Retro Sixth Boro 61 A

This is one of my last KVK photos of Ireland.  Eventually, a few years ago, she went upstate to Lake Ontario for repowering and much more.  She’s currently in the NYS canals, heading back towards the sixth boro, down the Hudson but then past and all the way to the Mississippi River watershed.  So if you’re north of the boro in the next few days, be on the lookout for  . . .  Hoppiness!!  See the end of this post.

In May 2013, I spotted this yacht coming in through the Narrows;  Nomada, it turns out, began life in 1943 as a Canadian navy tug, seen here. I’m not sure of Nomada‘s whereabouts today.

Specialist was getting spa treatment here, a few years before her tragic demise. 

Doro aka Dorothy J was at the same spa that day. 

Doris Moran towed in a new floating dry dock for Caddells, with James Turecamo steering the stern. 

State of Maine was in the boro.  As of this posting, she’s NE bound off Long Island about a hundred miles from the sixth boro, if I’m not in a time warp.  By the way, TS Empire State VII is still being completed on the Delaware, and will be making her maiden arrival in the boro in the summer, at a date so far not published. 

Speaking of Maine, I had a memorable sojourn in Belfast just a decade ago, and took in all the collections at Maine Maritime Museum.  It’s likely high time I get back there. 

During the 15 years I spent in the northern two-thirds of New England, boats like these were often on my mind and in my view.

In May 2013, Zumwalt DDG-1000 was in its final stages of completion. 

 

As of this morning, as was the case a decade ago, Fournier Tractor was ready for action in Belfast harbor. 

And here from the NYS Canals, photos of Hoppiness eastbound taken by a westbound yacht delivery captain . . .

Check out their progress on FB.  They’re likely transiting the middle portion of the the state canals today.

All photos except the last two, any errors, WVD.

 

Second Lives 12

Here was 11 about an honest Navy tug turned narco-mothership, possibly, and wondering where she now may be.

I owe this post to tugboathunter, who caught not only a major typo in yesterday’s post but also presented me a key to understanding an unusual looking trawler called Nomada.  I’ll be direct . . . two, three, four decades ago she was an austere tugboat called Colinette (little hill) working in Canada.  See addition at the end of this post.  Six and seven decades ago she was a Royal Canadian Navy tug that crossed the Atlantic to operate out of unidentified ports in the UK.   My source for all this is here, which tugboathunter pointed me toward.

An hour and some after dawn yesterday I caught this fotos, and imagined she was a rough-cut Krogen type trawler, a scaled-down coastal freighter replica,   or some hybrid thereof.

Who would think she started life 70 years ago on Owen Sound.

I’d love to see interior fotos.

All these shots by Will Van Dorp.

And this just in from Jason LaDue, Colinette back in November 1999.

What a retrofit job!

Small Craft 6

Here was 5.  Early May means recreational vessels return to the sixth boro, even if

only for the purpose of transiting through, like Nomada Sultana, a Canadian trawler.  See the note at the end of this post.  Nomada has an amzing story.

Anchored just east of the eastmost VZ Tower this morning was this small workboat, with

Florida registration.  No one seemed around.

This Delaware-registered ketch was quite the

anonymous beauty.

Pioneer III took a party out past tanker New Confidence to fish.

Revenir came into the Narrows recently.

From the name I had guessed an insurance company . . . but this boat operates between Manhattan and a golf course in Jersey.

And finally . . . it appears to be Swivel, one of the 65′ WYTLs sold out of the Coast Guard.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.  Happy smallcrafting for all.

So the Nomada story is that once she was a Royal Canadian Navy tugboat built in 1943.  As such she crossed the Atlantic on her own.  I guess I’d better do a post on her tomorrow.   If you’re upriver, keep your eyes peeled;  she’s headed for Lake Erie.