Marlinspike #8

Fall 2015

Number 8

COLUMBIA rocks Gloucester

Spirit of Bermuda Gazela, Wavertree, Constitution On the Hard

San Salvador Launch

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It’s doable

MICHAEL RUTSTEIN

One thing that has struck me this summer as I chat with folks on the schooner, or at festivals and receptions and other rum-drink ops, is that there are a lot of people out there who want to see this magazine succeed.

They also seem to be worried that it won’t.

I believe that Marlinspike is an eminently sustainable enterprise, and that it will succeed, provided we can accomplish a couple of things over the next 18 months.

Number one, we need to continue to grow our subscriber base. To do this, we need to get the word out about the magazine. You can help us do this by liking our facebook posts, retweeting our tweets, and passing along this magazine when you’re done reading it.

Number two, we are going to need to cut back our discounted circulation. As much as we value our relationship with Tall Ships America, for example, we cannot afford to continue to offer discounted subscriptions to their members. Next year that program will be phased out, and we really need those Tall Ships members to become full-price subscribers. Hey, $25 a year is not going to break anyone. It’s the price of a case of beer! You can help by making sure you and your sailing friends are paid subscribers.

Number three, we need to continue to grow our advertising base. A lot of folks in this industry feel they can’t possibly afford to advertise — and then they complain about the difficulty of getting the word out about their programs, events, and job postings. Marlinspike can help with that. Our rates are very reasonable. We need folks in this industry to start thinking of us as a way to reach their peers, potential visitors and participants, and future hires. You can help by advertising.

None of this sounds like rocket science, does it? I think it’s doable, and with your help, we will do it.

MARLINSPIKE MAGAZINE FALL 2015 • NUMBER 8

Michael Rutstein, Editor & Publisher Cover Photo: Marlinspike Staff

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Fair Winds,

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Michael Rutstein, Publisher

4 b COLUMBIA

10 b Opening Up GAZELA

An interview with Columbia II skipper Karl Joyner

18 b SAN SALVADOR Gets Wet

A look at three ongoing haulouts on the East Coast

20 b Voyage of Discovery

An interview with SDMM Director Dr. Ray Ashley Mayflower II has a lot of work to do for 2020

28 b 30 b 33 b 34 b 40 b 44 b 46 b 47 b

Boatyards Calendar Sailing Opportunities Boats, Bars & Beaches Tools of the Trade Job Listings Show Us Yours Crane Stookey

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COLU Built in steel by Eastern Shipbuilding, this full-scale replica of the famous Starling Burgess schooner COLUMBIA took the East Coast by storm this year. She cruised the entire seaboard from Florida to Nova Scotia, stopping traffic wherever she appeared, sailing with BLUENOSE and ADVENTURE, and blowing away the competition at the Gloucester Schooner Festival

MBIA

M. RUTSTEIN

Brian D’Isernia of Eastern Shipbuilding has spent the summer cruising aboard his new steel Columbia and appearing at a number of events and festivals. After visiting Sable Island to perform a memorial service for the original Columbia and her crew, which were lost in the August gales of 1927, Columbia sailed to Gloucester, the original Columbia’s home port. She competed in the Esperanto Cup race at the Gloucester Schooner Festival, winning handily. Marlinspike spoke to Captain Karl Joyner of Columbia during the festival weekend.

Marlinspike: You’ve got to tell us — how did you land this gig?

Karl Joyner: Word of mouth, like most of the gigs I’ve got in my life. A friend of mine, Neil Harvey, works for Harken who did the winch package on the boat. He called me up and said, “You’ve got to see this schooner they’re building in Panama City,” and gave me [Columbia Project Manager] Jake Stevens’ contact info. I talked to Jake on the phone and sent my resume to them and eventually drove up to Panama City to meet with Jake and Brian. I guess they liked what they saw.

I brought my wife. We work together on boats; that helped a lot. There’s a good presence there with me and my wife on board that makes it more like a home, more like a team that’s taking care of the boat and not just myself. My wife, MarlinspikeMagazine.com

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Ruth Joyner, is in charge of the interior and I’m in charge of everything else.

MS: It must be nice to be on a new boat, from her construction, through her sea trials, and her launch. You don’t have to live with other people’s mistakes.

KJ: Yes, that’s a nice aspect of it. This is the first brand-new vessel I’ve ever worked on, that I didn’t take over from someone else. And she’s had her teething problems, but you get to see those things and you know where you’ve had issues, you get those repaired and you get a real good feel for the boat.

The other thing is it’s a brand-new boat and now you have it! It’s a big responsibility. When I leave the boat in five or six years or whatever, if it’s not in great shape, they’ll know who to blame! It’s a double-edged sword in that respect.

But it’s been enjoyable. It’s been great, and I just can’t express enough how good a job Eastern did. Having never built a sailing yacht — or any sailing vessel — previously, they really knocked it out of the park despite this being their first effort.

MS: Were you surprised by anything, once you got the boat into the water and progressed to sea trials?

KJ: I was a little bit surprised at the complexity of the vessel, but seeing that it’s a commercial yard, I can see where that came from. They installed a lot of systems that you might not normally see on boats, such as impressed current cathodic protection; a company called Cathelco did that. They also have MGSP — Marine Growth Protection System — which uses iron and copper rods in the sea chest to slough off electrons to stop marine growth inside the pipework while the machinery is running.

I’ve worked on big yachts before that were complex in their way, mostly with fancy stuff like lifting hatches in the deck and stuff like that. This is more functional, stuff that can really make the boat faster. With the impressed current, you don’t have to put zincs on the hull, so you’ve got a much slicker hull.

The other thing that has been impressive is the liveliness of Columbia, being as big as she is, a steel vessel — she’s very lively. Eight knots of breeze, we can go five knots. Ten knots of breeze we can go eight. Fourteen knots of breeze, we can do ten.

MS: You can set a lot of sail on that boat.

KJ: Oh, yeah. 10,220 square feet with the four lowers and four uppers all set. That’s the real surprise of it, how lively and how maneuverable she is. The boat’s very maneuverable. She tacks well. We roll through tacks in about two minutes.

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MS: How close does she sail to the wind?

KJ: Well, it depends what you want to do. She can point up to about 45 pretty effectively. In a 14-knot breeze, if you point up 45 degrees, you’re doing eight and a half knots. If you bring it down to 50 or 60 degrees, you’re doing ten.

I know this race coming up [The Gloucester Schooner Festival’s Esperanto Cup] is a reach-and-reach course, so if we’re at a 60-degree angle, that’s right in our wheelhouse.

And that’s where she really shines. You can really feel it, you can feel that difference when you lay back off to 65…

I’d say 50 to 70. When you get out beyond 70, the wind is almost too far aft, unless it’s really blowing. You got 30 knots or something, then it’s really going, but when the wind is light, 15 or less, between 50 and 70 she sails real nice.

MS: Watching you sail in the other day, I was impressed by the ease with which you struck those enormous topsails, and the fact that you did it with just a couple of crewmembers.

KJ: It’s fairly traditional; we can give a lot of credit to Ben Pine, who originally came up with a system for having two tacks on the fore top, so you don’t have to deal with having a foretopman who has to reset the tack on the sail, and the two sheets up there, we’ve got brailing lines on both topsails so we can leave the halyard up, brail the sails, which pulls the tacks right up. When we’re dousing, we do that on the fore for a tack; on the main obviously we just leave it for tacks. But on the fore you brail it up, ease the tack, come through the eye of the wind, let the wind take that sail past the rigging, ease the brail, pull the tack back down, sheet back out and you’re off and going again.

A lot of times, depending on the conditions, we can tack the foretop without sending someone aloft. That’s the way it’s rigged.

The crew — most of my crew is 30 or younger, with the exception of myself. I’m 48, and my wife is just behind me, I won’t say precisely how old, because that’s not nice.

Old schooner sailors might say they wouldn’t sail this vessel with fewer than 12. Well, if you’re doing it perfectly, you might not, But the thing with my crew is they’re all very young, they’re all very eager, they love the vessel, and no one has told them they can’t do it. So they just do it. They don’t realize we’re not supposed to be doing this with just eight people.

A lot of people point to the winches and say ah, you’ve got these winches. But the winches get the sails up. Once they’re up, the winches don’t do anything to get them down. They do help you get all that weight aloft, but once the sails are set and it starts blowing 15, 18, 20, 22, decision time comes. “All right, we’ve got to get this main down or get a reef in.” The winches don’t do anything for you.

That’s all crew work. You might lead the reef line to the

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EASTERN SHIPBUILDING

Above, the new COLUMBIA is launched last August 23.

Right, COLUMBIA’s return to Gloucester on September 3 of this year.

At bottom, the original COLUMBIA in 1923, the year she was launched from the Essex yard of A. D. Story. She was lost with all hands off Sable Island in August of 1927.

M. RUTSTEIN

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“All the boats that came out to watch [at Lunenburg], the power boats, they couldn’t keep up. We left them all behind us.”

— Capt. Karl Joyner

winch but that’s about it. The rest of it is all manpower.

And they do really well. I have a cook, a stewardess, and now there’s six of us. I’m driving. Someone else is on bow watch, because you can’t see over the bow real well when you’re sailing in close quarters. So now we’re down to four people who are doing most of the work on deck. Once it’s up, tacking and all that, and we can do real well with the eight crew we have. It’s just a real good bunch. Hats off to my crew — we didn’t have to go out searching for them.

A lot of them were hired word-of-mouth, like I was.

MS: You’ll never need to run an ad to get a crew for this boat.

KJ: That’s right, and that was another surprise, the number of people who wanted to volunteer on Columbia.

But we’re not that kind of program — we’re a private yacht.

We’re out right now for the enjoyment of the owner.

Maybe we’ll do a charter later; maybe someone will buy the second boat and run a program with her. But this right now is strictly for the enjoyment of Brian D’Isernia and his family.

MS: What can you tell us about the second hull?

KJ: The five modules have constructed, but they’re still in the yard at Eastern, they haven’t been assembled yet.

We’re hoping to find someone who wants to take that project on, so that we can build that boat to the specifications of her owner. We’d like them to be able to build it to their specifications rather than build another boat on spec and hope that somebody likes it. Plus it’s a big outlay to build something like that and hope that someone buys it. As Brian says, “We don’t need two!”

So we need someone to step up, a private buyer or a foundation, and take on that project and make it their own.

It could be a completely different vessel. The hull shape, the fairness of it, the beauty of the hull form would be the same. But it doesn’t need to be all high varnish and high-polished stainless and all that; it could be something a little more like Adventure. The thing that boat could really bring to the table for a program or educational foundation is the lack of maintenance that kills a lot of these programs with wood hulls, or older boats. It just eats up money.

I know a lot of people are traditionalists, they love wooden boats, I love them myself. I worked on a hundredfoot Alden sloop, Summerwind, that was completely recon8

structed. Wooden boat, original 1929 boat. That was great and it was beautiful and I loved it! But at the end of the day, if we’re going to keep these things alive, the wood has to keep being rebuilt. Steel will last for quite a while and that will keep people on these boats, keep them sailing traditional vessels, at least as far as the rigging and the sailing of these boats goes, if not all the woodwork and caulking that goes along with a wooden hull. It’s important to at least have the sailing aspect of the boats kept alive by something that’s a little more cost-effective than a wooden vessel, especially if you’re building new.

MS: You sailed all the way from Panama City, Florida to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia this summer. What sticks out to you as the highlights of this season?

KJ: Sailing up to Washington DC — that sticks out, taking Columbia all the way up the Potomac to Washington DC through the Woodrow Wilson Bridge there.

It’s shallow, it’s narrow, and that Woodrow Wilson Bridge is the last bridge, then it’s less than a mile past that to Gangplank Marina. But the Woodrow Wilson Bridge only opens between midnight and 4 am. So you drive all the way up there, and it’s an all-day sucker all the way up the Potomac. You get to the bridge at midnight and you go through, but the high tide we needed to get over the bar and into the marina was at 8 am.

MS: Backing and filling for eight hours.

KJ: Yeah, so now we’re trapped in there between the bridge and the bar. You can’t really anchor, you got the wind against tide. Some people might have anchored and let the boat override the anchor, but with the finish on that boat we can’t do things you might do in a boat that wasn’t finished to that standard. So that really sticks out.

But some of the great sailing… sailing into Lunenburg was definitely one of the highlights of the summer. Just amazing, the whole situation!

We get there, it’s foggy, there’s not much breeze and not much happening. I’m talking to Jake on the phone, he’s on a boat coming out, telling me “The sun is shining here!” but we can’t see it. We’re in a thick fog bank, we can’t see half a mile, but he’s telling me “Don’t worry, you’ll break through!”

Then the breeze starts to blow a bit. It’s blowing about eight and we’re thinking, that’s weak. It’s not going to look

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EASTERN SHIPBUILDING

The new COLUMBIA sailing with BLUENOSE II off the coast of Nova Scotia good. But we start setting sail and then it starts blowing about ten and then as we get closer in it blows about 12… and it must have been great for the people on shore to see Columbia come charging out of the fog with the breeze building from 12 to 14 and almost 16 and we’re doing eleven and half knots! Reaching past the Ovens and up into the harbor.

