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Vol. 23, No. 1 - Traditional Small Craft Association
Ash Breeze The Vol. 23 No. 1 Journal of the Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc. Spring 2002 - $4.00 In This Issue: City Point and the Sound School A Shorter American River Skiff • A Gardner Grant Sleeping with Ospreys, Fishing with Pelicans • Web Sites of Interest My Favorite Row • Book Review Chapter Schedules Announcements The Ash Breeze Editor’s Column The Ash Breeze is the quarterly journal of the Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc. It is published at 136 Trinity Lane, Portola Valley, CA 94028. The response to my call for material has been great. The summer issue is filling up and, with the fall issue now on the drawing board, readers will receive four issues of The Ash Breeze in 2002. For 2003 I plan to publish every three months. Communications concerning membership or mailings should be addressed to: Box 350, Mystic, CT 06355. You will notice the cover price has been increased to $4. The back issue price has increased as well. This is the first price increase in many years, and is certainly justified by the current layout and printing costs. Perhaps we can even find a way to put back issues on CD. (Any desktop publishing whizzes out here want to volunteer to help?) Volume 23 Number 1 Editor Dan Drath drathmarine@earthlink.net 650-851-7601 Copy Editors Hobey DeStaebler Charles Judson Jim Lawson Editors Emeriti Richard S. Kolin Sam & Marty King David & Katherine Cockey Ralph Notaristefano Ken Steinmetz John Stratton Publisher Dan Drath Layout with the assistance of the The Messing About Foundation oodman The Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc., is a nonprofit, tax-exempt educational organization which works to preserve and continue the living traditions, skills, lore, and legends surrounding working and pleasure watercraft whose origins predate the marine gasoline engine. It encourages the design, construction, and use of these boats, and it embraces contemporary variants and adaptations of traditional designs. TSCA is an enjoyable yet practical link among users, designers, builders, restorers, historians, government, and maritime institutions. Copyright 2002 by The Traditional Small Craft Association, Inc. Keep those cards and letters coming. It is your journal and it is wonderful to hear from you. Have a great summer! TSCA Annual Meeting June 1, 2002, 4:30 PM in the Galley Annex Buffet dinner will follow at 6:00 PM Announcing International Challenge Stake Race Across San Francisco Bay Open to 6-oared gigs Saturday, September 21, 2002 Prize: $1,000 Zack Stewart 50 Water Street SF 94133-1814 FAX: 415/392-4391 Address Changes: We instruct the Postal Service to forward the journal to your new address, but if it is not forwardable, we are charged the full third-class fee (not the less expensive bulkrate fee) for its return, along with the address correction fee. To help us reduce postage costs and ensure that you don’t miss an issue, kindly send your new address to TSCA Secretary, P. O. Box 350, Mystic, CT 06355. Front Cover: The 2002 Snow Row at Hull, Massachusetts. The cold weather, 40 degrees F, did not deter the enthusiastic crowd. Thirty gigs together with many fixed seat, sliding seat (singles and doubles) participated in the row-around-theisland. The Sound School's gig crossed the finish first. More pictures of this event may be found on the TSCA National WebSite, www.tsca.net. Chauncy Rucker photo 2 _________________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Spring 2002 Letters Dear Ed: The Floating the Apple Chapter will have an important event in early June. The Governors Island Flotilla Sunday Morning, June 2, 2002 The Governors Island Flotilla is a collaborative venture of many groups sharing in the wish to save that most historic of our small islands from being sold off by the administration for profit and development. In many ways, this central island belongs to US ALL as much as do the other two islands of the national