Yachts a Million 6

Planet 9 was in the boro for some time, and actually recently left.  Specs can be found here, although I don’t know if it’s currently for sale or just changed hands.  I suspect it’s the former. At any rate it’ll change hands for a mere $100 million.

I’m not sure how large a fleet is included with the 2018 yacht. I’ll get back to it in a bit.  Planet 9, as one might expect, is larger than Cloud 9.

A slightly older yacht, the 1997 Corinthian, was headed down river a while back

After a long sojourn in the boro, the 2010 Jamaica Bay headed south recently as well. 

In terms of relative size, let me rank then:  Planet 9, 240′ loa; Jamaica Bay, 196′; and Corinthian, 128′ .  Also, notice relative size of the 4720 hp Dylan Cooper and the 3600 hp Planet 9. 

By way of contrast, behold Sally IV, pronounced as “sally forth,” a yacht built by ACF, American Car and Foundry, a company that still manufactures railroad rolling stock.  “Car” in the name refers to rail cars.  She dates from 1927, and is said to be the last remaining 54′ loa ACF sedan, truly a classic.

Structurally she’s all wood although her hull was C-flexed in 1978.  Here’s more info–with my annotations–from her self-described current steward:  “She was purchased from the floor of the 1929 boat show in NYC by the owner of Coca-Cola bottling in NOLA.  He put her on a train to JAX.”  Imagine what else was on the NYC boat show in 1929.  And I’m picturing the locomotive of that vintage rolling stock!  And 1929, that was the year Coca-Cola eliminated cocaine from the recipe for the drink.

“She then cruised around to NOLA, where she has resided till now.  She remained in corporate ownership until about 1955, when she was sold to a couple that lived aboard in Madisonville LA.  They lived on her until 1968, when the husband passed.  Ally McIver bought her from the widow and put her in the Baham Shipyard for a year or so. I have carpenter invoices…..$2.25 per hour.  In 1978 Ally and Bill Seaman C-Flexed her properly, with added ribs and sound hull.  I have a pic somewhere of them, covered in 3M 5200, holding 1/4” trowels and dipping 5200 out of a 5 gallon bucket.  In 1989 I went to work with Ally and fell in love with Sally IV.  In 1998 I bought half and we’re partners. We wired the house, added a 8 k Northern Lights, 2 marine airs, water heater, etc.  In 2010 Ally passed.  I’m her current steward.   The work never ends.”  I’ll bet, but what a treasure!  She is an all-American beauty.

 

Many thanks to capttmatt for the photos of Sally IV.  All others, WVD.

Yachts a Million

A Nordhavn 62 . . .  ??  exiting the Erie Canal last weekend.  Professional delivery crew?

It was interesting that something they saw on the bulkhead in Waterford prompted them to do a 180 and try to squeeze onto the bulkhead.  Was it thoughts of dining on sausage and onions washed down with a Keegan Ale?  Port of registry here–Port Colbourne–marks the southern point of the Welland Canal.

At 73′ Sea Fox pulled into Morris Canal recently.

Sutton Island lies just south of Acadia National Park.

Two-Can is a repurposed North Sea fishing trawler . . . at near 90′ and built in Urk in 1968.

I took the photo below of Wanderbird in May 2013, and I don’t know if it’s still for sale, but when I visited Belfast recently there was another

and newer Wanderbird in the yard.  I wonder what the story is, and where the black-hulled version now floats.

Top Hat  . . . with its own Mount Desert origins . . .  I’m not sure how much it’d cost,  but it looks like a million dollars.

 

 

And bringing this back to the sixth boro . . . Jamaica Bay, an unlikely name it seems, came in the Narrows on Friday.

This 200′ yacht was built in Rendsburg along the Kiel Canal in 2010.

 

Closing shot . . .  Makulu heading for the sound via the East River this week.  In the late 90s and early 00s this ketch sailed around the world at least three times as an educational project.  It appears now she’s for sale or sold.  ??

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Patty Nolan’s Travels

The first time I saw Patty was on the foto here (fifth one) although when Jed sent that foto, neither he nor I could identify it.    Ultimately I met Patty and her guardians (She accepts no other terms.)  About two years ago I had the good fortune of crewing for a similar tow.  Sunday I happened to glance at AIS and saw this blip just west of SeaGate/Norton Point, which told me to mobilize the hot air balloon/photography team**.

As we zoomed in, we caught Patty and tow . . .with West Bank Light in the distance, and …

the Parachute Jump off to port her port.

This has all the appearance of a “Patchogue floating home”  coming across

the west end of Jamaica Bay, with its antipodes Breezy Point to the left and Norton Point to the right.  For a post I did two years ago about the fascinating but incongruous wildlife in Jamaica Bay, click here.

For you outatowners, Patty and house are traversing the sixth boro, that central previously-unnamed core

of New York City, with its Barren Island-turned-airfield-turned-Barren Island Park and

its distant views of Manhattan cliffs, and its

other 32 islands in Jamaica Bay alone.  This too is Brooklyn!

And looking over into Queens and then Long Island, that in the distance is JFK (ex-Idlewild) Airport.  After delivering its tow, Patty races

back upriver with a favorable tide.

**Oh . . . I lied about the hot air balloon.  A total fabrication . . . a shameless bit of dissembling that was, but it sounds so much more exciting than the prosaic “I hurried to southern Brooklyn for a shot from Gil Hodges Bridge.”

The final shot here of Patty in stealth mode trying to blending into April foliage . . . thanks to bowsprite.  All others by Will Van Dorp, virtual hot-air balloonist photographer.

Someone asked why Patty has an awning:  in addition to commercial tows, she does picnic charters!!  A virtual Patty-of-all-trades.

At Play Near J-Bay

Forces at play include:  sun, earth, season, tide, surf, and many more.  J aka Jamaica Bay is not not more than 10 nautical miles (goose-flying miles) from Manhattan, about the same distance the Meadowlands is, if you continued that straight line between my vantage point and the Empire State Building, then beyond.

Here’s a map.  Doubleclick to enlarge;  see “you are here” and continue clockwise around the indicated yellow path and look toward Duck Point Marshes;   Manhattan is to the northwest.  J-Bay is an NPS area.  Click here for info on the National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy.

See the Verrazano Bridge on the far side of Floyd Bennett Field.

Osprey respond to all those same forces at play.

On the far side of a pond, a wildlife volunteer (aka midwife?) observes an egret,

a snowy egret, gossiping and waiting . . .  as they all are.

So what’s this volunteer doing?  Note the pendant and the red dot.

After the eggs get laid–prompted by all these forces–

and a thorough burying process happens,

the red-dot mama gets weighed, and all relevant info gets encoded.  I saw a half dozen egg-layers summoned by the forces in a one-mile walk in the preserve yesterday.  A year ago, on the northeast side of J-Bay, the terrapin shut down JFK.  See the story here.

Humans think the terrapin obey signs?    From the volunteer, I learned that another force at play here is an overpopulation of raccoons.  And for hatchlings, predators include wading birds and voracious fish.

Well, it’s time for us all to kick back and enjoy all those same forces at play:  Saturday . . . Coney.    Or if you’re upriver . . .  Clearwater.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, himself beset by forces and tribal ritual of spring.

For info on terrapin mating, see here and here.

For another rite of spring in the sixth boro, click here.