All the boats that came out to watch, the power boats, they couldn’t keep up. We just left everyone behind us.

People shooting off cannon. Then we got the sails furled and headed into the harbor with them shooting off cannon again and giving us three cheers and it was just the greatest welcome I’ve had anywhere I’ve ever been.

MS: Tell us about your trip to Sable Island, where the original Columbia was lost with all hands in 1927.

KJ: I told the crew, we came out to do a memorial, but Sable Island gave us some memories as well of what it must have been like for those old guys. Luckily we have a motor and all that, and sometimes we have to use it to stay on schedule. So we motored out to Sable Island into a head sea because it was blowing straight out of the east. It was blowing about 20 to start and then it built to 25, 28, 30, 32, and luckily we got out a little ahead of it so that the seas didn’t really have a chance to build. We were able to get within about 30 miles of the western tip of the island. We got close enough where we felt “We don’t need to beat the

boat up any more, we’re here.” And it was blowing 30, raining.

I’ve got a video of the memorial service that was shot from the companionway looking out over the transom and you can see me, I’m standing on the quarter bit, braced with my legs on either side of the quarter bit, and I’m reading the service and you can see on the video I almost stumbled in, trying to read and stay upright. You can see the horizon, how much the boat is moving around. We really weren’t making way at that point.

It was a bit emotional, doing that memorial for those guys, and thinking that this was their daily life! It was 88 years to the day. They’re out there in a wooden hull, no engine, without any of the niceties that we have. I thought it was really good for the crew to experience that, because sometimes we think we have it tough! And then you realize what these guys had to go through, what they had to live with, day-in and day-out. Three months without any time off, any sleep, two sets of clothes for three months, no showers, no hot water, no air conditioning, no Direct TV, no SatCom. It makes you humble. It makes you realize how good we have it and how really difficult it was for those fishermen back in the day to make a living and bring a little something back to their families.

The weather out there was pretty incredible. It was 30 knots and we saw 40 at times, our own little mini-gale. It was really something. b

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Opening Up Gazela On the Philly waterfront, GAZELA is getting a long-awaited exam Text and photos by Gerhardus van Wilgen

Picture 1.

In her quest for eternal life, the barkentine Gazela, the City of Philadelphia’s official tall ship, had to leave the water this summer for non-invasive “exploratory surgery.” Think of it as a colonoscopy; the crew wanted to take a look inside in order to prepare for a more thorough overhaul in 2020.

Marlinspike went on a field trip to visit Gazela at Rhoads Industries’ Dry Dock No. 2 in the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

As expected, she was resting at the bottom of the dry dock, looking just as uncomfortable as a patient who just had a probe up their rear end.

Picture 2.

The dry dock opened in 1905, or perhaps we should say opened and closed for the first time in 1905. Gazela was built in 1901. This dock gate is actually a vessel. She fits snugly between the concrete walls and looks like a Victorian submarine. After the work is done, she will open the pipes that run though her belly to fill up the dock, after which a tug will pull Gazela away again.

Picture 3.

Marcus Brandt cutting up tallow. Tallow — beef fat mixed with lime — is used along with roof paper and pine tar to form a foundation for the copper plates that cover the hull of Gazela. Brandt is a carpenter who worked in the same drydock when it was still a US Navy dock. He had never floated a load like this before. Brandt told me they had to make special modifications to the concrete blocks that usually carry the load. The crew built sliding bilge blocks, and had to take in account that the draft of Gazela’s keel was about four feet deeper aft. Brandt took me to the bow, under which he had rigged a painter with a small buoy attached that would be released as soon as the keel hit the right spot.

Picture 4.

Meet Capt. Al Ponessa, the President of the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild. He’s the type of guy who falls into jobs like this one — the previous president quit suddenly — but he’s not complaining. Al is responsible for the financial side of the operation. Although the current 10

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operation is funded, his worry is the big overhaul. All the copper plating needs to be renewed... planking... parts of the frame. “She rots from the top,” he said, staring at Gazela from the top of the Victorian submarine. When asked what his sailing ambitions are, his eyes light up and a grin appears underneath his bushy mustache. “Europe!” The festivals in Europe, crossing the Atlantic. That is the dream.

Picture 5.

Shipwright Patrick Flynn saw Gazela as a teenager and knew instantly that he wanted to dedicate his life to preserving the sailing tradition. He worked on as many ships as he could and is now the only full-time employee of the guild.

This man knows the ship from the spinous top to the pounded bottom. He told me that he was not unhappy with what they found after they opened her up. They took off the copper right beneath the water line. Only 15 planks had to be replaced. He points at the maintenance barge Poplar, right next to her. That’s another story, he said. Underneath, welders were busy welding huge metal plates to her her hull.

“She was leaking pretty badly,” he said. “Worse than we expected.” I ask him to pose in front of Poplar, not even halfway into the giant dock. He gladly climbs on one of the blocks. He must be one of the happiest men in the world.

Picture 6.

Lisa Kolibabek helps wherever she can. One moment she’s hauling copper sheets, the next moment she is hammering away or carrying a bucket of tallow up the stairs. I ran into her first inside the Poplar where she was scraping tallow off her pants. Lisa is an active board member of the

5 Guild and has dedicated her life, since 2008, to working on the Gazela and other tall ships.

Picture 7.

Sean Connelly is taking off the copper sheet. He explains that it doesn’t have the right bend and needs to be

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heated. That means that Kelsey Mullen has to take it all the way up to the surface, where Flynn is using a propane torch to heat up the metal. Then Kelsey has to take it all the way back down and then it can be attached properly.

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8 Picture 8.

Marie Jordan has to glue in the last plug before Whitney Rayl can smear on the tallow. She apologized for using a Leatherman to scrape out the hole. “That doesn’t look very professional,” she said.

Picture 9.

Robert Miles was in charge of preparing the tallow. At first it does smell vaguely of steak, but after a while... well, combined with the smell of stale river water in front of the dock gate, I got a pretty good idea how the whole waterfront must have smelled, back in the day. When I asked Robert if the beef fat would attract sharks, he burst out laughing. b For more info on Gazela and the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild, visit: http://philashipguild.org

★

J. P. URANKER WOODCARVER

★

THE TRADITION OF HANDCARVED EAGLES CONTINUES TODAY

(508) 693-5871 12

★ WWW.JPUWOODCARVER.COM

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Meanwhile, in New York...

and Charlestown...

The South Street Seaport Museum’s 1885 fullrigged ship Wavertree is currently undergoing the largest ship preservation project of its type in over a generation.

The vessel, constructed of riveted wrought iron, was dismasted in 1910 in a storm off Cape Horn. She limped into the Falkland Islands, and was salvaged as a floating warehouse in Punta Arenas, Chile. In the mid1940s, she was converted into a sand barge in Buenos Aires, and inside her hull a sand hopper was installed.

When the Seaport Museum acquired Wavertree in 1968, work was done to restore her exterior appearance and rigging over the course of a few decades. Now, the hull is finally being restored to its original 1885 sailing configuration. Demolition of the sand hopper structure is complete, and a new ‘tweendeck (removed when she was a sand barge) and a renewed main deck are being installed.

Shell plating is being inspected and identified to see how much iron must be replaced, and the entire hull will be coated with the most trusted marine coatings that will last for over another generation. A new ballast system is being installed, and the ship’s rigging is being redesigned for historical accuracy and longevity.

Upon her return, Wavertree will become the crown jewel of the fleet at the world famous “Street of Ships,” where scores of square-riggers from all over the world traded their cargoes and made New York the busiest port city on the planet for over a century.

For more information on the current restoration, visit www.southstreetseaportmuseum.org or go to our facebook page.

— Mike Weiss

USS Constitution, launched in Boston in 1797, is the sole survivor of the original U.S. Navy. Her fame rests on her three stunning victories over Royal Navy warships in the War of 1812.

“Old Ironsides” was able to resist enemy fire in battle, but her oak structure is liable to rot and needs periodic overhauls to keep her sailing.

In the 20th century, the ship underwent a cosmetic restoration in 1906-07, a 1927-31 restoration that replaced 85% of the ship, and other restorations between the 1940s and 1970s. The 1992-96 restoration recreated the ship’s structural strength according to designer Joshua Humphreys’ original 1794 instructions. That work enabled Constitution to mark her 200th anniversary by sailing under her own power for the first time in 116 years in 1997 off Marblehead.

The first 21st century restoration on Constitution took place 2007-2010 and included re-establishing the camber in the spar deck and lowering the bulwarks and opening the waist of the ship, per the ship’s 1812 configuration.

The current restoration is the first dry docking of Constitution since 1992. The Charlestown Navy Yard’s Dry Dock #1 is the second-oldest operational dry dock in the US. Constitution was the first warship to enter this dock in 1833. The work of the 2015 restoration will include removing the below-the-waterline 1995 copper sheathing, replacing lower hull planking and caulking, installing 3,400 sheets of new copper, repairs to the ship’s cutwater at the bow, and replacement of select deck beams.

For more information on the 2015 restoration, visit: www.ussconstitutionmuseum.org.

— Margherita M. Desy

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Spirit of Bermuda

This 118-foot sail-training vessel was built for the youth of Bermuda, but belongs to all who are willing to go to sea by Laurie Fullerton

Sail training opportunities on a schooner, when they come along, are tough to turn down.

My long association writing about Bermuda and its sailing programs earned me an invitation this past June to join six professional crew and 18 adults on the 118-foot sloop Spirit of Bermuda for the 645-nautical mile Marion to Bermuda race. As a guest journalist, I had the unique chance to learn about both the challenges of keeping a sail-training vessel going, and why it is so unique to be on an offshore trip in a learning role.

The Spirit of Bermuda was launched in 2005 at a time in Bermuda when most natives had no practical or romantic connection to the island's long history as a maritime economy, and rarely had a chance to sail or experience life at sea.

Bermuda sloops only existed in paintings, and most locals saw no connection between the seafaring life and their own lives.

A three-masted rig whose lines resemble the sleekest Fredonia schooner, the Spirit of Bermuda was designed from an 1831 painting of a Royal Navy sloop-of-war and built of 14

Douglas fir using the cold-molded technique perfected at Rockport Marine in Maine. Since 2005, through the Bermuda Sloop Foundation, the vessel has provided more than 4,000 young Bermudians life-changing experiences with school voyages, school break voyages and summer overseas voyages.

In 2007, the Bermuda Sloop Foundation was awarded the Sail Training Program of the Year Award by Tall Ships America.

Until recently, the Bermuda Sloop Foundation received government support for its educational programs, but budget cuts now mean that the organization must rely exclusively on fundraising; or to be specific, on philanthropic individuals who want to keep the Spirit going.

The sloop’s participation in the 36th running of the Marion to Bermuda race was financed by Jim Butterfield of Butterfield & Vallis, and his son, Spencer Butterfield, who are among the individuals in the business community who have stepped in since the government slashed funding. Jim and Spencer made the trip, along with Captain Stuart

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Birnie, four professional crew, and the Governor of Bermuda, Sir George Fergusson. Our navigator for the race was renowned sailor Larry Rosenfeld of Marblehead and the rest of our crew were novices and first-time sailors who were employees of Butterfield & Vallis. The majority of the crew — including myself, the Governor and the employees of Butterfield & Vallis — had never made a major ocean voyage.

“I grew up with some of these opportunities to do this kind of sailing, and to be able to offer it to people in our company is a great opportunity. I would love to see more companies do something like this,” said Jim Butterfield. “For many of those on our staff, this is the first time they have sailed on a boat like this and it is their first time offshore.

Having the Governor on board as well is a treat.”

I had expected that we would be shunted to the side because of our inexperience, and it would fall to the crew and captain to take on most tasks, but the truth is we sail trainees did a lot of the work ourselves.

We had watch captains who helped, but we were allowed to evolve, improve and participate fully.

In fact, our helmsman at the start of the race, Dennis Bean, came from the accounting department of Butterfield & Vallis. He had never driven a boat before. He took us across the starting line with a remarkable sense of the helm and what needed to be done.

Bean later admitted, “I was one of the last people at work to sign up for this. I was thinking of it more as an experience. It went way beyond my expectations. It became way more than what I thought it would be.”

After the start of the race on June 19, we were within

sight of land for the first day as we left Buzzards Bay, passing Martha’s Vineyard to port, and seeing New Bedfordbound fishing vessels heading home.

The following day, we left the continental shelf and entered into the true deep. As we approached the Gulf Stream at dusk, a pesky low-pressure system named Bob was far off but still meant we would be having “weather”, so we reefed the main sail and prepared for a wild ride.

When the sail trainees were called on deck as the light faded — in Gulf Stream weather — to reef the mainsail, none of us ever thought we would do it so quickly and so well. Much of the voyage went this way. Although we put our trust in the navigator, who chose a route through the Gulf Stream that enabled us to move quickly away from Bob and do well in the race, no one was left ‘out of the loop’ and the navigator discussed his decisions with all of us.

