Ardelle

Random framing here, no need for assistance, as that flag might suggest.

Ardelle has been one of my favorites since she was launched from Burnham’s yard in Essex over a decade ago.  But this was my first time to see her schoon about. 

The Burnhams have been building schooners since forever.  If he’s not building new, he’s rebuilding older boats.

You have to love the lines of Ardelle as she sails, curves from the belly of the sail to the pinked stern;  no, that’s not the color.  Here’s brief, journalistic context from shallops to pinkys in North American NE fishing boat design.  

For a little deeper context and art historian illustration, check this Erik Ronnberg/Fitz H. Lane article.

Rides on Ardelle were sold out when I got there, but some day . . .

When Harold Burnham was invited to Washington DC a decade ago to pick up his National Heritage Fellowship award from NEA,

of course, he sailed there, and that was classier than any four-wheeled limo ride. 

I hope you enjoy looking at these photos as much as I do.

If you want more on Harold Burnham, click here. For his wit and his words, check out this clip.

All photos, WVD.

Port of Gloucester 2

Visiting Gloucester for me is always restorative.  Here are a few more photos I took Saturday and Sunday of

Artemis, 

Full Moon, 

and Adventure.  That’s a great sequence of names!

Last fall she was sailing with some food cargo here.  And if I had an editor, that editor would be unhappy, because yesterday I suggested I’d seen Adventure in Boothbay last October.  Mea culpa  . . . I saw Ernestina!  Click here for a fairly active blog with updates on the work on Ernestina.

Lady Jane and

Ardelle .  .  . have fishing origins.  Ardelle is of course the older design but a much newer boat, and I DID see her in Boothbay, off the stern of Ernrstina.

Ardelle touched the water in summer of 2011.  See some of her history here.

 

When I took these photos of other pinky schooners in Essex in November 2009, Ardelle existed (maybe) only in plans.

 

 

I’m not sure where Maine and Essex are today–maybe right here–but as much as I enjoy seeing hulls out of the water, I’d rather see them afloat and underway.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who has photos of yet another pinky tomorrow.

For more traditional vessels of Gloucester, see Paul’s post here.

Ports of the Boothbays

I may need some correction here, but it appears Boothbay Harbor is an entity different than Boothbay, and there’s an East and West Boothbay as well.  It’s sort of like the Hamptons in NY and the Oranges in NJ, I suppose.  Anyhow, I saw the scene below in Boothbay harbor and I realized I’d located one of the things I was seeking.  So the connection is the gray/white/red pinky schooner at the end of the wharf:

It’s Ardelle in Boothbay.  I’d seen Ardelle before here in one of my favorite places . . . Essex, MA, home of Lettie G. Howard and many other boats.

The connection is that the person who built Ardelle and others would be–is–an excellent choice to work on  . . .

the hauled out Ernestina.  Watch the short video at that link if you have a minute and a half to spare.

I was just a visitor, so I left the crew alone.

The quicker the work’s done, the quicker it gets

back here to its empty dock at the New Bedford State Pier.  But again, I digress.

A few miles to the east of Boothbay Harbor is East Boothbay, home of Washburn & Doughty, but also Hodgdon Yachts, who went from wooden fishing boats to world-class yachts like Asolare, below.

Monitor, below, is an aptly-named state-owned Department of Marine Resources vessel, passing here near Ram Island Light.

And here I really digress, but seeing isolated lighthouses like this reminds me of the stories I heard long ago of William H. Wincapaw, also known as Flying Santa.

All photos, digressions, and faux-pas by Will Van Dorp.

If you want to share photos of a gunkhole, harbor, port, or wharf before the end of this month, send me an email.  This was GHP&W 24.

Click here for many more posts I’ve done with some connection to the Boothbays.