Summer Yachts 2

Here was 1 and another I could have called “summer yachts” as well.  And then there are this one and another . . .  again . . .

Pilar is a stunner in so many ways . . .  registered in Key West and originally Elhanor, I believe it was built in Brooklyn one hull BEFORE Hemingway’s Pilar.

I caught it in Narragansett Bay . . . .

Off the Bronx, this unnamed unidentified vessel, likely NOT built in the Bronx,  roared past.

Some interesting boats on the wall at Waterford here include Solar Sal, Manatee, and Little Manatee.

Manatee is a Kadey Krogen with an unusual paint scheme.

I took this photo of Solar Sal last September and had intended to get back to it.  Later last fall it distinguished itself by hauling cargo.

Tjaldur is an unusual

double-ender.

Old Glory is an Owens . . . seen in Buffalo on the 4th of July.

In Mackinac, I saw this 1953 Chris Craft named

Marion Leigh.

Here’s another shot of the rare Whiticar Boat Works yacht Elegante pushing back water.

And sometimes it takes going a long distance to find a Bronx-built yacht like this 1937 Consolidated named

Sea Spray.  I’d love to see her under way.  For more Bronx built boats, click here.

Ditto . . . in the same Chicago marina . . . this Chris Craft.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

No Name Fleet 3

Rust never sleeps; nor do fungi.  My first and second posts on this yard are here as one and two;  I’d love to imagine these boats could be restored like this ACF J’Ador III, but mosses and mushrooms are powerful and mahogany though beautiful is vulnerable, and

with neglect,  hardwood turn soft and planks split apart at the seams once so tight.  Wood that began life in Central America or Southern Asia might turn to dust in North America.

Beams and structures lose their strength, their integrity . . .  and

this fleet (1940 Chris Craft 33′ and 1939 ACF)  might never again ride

or be ridden upon, unless love and dollars get lavished upon them.  Some like

this Owens get reprieved and

others (like this 1963 Century Raven) hang in the balance

although once the wood turns fertile for new life, the

old one is lost.  These vessels may be preserved only on old photographs, which themselves are at risk of

leading nowhere if no identifying info is written on the back.  I wonder sometimes as we steer madly into the digital future what will

become of digital images like mine once computers update so much the old files no longer compatible  are as undecipherable as hieroglphics.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp at Miller’s Marina in Lyons, New York.  Telephone number available on google.

Note: the 1940 ChrisCraft in the second foto above has twin K 6-cylinder Hercules.  There’s also a 1964 ChrisCraft Challenger for sale, last in the water three years ago.  $3000.  I’m just the messenger.

For more boats of this type, check boneyard boats.