The Gulf Stream is a virtual river in the middle of the Atlantic, whose waters seem to combine both wild-river rapids and ocean force and height. It is dangerous. The sea has a deep black hue that is ominous. As the sun came up on our second day in the stream, the warm water gave the black ocean a steamy grey color, but an early-morning school of dolphins — leaping out of the water, soaring over the black blue sea and brick wall-like waves that characterize the Gulf Stream — was a welcome sight. They feed in the warm waters of the stream, and tend to be more playful out in the wild. What a thrill to see the happy faces of dolphins on this bleak-looking sea.

The going was rough through the stream, and both

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experienced sailors and novices were seasick. However, those of us who were feeling OK and could stand our four-hour watches got plenty of time on the helm. Steering the massive Spirit through the treacherous Gulf Stream with a weather helm, at night, going 11 knots, with spray surging over the bow and onto the deck and cockpit was challenging, but we were allowed to ride it out.

“The thing about sail training, and what I love about sail training, is that there are very few instances in life that place people who don’t really know each other in such close proximity where the situation they are in is a pressure cooker. That pressure cooker can produce incredible results,” said Stuart Birnie, captain of the Spirit.

“Learning that you can adapt to uncomfortable or difficult situations and engage and handle it is a real life lesson.

Being at sea, you experience far greater extremes. I think the secret is ‘adaptability’ — you learn to adapt. ” By our third day at sea, we had crossed the stream, and

emerged into the mysterious Sargasso Sea. This is when, for me, everyone started to get their heads out of the boat and take it all in. There was a lot of laughter and smiles and the water was a gorgeous sub-tropical blue, and we could glimpse the occasional Bermuda longtail bird. We sailed on a reach, riding the waves more naturally, and not in the frenzied way of the Gulf Stream.

On our final night at sea, a moonrise and spectacular range of stars added to the atmosphere on board as a greater camaraderie had developed among all of us. By the following morning, June 23 — our fifth day at sea — we reached the island and crossed the finish line. It was the fastest crossing the Spirit had ever made, and her best showing yet in the race.

“I’ve seen and heard about sail training and the concept of the schooner program is great, but it is very different to see it in action,” said Sir George, the Governor.

“Seeing it in action is more of an intense experience. It has given many of us the chance to gain confidence in our

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abilities and bond with people we had not known at all before. Additionally, the crew has a good touch between being serious, encouraging and fun.”

Arriving at the docks of the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club, we all walked to the old colonial building to meet the immigration officials who would stamp our passports “arrived by sea.” I noticed a large sedan with tinted windows and the Government House insignia, as well as a bodyguard, waiting to whisk the Governor away. To us, he had become just George, our shipmate.

He had been away from his cell phone, emails and desk for the first time in his long career as a diplomat, and had simply shared his humor and stories with us like a mate.

As we said goodbye to the captain and crew, we were reminded that several of the crew started out as eighth-graders in a school program on board Spirit, wide eyed about the ocean and the world beyond Bermuda.

“Before the Spirit of Bermuda was built, we didn’t really know that the sea also meant a way of life or career for us,” said Kristen Greene, 21, who joined the Spirit of Bermuda alternative education program at age 13.

He has since graduated from high school and the Warsash Military Academy marine program in Southampton, England, and is now second officer aboard the Spirit.

“Now, a lot more Bermudians are pursuing this as a way of life and taking opportunities to work in the maritime trades. We still love and honor where it all began for us, as youth on the Spirit of Bermuda.”

As a plaque on board states, the sloop was “built for the youth of Bermuda.” But it is nice to know that in a sense the Spirit belongs to all of us who are willing to go to sea. b Laurie Fullerton is a lifelong sailor who specializes in yachting journalism, maritime communications and public relations. Her writing appears in SAIL Magazine, Sailing Magazine, Sailing World and a number of major newspapers.

She reports on the America’s Cup, and events in Bermuda, the Caribbean and Europe. Her trip on the Spirit of Bermuda was one of the highpoints of her career.

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San Salvador Gets Wet With her long-awaited launch, commissioning, and public debut behind her, San Salvador prepares to set sail

In early September, just a few short weeks after her launch (see “Boats Bars and Beaches” on page 34), Marlinspike spoke with Dr. Ray Ashley of the San Diego Maritime Museum about what the future hold for the new San Salvador replica.

Marlinspike: Congratulations on getting San Salvador in the water! We’re going to go into the details of the launch elsewhere in this issue, but perhaps you can tell us what’s been happening since she splashed.

Ray Ashley: Just this past week we had the commissioning ceremony for San Salvador. We wanted to have something in the way of a formal commissioning event, because the launch, while technically interesting, didn’t really lend itself to a scripted event. Since we couldn’t have many people, or give folks very much notice for the launching event, we wanted to have a commissioning event where we could be a little more grandiose. And we were able to achieve that.

Every year we have a Tall Ships Festival, our Festival of Sail, in San Diego, and we thought that if we could have San Salvador take part in the Parade of Sail — even though she wasn’t under sail, she doesn’t have her entire rig in yet — it would be a nice opportunity to show this ship off in public for the first time and provide a sufficiently auspicious context for the occasion. It was a bit of stretch to get her ready in time for that, and it called for some cooperation on the part of Coast Guard, to issue San Salvador an excursion permit , since the ship is still some ways away from getting her COI. The Coast Guard was very cooperative and helpful in that regard.

We had a very nice Parade of Sail followed by a ceremony with lots of dignitaries, many members of the Museum, and it was great. That worked out really well. The ship is currently at the Museum, and we’re anticipating a further two or three months of completing her interior and her rig before she is able to undergo her inclination test and get her COI and so on.

MS: I saw the photos of San Salvador from the Festival of Sail and she looked terrific. She was under her own power for the first time?

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RA: Yes, that was the first time we had operated the

engines or the steering gear, and it all went off without any problems. The last time someone operated a vessel with a whipstaff in San Diego Bay was just a little more than 400 years ago. Given the lack of practice that we’ve had, we did OK! We were able to get her where she needed to go without any issues.

MS: And now you move on to uprigging the vessel, getting her yards across…

RA: Again, the ship is largely a shell at this point. Most of the interior has not been built, so that will be happening concurrently while we are rigging her. There is still some work on the systems to be done. Getting all the equipment and artifacts and interpretive stuff for her to start operating, that’s where we are right now, with her first operations taking place in the spring.

MS: What will those first operations be?

RA: It’s film work, actually. One of our partners is the National Park Service. The core story for our local park site is the Cabrillo voyage. Like most Park Service sites, they have an orientation film that they show, and theirs is about 20 years old at this point. So they applied for funds to redo the film and we’ve been working with their producers on a remake of the Cabrillo film using the San Salvador. They’re making the construction of the San Salvador a part of the story. They’ve been filming during the construction, the commissioning, and the launch. But we’ve still got a lot of shooting to do up in the Channel Islands in the spring.

Before then, we have a lot of fulfillment we need to do, for donors and people who came to our gala and our auction and who bought tickets for the first sail and all that. We’ve got a lot of ceremonial operations to do immediately after we get her COI. That will all be in the Bay and in the approaches to the Bay, and then our first out-of-area operation will be this filming.

MS: Here on the East Coast, the Oliver Hazard Perry has had quite a time getting their COI nailed down. Do you feel that project has blazed the way for you in any sense with the Coast Guard?

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RA: I haven’t been able to detect the slightest influence on our project from any other boat in any other region.

I know there must be, but it just hasn’t come up. Inspectors from the Coast Guard have been here at the yard or at the Museum every week or two, right through the construction.

They’re constantly here. There’s a lot of interest on their part, they’ve documented every stage of the project, and I just think they’ve been so integral to the process all along that I guess it has its own trajectory, its own narrative. The plans have been submitted, the changes have been reviewed and approved, so I don’t know that they’re doing anything different for us than they would for anyone else, to be honest with you.

MS: What kind of COI do you expect San Salvador to receive?

RA: When we started out, we wanted an oceans certification, but the incline, the stability test, more than anything else that will determine whether we end up with an offshore or a nearcoastal certificate, such as Californian has.

Obviously we’d like to JERRY SOTO have the maximum flexibility to be able to take the ship wherever we want, but that could come with certain costs. It may come down to, “OK, you can have this COI, but if you do, you can’t have that traditional anchor, because that negatively impacts your stability.” Or “The ordnance that the ship would carry historically on deck, well, you’re not going to be able to do that.”

If the license we go after has limitations that impact the ship’s mission, which is to portray a ship from the 16th century, then we’ll have to think about that.

MS: She certainly is a high-sided vessel, and those decks are high above the waterline...

RA: Our architect and our engineers have been so careful about that from the beginning. The goal has always been to make sure the stability is well within parameters.

The very first design had hollow spars, although we didn’t go in that direction. That was an expensive proposition, and hollow spars have their own set of issues. With solid spars, we’ve had to be even more careful with everything else.

Everything has been weighed and measured, going so far as to consider the weights and densities of the different kinds of wood that were used. Now we just have to wait to see what the tests reveal and make whatever adjustments are necessary. We have always wanted her to have the kid of rig

which the ship would historically have had. All those things feed into the final equation.

MS: On Swift of Ipswich, her stability issues were addressed in part by using a lot of very light high-tech stuff, Dyneema, in their standing rigging.

RA: We’re using Hempex, and that has advantage of being far stronger than what was called for in the design, but we can get the bulk we want, so that our lines are roughly the same dimensions as the natural-fiber lines of the 16th century would have been, and Hempex is really very light compared to other alternatives. What we’re doing looks like natural fiber, but they are synthetic fibers. That will help. Likewise the sails are Oceanus, which is quite a bit lighter than flax or canvas would have been.

MS: Do you have a sense of when the ship might make her first voyage under sail?

RA: [Laughs] There seems to be bad luck about my setting dates for this project, so I try to avoid doing that. We do know that we have a commitment to the Park Service in April, so backing up from that that...

MS: You’ve got several months in hand.

RA: Well, the thing is, we’re a small institution that relies heavily on volunteer labor. A few months ago, we were awarded a sizeable grant through the Park Service to replace the weather deck on the Star of India, and there’s a finite period of time for us expend those grant funds. That’s a fairly big project. We’re going to be starting that in November, and there’s going to be overlap between finishing up San Salvador and starting this other large project.

If we were just doing San Salvador, all of this would have been a lot easier to manage. But with San Salvador being just one of several projects we have ongoing… while we’ve been building San Salvador, HMS Surprise was in the shipyard undergoing a substantial rebuild, using the same labor force and the same resources!

The San Salvador is taking longer, because we’ve had to deal with all these other projects. It’s been a stretch for us.

But we’re looking forward to not building a ship for a while, and just taking care of the ones we have. That will seem like a nice, relaxing break for us, I think. b

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Voyage of Discovery

Mayflower’s rebuild may take longer than originally anticipated, but her crew have lots of oak — and big plans for 2020 Last fall, Mayflower II was towed to Mystic Seaport for what was envisaged as the first of several consecutive winter visits. The goal is to substantially rebuild the 58-year-old vessel with an eye toward the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival at Plymouth in 1620.

While lead shipwright Whit Perry now has a good understanding of the work ahead — and some terrific sources of white and live oak — it also appears that Mayflower II will have to spend more time at Mystic than had originally been hoped.

Marlinspike: Tell us what’s going on with Mayflower.

Whit Perry: We left Mystic in the spring, and everything went really well going back in the water. We made it back here to Plymouth, and were open by Memorial Day. It went really well. Everything that we did down at Mystic last winter, it was essentially the discovery process, trying to figure out the scope of this project, so we could go into the project with our eyes wide open.

As you know, so many projects start out with people saying “Hey, great, yeah, let’s restore this boat!” And then they get into the wood and see the reality of what needs to be done, and they realize they’ve opened a can of worms.

Often times they don’t have the funding to finish it or do it right, and that’s something we really wanted to avoid.

That’s what we were able to do last winter with the discovery process and the survey: figure out exactly the scope of the project. We were able to come up with a good cost estimate and timeline. Estimates for how long it’s going to take, when we are going to do it, how we are going to do it. Then we came back to Plymouth.

This whole summer, we have had excellent, excellent luck with material acquisition. That’s been the name of the game this summer: material acquisition and pre-fabrication.

We just got three container loads of the most beautiful white oak I have ever seen from the Royal Danish Forestry Service forests in Denmark. That’s been real exciting! We have that now down in Bristol, Rhode Island.

Mike DuPont from Newport Nautical Timbers was my timber buyer on that. He went over to Denmark and got that going, got it milled and shipped over here. These are planks that are three inches thick, over 24 inches wide and up to 40 feet long! Basically defect-free! That was a big score to get that! We have over 15,000 board feet now 20

down in Bristol, RI, waiting for us. We can take it in small increments, down to Mystic as we need it.

