George Schneider regularly sends me photos, comments on posts, and shares lots of info on all manner of vessels.   Here was the first installment.  I owe it to him to catch up a bit on his photos.

Including ITB Groton in the post yesterday prompts me to start here, with ITB Moku Pahu.

When the sugar transport out of Hawaii ended almost two years ago, the future of this vessel became uncertain. Click here for more info on Hawaii’s agricultural state.  She’s currently on a run between Greece and Puerto Rico, ETA mid-next week. I’ve  not found a photo of the tug separate from the barge. I was fortunate to catch a photo of another ITB on its own here in 2007 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Falkor, built in Germany in 1981,  is a research vessel operating for the Schmidt Ocean Institute, a recently created (2009) research group funded by tech money.

About the blue-hulled beauty in the background, George writes:  ” the old yacht ACANIA (230142)  was being overhauled.  She was built [for Arthur E. Wheeler]  by Consolidated in Morris Heights New York in 1930, a steel yacht 137 ft overall.  She served in WWII as Q 200 for the Army, then has haunted both coasts under the names DIXONIA, SOUTHERN SEAS, CAMPANIA, WILDCATTER, LIBERTY, AMERICANA, and back to ACANIA.  She came to San Diego in 2016 under that name, and apparently has been in a bag here, undergoing restoration, ever since.  She’s now named MARIE, and her appearance is breathtaking.  I hope to get a better picture of her, but her hull is one big mirror of deep blue paint, with not a single weld or dent line visible, and her superstructure is an equally stunning ivory-colored mirror.  She’s always been classy, but now she has the unreality of modern yachts, which look like a model in a display case, and also has been restored to all possible detail of a 1930’s yacht in appearance.  I promise a better photo if Its ever possible.”

Another research vessel included here is Bold Horizon.

And rounding out this set is Tussler, which started life in 1944 as an Navy tug. George writes:  ”  She seems to follow yacht races and regattas in the Southern California area.  She’s currently owned by Tussler Maritime LLC, but was built by Everett Pacific Shipyard in 1944 for the U. S. Navy as YTL 424.   She worked with them, first as a tug and later as a diving/salvage tender until sold in 1973, at which time she got her current name and was modified into a yacht.”

I always look forward to reading George’s emails, and I thank him here for sharing these photos.