Giffy Full told me that I should check out Rockport Marine because there was some good work going on there. He’s right. This is the first time in many months that I had a hard time finding a parking space at a boatyard. I didn’t have much time to spend there but the sheds are full and there are some interesting projects going. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of a twin-screw power boat in for a refit. Not many places that can make them like that anymore. To see more just google rockport marine and pick the maine one. Giffy will be talking about Rockport Marine on the Oct 13 show. a.s.
Rumors lately say that George McKay, the prime motivator behind Raw Faith, has decided to put a motor in the boat according to his son. I went to Rockland where the boat has been on anchor for a long time to see how things are progressing. As you can see the boat appears to have all of its standing rigging in place and three sails bent on. All searches of raw faith websites failed and the harbormaster’s office has no way of contacting the boat, so there you go and there it sits. I’ll update this entry as more information becomes available. a.s.
The November issue of Fisherman’s Voice has a nice long article on Raw Faith. a.s. 11/08/09
2nd Annual Boattalk Semi-dinner Cruise Report
It didn’t make any sense to go over to Seal Harbor and visit Martha and the Rockefellers because of the fog. And the only entrant in the Martha Stewart Recipe Boattalk Potluck Challenge had more cents than culinary skill- he tried to pass off some supermarket sushi as from the Martha Entertains With Hanafords not -a- book. No prize there. But there was plenty of good food, a full boat of good people and the wall of fog we entered as we left Northeast Harbor only added atmosphere.
The second annual Boattalk semi-dinner cruise was wicked good. We are indebted to Bar Harbor Cruises and the Sea Princess with Captain Andy Allen at the helm. We are also grateful to the cruisers who helped raise $800 for community radio WERU and generously filled the tip jar which we gave back to the boat. It’s good to be good to people who are trying to be good to you.
Like last year there was some tension about the weather. The sun was sort of almost out in Northeast as we filled the boat but the mouth of the harbor was a fuzzy white wall. Not a navigational or entertainment hazard, the fog, which was really only kind of medium, was like being in a scenic moving watercolor. Just outside the harbor we watched the beautiful new Morris 52 “daysailor” showing her bottom as she sailed out of and back into the mystic, hard on the wind on a port tack. We headed over to Southwest Harbor for an anchorage tour and then up Somes Sound, the only fiord on the east coast, which was, as often, less foggy than outside. Valley Cove is always a stunning spot and I’m telling you having the mountain which plunges into the water and makes it so deep next to the shore cut off halfway up by the fog didn’t make it less so. Just up-sound we visited Man-O-War Brook where a bit of a waterfall tumbles into the sea 10-fathoms deep right next to the shore and where ships used to take on fresh water–and where a pair of eagles sat watching us. Wave to the eagles–it’s always a good sign.
The top of the sound has two sides and we went west into Somesville Harbor first. The house with the cement beam cantilever over the cliff and the water is a perfect example of a Maine scene you can only see by water. My neighbor, who is a landscaper, pointed out some of his work he had never seen from the water side. Isn’t it all about point of view and good to be able to see things from different ones? We also checked out the boats at Henry R. Abel’s, yacht yard and lobster pound, on the eastside and then headed back to the dock. A three hour cruise, Gilligan wasn’t on it and there were no pirates. We’re sorry if you missed it.
Not just because of the fog, there was plenty going on inside the boat as well as out. In addition to the general good eating and BYOB-ing, Alan provided commentary on the Mr. Microphone PA and I visited around telling stories. We got some heavy gossip on the long time Boattalk subject Raw Faith we can’t talk about on the radio. For instance. More fun, we had a happy birthday to Judy sing along. And the ultimate in participatory feedback, Capt. Yo, a usual Boattalk suspect and the master of Annie McGee, my favorite little pinky schooner, brought a beautifully carved cedar full hull model of the Sea Princess herself (designed by our senior whenever he can co-host Giffy Full) and showed it off with commentary. Yo told how interested a kid who saw him floating it in Echo Lake was. Imagine a kid, a model boat and a pond with no digital video anything in sight. It’s all old school and no telling what sticks with a kid. The young lady from Penobscot who spent her time in the wheelhouse with Andy had never steered a boat before…
Almost too much fun. Maybe the second annual Boattalk semi-dinner cruise was even better than the first ,but that would have to be your judgment call. There were people who can compare and other people already planning to bring more friends next time. We are under some pressure to add a fall edition. There is also the possibility of a trip out of another harbor: Belfast-Camden- Rockland? All we would need is you and a boat.