triad, Ellis and Liberty Islands. Governors Island, just off the foot of Manhattan, remains remarkably unspoiled, its forts, old Army housing and parade grounds as they were when the island was a secluded base both for Army and, later, Coast Guard operations. Governors Island was the site of our region’s first European resident (Jan Rodriguez in 1613), the location of its first such settlement (New Amsterdam in 1624) and was critical to the Continental Army’s successful retreat after the Battle of Brooklyn - the row of 9,000 troops, horses, cannons and provisions across the East River in 1776, which is said by some historians to have saved the American Revolution practically at its start. Later, the “Turtle” the earliest submarine, did its best to drill holes into the hull of the British flag ship off Governors Island, Samuel FB Morse is laid his first “trans-oceanic” cable to it and Wilber Wright flew from its great field on a dare devil flight around the torch of Miss Liberty. Here Gorbachev met to permanently defrost the Cold War and at the very end of its tenure, the Coast Guard hosted the 1993 launching of Floating the Apple’s first rowing boat (the Cheticamp 19, designed by John Gardner with the objective of bringing youth back onto New York Harbor). That happening took place on the December date of the 1824 “American Star” race (of traditional small craft) which drew the largest crowd to witness an American sporting event up to that time. Floating the Apple sees Governors Island as a regional center for young boaters, where some of the island’s historic buildings would be converted to boaters' hostels for rows and sailors coming by water to New York Harbor from their community boathouses a hundred miles or more away. This vision is one which we believe will help to secure the future of traditional small craft enjoyment through new generations of young people coming to use and love those many-purposed boats. We see it as important that many traditional small craft, some relating to the island’s rich maritime history, be well represented in the flotilla on June 2. We plan to reserve space in our growing fleet of Whitehall gigs for rowers - especially young ones coming from other waterway centers of the region and the country. We would welcome the Ash Breeze’s mention of the Governors Island Flotilla and of its significance to the interest and touring our our national waterways. Sincerely, Michael K. Davis Founding President Tel: (212) 564-5412 email: floapple@aol.com 400 W43rd Street Apt 32R New York, NY 10036 The Floating the Apple TSCA Chapter is a non-profit group of people living in New York and New Jersey and wanting onto the waters in between... Restoring universal access onto the public waterways is our goal. Reintroducing the public, especially young people, to the joys of rowing and sailing on the urban waters, is our immediate objective. Bringing people back to the rivers and bays of NYC and putting them in daily touch with the wonder, commerce and heritage of the city’s natural harbor, its greatest outdoor space, is our ultimate aim. Connecting city neighborhoods by water with each other and with towns up the rivers, is envisioned through an informal network of boathouse communities extending hospitality to all boaters. Mystic Seaport Museum’s 33rd John Gardner Small Craft Workshop June 1 and 2, 2002 Get to use over 75 boats Take part in workshops and presentations Use the Museum Livery boats for free Row down the Mystic River on Sunday You don’t have to bring a boat! TSCA Annual Meeting June 1, 4:30 PM Galley Annex To register and obtain more information, contact: www.mysticseaport.org 860-572-0711, ext 5028 carole@mysticseaport.org Or, write for a flier: Mystic Seaport Museum P.O.Box 6000 Mystic, CT 06355 Welcome New Members Walter Baetjer, Pukalani, HI Pat Ball, Sarasota, FL Gerald F. Bell, Tallahassee, FL David J. Christofferson Saint Paul, MN Peter F. Colwell Green Cove Springs, FL Rick Crawford, Weaverville, NC Philip J. Deegan, Manassas, VA Linda Dekle, Atlanta, GA Paul C. Deroos, Seattle, WA