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A decade ago I rode Condor and saw close up the start of the 23rd running of the great! Chesapeake Schooner race. Covid intervened for a few years and actually changed the format; now there’s a Bay Race, which begins today, and a virtual race, fund raiser.
In 2012, the starting boat also raised its tugantine sails after all the schooners had passed /checked in at the starting line.
There were too boats many to reprise here, but A. J. Meerwald sailed, as
did Lady Maryland. She and Meerwald appeared on this blog way back in 2007 on a foggy summer day.
The Colvin design is evident with Cuchulain. Here’s more on Thomas E. Colvin.
Virginia and Pride of Baltimore II run side by side before the race.
Liberty Clipper and a yawl I’ve never managed to identify pass. I never realized until now that Liberty Clipper was Blount built.
Sultana is a replica of a pre-Revolutionary War topsail schooner.
Summerwind is no replica; she’s 1929 Thomaston ME built for a banker just before the October 1929 Crash.
Before raising their own sails, the crew of the tugantine shares a libation with the old man of the sea bay.
Then it was tugantine tanbark sails raised and off they scudded to the south end of the Bay.
All photos, WVD, who would love to reprise this race in 2023 . . .
I found it hard to move on from the #300 mile marker, so let me offer up another set, with some of your generous contributions.
Thanks to John “Jed” Jedrlinic, two tugboats from Tahiti, Aito Nui and
Aito Nui II. My machine translator tells me the name means “champions of the universe.” Aito Nui, 98′ x 33′, dates from 2001, built in Concarneau, Brittany. Aito Nui II, 94′ x 34′, is a Damen tug built in 2017. Jed took these photos last October in Tahiti.
From George Schneider, “Here’s one of Curtin Maritime’s remarkable tug rebuilds: Sarah C (501167), 65′ x 24′. She was built in 1965 for Pacific Towboat Co. after they’d been aligned with Foss. She came out as Sea Queen, sister to the Martinolich/Foss M class. In 1974 she was fully fossticized and became Mathilda Foss. She was discarded in the mid 1980’s and was picked up by Mogul Ocean Towing (apparently a corporate name for Campbell Towing) who owned her through 2007. It was then that Curtin Maritime picked her up for reconstruction.”
She’s a beauty. Check out the Curtin webpage here, with its great header photo. George took the photo in February 2020 in San Diego.
Kyle Stubbs: “I found David has appeared on your blog once before, in Something Different 21. [Click on that link for an unbelievable transformation.] At that time, you asked for information about David‘s continued existence and later names. I’m surprised that it had not come out of the woodwork that she’s still around under her original name, working on Long Island Sound. When I took these photos at New Haven in 2017, she was working for a construction company from Branford, Connecticut called Blakeslee Arpaia Chapman. Given that her Coast Guard documentation still lists her homeport as Branford, I’m assuming that’s still the case.”
Again, it’s hard to believe it’s the same hull given the radical superstructure changes.
TS Poderoso I took in Niteroi Brasil in 2013. TS Poderoso (name is Portuguese for “powerful”) was built in southern Brasil in 2007 by a company intriguingly named Detroit S. A. Group.
On the same trip I took this photo of Cape Cumbria, built Appledore Shipbuilders Ltd. in Bideford (southwestern UK) in 1977. Technically, it’s not a tugboat, but beside it,
is C Brilhante, a 2008 built tug.
I add this photo because it was taken in Beirut harbor by Godra. Click on the image for fuller info. Thank you, Godra. I’d love to know more about the ports of Lebanon.
Harold Tartell shared this photo years ago, but I never used it until now because I wondered who’d taken it, when, and what the context was. Maybe Capt. Bill VanVoorhis took it? Fannie J is currently working in Haiti as Sisters. She was built in . . . ready for this . . . . 1874!! 1874!!! Here‘s a photo of her as Sisters.
I took this photo on the Chesapeake in October 2012 . . . Norfolk Rebel in the Great Chesapeake Schooner Race. She’s the world’s only tugantine.
This was the Donjon Shipbuilding yard in Erie PA Febuary 2018. From left to right, Dorothy Ann (the world’s largest z-drive tug at 124′ x 44′), Joyce L. VanEnkvort (135′ x 50′), and Elizabeth Anna (54′ x 17′).
Salvage Monarch (98′ x 29′) here was crossing Lake St. Clair. Notice the jetski as her workboat.
And I’ll close this post with Mackenzie Rose, the latest iteration of the 2000-built boat from Fall River MA.
Many thanks to Jed, Kyle, George, Godra, Harold and whoever took that photo. All other photos by WVD. Thanks for continuing to read the blog.
Time to move on to RT 301 soon.
Call this “images taken under the overcast skies prefacing Sandy’s arrival.” The first two here were taken by JED in Norfolk on Friday, Oct 26 while Sandy was off Florida. Remember Norfolk Rebel from the Schooner race here and in the Flickr show along the left margin?? JED got these under leaden light.
Bay Queen . . . . need to find out more about her.
