Summer is really, finally here! As always in the busy summer season, everything seems to be happening at once. Reflecting that, this month’s column is an eclectic mix of boatshop reports, a classic boat show, camping trailers, a Father’s Day story, and people who sink boats for a living.
For the first time in many years, yours truly attended the
Antique and Classic Boat Society’s Festival on the grounds of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD, on the Saturday of Father’s Day weekend. It was quite a show, with 90 boats and 50 vendors, great weather, live jazz music, and food provided by the St. Michaels Volunteer Fire Company, all sponsored by Proptalk Magazine. It doesn’t get much better than this for a classic boat lover!
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On my stroll through the grounds I came across a 13-foot Old Town runabout which was all bare wood, no restoration in evidence, but otherwise in good condition. The information card listed the name as
Barn Find and the owner as Rachel Hazzard of Millington, MD. I tracked
George Hazzard of Wooden Boat Restoration down and he told me the story behind the boat. Just before the show, George received a call from an acquaintance in Galena. There was this old boat in their dairy barn that had been there for years; might he be interested in it? So George and his 10-year-old daughter Rachel went to look at it. If you are a collector or a restorer like George, barn finds are often like hitting the jackpot, because the boat is usually protected from the worst ravages of the weather.
The 64-year-old lapstrake hull had no varnish left, but the wood was sound enough that the boat had three inches of standing water in it, and it was not leaking. George acquired it, and he and Rachel took it back to the shop in Millington and cleaned it up for the show. The
Barn Find is Rachel’s boat and project. She will work with her dad to restore it. George acquired his love of wooden boats and boatbuilding at his father’s knee, helping his dad build a series of boats, and hopefully Rachel’s
Barn Find will help pass the passion on to another generation, a great thought for Father’s Day.
Lauren DiStefano of Bluewater Yacht Yards in Hampton, VA, reports. “We have been in full swing this summer, working on our recently sold stock 62-foot Viking yacht
Reel Savage, including installation of a Seakeeper through the cockpit lazarette hatches. Not every day at work do you get to say you spent the afternoon out on a boat for a sea trial. This was my first experience testing out a Seakeeper.
Cruising out into the ocean during fairly rough seas, rain, and wind, the waves were starting to pick up. I actually began to get a little nervous as holding on to a wet chair was not making “holding” on any easier. We quickly stopped the boat and powered the new unit up. The Seakeeper quickly started warming up. Once it was ready, we continued on with the ride. Wow! What a difference it truly makes. Although the ride was still windy and wet, it was a smooth ride all the way back. It makes for a great addition while out there fishing, or just enjoying the day on the water.”
Chesapeake Light Craft in Annapolis has begun shipping kits for its new Teardrop Camper, with the first two dozen going out the door on June 10. CLC has received 50 orders for kits already, and interest continues to grow. “And that’s without doing any advertising yet!” remarks CLC chief John C. Harris. “I don’t think we’ve ever brought a new design to market with so much early interest.”
The new build-it-yourself camper design, which was announced earlier this year, has drawn popular attention and favorable industry reviews across North America. The Teardrop Camper kit is available with a host of options and accessories. For those who prefer to build from scratch, CLC team expects to have a plans package ready soon. A finished prototype is on display at the CLC factory and showroom at 1805 George Ave. in Annapolis. For more information, see
clcboats.com/teardrop.
From Trappe, MD, Rob Hardy of Composite Yacht (CY) brings us up to date. “Things remain steady at CY with several builds underway and hulls being sold. We currently have a 46CB underway, a 34OS with outboards, and a 26CB Center Console in various stages of completion. As always, our metal fab shop keeps the welders humming, and the paint shop stays in constant rotation. Of course, there’s a good bit of general service and repairs in both the mechanical and structural arenas. As the work load allows, we have also been able to push slowly along on our newest model, which is the big sister to our popular 26. Able to be powered in both outboard and inboard configuration, she will be 32 or 34 feet, depending on whether the owner chooses a Euro or traditional stern. She’ll also be available as a Center Console, Express or Fish Around.”