We also got a whole bunch more oak from Berea College in Kentucky. That’s been a collaboration that we have been really excited about. Berea is a really cool college… there was a woman from Boston who set up an endowment that allowed them to buy 8,000 acres of forest, and start managing this forest 150 years ago, many years before it became the cool thing to do, to manage the forest rather than clear-cutting. We are working with them to selectively harvest white oak for us as well.

We got oak from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Kentucky, Virginia… that has been one of our big focuses this summer.

Another really cool thing: a municipality in South Carolina that is clearing land for a soccer field had a whole bunch of live oak that we needed. They called up and said, “Hey, you want some live oak? We have to take down around 50 trees to make this soccer field. You can have it.”

We had to pay for the shipping to get it up here. It was five big dump-truck loads. This is going to be some nice stuff for structural knees and things that we need that are more curved pieces.

MS: What you mean when you say ‘pre-fabricating’?

Milling the wood? You’re not talking about laminating?

WP: No, we’re not laminating stuff at all. By pre-fabricating I mean… we last winter also made plywood patterns of all of our hanging knees. So then you take this pattern and put it on a section of crooked live oak and you can rough out your knee, so when the boat is there and you take your other knee off, then you can do your final fit and fancy bevels and all that to fit it in. Pre-fabrication is just

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rough cutting things that we know we are going to need to dimensions that we know we are needing without putting final bevels and tuning for fine fits yet.

MS: Is every knee a unique piece, or can you use the same pattern for a number of knees?

WP: No, every one is different. You can’t even count on port being the same as starboard! Now port is going to be real close to starboard, but every one is a little bit different.

MS: So now you know what work is going to get done, in what order, over the next couple of winters at Mystic.

WP: We do. One of the big things we came up with throughout this discovery process is the fact that when the ship goes to Mystic Seaport in the fall of 2016, she will probably have to be there for 24 to 30 months.

I am looking at a couple of different things, and I am totally open to suggestions. That’s one of the things we’re are working on because it’s so important to the waterfront economy. Not just Plimoth Plantation, but the whole Plymouth waterfront kind of depends on Mayflower being there. We hope that bringing in a stand-in vessel with a different story might entice people to come down here and see that boat.

MS: 2020 is the date you guys have circled in red.

That’s the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims landing in Plymouth. I am sure you saw what Mystic Seaport achieved with the Charles W. Morgan this summer and thought, ‘Gee, can we get the Mayflower underway for 2020, can we make a trip to Provincetown, maybe, and retrace the steps of the Pilgrims?’ Have you thought about actively sailing with Mayflower to mark that anniversary?

WP: Yes. That is absolutely in the cards.

And probably you hit the nail on the head: we would like to do something to Provincetown, maybe Boston. Probably not a long East Coast tour, as long or as many different ports as the Morgan was able to do, because it’s so important for the ship to be here. But absolutely, we will be getting out and sailing the vessel to a couple of

MS: Mayflower is going to be gone from Plymouth for two years?

WP: Yes. MS: How are they taking that at the Plantation?

WP: Well, the directors and the people that I talk to… it’s very difficult, PLIMOTH PLANTATION very difficult. It’s not really out there in the town yet. There have been murmurings, and I think that some of the people are getting the idea that we are going to have to do that. It’s being handled graciously.

We have a couple of ideas that we are considering.

One of the things we would really like to do — and we are looking around, if you hear of anything — is bring in a stand-in ship.

MS: Or it could be a series of boats. Attraction vessels, boats that can take people out...

WP: Exactly. It could be a series of boats that come for a month or two at a time.

key ports that year.

MS: Awesome!

WP: One of the other things I hope to accomplish — I have been here one year now, coming up from the Jamestown ships — I really am trying to get Plimoth Plantation and Mayflower II more involved in the Tall Ship community. So I am really excited to have anything in Marlinspike. We’re now members of Tall Ships America, and in the Directory for the first time this year. I am really excited to get Mayflower’s story out there as a viable educational sail-training tool, even though we are not underway like a lot of your readers. b

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Perry Sets Her Sails

The country’s largest sail-training vessel began her voyages this summer, although certification has been elusive Oliver Hazard Perry got underway for the first time this summer, setting sail off Newport in July and heading down east to Tall Ships Portland. The new ship battled head winds, however, as Coast Guard certification continued to elude her.

Marlinspike spoke with Jess Wurzbacher, Executive Director of Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island, in early September.

Marlinspike: So you sailed the ship for the first time this summer! What was that like?

Jess Wurzbacher: The Perry set sail on her maiden voyage in July. We had a solid team of professional crew as well as some volunteers from the local community and industry who supplemented our numbers up to about 20.

The first day, they sailed up through Buzzards Bay and through the Cape Cod Canal. They stopped in Provincetown and spent the night there, then did a 24-hour voyage overnight up to Portland and arrived for the Parade of Sail on Saturday.

The ship sailed very well. Everyone was pleasantly surprised by how well she sailed. I believe they made about 6.5 knots with as much sail as they could set with the small crew we had.

During the Parade of Sail the ship performed really well, and we were pleased to see that among her peers, she seemed to stand out.

I’m not sure what the final numbers were but several thousand people came on board in Portland and there was always a queue, a line of people waiting to come on board during the two days we were there. Lots of old faces, lots of new faces, lots of people excited to see her for the first time.

MS: What did you learn about the vessel during that trip?

JW: Um… MS: Probably too many things to list, and some things you’d rather not talk about.

JW: [Laughs] There were some little things, things we hadn’t really thought through until then. The boat still had a little way to go before she was ready for students, from a comfort point of view.

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None of the lights below were red, for example. They were all white lights, which made things a bit difficult during the night sail up to Portland. There were no toilet-paper holders in the head. Things like that.

From a functional point of view there were just a lot of little things. Nothing major — all the main systems worked well. The engine went from having two hours to 50 hours.

MS: Tell me where the Perry is right now in terms of certification.

JW: We have a number of our drawings submitted to the Coast Guard for review, our stability test calculations are in… we’re just going through the final punch list with the contractors.

After the Portland event we spent about another week coming back from Portland — we stopped again in Provincetown, where we met up with the schooner Mystic, which was running one of our programs — and that served as an additional shakedown of the boat and her systems.

Once she got back to Newport we got the contractors back on board to fix the little bugs that had popped up here and there.

That’s kind of what’s going on now. Re-wiring, fixing things that are broken. The Coast Guard are saying we’re very close!

It’s worth noting that the last full-rigged training ship that was built in the United States before the Perry was the USS Chesapeake, later named the USS Severn, which was built back in 1899. Nobody has built a ship like this in over a hundred years! That speaks to why we are having some trouble finishing this job and pinning down all the final details.

Over the eight years we’ve been working on this hull, there have been a number of changes in the regulations, and that’s slowed us down quite a bit as well.

Most of the things we’re fixing now are below-deck systems. The rig is good, but the systems below are so complex, and that’s what slowing us down now.

MS: How is the mental health of the crew and staff at this point?

JW: Good. It definitely helped that they got out sailing.

We have a great crew. We have two great mates now on

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board the Perry; we filled the positions we were advertising.

We have a great engineer, a great cook, some great ABs and deckhands. Some have been with us longer than others.

All our crew sailed this summer, half of them on Perry and half of them on Mystic. We chartered Mystic for a month again this summer and ran our summer camp programs. We sold out all our berths for the four weeks of that program! It’s satisfying to know that there is a demand out there for these programs — and it makes it even more frustrating that we’re not finished. But there are definitely a lot of people out there who want our product, and it was disappointing for them not to be able to sail on the Perry this summer.

MS: You’ve had quite a few programs now, this summer and last summer, where people who expected to be sailing on the Perry ended up sailing on Mystic instead.

Have your customers been understanding?

JW: They have, actually! It’s reassuring to know that people are sticking by us.

ONNE VAN DER WAL Most people have been in a similar situation — having work done on their house or their car or something — and they understand that things come up and can take a lot longer than you thought. We’ve rescheduled all of our contracted programs from this year and we’ll run them next year when Perry is certified.

MS: You’re headed down to the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival after Labor Day? JW: Yes, we will be heading down there next week.

We’re also going to the Newport Boat Show and then we’re going to be at the Seafood Festival in October, so we have a number of events coming up this fall, interspersed with time at the shipyard and hopefully some time for crew training.

MS: In our last issue, we interviewed you and Margo Mallar about the high school semester program that was supposed to run this spring as a collaboration between the Perry and the re-formed Ocean Classroom...

JW: They closed their doors again. And we had to cancel the program because we were relying on them for their alumni connections and their database and their curriculum and their accreditation, and they closed their doors with all

of that, so we were left without any of things we needed to run that semester program. So we had to cancel it.

MS: I assume that it was a fundraising issue on their part.

JW: That was the main issue. At any rate, we had to switch gears. To run that semester program, we had cancelled a number of programs that had been pencilled in for next spring, and now we have just gotten back in touch with all of those previous partners, and they’ve all re-booked. So we do have some programs booked for the spring, including a writer’s workshop in Florida, a program with URI, and a Naval Academy Prep School program that we had been struggling to fit into our calendar.

So we’re OK with it. The Perry is definitely built for doing those longer voyages, and I think that we’ll get there eventually, but running shorter programs during our first season is not going to be a bad thing.

MS: Are you looking at a revenue shortfall as a result of the cancellation?

JW: I think we’ll end up with the same revenue. I don’t think that semester program was likely to be full.

This also gives us a chance to do some more port visits on the East Coast in the spring, go to more events, visit more towns, get more people aboard the ship. Doing more, shorter programs allows more people to experience the boat, and allows us more opportunities to showcase the Perry and what we’re doing.

MS: At one point there was something on your website about a cruise to Bermuda on which the focus was going to be maritime history and celestial navigation. Is that still under consideration?

JW: Yes! That got cancelled because of the semester program, because ideally we would do that in April on our way back up. But now we’ve got a chance to put in some more adult programs, beginning in the spring. b

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SULTANA is a reproduction of a Boston-built merchant vessel that served for four years as the smallest schooner ever in the British Royal Navy.

Manned by a 25-person crew, the original SULTANA patrolled the coast of colonial North America from 1768 to 1772 enforcing the hated ‘Townsend Acts or “Tea Taxes.” From this vantage point SULTANA and her crew had a unique perspective on the conflict that would ultimately become the American Revolution.

SULTANA’s reproduction is based directly on a 1768 Royal Navy survey of the original schooner, making it one of the most accurate 18th century replicas in the world today. In addition to these drawings, the Royal Navy also preserved more than 2,000 pages of the vessel’s log books, correspondence, and crew lists. These documents have proved to be an incredible resource for the schooner’s educational programs.

SULTANA was built by Master Shipwright John Swain and scores of volunteer shipwrights who contributed 200,000+ hours of labor.

Photo by Chris Cerino

The 31st Gloucester Schooner Festival was held on Labor Day weekend.

Photos: Jake Rutstein

SAN SALVADOR and ‘HMS’ SURPRISE, ex ‘HMS’ ROSE

JERRY SOTO

The San Diego Maritime Museum’s modern representation of conquistador Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo’s galleon San Salvador has been successfully launched (see Boats Bars & Beaches, page 34) and made her public debut on Labor Day weekend (see San Salvador Gets Wet, page 18).

What remains is to complete the interior, finish the rig, and get her Certificate of Inspection.

“The ship is largely a shell at this point,” said Dr. Ray Ashley, the Museum’s Executive Director. “Most of the interior has not been built, so that will be happening concurrently while we are rigging her. There is still some work on the systems to be done. Getting all the equipment and artifacts and interpretive stuff for her to start operating, that’s where we are right now, with her first operations taking place in the spring.”

That work should go on for much of the fall, with the Museum hoping to start sailing the galleon in early spring, and participate in the making of a film with the National Park Service in April.

Complicating the picture is the advent of another major project, the replacement of the spar deck of Star of India, which will siphon volunteers and resources from the San Salvador crew. That project is scheduled to begin in November.

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The Museum also completed some major work on “HMS” Surprise this summer, making San Diego about the busiest place around.

H Planking continues on the new sail-training brigantine Matthew Turner in Sausalito.

The non-profit which was set up to build the vessel, Educational Tall Ship, merged with Call of the Sea earlier this year. Call of the Sea has been running on-the-water programs since 1984 and currently operates the 82’ steel staysail schooner Seaward. Matthew Turner will more than triple the organization’s capacity from 5,000 to 17,000 students each year.

The Matthew Turner shipyard is open Monday-Friday, 9:00-5:00. For a live feed from the boatshed, be sure to check out www.educationaltallship.org.

H Marlinspike jumped the gun last issue when we wrote that they had begun planking the traditionally-built reproduction of Maine’s First Ship, the pinnace Virginia. In fact the crew is not quite that far along, and has spent the past several weeks fairing the outer hull from sheer to garboard in preparation for planking.

Virginia, the first ship built in North America by

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summer, the second Columbia hull has not yet been assemEnglish colonists, was constructed in 1607-1608 at the bled, and apparently there are no plans to begin work on it mouth of the Kennebec River. During her lifetime, Virginia until a buyer steps up. crossed the Atlantic at least twice.

