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Many thanks to Steve Schwartz for reminding me of still another vastly different type of February sail. In this post, enjoy photos from over a decade of “hard-water” sailing.
Why retro? I took this next batch of photos in 2010 and 2011 in different locations in the Hudson Valley because ice boating conditions don’t form each year.
I learned that ice boating was on back then by word of mouth from these folks . . . you may
recognize some of them: John, Christina, and Bonnie.
Since ice boats are not used each year, they can last a long time . . . some of these over a century old, explaining their vintage appearance.
They sport classy, antique names too.
Ice Queen and these other names here conjure up another time; beyond Ice Queen are Whirlwind and Ariel….
For more posts about February sails in 2021 and 2011, click here,
or here.
Bowsprite’s video here taken during the sail below shows the exhilaration of the moving and then the pain of crash . . .
All photos, WVD, who points you to ice boating–hard water sailing v. soft water sailing– close to the sixth boro here and in other parts of the US here.
But wait, note the * in the title; this is not all retro. Rather, it’s hot off the press . . . or rather super-cold through cyberspace, here from Steve Schwartz, Brian Reid, with credit to the fine folks at the Hudson River Ice Yachting blog, enjoy these very recent photos and the blogpost they come from.
Again, many thanks to Steve for the reminder, the Brian and the others at the Hudson River Ice Yachting Club and blog
For an hour-long video on the sport, click here.
February sail will mean vastly different things to different folks. For some, it’ll mean curling up with an inspiring sailing story like this one from Small Boats Magazine written by a retired USN sailor and partner rowing and sailing the 17′ dory he built down the Mississippi, camping on sand bars along the way.
For others, February sail means celebrating the completion of a 8.75″ model of a 12′ 6″ cat boat, approximately 1/22 scale. Steve Turi writes as follows:
“Finally done! In the early 1990s Lynn and I visited a Beetle Cat boat shop in SE MA. We smelled the cedar sawn for the planks. We saw them steaming oak to bend into ribs. I tried lifting a used boat onto the car roof with no success. I had to settle for promotional literature and plan sketches.
When we got home I used the sketches and cut out a boat-shaped block of balsa on the band saw. I meant to use the block as a form to shape individual ribs and then planks to shape the hull. Far too ambitious I realized and put the project aside……for thirty years.”
Note: Steve’s models have appeared on this blog previously here.
“In 2019 I took that balsa block out and began tinkering. Here I am, finished tinkering. At last! I didn’t intentionally “weather” the model but in the course of building it got beat up enough to make it look like it was sailed long and hard.”
I think it’s a beauty, a work of love.
And an aptly named one also.
Then again, February sail might mean basking in a location where February is warm, like the Bahamas. Don M wrote recently as follows: “I am anchored in Mayaguana as we get pummelled by 20 knots of wind in an anchorage that is open but for a reef keeping most of the sea at bay. I looked up this beautiful boat I saw here and found your posts about the schooner. She is a beautiful boat. Interestingly she has three masts now. Haven’t seen sails up so don’t know if the third mast is functional or just pretty. “
Thanks to Steve and Don for sending along these photos and stories, and to David for the story about his Mississippi adventure.
For everything and more you ever hoped to know about Beetle cats–named for the Beetle family–click here.
For model ships in bottles, click here. For RC models of tugboats click here and .. oops! looks like .. I’ll have to complete that one soon, like for tomorrow.
I’ll get to the blue moon reference in a moment, but first . . .
Need one or more calendars for 2023? I’ve approached the project differently this year: the calendars are ready, you can preview, you can order here, and they’ll come directly to you. That’s good for me because it frees me from tedious packaging and mailing, leaving time to be out taking photos. Watching sixth boro traffic, traveling among traffic, taking photos of traffic, and researching traffic . . . are all preferable to me, as you know. Case in point . . . blue moon, which is actually a sea story with the usual losses and gains, some photos I took yesterday.
Don’t the lines look somewhat Chesapeake…ish, a bit of bugeye in her lines?
Yesterday morning she crossed the Upper Bay, heading south late in November all under sail.
Blue moon and today’s post photos have a tighter connection than blue moon and my 2023 marine calendar. Here’s the connection: the “three-sail bateau” aka ketch here is called Blue Moon. The 69′ aluminum-hulled sailboat was built in the late 1980s as a cargo schooner, transporting tropical hardwoods. Later she was owned by a co-founder of Crocs shoes. Now she’s a Nantucket-based excursion vessel whose owner makes an interesting sea story himself with a maritime Covid love story thrown into the mix. Teased enough? Find the details here. There are even references to King’s Point USMMA, color blindness, and lobstering in the story.
She was not on AIS yesterday morning, so I needed to do a bit of research to identify her, and researching is another time-consuming task I enjoy. In a past life I may have been an intelligence analyst. Puzzling things out certainly beats waiting on line at my local USPS.