As I told Alan after–sometimes I’m proud to know him. And how much fun it is to play an expert on the radio and share some of the boat in Boattalk with you. Are you on the boat? We can always talk about it.
Boattalk Galley-talk: I like to say a good trick is one that keeps working, Alan and I have been working on ours and some people even liked them. By request here is some recipe on Alan’s semi-famous green chile salsa and my re-occurring feta spinach quiche which really comes from Morning Maine host Karen Frangoulis.
Feta-spinach quiche: I’m not an over organized measurer but here is the idea–cream together feta and cream cheese, beat in eggs and some milk. Add some sauteed spinach and onion, salt and pepper of course. I put basil on anything and nutmeg is good with spinach or what ever you think. Pour into a pie shell and bake till golden brown. This time I added hunks of avocado. Whatever the proportions, it kind of has to be good.
Mike Joyce / July 09
Alan’s green salsa: First it is very important that you make this at least a week in advance to let the flavors meld together. This makes a large quart of salsa, so you can cut the measurements in half to make enough for just a few people (2 1/2 or less), but the left over salsa makes a great additive for stews, meatloaf, and tuna salad.
Destem and trim bottoms off 12 tomatillos. Chop and drain the tomatillos while you process the rest. Save the drained juice for a fine reduction sauce. Prep and chop a vidallia onion. Chop very fine six jalapeno peppers then add and chop two poblano peppers. Mix the peppers and onion in a medium bowl, add 1/4 cup lime juice, 1/8 cup green habanero sauce, and 1/4 cup sugar. Add tomatillos, stir all, cover and put in the fridge stirring occasionally for several days. A few hours before you are ready to serve, chop and add a bunch of cilantro. Enjoy.
Alan Sprague / July 09
The way things worked out we could have slept for a couple of more hours. We stayed on the boat Sunday night, ready to leave at first light- just as soon as we could see to dodge the lobster pots. The first lobster boat went by at 4:10 AM. Jay was snoring away louder than a minimally muffled fisherman. I launched out of the bunk and realized it wasn’t morning yet. By 5 AM though I got things fired up, the boatyard’s inflatable tied off on the mooring, and we were headed out of Bass Harbor bound for Greenwich Conneticut in a very sweet Morris M42.
We could have slept in because the next morning we were tied to the fuel dock at the Cape Cod Canal an hour before they were open for business. And the morning after that we entered Greenwich Harbor in the dark and tied up in front of a hotel in sound and sight of I-95 at ten to 5 AM. Bass Harbor, Maine to Greenwich, Conneticut, approximately 300 nautical miles, in 48 hours. Hard to have a better trip.
Through the winters I think about delivering boats and wonder that it is one of my happy places. That gets quickly reconfirmed. Boat delivery is a sometimes strange but often wonderfull job. Nice work if you can get it we say. And of course sometimes it can suck. There can be lots of different reasons.
A few years ago we were bringing a 40 footer back to Bass Harbor from Newport, Rhode Island and things were sucking particularly badly when I had a break through moment. On that trip there was a chance the owner was coming with us and we were assured his wife had provisioned the boat. Beef cup-a-soup and granola bars was about it. I don’t eat beef soup and I forgot the honey for my tea. And the weather wasn’t very good, it was wet and strongly wrong winded. In Buzzards Bay we had an unexpected jibe which snapped an old preventer line which made the traveller, and so the mainsail, unusable.