Saturday, October 27 midday. I took this from Penn’s Landing in Philly looking toward Camden. It’s Jupiter. I took previous fotos of Jupiter and other old East Coast tugs here two years ago… including one of Rose, currently waiting to be scrapped! Junk-rigged schooner is the 48′ Summer Wind, recently also in the Great! Chesapeake race. Not to be confused with the 101′ Summerwind.
Also Saturday midday, Sea Pearl at the dock in Camden as seen with Moshulu to my back. As of this writing, Sea Pearl is still at that same dock.
Saturday 1600 hrs . . Camden waterfront looking toward Philly. From l to r, you catch some details of USS New Jersey, Moshulu, and Olympia. Doubleclick to enlarge.
Sunday 1800 hrs. With one exception, there are no cargo vessels in the major port areas of the 6boro. The exception in lower left is CSAV Itajai.
Sunday 2230 hrs. An outbound exodus, although the three blue arrows . . . Aidaluna, Carnival Miracle, and Explorer . . . all cruise ships . . . might experience some seasickness?
Sunday 2300. The tanker Noreaster–an appropriate name for a vessel in this storm–is still zigzagging offshore as of this morning.
If you want real-time views, check this webcam. It’s mounted on Staten Island, southwest portion of the Upper Bay, ie, about a mile north of the VZ Bridge.
And a possible victim of the storm: HMS Bounty, abandoned a hundred miles off Hatteras, as reported here. … Now believed lost with some crew missing. Scroll thru here for some of my fotos of Bounty.
Stay safe. I won’t go down to the water until after it lays down.
I post this as the race is approaching its finish; see live tracking at the bottom here.
Twenty-fours hours ago Baltimore-based Chock WYTL-65602 was leaving Annapolis to go on station as pin boat 1 . . . the west side of the starting gate. Pin boat here takes on a whole new meaning. For a Chock-sibling with a different mission, see bowsprite’s latest here.
Norfolk Rebel, currently itself transformed into a schooner and sailing, was the other pin boat. Here the jaunty captain and crew relax as schooners arrive at the starting line midday yesterday.
Condor was our platform, dashing around trying to catch the arriving schooners as they plotted a “red-carpet” course toward the pin boats. No offense to the smaller, class B boats . . . the faster ones . . . but we focused on the larger class A boats. First in was A. J. Meerwald. Links to many of the vessels can be found here for full info, but Meerwald is 84 years afloat.
Next across the red carpet . . . Sultana . . .
Lady Maryland . . . whom I sawsome years back in the sixth boro,
Some of the class B boats like the one in the distance . . . I never could identify. Any help? RORO is Rigel Leader.
Mystic Whaler and unidentified in background.
And the two vessels (sort of) that started it all . . . From l to r, 1916-launched, Tottenville NY-built Virgina and Pride of Baltimore 2.
Kings Pointer . . . Summerwind, a 1929 Alden schooner, and unidentified smaller vessels.
Anyone identify these?
Libertate.
A part of the field just minutes before the starter-cannon.
When a schooner races starts on a day with little wind, vessels crowd on all manner of sail, and yet . . . the “natives” on SUPs pass them. I believe the schooner is Prom Queen, now vying for first across the finish line.
Mystic Whaler and Summerwind, with bulker Clipper Emperor in the distance.
Part of the field follows. Notice the difference between the start of a schooner race and a tug race.
First Coast bypassed the schooners towing a barge and was already in Norfolk by the wee hours today.
The natives sat down on their boards and hung out at pin boat Chock,
as racers rocket south toward Norfolk.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp. Thanks to anyone who can identify some of the vessels I could not.
More from the race’s start tomorrow.
Uh . . . ? from a rainy Chesapeake comes this foto of a unique amalgamation. What might it be? Answer below.
And what vessels might these be, with what connection to the six boro? Answer also below, as is the rest of this post.
Back in the boro, where the sun blessed us this weekend, I imagined having a blast–my love and I on the river-– in a tiny sprit sail boat, [Play music from the “my love…” link while reading rest of post.]
racing past the Palisades.
For others, Imagine carried more gregarious folks past the metropolis
with a jaunty captain at the helm. . .
while its sister ship Adirondack headed for the Statue.
Technically replica Half Moon isn’t sailing here, but with all her flags flying, this motoring yacht is autumn resplendant, especially beside the equally autumnal Hayward. Anyone identify Half Moon’s flags? Answer below.
Fore to aft:
foremast: flag of the province of South Holland. main: stripes of the seven provinces.
mizzen: three crosses of city of Amsterdam, often called XXX.
Answers: Norfolk Rebel, tugantine, had its keel laid on April Fools Day 1978. Next, schooners are Amistad pursuing Lettie G. Howard. Lettie, built in Essex, MA, in 1893, has New York as its current homeport.
Put up whatever flags you will, and sail with your mates and thoughts before winter intrudes. There really are so many ways to mess about in wind boats, and from here, you can sail around the world.
Top two fotos, compliments of Jed. All others, Will Van Dorp.
tugster: a waterblog 
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