Ed Farley, St. Michaels, MD Dick Greenwald, Sarasota, FL Walter & Shirley Grover, Holland, MI Robert O. Guess, Virginia Beach, VA Dale Harvey, Englewood, FL Allan Horton, Nokomis, FL Jan Hotchkiss, Portland, ME Homer Ingmire, Allegan, MI Richard J. Kilwin, Troy, MO Richard S. Kolin, Marysville, WA C. Scott Kulicke Port Washington, PA Lake Champlain Maritime Museum Vergennes, VT John Machey, Fairfax Station, VA Larry Magee, Waterford, CT Peter R. Makowski, Wilton, CT Marshall McKee, Framingham, MA David J. Moran, Lebanon, OH Dwight Newbold, Frederick, MD Janet Patterson, New York, NY Rex Payne, Nashville, TN Paul Piercey, Edmonds, WA Earl C. Plunkett, Plymouth, MN Harry Pore, Sarasota, FL Albert Z. Printz, Alexandria, VA Rick Scheideman, Lakewood, CO Walter Scherf, Dallas, OR Scott Stroh, Sarasota, FL Jackson P. Sumner, Hampton, CT Clay Teppenpaw New Port Richey, FL Douglas J. Thomas, Lakeland, FL Keith A. Wahamaki, San Ramon, CA Robert K. Yagura, Berkeley, CA TSCA Chapters Join or start a chapter to enjoy the fellowship and skills which can be gained around traditional small craft Adirondack Chapter TSCA Mary Brown, 100 Cornelia St., Apt. 205, Plattsburgh, NY 12901, 518-561-1667 Annapolis Chapter TSCA Sigrid Trumpy, 12 German St., Annapolis, MD 21401 Barnegat Bay TSCA Ben Dittenhofer, 2810 Dover Road, Forked River, NJ 08731, 609-693-0652 Connecticut River Oar and Paddle Club Jon Persson, 18 Riverside Ave., Old Saybrook, CT 06475, jon.persson@snet.net Delaware River TSCA Ron Gryn, 4 Goldeneye Court, New Britain, PA 18901, 215-348-9433 Floating the Apple Mike Davis, 400 West 43rd St., 32R, New York, NY 10036, 212-564-5412 Patuxent Small Craft Guild George Surgent, 5227 William’s Wharf Road, St. Leonard, MD 20685, 410-3262042 TSCA of West Michigan Michael Kieffer, 7066 103rd Avenue, South Haven, Michigan 49090 South Jersey TSCA George Loos, 53 Beaver Dam Rd., Cape May Courthouse, NJ 08210, 609-8610018 North Shore TSCA William Clements, PO Box 87, 18 Mount Pleasant St., North Billerica, MA 01862, 978-663-3103 Long Island TSCA Myron Young, PO Box 635, Laurel, NY 11948, 631-298-4512 Oregon TSCA Sam Johnson, 1449 Southwest Davenport, Portland, OR 97201, 503-223-4772, ssj@ northwest.com South Street Seaport Museum John B. Putnam, 207 Front Street, New York, NY 10038, 212-748-8600, Ext. 663 days Pine Lake Small Craft Assoc. Sandy Bryson, Sec., 333 Whitehills Dr., E. Lansing, MI 48823, 517-351-5976 Friends of the North Carolina Maritime Museum TSCA Roger Allen, 315 Front Street, Beaufort, NC 28516, 919-728-7317 Potomac TSCA Bob Grove, 419 North Patrick St., Alexandria, VA 22314, 703-548-3972 days, 703549-6746 evenings Maury River Chapter Andrew Wolfe, 20 Palfrey Lane, Glasgow, VA 24555, 540-464-3449 Puget Sound TSCA Bob Dunshee, President, 2600 E. Helen St., Seattle, WA 98112, 206-322-8846 John Gardner Chapter Sacramento TSCA Dan Drath, POB 620639, Woodside, CA 94062, drathmarine@earthlink.net Russ Smith, 12 Gallup Hill Road Ext., Ledyard CT 06339, 860-5361113 Scajaquada TSCA Charles H. Meyer, 5405 East River, Grand Island, NY 14072, chmsails@aol.com, 716-773-2515 TSCA of Wisconsin James R. Kowall, c/o Door County Maritime Museum, Box 246, Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235, 920-743-4631 4 _________________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Spring 2002 The Ash Breeze Is a Member-Supported Publication! Your help is needed to make the Ash Breeze informative, entertaining, and worthwhile. We need articles, news items, coming events from TSCA Chapters, photos (black-and-white or color), sketches, etc. Copy and advertising are accepted anytime. You can save us considerable time by sending your material electronically. Text may be sent in the body of an email message or, alternatively, you may use Word or pdf files as attachments. Send photos by US mail or as email attachments in jpg or tif format. Win a TSCA T-shirt Members whose articles are published in The Ash Breeze are awarded a TSCA T-shirt. An article is a complete piece of writing that informs and educates. Anecdotes, Chapter