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum boatyard program manager Jenn Kuhn reports the stern hoops on CBMM’s 25-foot Hooper Island Draketail
Pintail took the boatshop’s Apprentice for a Day program longer than anticipated. There was an awful lot going on with
Pintail’s reverse-raked round transom, taking participants a bit longer to figure exactly how all the components and bevels were to be aligned. She has a white oak keel and framing with Atlantic white cedar planking. Her stern has traditional barrel staving, bead and cove strip-planked top sides, glued with G-flex, fastened with silicone bronze screws, and a cross-planked herringbone bottom.
Pintail’s expected date of completion is at the end of summer, with the installation of the four-stroke, water-cooled Yanmar diesel to follow. She will have a wet exhaust with traditional push-pull rope cable steering.
We all know what the
Coast Guard does, right? They chase and arrest bad guys, patrol our waters, do safety checks, and come to our aid when we are in trouble on the water. All of those things are correct, but did you know that the Coast Guard also tests boats to ensure they are in compliance with all safety standards? Chances are the boat you run around in has a small metal plate attached to it that lists such important information as recommended horsepower, maximum number of people, and maximum load the boat can safely carry. It is the job of the
Recreational Boat Testing Facility in Southern Maryland to ensure that the boat can indeed meet those standards.
I met with Will Hillyer, safety compliance officer for the facility who told me, “What we do is look at recreational boats to be sure that they meet all the current safety requirements and that they are going to be safe to operate.” The facility, overseen by Coast Guard chief warrant officer Hillyer and run by Virginia-based contactor PPG Marine, puts the boats into a 20-foot, six-foot deep tank filled with water and tests them. “The first test we usually run is a load test, where we add weights to exceed the boat’s load rating by a fixed amount and see if it swamps. The weights we use in this and other tests are carefully calibrated and have been standardized for us by naval architects. There are several other tests including swamped stability and level floating, all done under strictly controlled conditions,” Hillyer explained.
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“About half of the 35 boats tested each year pass. If a boat fails, the manufacturer is notified immediately and must fix the problem. Once the boat is fixed, we retest, and if it passes, a recall must go out to all owners to have the same fix done on their boat. Many problems are simple to resolve by reducing the number of persons permitted on the boat or by adding or redistributing flotation foam,” he concluded. So the next time you look at that placard, take it seriously; there is a lot of science and testing behind those numbers.
From
Meg Roney at Mathews Brothers in Denton, MD, we got this report. “We had the first of a few Dettling 51s arrive at our Mathews Landing Dock in early June for maintenance and upgrades to include upsizing the bow thruster, engine service, replacing instrumentation, wood work, varnish, and general maintenance. We look forward to providing the desired upgrades and care consistent with all of the boats we are fortunate to maintain. The Buy Boat,
Crow Bros II, is still moving right along. The pilothouse is in varnish and paint stages and soon to be married to the hull. Meanwhile we are continuing with wiring, fuel tanks, plumbing, and hydraulic systems.”
We don’t usually include sailboats in these reports, but the picture of
Anthem in her new colors was so pretty I couldn’t resist.
Rappahannock Yachts in Irvington, VA, completed an update of a Carl Alberg designed 1981 Cape Dory Typhoon daysailer which included removing all the old paint above the waterline, fairing the hull, applying four top coats and two polished clear coats of Awlgrip, and installing new teak toe rails, rub rails with bronze rub strakes, and a custom taffrail. The bottom was sprayed with Interlux Baltoplate and polished. Bruce Sanders commented, “Anthem has always been fast and now she also looks fantastic. The Rappahannock Yachts team is proud to have helped her owner win the Cape Dory Typhoon National Championship for the fourth time. The Rappahannock River Yacht Club Typhoon Fleet is the most active in the nation with more than 50 Typhoons on Carter’s Creek.”
rryc.org/sailing/typhoon-racing
by Capt. Rick Franke