Retro October 2012

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 . . .

Sixth Boro Sundries

Springtime . . . and motion gives a renewed sense of life to the watery boro.  Emerald Sea‘s been around all winter, but she’s not moved loads like this.  Diner?  Prefab beach buildings for post-Sandy reconstruction?  Many thanks to Ashley Hutto for this shot taken along Roxbury, Queens.

Eclipse, the huge yacht in the distance has taller masts than Clipper City, the tallest sailing vessel operating in the the harbor.  Eclipse left the harbor Tuesday, headed for Gibraltar.

Schooner Virginia left Wednesday, headed for Virginia . . . by way of Portland, Maine.

Anyone know the manufacturer of the speedboat in the foreground?  In the background is Zephyr, launched 10 years ago from the Austal Shipyard in Mobile, AL . . . and Wavertree, launched 128 years ago in Southampton, UK.

I could almost imagine this boat has a bowsprit.

Smaller workboats seem more commonplace this time of year like Henry Hudson,

this Oyster Bay government boat,

an OCC vessel,

and of course the ubiquitous all-weather sludge tanker North River, frequently mentioned on this blog.

Thanks to Ashley for the first foto, and I’d love to know what that structure on the Weeks barge is.  All other fotos by Will Van Dorp, who feels the urge to go somewhere too.

Sixth Boro Random Delights 8

It was a rainy day and I was giving some friends a tour of the city,  intending to leave the camera in the waterproof bag . . . but how could I pass up a foto like this . . . “spring-showers” washed-out colors notwithstanding.

Schooner Virginia was in town.  As of this writing, it’s anchored south of the George Washington Bridge.   Two very different places I’ve seen Virginia in the past year are here in tropical waters and here in her home waters.   I’d loved to have been on the tug HMS Liberty at this moment.

Here’s where I first caught sight of her . . . approaching tug Liberty Service lightering Amalthea.

Another delight in port was T/S State of Maine, by now headed south for the 2013 training cruise . . . with San Juan as its southernmost destination.

Also in port . .  Prisco Elizaveta and Atlantic Jupiter.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who in the course of the day, was so thoroughly and delightfully showered upon that the clothes are still wet