“The five modules have constructed,” The 51-foot replica of Virginia will said Columbia captain Karl Joyner, “but be built to USCG Subchapter T stanthey’re still in the yard at Eastern, they dards. When the pinnace is complete, haven’t been assembled yet. middle school and high school students “We’re hoping to find someone who will participate in programs that teach wants to take that project on, so that we operating and maintaining a traditionalcan build that boat to the specifications ly-rigged sailing vessel. of her owner. We’d like them to be able This summer, Maine’s First Ship to build it to their specifications rather was represented at the WoodenBoat than build another boat on spec and hope show in Mystic, CT as well as at Tall that somebody likes it. Plus it’s a big outShips Portland. They also offered a lay to build something like that and hope three-week summer program featuring MATTHEW TURNER that someone buys it. As [Eastern owner] maritime history, marine carpentry, and Brian [D’Isernia] says, ‘We don’t need two!’” rowing.

H For more info, visit www.mfship.org.

She will never sail, but the schooner Diligence, being H built as an exhibit inside the Independence Seaport Museum There is little to report on the Ernestina-Morrissey’s in Philadelphia, continues to take shape. Busy as the waterrebuild in Boothbay, ME. The 121-year-old schooner has been at the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard since May, but the front was with the Tall Ships visit this summer and an ongoing haulout for the venerable Gazela, Mark Donohue and his $6 million rebuild — financed by private donations, state crew have begun planking their project. funding, and the ongoing fundraising of the Schooner Diligence was a 1790s topsail schooner that was built in Ernestina-Morrissey Association (SEMA) — has yet to Philly for the Revenue Service and was briefly taken into the gather momentum.

US Navy at the time of the Quasi-War with France. The H exhibit will be some 65 feet on deck and 102 feet overall, While the new steel Columbia out of Eastern with a beam of 19 feet. b Shipbuilding turned heads up and down the East Coast this

DILIGENCE is slowly but surely taking shape at the Independence Seaport Museum MarlinspikeMagazine.com

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To be included in future editions of our calendar, e-mail your event information to marlinspike1812@gmail.com.

WEST & SOUTH Maritime Museum of San Diego, San Diego, CA (619) 234-9153 * SDMaritime.org The Museum enjoys a worldwide reputation for excellence in restoring, maintaining and operating historic vessels. The Museum has one of the world’s finest collections of historic ships, including the world’s oldest active ship, Star of India.

Los Angeles Maritime Museum, Los Angeles, CA (310) 548-7618 * LAMaritimeMuseum.org Family Adventure sails continue through October 17. Sail on a traditionally-rigged Tall Ship from a bygone era, explore the largest wilderness on the planet, and sit ringside in the busiest port in the Americas. Or, you have the chance to become part of the crew – your choice!

Texas Seaport Museum/ELISSA, Galveston, TX (409) 763-1877 * TSM-Elissa.org October 23, 24, 30 and 31: Haunted Harbor Tours aboard the 50-foot passenger boat, Seagull II. $15 for Adults, $12 for Youth, Free for 5 & Under GREAT LAKES BaySail – Appledore Tall Ships, Bay City, MI (989) 895-5193 * BaySailBayCity.org The half-day Science Under Sail program encourages students to engage in real-world problem-based learning. Available from May to mid June and from September to early October.

Inland Seas Education Assoc., Suttons Bay, MI (231) 271-3077 * www.schoolship.org ISEA's Schoolship program is a half-day science learning adventure aboard the schooners Inland Seas and Manitou. Students from 4th to 12th grade collect and analyze samples from the bay.

Spring programs run from early May–mid June and the Fall programs run from early September–early October.

Erie Maritime Museum, Erie, PA (814) 452-2744 * FlagshipNiagara.org Niagara offers educational sailing experiences to school groups, encouraging students to explore Erie’s maritime heritage and understand the science of sailing. Maximum capacity on-board: 60 day sail students, including teachers/ chaperones. Student groups 12 to 16 years old must have one (1) adult per five (5) students. For more information contact Outreach & Education at 814.452.2744 ext. 225 or outreach@flagshipniagara.org.

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Michigan Maritime Museum, South Haven, MI (269) 637-8078 * MichiganMaritimeMuseum.org Friends Good Will is available for Educational Sails, Passenger Sails, Dockside boardings, Charters, Weddings, and Conferences.

Wisconsin Maritime Museum, Manitowoc, WI (866) 724-2356 * WisconsinMaritime.org Explore the nation’s most completely preserved WWII submarine, stroll the streets of a 19th-century shipbuilding town, sail a boat down a river and more!

EAST COAST Annapolis Maritime Museum, Annapolis, MD (410) 295-0104 * AMaritime.org The Museum holds its annual Winter Lecture Series Thursday evenings at 7pm from mid-January through mid-March 2016.

You will be challenged to question and to learn by engaging topic speakers on 8 diverse topics including maritime history, local history, science and maritime art.

Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels, MD (410) 745-2916 * CBMM.org October 3-4. 33rd Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival & 11th Maritime Model Expo. Hundreds of amateur and professional boat builders, model boat builders and enthusiasts display their skiffs, kayaks, canoes and maritime models. Watch many of these one-of-a-kind vessels race along the Miles River along CBMM’s 18-acre waterfront campus.

Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA (978) 283-0455 * CapeAnnMuseum.org September 26. Fitz Henry Lane’s Gloucester Walking Tour.

Lane was a Cape Ann artist, printmaker and world-renowned marine painter generally regarded as one of the finest 19th-century practitioners of luminism. Take a stroll through this artist’s Gloucester neighborhood. Tours are held rain or shine and last about 1½ hours. $10 members; $20 nonmembers. Space is limited; reservations required.

Sloop Clearwater, Beacon, NY 845-265-8080 * Clearwater.org Sailing Apprentice positions last for one month, during which two hired apprentices live and work aboard the sloop alongside the professional crew. They participate in all crew activities, including sailing, maintenance and education.

Herreshoff Marine Museum, Bristol, RI (401) 253-5000 * Herreshoff.org The Herreshoff Marine Museum’s Annual Lecture Series brings

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the knowledge of established authors, sailors, and experts directly to the public. Learn from some of the best sailors, writers, historians, and accomplished individuals amongst historic Herreshoff Boats and the America’s Cup Hall of Fame.

Historic Ships in Baltimore, Baltimore, MD (410) 539-1797 * HistoricShips.org September 26. "Songs of the Sea, the Shore, and the Chesapeake" The Washington Revels Maritime Voices will present a program of traditional songs of the men who worked the great sailing ships and the women who sustained their shore-side communities. Held on board USS Constellation.

Independence Seaport Museum, Philadelphia, PA (215) 413-8630 * PhillySeaport.org June 2015 to February 2016. “Hucksters: The Tumult of Dock Street.” Hucksters showcases the boisterous, bygone culture of Philadelphia’s famous Dock Street produce market.

Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Vergennes, VT (802) 475-2022 * LCMM.org October 10. James Wakefield Rescue Row On December 9th, 1876, the crew of the canal schooner General Butler was stranded atop the breakwater in Burlington, VT, after their boat sank during a terrible winter storm. They were rescued by James Wakefield and his son, who rowed out to save them. Every year, the Champlain Longboats program commemorates this heroic event with a youth rowing race on Lake Champlain, traditionally held in Burlington, VT; over one hundred participants! Races begin at 9:30am. Contact Nick Patch at (802) 475-2022 x113 or nickp@lcmm.org for details.

Long Island Maritime Museum, West Sayville, NY (631) HISTORY * LIMaritime.org More than 30 sail & power boats are housed in the Small Craft Building, once a WWI US Navy seaplane hanger. On display are iconic catboats by Gil Smith, the one-design Narrasketuck by Wilbur Ketcham, the Herreshoff 12 1/2 and many others.

Lowell’s Boat Shop, Amesbury, MA (978) 834-0050 * LowellsBoatShop.com Lowell’s Boat Shop is offering after-school apprenticeships for up to ten high school students grades 10-12. Youth enrolled in this after-school program work alongside experienced staff and volunteers to learn the skills and art of boatbuilding.

Maine Maritime Museum, Bath, ME (207) 443-1316 * MaineMaritimeMuseum.org Fall is a great time to take a Lighthouse or Nature Cruise!

Through late October, the Museum conducts regularly scheduled river cruises that focus on viewing lighthouses in the area.

The Mariner’s Museum, Newport News, VA (757) 596-2222 * MarinersMuseum.org October 3, 10, 17, 24. Scallywag School. Join Blackbeard's Crew as they invade The Museum this Arrtober! Participate in “talk like a pirate” lessons, sword and musket drills, shipboard

line handling and more! Receive pirate gold by completing activities and graduate with an Honorary Pirate Certificate!

Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT (860) 572-0711 * MysticSeaport.org September 19, 2015 to March 28, 2016. “Ships, Clocks & Stars: The Quest for Longitude” tells the extraordinary story of the race to determine longitude at sea. Spurred on by the promise of rich rewards, astronomers, philosophers, and artisans, including John Harrison and his innovative timekeepers, finally solved one of the greatest technical challenges of the 18th century.

New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, MA (508) 997-0046 * WhalingMuseum.org Sept. 26 & 27. Join us to celebrate the completion of the Museum's new 20,000 sq. ft. Education Center. Festivities will include an official ribbon-cutting ceremony, guided tours, family activities, and musical performances.

North Carolina Maritime Museum, Beaufort, NC (252) 728-7317 * NCMaritimeMuseums.com Exhibits feature the state’s rich seafood industry, life-saving stations and lighthouses, and sailboats and motorboats.The Museum is the official repository for artifacts from Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge, which ran aground near Beaufort in 1718.

Peabody-Essex Museum, Salem, MA (978) 542-1609 * PEM.org More than two centuries of collecting have produced the finest and most comprehensive assemblage of art and objects relating to the sea in the country, including grand gold-framed oil paintings, drawings, ship models, marine decorative arts, tools, weapons, navigational instruments and ship and yacht plans.

Strawbery Banke, Portsmouth, NH (603) 433-1100 * StrawberyBanke.org October 10. New Hampshire Fall Festival. Celebrate harvest time with Strawbery Banke’s fourth annual New Hampshire Fall Festival.

US Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, MD (410) 293-5275 * USNA.edu/Museum Highlights include Oliver Hazard Perry's famous "Don't Give Up the Ship" flag from the Battle of Lake Erie, a piece of USS Monitor, a video and light display illustrating the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Rogers Ship Model Collection, the largest collection of 17th- and 18th-century models in North America.

USS Constitution Museum, Charlestown, MA (617) 426-1812 * USSConstitutionMuseum.org The ship is currently drydocked but both the ship and the Museum remain open to visitors. In “All Hands On Deck” you can explore the harsh realities of life at sea and join USS Constitution just as the War of 1812 is declared. Discover the unique world afloat and the men and women that made history alongside Old Ironsides. b

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A select list of sailing programs, summer camps, and passage opportunities open to the public.

Maine coast from mid-May through early October.

WEST COAST Grays Harbor Historic Seaport, Aberdeen, WA (800) 200-5239 * HistoricalSeaport.org Two Weeks Before the Mast programs on Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain.

Los Angeles Maritime Institute, Los Angeles, CA (310) 883-6055 * LAMITopSail.org Sail-training for school and youth groups.

Schooner Adventuress, Port Townsend, WA (360) 379-0438 * SoundExp.com Overnight programs for teens, adults, seniors, and families.

Schooner Zodiac, Bellingham, WA (206) 719-7622 * SchoonerZodiac.com Windjammer cruises in the San Juan Islands, April-October.

Schooners North, Friday Harbor, WA (360) 378-2224 * SanJuanSailCharter.com Cruises from the San Juans to Alaska on the schooner Spike Africa.

GREAT LAKES Appledore Tall Ships, Bay City, MI (989) 895-5193 * BaySailBayCity.org Day-sails, charters, educational programs, and overnight sail-training opportunities.

Brigantine St. Lawrence II, Kingston, ON (613) 544-5175 * Brigantine.ca Sail-training programs on the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario.

Traverse Tall Ship Co., Traverse Bay, MI (231) 941-2000 * TallShipSailing.com Education, day-sails, charters, and multi-day windjammer cruises.

US Brig Niagara, Erie, PA (814) 452-2744 ext. 214 * FlagshipNiagara.org Summer 2016 Voyage Programs, for High Schools students, College Students, and Individual Trainees.

EAST COAST Barque Picton Castle, Lunenburg, NS (902) 634-9984 * Picton-Castle.com Sailing the East Coast of the US & Canada this summer; open to all.

Liberty Fleet of Tall Ships, Boston, MA (617) 742-0333 * LibertyFleet.com Windjammer-style Caribbean cruises during winter months.

