A to P 10: People Carriers

Tuira II anchors west of Perico.

Different sites related to Canal and Bay Tours say this boat was built by Wiley Manufacturing of Port Deposit MD, makers of sixth boro’s Patricia,  Norfolk’s Hoss, and Erie Canal’s Capt Alix, but Wiley history doesn’t reflect this.  Any help?

Also in the Canal and Bay Tours fleet is this vintage 1912 wooden vessel in Neponset MA by Lawley & Sons, Islamorada.  A claim is that Al Capone once owned her.

Here she shares a lock at Miraflores with a bulker. More closeups of the locks and tugboats soon.

Below is the same Islamorada  I took in mid-March 2012;  that’s a range marker in the foreground to the right.  I prefer the 2012 color scheme.

Fantasía del Mar, here docked in Gamboa and alongside Atlas III, is the third of three US boats operated by Canal and Bay Tours . . . and said to be built by Eastern Shipbuilding of Boothbay, but I know of no such yard.

Las Cruces . . . she could be US built, but again . . . no info.  I thought it looked US built, and thanks to readers and some following up on my part, I can say it is a 1961 Blount vessel still carrying its original name.

Safari Voyager, not flagged US but operated by UnCruise Adventures, is definitely a US bottom, built in 1982 in Salisbury MD, the yard where many of the recent Vane vessels originate from.   That’s also the shipyard that has built American Cruise Line vessels.

Wind Star, featured here just recently, was built in France in 1986.

And finally . . . in the background one morning was Maasdam, heading for Mexico, launched from a Fincantieri yard in Italy in 1993.

The green trimaran–I’ve forgotten the name–was super light and fast, heading for the Marquesas.  She transited the Panama Canal maintaining the requisite minimum of 6 knots with an outboard!  According to her owner, she can make 5 knots in 2 knots wind.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

And again a repeated request:  Please send me a photo of your seat.  What I mean is this:  I’d like to do a post on captain’s and/or pilot’s chairs.  I’m looking for the luxurious all the way to decrepit or basic.  Email me a photo of the chair and identify the vessel. You don’t need to be sitting in it.  I’ve got photos of two seats so far, but I’d like a half dozen before doing a post.

 

 

A to P 7: Yachts

By the way, A to P, if you suffer from CRS as I do, expands to Atlantic to Pacific, across the skinny continent of Panama.  Today’s post makes me want to create a “crew finder” profile, as this would be a way to gallivant across the Pacific in style, in exchange for less work than young Melville was expected to perform.

Let’s make this a numbers post.  Yersin, launched 2015, cost $70m.  I don’t know my cabin cruisers that well, but the boat in the foreground with an overload upforward has US boatbuilder lines.

Yersin, when launched, was set up for 20 crew and 20 guests.

Yacht Lionheart runs a cool $150m.  Forty crew attend to 12 guests.

Andiamo is “low end”:  12 guests and 6 crew.  Ice-class hull, she was offered for sale in 2012 for $20m.  I believe I’ve seen her on the Great Lakes or the Saint Lawrence or the sixth boro, but that could be just a common name.

Joseph Conrad (ex-Saturn) dates from 1916, with a major refit in 2004.  She can run with 8 guests with 5 crew.  Priceless.

Azuleta, a Turkish gulet, is also priceless here, and works charters out of Panama City.  For some other gulets for sale, click here.

Rocinante, 2008 with a 2015 refit, has 32 crew for 12 guests.  She recently changed hands for $128m.

Constance dates from 1986, and 10 crew serve 10 guests. Previous names are PAMINUSCH, MONTEATH, MONTIGNE, and JANA.

Wind Star, launched 1986, accommodates 148 passengers with 101 crew.  I recall the excitement back 30 years ago when she was said to be the first commercial sailing vessel of this size built in over a half century.

Dorothea III, $50m, was launched in 2007 and can have 10 crew for 8 passengers.

Lalamanzi is a St Francis 44 cat, crewed by a couple from South Africa, heading home across the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

And finally, Belle Ourse (Pretty Bear) wins my prize for the best name.   She hails from Montreal.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.  And the grand total is . . . a lot of dough!  But while I’m looking over the fence at stuff owned by the Vanderbilts of our era,  I encourage you to read this thoroughly fascinating article about a private jet broker, Steve Varsano, who sells to the same social segment as can afford these yachts.

 

Port of Venezia 1

I’ve never been to Venice, a fact I’d love to remedy soon;  maybe I have to visit it soon.  The third photo in this recent post about lighthouses had a mystery location.  Congratulations to Tommy Bryceland, who guessed it was Venice.

Since large ships do call in Venice, there must be rimorchiatori aka tugboats, like Ida C.  Click here and work with the language to see their whole fleet.  Of course, you’d expect gondolas, with their 1000-year-old design.  Gondolas, whether in Minnesota or NY or Las Vegas,  appear all similar.  Given the connection between Marco Polo and Asia to the east, I wonder if there was design influence with the beams I recall seeing among marsh Arabs in southern Iraq . .. .

Here’s a better profile of an unusual cruise ship, Wind Star.  

More rimorchiatori in the Grand Canal the day Jonathan was out there with his camera include Marina M C

 

 

and Clara C.

All photos thanks to Jonathan Steinman, some of whose previous photos on tugster can be found here.   A previous post with photos on the water in Venice can be found here.

For the full set of rimorchiatori da Venezia, click here.

The cargo port is to the west of old city.