So on a Sunday morning we were crossing the Gulf of Maine cold, wet and underfed, motorsailing with just the jib in 10-12 foot confused seas. Greg, the captain, was unusually sick and I was on watch waiting for the sun to rise and feeling somewhat sorry for myself . Along came a gull to check us out, first flying by but then circling back to swoop down the cushion of air on the jib. Very gracefully pirouetting, the bird landed in front of the charging boat and just before being run down jumped up and did it again. And again- swoop land fly- and again, maybe a dozen times. This bird was clearly playing while I was miserable. The sun rose and I started to notice that as unpleasant as the sea was, it was also wild and beautiful. Remembering that attitude makes the difference between an ordeal and an adventure, it came to me that miserable or not there was nowhere I would rather be, even when it sucks. Since that Sunday morning the Gulf of Maine has also been known for me as church. It makes me want to sing.
Oh people look amoung you
It’s there your hope must lie
There’s a seabird above you
Gliding in one place
Like Jesus in the sky
-from “Rock Me On the Water” by Jackson Browne
Whale ho! Not even wondering if Jay was asleep I made the traditional call. At about 3 in the afternoon we were motorsailing tight to the wind with just the mainsail up. On a rhumb line course from Frenchboro to the tip of Cape Cod we were about 40 nuatical miles outside Muscongus Bay. On watch, checking the horizon and reading some Huckleberry Finn, I was quite startled to glance up and see something big and close. Where’d that boat come from?! was my first thought with a good dose of shock to imagine how it had snuck up on me.
It was a humpback whale, three quarters out of the water, flying through the air off our port aft quarter. Twisting and splashing down, the show was repeated more than a dozen times as we pulled away from each other, and ended with a series of short hops. I had never seen one that close and it seemed not just spectacular but also joyfull. Whales like to play too. Why not? Very few animals repeat behavior that serves no purpose and there are multiple reasons for breaching whales. No matter the reason it seems that leaping and twisting and splashing, like any gracefull motion , must have some of its own reward. It sure was joyfull for me and like seeing an eagle we always consider it a good sign for the day. The next morning we went through a school of whales in Cape Cod Bay, blowing and showing their dorsal fins. Cape Cod Bay is often a whale soup. Whales always make me wonder about other things- there but unseen.
Last fall Captain Andy and I were bringing the same boat downeast. Again we thought we had the whole Gulf of Maine to ourselves when a Navy P-3 Orion, a propeller driven submarine hunting plane, showed up just before noon. It spent the next three or four hours flying search patterns out and back around us. What could be the reason ror that behavior? All we could figure was that they were looking for a submarine which was somehow playing with us, maybe even listening to our conversation. At the end of the exercise the big plane made two low flybys right up our wake. Remember- just because you don’t see it, don’t mean it ain’t going on, and maybe also- just because you think so don’t make it true.
The first delivery of the season was a good one. The first of May is early for yachting season, but it wasn’t that cold and the boat had a heater. It rained some and was foggy, but it wasn’t bad foggy. The M42 was so nice- very sexy- according to Captain Jay, and goes quickly. Without planning too hard we hit the flushing tide in the Cape Cod Canal, Buzzards Bay, and the Race. We got 10 knots over the ground in the canal and 8 and 9 knots of boatspeed other places. We joked about making a drogue from docklines and fenders to slow us down. The wind started on the nose, finished behind us and never blew more than the high teens with light seas. The motion of the boat was always sweet, most especially when the wind was aft and we surfed over the waves and mushed through the troughs running down Long Island Sound through the night. We had too much good stuff to eat.