Maine Windjammer Association, Midcoast Maine (800) 807-WIND * SailMaineCoast.com Eight traditional sailing vessels offering windjammer cruises on the

Oliver Hazard Perry, Newport, RI (401) 841-0080 * OHPRI.org Week-long summer teen camps; educational programming for students of all ages; sail-training cruises for adults and families.

Schooner A. J. Meerwald, Bivalve, NJ (856) 785-2060 * BayShoreCenter.org Day and overnight Maritime Camp programs for children 13-17.

Schooner Alliance, Yorktown, VA (757) 639-1233 * SailYorktown.com Public sails and private charters in Yorktown during the summer; Windjammer-style Caribbean cruises during winter months.

Schooner Ardelle, Gloucester, MA (978) 281-0470 * SchoonerArdelle.com Public sails, private charters, and educational programs in conjunction with the Maritime Heritage Center.

Schooner Fame, Salem, MA (978) 729-7600 * SchoonerFame.com Public sails, private charters, and educational programs. Week-long Schooner Day Camp sessions for ages 8-14.

Schooner Mystic Whaler, Mystic, CT (800) 697-8420 * MysticWhalerCruises.com Single-day education programs for youth, overnight cruises for adults.

Schooner Pride of Baltimore II, Baltimore, MD (410) 539-1151 * Pride2.org Each season Pride II visits dozens of ports of call, and welcomes aboard over 100,000 people for deck tours, sailing charters, day sails, youth programs, private events and overnight guest crew experiences.

World Ocean School, Boston, MA (340) 626-7877 * WorldOceanSchool.org Education programs on board the schooner Roseway.

Schooner Sultana, Chesterton, MD (410) 778-5954 * SultanaProjects.org Weeklong “Chesapeake Adventures” programs for ages 11-14.

Schooner Wendameen, Portland, ME (207) 766-2500 * PortlandSchooner.com Overnight trips for up to 14 passengers on Casco Bay. SEA Semester, Woods Hole, MA (508) 540-3954* Sea.edu Accredited semester-at-sea programs for college students.

Sea/mester, Sarasota, FL (941) 924-2900 * Seamester.com Semester-at-sea and gap-year programs for college students. b

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b A Connecticut judge is preparing to authorize the sale of the troubled schooner AMISTAD for short money

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b

SEAN D. ELLIOTT

The Schooner Porcupine, the latest initiative of the Erie, PA based Bayfront Maritime Center (BMC), is shaping up quickly in anticipation of her April 15th, 2016 launch date.

Porcupine is a representation of a War of 1812 gunboat schooner built in Erie to sail with Oliver Hazard Perry’s squadron. The modern representation is being crafted out of a fiberglass, Bruce Roberts Spray 40 design. BMC’s Executive Director Rich Eisenberg accepted the semi-finished Spray 40 hull as a donation last September. A team featuring renowned traditional sailmaker David Bierig as co-Director and former Pride of Baltimore II Captain Jamie Trost as Project Manager is handling the construction and certification. Bob Arlet of Arlet Boatworks in Erie is the Shipwright.

To date, Team Porcupine has redesigned the hull and rig with Naval Architect Iver Franzen of Annapolis, MD, attached a 7800pound ballast keel, and started modifying the transom and bow to more accurately evoke the 19th century hull of Porcupine. USCG Sector Buffalo is overseeing the construction and certification.

The finished Porcupine will be the school ship for Presque Isle Bay, and offer half-day, full-day and overnight education programs, public day sails, and overnight passages starting next summer. The programming will offer ecology, STEM, and history lessons for students from fourth grade to university level. Her capacity is expected to be 28 passengers for daysails, and 12 students for overnights.

The original vessel fought in the Battle of Lake Erie and several other War of 1812 campaigns on the Lakes. Of the seven smaller vessels of the Erie squadron, Porcupine alone escaped capture by the British in actions after the Battle of Lake Erie. Instead she continued in government service until 1825, surveying the Georgian Bay as part of the Coastal Survey Office and sailing as the Revenue Cutter for the Detroit River. She was then sold into private service and hauled cargo under the name Caroline until 1873. During this time, Porcupine sailed under 18 different versions of the US flag.

BMC is creating Porcupine’s education and public programs using events, examples, and technology from the original vessel’s six-decade career, and will operate her as a local asset to the Erie Bayfront. Her size and fiberglass construction will keep manning and maintenance at a manageable level, while the wooden deck, spars, and fittings will evoke her deep ties to the maritime heritage of Erie and the Great Lakes.

To follow Porcupine’s progress, go to schoonerporcupine.org, or like the project on Facebook.

H While schooner enthusiasts in Canada and the United States were delighted to see the iconic Bluenose II return to active duty this summer after a lengthy and contentious rebuild, the schooner continues to be dogged by problems.

The latest was trouble with the hydraulic steering. The schooner was briefly taken out of service in late August and the manufacturer of the steering system was called in to take a look.

Consultant Wilson Fitt told CBC News that the steering issue was “absolutely fixable.”

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“This is not particularly complex or unique sort of system. Every significant vessel, every fishing vessel and commercial vessel has a hydraulic system on it,” Fitt said.

“All of them have their shakedown periods when it’s new; this one is going through its shakedown period.”

Lou Boudreau, a Lunenburg schooner captain and consultant, disagreed.

“It’s the wrong rudder and they haven’t fixed the rudder, all they’re doing is applying brute force in the hopes that they can just force it to work.

And that’s not the way it works,” HAWAIIAN he told CBC News. “It’s a bad CHIEFTAIN design.”

Boudreau insists that the schooner’s heavy steel rudder — and $700,000 hydraulic lift used to move it — should be scrapped.

“Put a good old fashioned Lunenburg rudder on there with a Lunenburg foundry worm gear. Those systems have been sailing schooners to the Grand Banks for generations.”

H This past summer, the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport ketch Hawaiian Chieftain finally received a long-overdue refit of her propulsion systems and stability.

A significant amount of ballast was added — over 8000 long tons of lead — increasing the draft of the steel vessel by over 18 inches to seven feet. The ballast was added in the form of lead ingots to the main hold bilges during a haulout spanning most of the summer at Port Townsend’s Boat Haven.

Chieftain, which was launched in Hawaii in 1988 and has been operated by the Grays Harbor for the last decade, also saw a major upgrade to her engine cooling system.

Formerly she had an aging internal keel-cooler system. This system was converted to framing to support the new ballast.

Two Walters keel coolers were then installed by the Chieftain’s crew under the direction of Michael “Jake” Jacobson. The new system is expected to increase cooling efficiency and decrease maintenance.

Water tank capacity was dramatically reduced from 2400 to 500 gallons in order to decrease the impact that water consumption has on the ship’s trim. This was one of several measures taken in order for the vessel to meet current stability standards.

Chieftain underwent a stability test in August which appeared to exceed expectations. Anecdotal evidence from the first few outings of the ketch after re-launch indicated 36

that she was less tender, and handled better in rough seas, than in her original configuration.

Grays Harbor Historical Seaport operates both the Chieftain and the brig Lady Washington; the vessels are operational year-round, travelling up and down the West Coast.

Their “Two Weeks Before the Mast” program is an opportunity to experience the life of a tall ship sailor. For two weeks, participants live aboard one of the vessels learning the basics of knots, sail theory, traditional and modern maintenance skills, and maritime history.

H In Connecticut, Superior Court Judge Antonio C. Robaina is considering a proposal to sell Amistad for the bargain-basement price of $315,000 to a newly-formed nonprofit called Discovering Amistad Inc. The new organization will not be putting up any money to buy the vessel. They instead will use state funds appropriated for the vessel to make the purchase.

The money from this paper sale will then go to Amistad America’s creditors.

Among Discovering Amistad’s four incorporaters, according to The Day newspaper, is Len Miller of Essex, who founded Soundwaters, a Stamford-based educational nonprofit that offers educational programs on Long Island Sound.

Miller is a close friend of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and served as treasurer of Malloy’s campaign committees.

The sale has been approved by the vessels’ state-appointed receiver, Katherine B. Sacks.

“This is a group of people with experience both in the maritime world, the tall ship world and the nonprofit world,” Sacks told The Day. The $315,000 sales price was based on a recent survey by the well-known surveyor Capt. Paul C. Haley. Haley initially pegged the schooner’s value at $550,000, but later revised that figure downward.

His written report explained that the Amistad was “exceptionally well built with good materials,” but that the market for passenger schooners is not good.

The schooner was never offered for sale or put up for auction, which would have been another way to determine its value.

Current plans call for Amistad to remain in New London as a dockside attraction until late October, when it

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will go to Mystic Seaport for a winter layup and overhaul.

H Thanks to Marine Group Boat Works, the San Diego Maritime Museum’s San Salvador replica was launched in July.

The replica of the first European ship to explore the coast of California was lowered into the water and christened on July 29 at Bayside Park in Chula Vista, adjacent to Marine Group Boat Works. The ship was christened by Mrs. Vi McKinney and Carolyn Sharp.

The launch was several months in the planning. First, the vessel had to be moved from her build site at Spanish Landing. This required carefully rotating the San Salvador.

Once that was done, a heavy load trailer and barge donated

by Marine Group Boat Works was dispatched to the build site. A temporary bridge was built between land and barge.

The heavy-load trailer was then slipped underneath the ship.

On Tuesday, the day before the launch, the trailer inched its way back across the narrow bridge and onto the barge, which then slowly floated south to Marine Group Boat Works.

Once at Marine Group Boat Works, it was easy work for the 300-ton travel lift to pick up San Salvador to prepare her for her launching.

Uprigging of the vessel began immediately. San Salvador made her public debut during San Diego’s Festival of Sail on Labor Day weekend.

H The Schooner Ladona was launched in 1922 in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, as a private yacht for the Loring family. Named for the Civil War gunship upon which Homer Loring’s father served, she cruised, raced, and during WWII served with the US Navy as a submarine patrol out of New York Harbor.

After the war she was renamed the Jane Doré and worked as a fishing dragger out of Stonington, Connecticut. She was renovated in 1971 as a sail-training vessel, renamed the Nathaniel Bowditch, and eventually entered the Maine Windjammer fleet.

Jane Barnes christens Forty years later, the rebuilt LADONA under the stewardship of Captain Noah and Jane Barnes, she has undergone a complete reconstruction.

Having owned and operated the schooner Stephen Taber since 2004, the Barneses lend considerable expertise to the project. Starting in June 2016, the fully-restored Ladona will set sail from Rockland, Maine, for three- to six-day cruises.

Several years ago, when we launched our series of Rum & Revolution cruises aboard the schooner Fame, I was very excited to offer a reasonably authentic Grog, which I made with muscovado sugar, water, freshsqueezed lime juice, and Pusser’s Rum. Nobody much cared for it. Over the years I’ve discovered that the more I dumb down my recipe — now just two ingredients, cheap rum and store-bought lime juice — the more popular it is. — MR

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Grog

Any dark or spiced rum Simple Lime or Newman’s Own Lime Juice Mix with salt air, fiddle-playing, chanteys and a sunset.

Repeat.

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Ladona aims to provide an upscale windjammer experience. Cabin options include four queens, three cabins with two twin bunks, and two singles. There are three showers, four heads, hot and cold running water in cabins and heads, and power outlets in all cabins and heads.

J. R. Braugh, with over twenty years working in Maine’s historic windjammer fleet, will be the captain.

Anna Miller will be the chef.

H The schooner Virginia was finally listed for sale this spring, but has yet to find a buyer.

Virginia was launched by the Virginia Maritime Heritage Foundation in 2005, providing an educational resource for youth and adults. She conducted sail training voyages, appeared at numerous maritime festivals in the Chesapeake Bay and on the East Coast, and made voyages

to Nova Scotia, Bermuda, and the Caribbean. In 2007, she set a course record for the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race.

Sailing operations were funded by student and adult bookings, appearance fees, donations and public funds.

But according to the VMHF, “The 2008 recession led to a substantial drop in philanthropic support and the disappearance of public funding. Despite the mending economy, bookings, charters, appearance fees and contributions from private donors have failed to reach a level adequate to sustain the ship’s continued operation by the VMHF.” Inquiries regarding Virginia should be directed to Harry Morgan of Sparkman & Stephens at (203) 6874535.

H Dorade has completed a four-year campaign to repeat

for Schooner HIGHLANDER SEA Two-masted schooner, currently laid up dockside. 1924, oak on oak. Located Gloucester, MA. Asking $2,000,000.

Schooner VIRGINIA Two-masted schooner launched in 2005 for sail training. Laminated white oak frames with wana planking. 98 GRT. Located Norfolk, VA. Asking $1,800,000.

Schooner HALIE & MATTHEW Bald-headed schooner in the Maine Windjammer trade. 2006, fiberglass. Located Eastport, ME. COI for 100 on deck, 50 overnight. Asking $1,400,000.

Schooner VICTORY CHIMES Three-masted schooner in the Maine Windjammer trade. 1900, oak on oak. Located Camden, ME. COI for 50. Asking $925,000.

HIGHLANDER SEA

Schooner HERITAGE Two-masted schooner in the Maine Windjammer trade. 1983, oak on oak. Located Rockland, ME. COI for 30 overnight. Asking $895,500.