Here’s more on the boat. It was designed by Thomas E. Colvin, designer of Rosemary Ruth and Le Papillon and built by Reuel Parker.
All photos yesterday, WVD. Fair winds, Blue Moon.
Repeating myself here: my 2023 calendars are available here. At that link, you can preview all the pages; no sailing vessels are included despite Blue Moon‘s, going south, appearance in this post. The calendars could be going out into the USPS system tomorrow.
If you want something customized, I can do that too.
I spent part of a quiet T’day thinking about doing a 2023 calendar, and difficult as it always is to winnow the choices down to 12 or so shots, I’m doing a calendar. Price will likely be $20 again. Sorry to bring up buying on this Black Friday.
Going back through the 2022 photos reminded me of the highs and lows of my personal year. I also looked again at some gallivant photos I’ve never posted on the blog. Today seems a good although dark, rainy day to open the line locker.
Any guesses on this roadside attraction? It’s a 3/8 size replica measuring 63′ x 13.’ I’ll let you do the math. Answers below. Doesn’t the design suggest a Zumwalt class destroyer?
I took the photo in April 2022.
Here’s another roadside attraction. Maybe I could do some road photos 2022 posts. Any ideas about this similar replica vessel, this one appropriately on terra firma, or terra mudda?
There’s a clue in this photo.
So before moving to the next sets, here’s some ID: both are replica from the Confederate Navy and both are located in North Carolina, whose flag you see above. The first is CSS Albemarle, moored in the Roanoke River in Plymouth NC. The actual vessel–158′ x 35′ — was commissioned in April 1864, and sunk in October of the same year. More here.
The second vessel is CSS Neuse II, a replica of a 152′ x 34′ steam-powered ironclad ram. Also launched in April 1864, the underpowered and “overdrafted” warship bogged down and never left the immediate area of Kinston NC, where she was built. Finally, in March 1865, her crew burnt the vessel in the river to prevent its capture by Union land forces. More here.
Previous US Civil War vessels I’ve mentioned on this blog are USS Cairo and CSS Hunley. Any suggestions for other Civil War navies sites to visit?
The fine print on the vessel below says University of Maryland; it’s their RV Rachel Carson down in Solomons MD.
I took the Carson photo from the decks of skipjack Dee of St Mary’s, a delightful cruise under sail as part of a friend’s even-more-delightful wedding.
I’m not allowed to say much about the next set, but I have the privilege to see this tricky maneuvering up close.
Note that this vessel, currently underway between Indonesia and South Korea, is assisted by four tugboats.
Thanks so much for the hospitality. You know who you are. Again, sorry I’m not permitted to say much more or publish my article. If you have any questions or comments about this last set, email or telephone me.
All photos, any errors, WVD, who’s thinking of doing a freighter cruise soon, with a destination in eastern or southeastern Asia. does anyone have suggestions? I’ve not yet contacted these folks.
This follows up a post from not quite two weeks ago here. Of course, this unidentified recreational craft–here with HMS Justice and Fort McHenry–is out for a morning to commune with the fish migrating through the boro. More on fish soon.
I have to admit first off that I missed SV Vaquita sailing through, but you can catch the highlights and follow along on YouTube, produced by the same wit as TimBatSea, both of which are YT channels worth checking out. Vaquita made its way south of Norfolk through the Dismal Swamp canal.
Ketch Manana from Nova Scotia was eyeing the KVK before heading out the VZ.
Asteria is a 52-year-old yacht. Registered in Bikini, she actually has the stuff to get there. I love the lines.
In recent days, I’ve seen her both in North Cove and out by the
the statue, here sending her tender out on a mission.
As this sloop came between Roosevelt Island and the UES, she caught my attention because
of the lines and the polished aluminum hull.
It turns out she’s Pleione, an Alubat Cigale 16 that’s been around although registry is Boston.
Finch seemed to be worked by a solo sailor from Portsmouth NH that was handling sail only just outside the ferry routes.
And if these lines don’t catch your attention, nothing will. Of course, it’s a Lord Nelson Victory Tug (LNVT) 37′ version. You’ve seen the model before here . . . as in Sally W.
As it turns out, Sally W is hull #42, and the boat on the East River three days ago is hull #48, aka
Edward S. Marvin, another New Hampshire boat, here quite diminished by the cliffs and bridges along Manhattan’s east side.
All photos, any errors, WVD, a contrarian who’s migrating north a bit next week.
This title goes back almost a decade, and this schooner has been doing cargo runs on the Hudson for a while now, but I’d not seen it yet.
Fortunate for me, I finally spotted the boat this past weekend, running
from Brooklyn side Upper Bay to Raritan Bay and the Arthur Kill.
I’ve posted photos of autumn sail here and here and in other posts like here, but this one is moving cargo.
As of this posting, she’s in the Hudson Highlands section of the river.