The first delivery of the season was the kind where the end of your watch could be a bad thing, and we messed up the routine by staying on just because it was so nice. My last watch I thought I would give Jay some rest before arrival and get us by Stafford Shoal and Crown and Anchor Reef. I ended up doing five hours but time flew by, even in downpour rain. It’s nice work and a great office, even when it sucks. I would like to think of it as a reward for decent living, good seamanship, and proper repect for the church. Why not? It could be. They are all good trips. The first delivery of the season was a very good one.
Rock me on the water
Sister will you soothe my fevered brow
Oh rock me on the water
And I’ll get down to the sea somehow
Rock me on the water
The wind is with me now
So rock me on the water
And maybe I’ll remember, maybe I’ll remember how.
-Jackson Browne
Mike Joyce / May 2009
The guest of the March 09 show and noted author, James L Nelson talks about the difference between soldiers and sailors, and other revolutionary ideas with WERU listeners. Visit his website www.jameslnelson.com and rethink history.
One of the items we missed talking about on boattalk a few months back, was an interesting project done at a Connecticut high school. Over the period of four years the shop class built a replica of the “Turtle,” the first real submarine. Thinking the Civil war and the “Huntley?” Nope, this was the American Revolutionary War. Google “The Turtle” and see what you sink. But anyway, I came across these three contemporary sub interesting sites in an article in Popular Mechanics magazine by chance. No pictures here, but lots of good pix there. Just bring money. Maybe boattalk will test-drive these. Maybe not.
Interested in racing your submarine? Check out www.isrsubrace.org
Always willing to go to new depths of unfathonable reporting to keep you underinformed, thanks for listening to boattalk. A.S.
www.epaint.com environmentally friendly bottom paint was one of the subjects discussed on the may 08 show. it seems to be the tops for bottoms if you care about not polluting. listen to the show for details.
A drug runner boat that ran (flew) across the English Channel. The British coast guard had to use a special heliocopter to catch it. What I want to know is who got to drive it back to custody after it was seized. More to come on this subject on the April 10 boattalk, weru.org 10 am.
Here are two pictures of what Mike and I are talking about when we say,”cored decks or hulls or both”
The first is a drawing of a cross section of cored fiberglass. Fiberglass is laid-up in a mold then the coring material is laid over the fiberglassand another layer of fiberglass is layed over that sandwiching the core material in the middle. The resulting composite is strong yet much lighter than solid fiberglass, as long as the structural integrity of the coring remains as is.
The second is a photo of a boat only a year old, that had an improperly bedded hatch and unsealed balsa core in the hatch opening. Trim around the hatch opening has been removed to show the core and the rim of the hatch hides the top layer of fiberglass from view in this photo. As you can see the balsa is already showing signs of deterioration. If I hadn’t rebedded the hatch the core would be totally rotten in a few more years and the structural integrity in that area would have been shot.
-Alan
Cored is good, unless it is bad. The most usual trouble, like our example here. is water getting into the deck followed by delamination and composting. Especially in the kinds of “affordable” yachts most are familliar with, the most important steps in building with cores are unseen, a pain in the ass for the builder, and usually let go in a job already with too much labor.
The right way to deal with a cored deck is everywhere the edge of the stuff is exposed it must be cut back and sealed. Companionways, hatches, dorade tubes , and hawse holes and so on. Everywhere deck fittings are attached the core should be replaced with solid blocking, and especially where things are under stress like winches and mooring cleats, chain plates, and so on. Ideally the core is back from the edge and sealed with epoxy,and then sealed in again with epoxy putty back out to the edge.
What can be done with a bad deck? Untill things get too far along you can attack the holes and edges, and of course always make sure everything is well bedded. When the deck is spongy everywhere and leaking below you may need a deck-ectomy. Simply (that’s a boat joke because it is all about details really) remove everything on deck, cut through the top skin all the way around as close to the edge as possible, peel the top of the deck off and carefully save, remove and replace the old core with something new and/or better, put the top of the deck back, reinstall everything right this time, and don’t forget to fix up the crack left by the cut. Maybe cover it with a nice wood deck that doesn’t even have to be too thick. M.J.
