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Maiden is in the boro, an impressive thoroughbred sailing since 1979! I hope you click on that link for her amazing history. Here‘s more on its current voyage.
The definition of yacht is quite loose. I’d argue that the sloop passing in front of the Statue is someone’s yacht, although it’s not a global circumnavigator like Maiden.
Sportfish Markella was eastbound on the East River . . . maybe trolling for tidal strait tuna . . .
Or this one, Zada Mac, in pursuit of and hoping to snag Hudson River halibut? Yes, those were written in jest.
Mariner III looks delicate and outsized here passing alongside a tanker in the Kills.
Yacht Liberty carries the St. Vincent Grenadines flag, but besides that, I can’t tell you much.
Yacht Full Moon is a 65′ beauty once owned by Jerry Lee Lewis, a stunner now operated by Classic Harbor Lines and
dating from 1950. It was built by Grebe.
All photos by WVD, whose tugster blog is currently operated by riverine robots.
Count them . . . at least four very different vessels: Saint Emilion with barge, JRT waiting to assist, Grace D shuttling people and supplies, and a sloop.
Here’s more from hither and yon around the sixth boro: Navigator at “old navy” topping off the ferry reserves,
Popeye fishing in front of Ellis Island,
Meagan Ann taking the stern of this interesting sailing trawler,
another sloop passing the Statue line, a Circle Line boat, as well as a Statue Cruises vessel,
and a NY Media Boat touring RIB.
Yes, I’m back to that trawler. It’s called Briney Bus out of Miami, but besides that, I don’t know much. My guess is that, like many boats, it’s heading for the NYS Canal system, which opened two days ago.
The parting shot . . . Meagan Ann.
All photos and any errors, WVD.
Let’s jump back to May 2012. Over along the Manhattan side of the East River then, I caught this scene. Since then, there’s been some movement: Peking to Germany, Marion M to the Chesapeake, Helen McAllister to . . . rebirth as new steel.
Cheyenne has migrated to the Lake Michigan for now.
Twin Tube is still around but sans the boom.
Ellen McAllister is also still hard at work in the sixth boro, but I don’t see her doing much indirect towing as here.
Mark Moran was just passing through from the shipyard to Charleston.
Swan, built in 1981 and showing as her last movement three and a half years ago in China, has likely gone to rebirth as new steel.
But a decade ago in May 2012, she was here to move some used tugboats over to West Africa. Here she’s already down and BFT No. 38 with a crew boat strapped on has already been loaded, while
McAllister Sisters and McAllister Girls wait with three Crowley tugs,
Cavalier, Pioneer, and Mars.
After they are floated aboard, the tide turns the anchored Swan.
Socrates and Heron also float aboard, and
overnight, Swan gets deballasted and raises the hull, so that we can see their five-bladed wheels. More of the story here.
Also in the boro those days was Picton Castle, showing the flag and more, maybe recruiting some hands
before sailing away. Does anyone have news about her? Has she really stayed in Lunenburg since late 2020?
All photos, WVD, exactly 120 months ago.
Unrelated to any of this, read this May 2004 article by the late great Don Sutherland and reflect on how much change has occurred.
They say the devil is in the details, but so are the delights. I often take photos without knowing what delightful details I will uncover. Like the photo below . . . what caught my attention was that it was the first ketch I’d seen in the boro in 2022.
When I looked closer, I saw it flew a French flag. Unfortunately, I can’t make out the vessel name below; maybe you can.
Lion’s Paw looks to be a non-winter boat as well.
Aluminum hull and red flag caught me here, and no, I don’t mean the tugboat, which is obviously Frances.
Is this “flag” called a “red duster”?
I saw the name on AIS, but have forgotten it; it started with an A and had an X, I recall. I do know that it’s a Boreal 47 though.
And on this gusty day last week, she appeared to share the wind with a local sail school boat, I believe.
I’d taken the next photos earlier and couldn’t quite figure out why the tug–clearly Pelham–-and the party boat were so close together. My first thought was that Pelham was towing a party boat that had possibly broken down. However, there was no tow line.
Later I thought these folks clustered on the bow of the party boat hardly looked like they were going fishing!
Have you figured it out?
Look closely at Pelham.
Nope! That does not say Pelham. I imagine I’m a good reader, given how much of it I do, but because I recognized the profile as that of Pelham, I never bothered to read the name boards, which clearly say . . . Katrina. It took me two and a half weeks to notice that. OK, I know that spring gives everyone giddiness, but let’s settle down here. My conclusion now is that Sound Bound Star was the camera crew boat and Pelham/Katrina, the talent. Anyone know the project, the movie?
All photos, WVD, who’s likely to get even more giddy along with the rising temperatures.