Cargo or not, sailing vessels have an elegance, a je ne sais quoi . . . .
Wind is the other alternative fuel.
All photos, any errors, WVD.
Apollonia has caught the attention of the NYTimes here about a year ago, and here recently in a Kingston NY paper. Here’s a joint venture with a microbrewery up the river in Beacon.
Christy Anne is a small tug that I’ve not seen in 15 years!! I posted it here, after seeing it in the Hackensack River, a place I see rarely. Unrelated: where are those buildings on the ridge in the distance? Is there some Fata Morgana effect going on there?
With the placement of tire fendering fore and aft, I had the impression of an amphibious craft, the hull shaped around the tires almost like fenders on a flat-fender Jeep. Here’s the late Fred “tug44“s post about the boat.
When I saw this boat sailing in the other day, with its serious lines, I had to learn its story. It’s Sparrow, an Open 50 racing sloop, preparing for the Global Solo Challenge. More on the boat here.
Nicholas Miller, 33′ x 11′ crew boat, is picking up a pilot on the fly as
MSC Elodie, 980′ loa, comes into the harbor. Nicholas matched the ship’s six-knot speed, sidled up, and stuck the rubber to the ship’s hull; once the pilot was safely aboard,
powered her way to overcome the physical forces and get away from the ship.
Ocean Venture is a purse seiner that comes through the boro periodically.. Some concern exists about the menhaden fishery.
She was possibly headed for her base on the Penobscot.
The seiner skiff helps deploy the purse net.
What was curious, I thought, was that UConn’s 90′ loa Connecticut came in right behind Ocean Venture.
As seems true a lot these days, I suspect there’s much more to the movements of these vessels
than I will ever know.
All photos, WVD, who’s just being his customary curious.
I’m calling this the last batch, although there are dozens of photos I’ve not posted. I’ll do the same as yesterday and number the shots, commenting on some. I didn’t have access to my VHF, so whatever announcements were made, I didn’t hear them. However, photo 1 shows the boats jockeying for the best position when the race signal was given.
1.
2. Once it was given, schooner Brilliant flew that bulging sail (a spinnaker or an oversized jib or a golly wobbler? ) and raced ahead.
3. The race was on.
4. Brilliant was way out front racing downwind. It appears the jib has not been raised.
5. It soon became apparent that for some reason, there was a problem and the race was off. Secondhand information said that incorrect instructions had been given, so the race needed to be restarted. That meant getting all the boats back to the start line. For power boats, returning to the starting point is direct and easy, but for sailing vessels,
6. … herding cat fish comes to mind.
7.
8. I believe this was part of the line up, and the race was restarted.
9. Below, the two nearer boats are in the lead; the three a bit farther off and sailing to the right have yet to round the the inflatable buoy.
10. Here was the most exciting duel of the afternoon; l to r, When and If and Narwhal. In photo 10, Narwhal was trailing but moving to overtake When and If.
11. And here, Narwhal makes the move and races to the winning time. The two schooners on either side have still not rounded the buoy.
12. Click here for the 2022 race results.
All photos, WVD, Thanks to Artemis for the ride.
The following photos were all taken between 12:30 and 1:00, my favorites from a half hour’s harvest of photos just before the race began. I’ll number them for reference purposes in case you choose to comment.
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All photos, WVD, who will post the race–the recalled one and the real one–in the following days. Post time is always noon.
Again, I was crewing on Artemis. Check out her site here.
I’m having a hard time deciding what to post . . . so I’ll do multiple posts. Hundreds of photos from the schooner fest is an amount that overwhelms my decision making even as the clock ticks down the time until noon. So here goes . . . for today, random sights. Maybe by tomorrow, I’ll have a plan. For today then, just a few photos, minimal identification.
I crewed on ketch Artemis and as a ketch, we were not involved, although we tested her wind-propulsion from the sidelines and did quite well. Artemis is a popular name these days.
Sail rigs of every sort caught the breezes and my eye.
A parade of sail took place in the morning in the Inner Harbor, or maybe this could be called a re-enactment of one of Fitz H Lane’s canvases.
Human power crossed the harbor also.
I’ve no idea why those folks are trying to sail that navaid.
Some sailing vessels had white sails, some tanbark, and some had both.
More tomorrow . . .
All photos, WVD.
I’ve a question for longtime Gloucester area residents: my first trip to Gloucester was in winter 1986-7 or 87-88. I took a half day off work in Newburyport because I’d read in a local paper that a Soviet factory/trawler had been granted permission to enter the harbor for a few days, and I can’t recall the reason. It was a raw day, but the sight of a large rusty ship with the hammer/sickle on the stack was unforgettable. I did even own a camera in those day . . . maybe I’d left my smartphone at home . . . . Does anyone recall details, get photos?
I was thinking to call this “summer sail,” but that didn’t seem to fit.
tugster: a waterblog 
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