news and reports, etc., do not qualify, although a T-shirt will be awarded to regular contributors of Chapter reports at the Editor’s discretion. How about writing that article for Ash Breeze? Tell me your T-shirt size when you send in your story. — Dan Benefactor Life Member Samuel E. Johnson Sidney S. Whelan, Jr. Generous Patrons James W. Goodrich Dick & Nancy Wells Clyde Wisner ...and Individual Sponsor/Members Bruce Malone Ben Fuller Leslie Smith Mr. & Mrs. Rodney W. Agar Jim Miller Roy Gaines Stephen Smith Doug Aikins Alfred P. Minervini Gerald W. Gibbs Ken Steinmetz David E. Baker John S. Montague Walter Giger, Jr. Zach Stewart Tupper Barrett Joseph Moss Marvin I. Goldberg Tom & Bonnie Stone Bruce Beglin Mason C. Myers James W. Goodrich David W. Stookey Howard Benedict Mimi Gerstell Neary Mr. & Mrs. R. Bruce Hammatt, Jr. Jackson P. Sumner Robert C. Briscoe David J. Pape John A. Hawkinson, M.D. John Summers Richard Butz Stephen Perloff Peter Healey Benjamin B. Swan Edward G. Brownlee Michael Porter Colin O. Hermans Robert C. Thomson Charles Canniff Ron Rantilla Roger Holzmacher James Thorington Bob & Sue Cavenagh Thomas R. Refvem Townsend Hornor Skipper Tonsmeire Dick Christie Ronald W. Render Thomas Jarosch Ray E. Tucker David Cockey Peter A. Jay Judy Ricketts-White Peter T. Vermilya William B. Coolidge Tony Robertson Samuel E. Johnson Eleanor & Edward Watson James & Lloyd Crocket Nelius N. Ronning Carl B. & Ruth W. Kaufmann John L. Way Richard F. Cullison Stephen Kessler Karen S. Rutherford Richard B. Weir Thad Danielson Karl Schmid Samuel M. & Marty B. King John & Ellen Weiss Stanley R.Dickstein Peter Schmid Thomas E. King Captain C.S. Wetherell Dan & Eileen Drath Gary L. Shirley Rich Kolin Leland W. Wight, Jr. Thomas Dugan Charles D. Siferd Chelcie Liu Clyde Wisner Frank C. Durham Mr. & Mrs. Bulkeley Smith, Jr. Jon Lovell J. Myron Young Albert Eatock David Epner Please join them with a tax-deductible gift of $50 or more to TSCA! The Ash Breeze - Spring 2002 __________________________________________________________ 5 City Point and the Sound School by Tim Weaver Finding City Point’s not that hard, but it’s not that easy. The place goes by you fast. The best way to get there is to take a page from an old and very fine Kochiss’ article on the New Haven Sharpie* — see it in relation to I-95. So, traveling between Boston and New York, you travel I-95, and, until you meet suburban New York, the last part of your drive is along Connecticut’s Long Island shore – past Mystic, over the Connecticut River, and twenty miles later, across the bridge that puts you along the edge of New Haven harbor. It is here, just after the bridge, as the highway drops down along the harbor’s edge that you’ll see a little peninsula, maybe see a few boats, maybe even see a thirty-six-foot two-mast sharpie moored out. If you do, you’re looking at City Point and that boat’s the Sound School’s flagship, Tenacious. Make that Boston-New York trip regularly, you might get curious, slip off ’95, nose around until you find City Point, only road leading there is Howard Avenue, hard to miss, and that runs into Water Street, and that’s the water’s edge. And if you’re hungry, turn right Chamberlain gunning dories. onto Water and discover the deli. Get the special, maybe a Ruben, and walk east along the seawall, find a bench and start looking. Straight ahead, more or less southwest, lies the harbor mouth. It’s wide and shallow, almost as wide as the harbor is long. The wind runs free from seaward, the Sound’s almost eighteen miles wide here. It hits the harbor its full length. And if the tide’s low, you’ll see the beach, a long sandbar a mile or so out. It runs half the harbor. It interrupts the sun’s work – the catspaws glitter of the morning’s calm, and in the afternoon, the harbor’s shimmer. This is a place where the sharpie and the flatiron skiff flourished. And New Haven harbor is a small place, small enough to be well understood, to get a notion of what designed the sharpie. They came from New Haven, All drawings by the author. fit the needs of the oyster here, and they migrated down the coast.