Schooner AMERICAN EAGLE Bald-headed schooner in the Maine Windjammer trade. 1930, oak on oak. Located Rockland, ME. COI for 56 daysails, 28 overnight. SOLAS and PSSC. Asking $750,000.

M. RILEY

Schooner UNICORN Topsail schooner, currently a sail-training ship. 1947, steel. Located Lunenburg, NS. COI 12 daysails, 6 overnight.

Asking $375,000.

“Pirate Ship” FORMIDABLE Brigantine. 2000, steel. Located Gloucester, MA. COI 49 daysails. Asking $349,900.

Sloop PROVIDENCE Replica of Revolutionary War sloop. 1976, fiberglass. Located Newport, RI. 59 GRT. COI for 40 daysails. Being sold as a project after she blew off her jackstands this winter; spars broke and a jackstand pushed through the port side.

Asking $295,000.

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I live in New Smyrna Beach, Florida and sail out Ponce DeLeon Inlet. I feel that NSB is one of the best beaches in the world due to the ocean access, leisure lifestyle and great waves. It’s the surfing capitol of the East Coast and though it’s more of a boating than sailing haven, it has a strong sailing culture maintained by the local yacht and sailing clubs. The town is probably one of the most laid-back places I've ever lived in and the local city council tries to keep it that way.

The town was founded in 1763 by the British, transferred to the Spanish, then over to the US. Ponce Inlet is the only access to the ocean from the ICW for 50 miles in either direction and is the northern limit of the Indian River Lagoon, the most ecologically diverse estuary in the US. — Tom Briggs, SV Tula Post a photo of your favorite beach to our facebook page, or e-mail us at marlinspike1812@gmail.com

all of the major ocean races she won in the 1930s, finishing up on the podium at the 2015 Rolex Fastnet Race, where she took second in IRC Class 4 and seventh overall out of 356 boats.

A 52’ wooden yawl built in 1930 by Olin and Rod Stephens, Dorade was the oldest boat to compete in this year’s Fastnet. Finishing the 615-mile race in four days, six hours, owners Matt Brooks and Pam Rorke Levy of San Francisco and their seven-man crew cut more than 24 hours off Rod and Olin Stephens’ original time when they won the Fastnet in 1931.

Dorade first made headlines in the 1931 Transatlantic Race from Newport, Rhode Island to Plymouth, England, when Olin and Rod Stephens — just 21 and 22 years old at the time — sailed their narrow, deep-keeled wooden yawl to victory against a fleet of much larger fisherman-type schooners owned by some of the world’s richest men.

That performance was followed by victories in the 1931 and 1933 Fastnet Races and the 1936 Transpacific Race, launching the Stephens brothers in the boat building business and establishing them as two of the sport’s most gifted innovators. Following those early victories, Dorade’s design continued to influence the design of sailboats for decades, and Olin Stephens went on to become one of the 20th century’s most respected and successful marine architects, designing and building hundreds of boats, including

six winners of the America’s Cup. This year’s Fastnet Race was the final event in Brooks and Levy’s ambitious “Return to Blue Water” campaign, which began shortly after the couple purchased Dorade in 2010. The goal of the campaign was to restore the 80year-old Dorade to ocean-racing condition and repeat all four of the major ocean races she won in the 1930s. In just four years the boat has sailed more than 18,000 miles on her own bottom, competing in offshore and coastal races throughout Europe, the Caribbean, and North America.

“We simply wanted to finish every race in good order and show that a classic boat designed decades ago to race in the ocean could once again be competitive,” said Levy.

“We wanted to do Olin and Rod Stephens proud, showing that a boat they built when they were just getting started was not just a revolutionary new design but a design with enduring value.”

After spending the winter in Newport, Brooks and Levy plan to continue campaigning Dorade around the world, beginning in June 2016 with the 50th Anniversary of the Newport Bermuda Race. b Do you have news for Boats, Bars & Beaches? Send it to us at marlinspike1812@gmail.com

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of the

Brion Toss has almost 40 years of rigging experience on tall ships and yachts.

The author of the influential book The Rigger’s Apprentice, he is actively rigging boats, leading workshops, giving consultations and speaking to groups all over the world. In 1978 he established Brion Toss Yacht Riggers, which is based at the Point Hudson Marina in Port Townsend, WA. Marlinspike: How does a kid from Kentucky get involved in rigging sailing vessels?

Brion Toss: I’m only peripherally from Kentucky. My family was very nomadic and moved about every year and a half, on average, right through my twenties. Kentucky was just a place to get born.

I grew up mostly in Seattle and had no connection with boats until somebody handed me a copy of The Encyclopedia of Knots and Fancy Ropework, published in 1946. Horrible book, terrible illustrations, and very few black and white photographs, but I just fell into a rabbit hole. I just fell into that book. I can still remember the sensation. I just became obsessed, and surfaced briefly around Christmas when my family gave me Ashley’s Book of Knots—a much better book—and I pretty much went ADD on knots for a couple of years until I began asking myself, what can you do with these things?

That led into rigging. And—like any healthy art—that ultimately led me to people. I was sort of tricked out of my hermitic inclinations, because rigging is about people using energy. And eventually all those resolutions of forces in the running and standing rigging come back to some human being who is trying focus them all, balance them all. And that’s a lovely thing to be involved with.

MS: I read somewhere that your first rigging job was selling fancywork to gift stores.

BT: Yeah, I was still just tying knots for their own 40

sakes, kind of. I made turks-heads and buttons and such and that branched out into more nautical things. Mats.

Then someone brought me a fender to cover, and that was sort of fun and interesting. And then Colleen Wagner from the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle saw my booth at the University Street Fair and invited me to the first Lake Union Wooden Boat Show. This was back in the 1970s.

That was a hit, and then people started asking for splices, which are interesting knots in themselves, and then someone asked me if I could splice wire, so I kind of threw my hat over the fence and said, “Sure!”

Then I had the good fortune to meet Nick Benton at the first Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival—that same year, I believe. He taught me how to splice wire, and serve, and to think like a rigger, really. I got to work with him far too little before his unfortunate death. But yeah, by then I was well on the road.

MS: In the eighties you wrote a very influential book called The Rigger’s Apprentice. How did that come about?

BT: I think I may have an evangelical streak. I love the art, I think it’s the most beautiful thing, and it’s underlain by so many of the gifts of civilization which I had previously ignored, such as trigonometry… the nature and magnitude of loads… the resolution of forces in general. It’s a beautiful art and I love it. And I like to write as well.

Up until then, I had written a couple of brief articles, but The Rigger’s Apprentice more than anything was driven by a wonderful chance meeting at the second Wooden Boat

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Festival in Seattle.

There was this crazy sailmaker next to me who had just recently returned from Costa Rica. He and I ended up renting a loft upstairs at the City Hall in Anacortes, this 95’ by 55’ room with bathrooms and showers and gas heat for $150 a month! It was this astonishing gift, basically, and he made sails, and I made rigging, and we both thought, we want to tell people about this stuff! So we promised each other that we would write books on our respective arts.

Your readers might know the name of Emiliano Marino, who wrote (eventually) The Sailmaker’s Apprentice. I beat him to press with my book, The Rigger’s Apprentice, which resulted from that mutual promise.

MS: I think my favorite knot from that book is the Dragon Bowline, which I show to our campers every summer.

BT: [Laughs] Yeah, that one is worthy of build-up! We recently did a weekend workshop here, and we always make a big production of the Dragon Bowline. “Do you think they’re ready for the Dragon Bowline yet?” “No, no, they’re not ready yet, better show them some other things first.”

And then you show it to them, finally, and they throw things at you.

And that’s a great thing to be able to accomplish, litigation being such a harmful process. I think it was Voltaire who said, “I’ve been ruined twice in my life—one when I lost a lawsuit, and the other time when I won.” It’s just a horrible experience for all parties.

Apart from that, the work I enjoy the most is solving puzzles in layout. Mainsheets in particular come to mind.

I’m working on a couple now.

The mainsheet is the most frequently adjusted piece of string on most sailboats, and way too often, it’s far less than optimal in terms of purchase. Too much, too little, geometry, location, ergonomics relative to other things, and/or the crew.

How do you satisfy all the demands placed on how to build this mainsheet? That keeps the mind alive, and it’s always fun to install this stuff, to put it in and to see it working. There’s a mental aspect, there’s a physical aspect, and I

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MS: You’ve rigged everything from yachts to squareriggers. What kind of rigging work do you enjoy most?

BT: I have to say: the most puzzle-oriented projects.

I love the physical work, I love the difficulty and even danger of working aloft, and hopefully I’ll be able to do that for a few more years. I love all that, but recently I’ve been fortunate—and unhappy sometimes—to serve as an expert witness in court cases. Unhappy in that usually these cases involve someone who has been injured or killed. Happy because I am able to make a difference, and it’s very interesting to try to figure these things out.

I got some good advice as I started out in this, which is that a good expert witness report is one that could have been written for either side in the lawsuit. It’s utterly impartial. It’s just, “Here are the facts, here’s the explanation for what happened.” And the report is so thorough and compelling and immutably perfect that people don’t want to continue with the suit. It’s so good that the lawyers both say, “Well, there’s no point in going on with this.”

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Continued from page 41 guess I like both sides.

MS: What advice do you have for young people learning the craft of rigging right now?

BT: That they’re not. And I say that for a couple of reasons.

In high school I was a good student, but there was one class where I told myself, “I am never going to use this stuff,” and that was trigonometry. [But] it’s this huge gift, this amazingly powerful stuff, so profound, so valuable, and if you do not understand it, you’re not doing rigging, you’re doing fabrication. Fabrication in the absence of knowledge, which is a dangerous thing.

It’s embarrassing to see the stuff that people come up with and call traditional rigging because they don’t understand the motivation or the underpinning behind why things take certain shapes.

That’s why you get a lot of “traditional” rigs that are irresponsibly built and/or maintained.

The other reason I say “they’re not” is that, at the moment, we are remaking tradition at a rapid rate. Until the invention of synthetic materials and Bermudian rigging, there was a very slow evolution of rigging over centuries—over millennia, really.

And then there was this big side trip into what we call modern rigging and contemporary rigging. But now we’re looking at new materials, himodulus fibers, soft shackles; we’re splicing hi-modulus rope, and we’re making standing rigging out of rope again for the first time in a couple of hundred years!

It isn’t exactly traditional, so we have to realize we have a steep learning curve, and what we actually call traditional isn’t archaic anymore. We have to take the responsibility back, which means learning the skills and also learning the engineering underpinnings behind those skills.

Because of that change and because of the very marked absence of the intellectual side of rigging among sailors— and not just young ones—I don’t think people out there are really doing traditional rigging, for the most part. I urge them to do traditional rigging, and that means understanding the forces involved. You don’t need to know pi to the 42

“If you’re not connecting your splice with all those forces that are flowing through the boat, then all you’ve got is a pretty splice. Rigging is an art, not a dilettante pastime.”

— Brion Toss 19th place. But if you don’t understand the concept of vectors, for instance, you’re not going to be able to design brace pendants, or anything else.

And that will help keep it alive. I mean, you can only serve so many miles of shrouds before you go batshit crazy! As satisfying as it is to splice wire or rope, it’s just a hand skill. It can be gratifying, and good for the soul, and contemplative and all that, but in order to be a rigger, and maybe in order to be happy, you need to do more than just turn out nice stuff.

It’s just a little precious to say, “Look at my splice, isn’t it pretty?” What’s the load on that splice? What’s the safety factor? What happens if that splice breaks? What’s it attached to? What the pounds-per-square-inch force on the sails that are driving the loads on this rigging?

What’s the righting moment of that boat?

If you’re not connecting your splice with all those forces that are flowing through the boat, then all you’ve got is a pretty splice. Rigging is an art, not a dilettante pastime.

A lot of kids think you get an earring, a marlinspike, and a tattoo, and all of a sudden you’re a bosun. This is a terrible syndrome which is really prevalent in traditional rigging.

Everybody wants to have a sense of style, and sense of place, and sense of confidence, but don’t settle for the surface manifestations, whether it’s an earring or the ability to splice wire. Those are just things you do at the end of a long process of decision-making. And that process is where the meat is! That’s the stuff that will hold your interest. That’s the stuff that will keep you and your shipmates alive. b

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ADVENTURESS

Photo by Jan Anderson

CAPTAIN / RELIEF CAPTAIN CAPTAIN Schooner Pioneer Schooner Pioneer seeks a full-time Master. Pioneer sails seasonally in NY Harbor on school programs, charters and pax sails, and travels to nearby ports. Requires leadership skills with paid crew/volunteers, and broad demonstrated experience in traditional sailing vessel(s). USCG Master 100GRT w/aux sail minimum. Is a key member in Museum management.

Must work closely, productively, and collegially with peers. Hires, trains, and manages all relief crew.