Sometimes I’m conflicted about what to post, like today with too many competing stories, and we’ll start with news, and Cisne Branco, which translates as “white swan.” The photo below shows Cisne Branco, a Brazilian Navy training vessel, in the sixth boro in May 2012 for a sixth boro OpSail event. Earlier this week, the 1998 vessel got swept downstream the Rio Guayas in Guayaquil, Ecuador and came to rest against a pedestrian bridge. See it and hear about it here.
Here’s another shot of Cisne Branco in Gravesend Bay.
In other news, the 1967 83′ steel schooner Mystic Whaler, a regular in the sixth boro, has been sold to a party on the West Coast. The Egintons have owned it since 1995.
A few weeks ago now, the 1943 laker Mississagi was towed to the scrapyard in Sault Ste Marie. I caught these two photos of her in summer 2016 in Lake Michigan below and
along the Saint Lawrence River below. Other photos can be seen here.
While looking up my May 2012 photos of Cisne Branco, I saw this photo of Taurus in the North River. She’s now Joker, featured here several times recently. In May 2012, the K-Sea fleet had just been sold to Kirby, and in the photo below, the red K-Sea visor was painted blue, the K-Sea logo was removed from the stack, but the Kirby logo had not yet replaced it. Also, in the background, it’s Harvey and Frying Pan at Pier 66.
This photo also from May 2012 shows Ellen McAllister coming alongside Dewarucci, an Indonesian training ship. Between the two, it’s Scotty Sky, the small bunker tanker now sold somewhere in the Cabibbean.
Since there’s a lot of media attention on the congestion in SOME US ports, have a look at what’s off Savannah. This was a screen grab from VesselFinder almost a week ago, and it’s not much different today. A personal frustration is the outermost vessel shown, CMA CGM Marco Polo. I missed getting a photo of her in the sixth boro on Saturday, October 9 because I was out of town; in the wee hours of Monday, she departed for Norfolk and then Savannah. She’s now been anchored, about 60 miles out from Savannah’s container terminals since the 15th. Earlier this year she was setting a new record in US/Canada ports, and now she’s stuck in a jam.
And finally, two photos from April 2018 showing Mon Lei getting towed to a marina just north of the GW Bridge, where it stayed for some time. Question: Where is Mon Lei today . . . asking for a friend.
This red/white junk was once quite the fixture in the sixth boro, and although I was never aboard, I’m told the interior was sumptuous! Click here for posts I’ve done on the boat. I talked with one of the owners once on the phone.
That’s some news from my desk in Queens. All photos, WVD.
I’d really like to know what became of Mon Lei.
Cooler temperatures and brisker winds can make autumn sailing more exciting, or maybe in the sixth boro those winds clearly hint a winter and gales to come.
This Lagoon 450 headed out under power, and will have to set sail soon, given where
they might be headed.
That looks like Spring of Sydney to me . . . Sydney where this would be the time of spring sail.
Inbound, it’s a catboat ketch . . . if that’s what you’d call this sail rig.
Above it’s two boats sailing, and below, the cat rig is the only one sailing.
There’s a nice belly in that sail there,
Wild Cat. You seemed content to ride in on the wind and current in no particular hurry.
All photos and any errors, WVD.
Click here for my photos of the Chesapeake schooner race, currently happening to our south.
Greetings to my friends in Australia.
I just happened to look at the August 2014 section of the archive, and this was the engine room at that time of the living, breathing tugboat Urger.
The top photo shows the Atlas-Imperial fore-to-aft along the portside, and below, it’s the opposite . . . starboard side aft-to-fore.
Below is that same view as above, except with a tighter frame on the top of the engine. On my YouTube channel here, are several videos of this engine running and Urger underway.
Below from early September 2015 are three NYS Canals boats, l to r, Tender #3, Gov. Cleveland, and Urger. . . . all old and in jeopardy.
At that same 2015 Tugboat Roundup that precipitated the photo above, notice the juxtaposition of old and new: passing in front of the 1914 Lehigh Valley 79 is
Solar Sal, which a month later would earn distinction as the first solar vessel to transit the canal from Buffalo to the Hudson with four tons of cargo, as a demonstration of its potential. Solar Sal‘s builder was David Borton, whose website has all the info on his designs for marine solar power.
A story I’d missed until looking something else up yesterday was David Borton’s 2021 adventure, sailing on solar in Alaskan waters.
And that brings this zig-zag post to another story linking the Canal and Alaska.
Last August Pilgrim made its way through New York State to the Great Lakes and eventually overwintered in Duluth. I took photos above and below on August 1, 2020.
Earlier this summer, Pilgrim was loaded on a gooseneck trailer
so that it could transit the continent
along the Interstates to the Salish Sea. As of last week they’d made Ketchikan, and their next stop will be Kodiak Island. Eventually they clear customs and their next stop will be Russia.
All photos except the last three, WVD. Pilgrim photos attributed to Sergey Sinelnik.
The Waterfront Museum in Lehigh Valley 79 is now home to a high-res livestream harbor cam aimed from Red Hook; check it out here.
Hats off to all the sailboats that SAIL in, like Knotta Yachta here and Serenity in the distance.