** These are not boats lost in the fog of old Baltic, Mediterranean or Near East fisheries. These local boats are the only two American alongshore craft, outside of the canoe, with no European antecedents. These are boats with roots right here, and the harbor and the oyster haven’t changed, maybe been abused, but not changed. So, here, this place, City Point, can help tell that tale. This modest unassuming New Haven neighborhood can, with a little effort, reveal the whys of form and function - oyster cultivation and rivers, Yankee ingenuity, that became the sharpie. Fact is, Water Street was likely a ‘shelled beach’ once. Those houses across Water Street, the ones across from the deli and, down the street, the ones across from the Sound School, those were early oystermen’s houses. Some still have the extra wide, street level doors, doors wide enough to easily bring bushels of oysters through, from right off the sharpies to the shucking room. And the nearby creeks, the marsh, the shallow harbor bottom, a seabed laid out like truck farms, they are still there still here, too. And where you’re sitting, that might be the spot where sharpies lay ashore winter, perhaps the sharpies pictured in Chapelle’s American Small Sailing Craft, between pages 174 and 175. Could be Water Street was that beach. It’s likely, too, that right off that beach a twelve-year-old Chapelle 6 _________________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Spring 2002 School’s sailing program has evolved under the watchful eyes of Ned Flanagan. There’s a Sound School story of use, design and boatbuilding here that should be told. It’s a regular case of continuing evolution. Like the now gone but once ever-present flatiron skiffs, these boats are useful in so many along shore places. Many a family with children, families living on careful budgets, could enjoy this inexpensive, fascinating, stable, roomy and truly traditional little gem of a boat. Guaranteed. sailed a sharpie skiff, capsized it, and had a more experienced hand show him a few tricks. And another thought, those houses; seems way back - 1640’s and 1650’s - there were houses built out over the old (and now gone) East and West Creeks with open, if crude, foundations. Here the first settlers lived while they built permanent places on the New Haven Green. Might just such houses, built upstream over tidewater at the creeks edge, have been the common form of early colonial housing at the very beginnings of emerging tidewater America? Are those houses on Water Street, and there are others like them on the Quinnipiack at Fair Haven, shadows of a past that reaches to the beginnings of colonial North America? Well, let’s move along, a few more steps, you’re at the Sound School. There, along side the boat shop, you’ll find the sharpie-skiffs. These days they are blue, black, and maroon boats. Sailed one or two-masted, they’ve brought along four or five hundred students, minimum. There are probably more folks in the New Haven area able to sail a spritsail skiff than in the rest of the country. These boats are built to the lines of the WB (lines available from Mystic Seaport). The original skiff, in the marvelous Mystic Seaport small boat collection that hardly ever sees the light of day, was built by Lester Rowe, a noted sharpie builder from Fair Haven. It’s an interesting boat, and in the Sound this is news. There’s fumbling about, a good deal of drifting-and-circling, and everyone gradually seeing the need to make sense of things, the teamwork comes as late summer becomes fall. The role of a leader and the idea of a stroke oar take hold. Nice lessons. Inductive education at its best. And under the stilts building, are interesting creations, too. There, depending on the time of year, you might find Sound, the school-built Scilly Island gig – she shows her stern in the New England fixed-seat gig races. And But moving along, there’s the resident an individualistic interpretation she is, not the riveted, clinker-built