Pioneer operates with challenges including high current, piloting in restricted visibility, dense commercial traffic, etc. Winner of 2012 Sail Training Program of the Year. This post is full time, year-round, salaried in the 40s, including medical, dental and vision, and also in a defined benefits pension.

South Street Seaport Museum is an equal opportunity employer.

Email: jboulware@seany.org 12 Fulton St. New York NY 10038 Tel: (212) 748-8600 CAPTAIN Sloop Clearwater The 106’ sloop Clearwater is an all-wood work boat, a replica of sloops that sailed the Hudson River in the 18th and 19th centuries. Clearwater’s “cargo” is a message of care and concern for the environment, especially the Hudson River and its surrounding waterways. The Captain is an ambassador of Clearwater’s environmental agenda and acts accordingly.

Clearwater is owned by the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., a nonprofit environmental education organization. Clearwater crew provides a solid schedule of onboard education programs for schools, educational groups, adult programs and members.

Clearwater is a Coast Guard-inspected vessel sailing from the tidewater reaches of the Hudson River, including greater New York Harbor, northern New Jersey and Long Island Sound. Typically, the season runs from early April through the end of October. The captains work ten days on the boat, then work five office days, and five days off before getting back on board.

See detailed job descriptions at www.clearwater.org.

Applicants should send their resume with a cover letter specifying which positions they’re interested in to office@clearwater.org.

MATE / BOSUN / ENGINEER MATE Schooner Roseway Schedule: Full Time on Rotation Pay: Commensurate with Experience Job includes all aspects of tall ship sailing, both coastal and offshore, as well as an ability and desire to work with kids of all ages, in both day and overnight programs. Applicants must be licensed and have experience in the maritime industry, preferably on tall ships. They must be an enthusiastic, flexible, and energetic leader with experience in the industry. Positions are live aboard. Pay is commensurate with experience.

For application and details, visit www.worldoceanschool.org MATES, BOSUN, ENGINEER Sloop Clearwater Clearwater is currently accepting applications for all deck positions (1st Mate, 2nd Mate, Cook, Engineer, Bosun, Deckhand and Apprentices) for the Fall 2015 season (July 15th through November 1st 2015). You will be working with a crew of 10-18 people (some volunteers) delivering Clearwater’s education program to 4th-12th graders as well as occasional programs for adults. Applicants with prior educational/sailing experience are preferred.

Applicants should have strong communication skills, an active interest in education and an ability to work/live in a close knit community. Crew members work a 5-day-on, 2-day-off schedule. Our fall sailing season will end in early October for an extended haulout this winter. All crew are required

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to pass a pre-employment drug test and background check. Compensation includes room and board.

See detailed job descriptions at: http://www.clearwater.org/the-sloop/crew/.

Applicants should send their resume with a cover letter specifying which positions they’re interested in to office@clearwater.org.

DECKHAND DECKHAND / INTERN Brigantines Irving Johnson and Exy Johnson Los Angeles Maritime Institute (LAMI), based in San Pedro, CA, is seeking energetic team players with a passion for working with youth on tall ships.

Come live aboard one of our twin brigantines and join our fun, dedicated volunteers in sailing out of LA Harbor to Catalina and the Channel Islands.

Our fall and winter seasons are filling with sails this year, and we'll be delivering character-building, adventure-based learning to under-served students from the LA area and beyond. First Aid/CPR certification and square sail experience preferred, but not essential. Background check and drug test required. There is some contract flexibility.

Send us a resume and a cover letter that includes an answer to the following question: if you could put a group of kids on one of our vessels, along with a person from any time in history who inspires you, and take with them anywhere in the world, who would the person be, where would you go, and why?

Phone: (310) 833.6055 Fax: (310) 548.2055 Email: crewing@lamitopsail.org DECKHAND / INTERN Schooner Roseway Schedule: One Year Contract Pay: Monthly Stipend. Job includes all aspects of tall ship sailing, both coastal and offshore, as well as an ability and desire to work with kids of all ages, in both day and overnight programs. While previous experience is not required, applicants should be energetic, flexible, and eager to learn.

Positions are live aboard and require at least a twelve-month commitment aboard Roseway. Room and board are provided aboard.

For application and details, visit www.worldoceanschool.org WINTER APPRENTICES Sloop Clearwater Winter Apprentices work for one to two months alongside the crew of the Clearwater under the direction of the maintenance coordinator in Kingston, NY. Apprentices are responsible for participating in a variety of maintenance tasks needed to keep a historic wooden vessel sailing. Such tasks may include: sanding, painting, varnishing, cleaning, organizing, moving wood, shoveling snow, breaking ice, and various small carpentry projects.

Winter Apprentices should be prepared work long hours outside in the cold. Living space at a crew apartment and a limited food budget are provided, along with a stipend of $100 per week.

Applicants must be willing to work outside in cold weather. Experience doing maintenance projects is a plus, but will train the right person.

Eagerness to learn new skills and be a part of the Clearwater community is essential.

To apply, visit: http://www.clearwater.org/about/job-opportunities/ Please send resumes and cover letters to office@clearwater.org.

DECKHAND / EDUCATOR Schooner Adventuress Nonprofit Sound Experience, which owns and operates the 102 year-old National Historic Landmark schooner, Adventuress, as Puget Sound’s environmental tall ship, will soon be inviting applications for its winter dockside season and 2016 sailing season (spring/summer and summer/fall). To learn more about joining the crew of Adventuress as a paid educator/crew mem ber or volunteer, email Amy Kovacs at amy@soundexp.org.

For more information about Sound Experience’s mission and programs, please visit our website at www.soundexp.org. b

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ROSEWAY was built as a fishing yacht in 1925 in Essex, Massachusetts. She was named after an acquaintance of the owner’s “who always got her way.”

In 1941 she was purchased by the Boston Pilots Association. She served the pilots for 32 years and was the last pilot schooner in the United States when she was retired in 1973.

ROSEWAY then became a Windjammer and continued in the tourist industry in Camden for many years until she was repossessed by the First National Bank of Damariscotta. In 2002, the bank donated ROSEWAY to the World Ocean School. She was towed to Sample’s Shipyard in Boothay Harbor where she underwent a complete restoration.

In May 2006 ROSEWAY and the World Ocean School relocated to Boston. In November of that year, ROSEWAY embarked on a passage to St. Croix, where she spent the winter serving island students.

St. Croix has now become the winter home port for ROSEWAY. She still summers in the Northeast, primarily in Boston, providing education programs and day sails for the public.

Photo by Jenny Villone

ALEXANDRA BARBERIO

Growing up in Venezuela I was a big fan of Jacques Cousteau. I wanted to study marine biology. So as I was about to graduate from high school my father suggested that I should take a trip on Regina Maris, a 144', three-masted barkentine run

by Ocean Research and Education Society (ORES) out of Gloucester, MA. Regina had just transited the Panama Canal and was preparing for a trip to the Galapagos.

At 16 years of age, I was the youngest member of the crew. Not only did we sail to the Galapagos, but I learned to navigate by the sun and stars, I learned to repair the rigging, and I learned how to steer a ship. When we arrived in Costa Rica I decided to stay aboard as a deckhand. I sailed aboard for another two legs, one to Mazatlan and another up the Sea of Cortez.

I moved to Miami in 1979 to attend college. I wanted to study marine biology, but I fell in love, married and soon we had a baby. I changed majors to computer science and put marine biology behind me. I never forgot Regina, though. Almost as soon as the internet was a thing I was searching for her with little luck. Then I learned about Regina’s demise. She was docked in New Jersey in serious need of repair. A storm was coming, and to save her they decided to sink her so she could weather the storm. Afterward, when they tried to raise her, they broke her hull amidships and she was scrapped.

I had started a blog about Regina and through it I found a couple of people who had sailed aboard or knew of Regina.

Then facebook happened, and someone started a group for the Friends and Crew of the Regina Maris. In 2013 we had a reunion in Gloucester. I saw people I hadn’t seen in over 30 years. It was a bittersweet time.

After the reunion I decided I'd get Regina tattooed on my arm. I gathered my photos and went to talk to Loco Dharma, a local tattoo artist. I had in mind at first a photo of Regina from amidships but he said that would make the tattoo too small. He suggested we use a photo of Regina’s bow. So now I carry her with me everywhere I go. — Alessandro Abate

The best thing about Bernie Noon’s spike is that it didn’t cost him a cent.

Bernie is a retired firefighter who keeps himself busy working on the schooner Fame in Salem, Massachusetts. Bernie helped build Fame eleven years ago, and nowadays he is in charge of uprigging and downrigging. Bernie also helped build and later crewed on the Thomas Lannon out of Gloucester.

“I made this spike while we were building the Fame. It was one of the carriage bolts we used to fasten the butt-ends of the planks, and it had somehow got bent. So I cut it off before the threads and then used the belt sander at the boatyard to get the shape right. Then I fine-sanded it.”

There’s a Turk’s Head around the head of the spike as well as a small lanyard and, of course, a custom leather sheath.

“The nice thing about the silicon bronze is that you can polish it to a fare-thee-well, and it’s absolutely beautiful. I call it the Precious.

“Touch it, touch it — I know you want to touch it!

“On the other hand,” Bernie admits, “the bronze is pretty soft. A regular spike, made out of hardened steel, you can use to loosen a shackle. If you did that with this spike, you’d bend the tip of it.”

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CRANE STOOKEY

The Value of Panic “Ralph” had been part of the building crew on the Sea helm steer the opposite way, and getting the rowers to row School’s second 30-foot expedition boat, the Elizabeth Hall. on one side of the boat only, we were able to use our backward motion to get the boat turned. We were closer to the He sailed on the boat’s 10-day maiden voyage from Halifax rocks than ever, but heading in the right direction, and now to Lunenburg as Leading Crew, the step between being a able to make progress. We rowed like hell for 10 minutes, trainee and being an assistant instructor. So we gave him a everyone throwing their whole weight onto the oars, so lot of responsibility. much so that their butts lifted off the benches with each On the second to last day of the trip, when the whole stroke, and we turned into the cove’s narrow entrance and crew had really come together as sailors and were taking glided suddenly into still, sheltered water. I gave command command of the boat, we had a boisterous, rollicking sail in back to Ralph, and he skillfully, if a bit strong wind, rolling waves and bright sunshine. Everyone shakily, got us safely anchored. was thrilled, not just by the exciting The crew were bug-eyed at what we weather but also by their new comhad pulled off. Some of them, including petence, handling the boat in these Ralph, had been quite scared. The challenging conditions. We told advantage of running a training proRalph to take command to bring us gram is that the instructors have so into the cove where we planned to much more experience than the anchor for the night. trainees that what is really a manageThe cove lay behind a rocky shore able situation for the instructor can with only a narrow entrance into shelseem like the brink of doom to the tered water. The wind was blowing trainees. I let Ralph get closer to the strong straight onto the rocks and we shore than I was comfortable with, but not closer than I were having a sleigh ride of a sail down knew I could handle. We did not get so close to the rocks the waves toward them. It had been such an exciting day that we couldn’t still stop the boat by anchoring and regain that I had had to periodically remind Ralph and others in control at our leisure, and I had moved up next to the the crew to get out of their roller coaster mentality and pay anchor in case. closer attention to their work. Ralph and I had been planShould I have taken control sooner and insisted that ning his approach to the cove, how to start early enough to Ralph start to reduce sail at a more cautious distance? Was I have room to maneuver, when to take down which sails, who in the crew to assign which task. Then I watched to see wrong to frighten people so much? I don’t think so. It was my job to be sure people were safe, but this does not mean I what he would do.

Ralph hadn’t often handled the boat in these conditions, should have deprived Ralph of his panic. His panic can show him far more about his own caution and competence than I and thought he could get the sails down easily as we did in milder conditions. He barreled along toward the coast much ever could.

What I needed to do was let his panic be friction, while farther than I was comfortable with. Finally he gave the being careful that it did not become chafe, grinding down command to turn the boat toward the wind, get sails down his confidence and making him doubt his resilience. When and oars out for rowing. But when we turned back toward the wind and waves for this maneuver the roller coaster van- we were safely anchored, we discussed the event with the whole crew, and I apologized for taking command from ished immediately, replaced by the bucking bronco. With too much sail still up, we were being driven sideways toward Ralph without asking him. He would certainly have said yes, but my abrupt rejection of his authority added needlessly to the shore. Getting the sails down in that wind was a struggle, so we drifted farther. We finally got oars out and people his sense of failure. I treated him like a kid. Instead, I should have let Ralph give me command, in front of everyone, like a rowing, but the wind was too strong to row against. We needed to turn the boat toward the entrance to the cove, but junior colleague, rather than just taking it. At least I gave the crew was rowing with all their might, the person steering him back the command in front of everyone as we entered had the helm hard over, and still we were going backward, the cove so he could complete the day himself. b toward the rocks.

At this point I had to step in and take command from Excerpted from Crane’s book, Keep Your People in the Ralph. He joined the rowers. By having the person at the Boat — Workforce Engagement Lessons from the Sea. MarlinspikeMagazine.com 47