Cay, once a center of Bahamian boatbuilding PHOTO: GABRIELLE MANNI
One beautiful morning this past winter, Marlinspike publisher Mike Rutstein sat down on Scott Weatherford’s porch overlooking Eastern Harbor on Man o’ War Cay with Scott, Jay Manni, Gabrielle Manni and Matt Sutphin. The topic was the mastless, gutted schooner William H. Albury, built just up the harbor. A light northerly breeze nudged the schooner around on her mooring, 50 yards away. Marlinspike: I was on the boat yesterday, and she’s in rough shape. It’s gonna take a lot of work to get her back to where you want her to be. Why is this boat worth saving? What’s important about her? Scott Weatherford: I guess it’s an emotional thing with me. The original builder, William Albury, was my adopted daddy, and I worked on her to some degree, in the early stages.
a little bit of small-boat jazz, trying to get kids involved with sailing. Gabrielle was involved with that. I’m nearing the end of my time, but I’ve still got some energy and little bit of life left. I hope that I could pass some of this on and teach our kids, and Giovanni’s interested in this. Couple of the other younger people have shown some interest in. I want to keep it up. I’d like to see a bunch of young people get involved and I want somebody to take it over. I just want to get it going and encourage others to do it. Jay: The Boy Scouts have been doing a program — Sea Base — here for 25 years now. The Albury was the original flagship for the Boy Scouts for a good many years. The Boy Scouts always had spring and summer programs here. I don’t know how much longer that’s going to last. Scott: Joe Maggio started the program here, and then they just kept on getting more boats. Originally it was all traditional, wood boats, sailboats.
MS: When was that? Scott: 1961, ‘62. I loved that schooner, loved it! Sailed it, and enjoyed always being involved with it. MS: She has beautiful lines even now.
MS: Tell me about the history of the William H. Albury. Scott: The boat was built in the William Albury shipyard for Fred Whittier…
Scott: She’s a pretty boat. I hated to see it go down, you know. When the former owner, Joe Maggio, decided to get out of the charter business, we tried to buy it then, but it was way too much money. But I had a goal, a vision. I saw the wood boatbuilding [industry on Man o’ War Cay] disappearing fast, and I wanted to keep that heritage alive. I’ve been involved with sailing for a lot of years, I was very passionate about it in the past, but since [Hurricane] Dorian [in 2019], I’ve kind of lost my passion, I guess. I would’ve got rid of it. I was advised by a lot of people just to get rid of it. But Jay and a couple other people encouraged me. “Let’s see what we can do.” Well, we made a good start, we were starting to get it ready, and then COVID came along, and that’s where we stopped. MS: Jay, why did you talk him out of getting rid of the boat? What’s important about the boat to you? Jay Manni: Just the heritage of Man o’ War boatbuilding. Personally, I got on the William H. in 1976 and sailed from the US back to Man o’ War. MS: What’s the vision for this boat? If you were able to restore it, what would you use it for? Scott: My goal is to have it not just as a showboat, but to represent our heritage and use it for day sailing and to try to get our younger people involved with sailing again. Sailing has totally disappeared from the islands. Totally! We’ve done
Jay: You just featured one of Fred’s boats on your Facebook page! In the “Name that Boat” feature. Fred Whittier’s Lazy Jack is still taking guests out in Maine. Fred built that boat in 1947 in his own yard, which was in Ipswich, Massachusetts. The Whittier and Low Boatyard. Scott: Fred was well known here in the islands. He contracted with William Albury to build a schooner here. And he worked right along with them, in the lofting process. MS: What was the boat to be used for? Scott: Well, with Lazy Jack, he used to do some chartering out of Nassau. Then he married a lady from Marsh Harbor, but they liked Abaco, so they stayed up here. After he built the Albury, I don’t know that he did any chartering… the first name of the boat was not William H. Albury, by the way, it was Esperanto. Anyway, I don’t know when, but Fred sold it to a group of people who renamed it the Grand Turk. They took it down to the Turks and Caicos and did charters. Then they wound up bringing it back to Florida. It sat for a year or two, if I remember right. And then Joe bought the boat… Jay: Bill Payne might have been the guy that bought the boat from Fred Whittier. Scott: And Joe Maggio renamed the boat and brought it over here and had it refitted. He did a lot of work on it in
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