I know there are reasons that sometimes require motoring in, as the beautiful ketch Bellina was here.
. . . or in drizzle, Adventurer.
But this cutter (?) came in the other day and impressed me.
This boat had four sails set and a fair tide
and through the Narrows they came,
and sailed in as far as I followed them. Merry crew, hats off.
All photos and any errors, WVD.
The two headsails make that a cutter rig, right?
I’ll return to the Erie Canal tomorrow, but for now . . . the clock is ticking louder.
In exactly 24 hours, Grouper will thaw out; a new owner, the person with the highest bid, will be acclaimed. I’ve been following the fate of this boat in Wayne County for so many years that I can’t look away as we get to this milestone. So have a lot of people who live nearby, or live farther away and have been intrigued about it since it arrived. Many others know it from its various places of work in the Upper Great Lakes, having some family connection going back many decades.
The big question is . . . Will it be scrapped or reimagined as a vessel of some sort. Reimagining has been a theme of NYS canal efforts in recent years, right?
Here’s one of my first photos of the boat, literally frozen in place, a great metaphor for its years of being frozen in time, showing remarkable resilience to the ravages of rust. In all this time of neglect and in the absence of bilge pumps, it has not sunk, has not gone down to a muddy grave where the catfish and gobies lurk.
Friends have devoted countless hours reimagining Grouper.
Lee Rust sent along these diagrams highlighting the hull similarities, the 1912 tugboat and
a late 19th century sail/steam half model.
Lee writes: “Maybe we’ve been misunderstanding the possibilities of Grouper by getting [ourselves] stuck on the old tug story. Here’s what she really is. Subtract Kahlenberg, add ballast, masts & sails. Maybe an auxiliary electric motor to turn the propeller. Voila! Clean and green and good for another 100 years. Piece of cake! Only [a day] left to decide to take that plunge. Here’s [an aerial] view of the hull model revealing the significant difference in beam [and bow design] from Grouper, but the profiles are almost identical. This even shows where the masts would go.
A simpler approach might be to remove 15 tons of Kahlenberg and replace with 7 tons of batteries and an electric propulsion system. This might be enough to decrease draft by the 3 feet needed to maneuver in the current Canal. Compare the waterline on the model to that of Grouper. Image below shows ship model by my friend Rob Napier.
Looking back at this hypothetical lift diagram I made [above], aside from the difference in beam, the antique hull model could be that of any ‘City’ class Great Lakes tug. (You can pick out the ‘City’ class tugs here.] The ‘lifted’ waterline on Grouper is awfully close to that of the model. I suppose this hull form was pretty normal back at the end of the 19th century and the tugboat designers of the time just went with what they knew and hoped the vessels wouldn’t sink when they threw in all that coal and machinery.
OK, I know… daydreaming again. Must be time for my nap.”
Thanks, Lee. As I said before, lots of people have been looking at these “excessed canal vessels” for a long time now, and tomorrow, in the heat of summer, Grouper will thaw out. May the highest bidder win and show exuberance in reimagining canal technology.
Related: This NYTimes article from this past week which examines sail designs on cargo vessels is worth a look.
It’s June, and I’m starting my 176th month doing tugster. Wow! how many hours might I have put into this now?
June 2011 saw some interesting sailboats and boats. This post mentions only a few and covers the first half of the month.
The Dyna-rigged Maltese Falcon was in town, sailing at 20 kts across the harbor and then dousing all sails almost instantly at the push of a button. She’s currently in Messina, IT.
Blue Marlin was in town and spent three weeks loading US tugs and barges sold to Nigerian interests. Most of these names–Dean Reinauer, Curtis Reinauer, Janice Ann Reinauer, and John Reinauer–have been re-used on quite different tugboats. “Three weeks to load a Float on-float off . . .?” you might be wondering.
Well, there were some setbacks with ill-fitting cradles.
Eventually, everything found its place and stayed there.
I recall taking photos from Fort Wadsworth and overhearing some folks concerned “the big orange ship” was sinking.
Sixth boro haze that June made for some dull photos. If you want to relive the ordeal of loading, click here for the tugster six-part “groundhog day” series.
Reefer Albemarle Island got assistance into the Red Hook terminals from Brendan Turecamo and Margaret Moran. Currently, the reefer is running between Martinique and Panama.
EPA Bold came into town; the 1989 USNS Vigorous has changed hands several times and is now operated as Bold Explorer, an EGS survey vessel.
The 2007 Barbara C became Arabian Sea and is currently Saint Emilion.
The 5100 teu Cosco New York gets an assist from Miriam Moran. Currently, she’s running south along the western Mexico coast.
We began with a luxury sailing vessel; Black Seal made one run into the sixth boro with a cargo on cacao from Dominican Republic. The three-masted schooner is currently at a mooring in Pocasset MA.
Let’s lleave it here for now, with all photos, WVD.
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