model fleet of Brockways and a few Bolger you’d expect. Then there’s First Diablos. School built, too. They are Constitution, the school's original fixed grizzled veterans in the war of hard school usage. They keep track of things, seat, four-oared gig, the “Silver Bullet” shepherd the rowers and sailors, work in of gig races in years past. And what’s she? A boatbuilder’s notion –a stretched the fisheries and aquaculture programs. Chamberlain gunning dory, light and fast, but, the builders say, not quite the Next, alongside the stilts building boat she could be - something about the last school building going east – is a wave and wind abeam. Look a little small fleet of Chamberlain gunning harder and you’ll find something else. dories, a tad heavily built, more or less There’s an old sharpie under there, a double ended. The boat shop likes a long, finelined boat that’s built to take a thirty-six foot boat. Been there twenty years; was originally to be rebuilt as the beating. They are green, red, blue and yellow boats – makes asking a student to school’s flagship, but was too far gone. move exactly which boat specific. This is She’d lain near a hedge in Branford too where the rowing starts. For the student long to be recalled to life. She is sort of an enigma. Although extensively who has never been in a rowboat, these rebuilt many, many years ago, she’s an ones are just right. One, two, three, or important artifact, one of three or four, four students and a coxswain can row all that remain of a local and uniquely them. The four-oared setup is American craft. This boat is interesting. This calls for teamwork, all representative of a type as important as oars in the water, together. For some, The Ash Breeze - Spring 2002 __________________________________________________________ 7 the Chesapeake log canoe, the ‘grands canots’ of the fur trade, the colonial periagua, and the ‘doree.’ With three hundred plus students and tight quarters, the school simply does not have the money to develop a site for this unique American artifact. Thirty-six feet is big, what this boat needs is a building. What the school does have, though, is the expertise and knowledge necessary for its proper display and interpretation. ...And a few more boats... The first is Tenacious. If any boat is symbolic of this school, it is Tenacious. The inspiration of George Foote, the founder of the Sound School, and Peter Neill, she is the perfect boat in the right place. And in the early days of the Sound School, when money, teachers and just about everything else were scarce, George Foote made sure he backed lead boatbuilder/teacher/sailor Ken Donovan and his students as they built that boat. She is a thirty-six-foot replica of a racing sharpie. The lines are from Chapelle’s American Small Sailing Craft, page 120, “Fig. 43. Last type of racing sharpie….” Again, this is a finelined, thin-waisted boat - you can see her log canoe heritage. Bermuda-leg-omutton rigged, she moves inshore easily, and nearing the school’s pier crowded quarters here - turns on a dime and is alongside the dock. And every head at the school turns seaward. Now, add a couple, say four, tons of oyster to Tenacious, and you’re ready to start hauling them across the street, open a long-gone (though some houses still have them) wide doors and start shucking. But back to reality, if you’re a Sound School student - done some time in the skiffs - you’re going to get to sail Tenacious, sail that thirty-six-foot, two- Oyster shack, an on-thewater gathering place during occasional sharpie festivities. mast rig. You might ride the morning catspaws or hit an afternoon breeze. You’ll learn to come about, haul in the main - some call it the mizzen - and slack the fore. Drive her around, listen to her move, get a feel for the tiller and slip across the harbor. With the wind the way it is here, she’ll go anywhere, do anything. The kids know: on a crisp fall day, the wind moderate, all things a shimmer, sails aglow, it’s the only deal in town. And so does the boat shop crew, everybody’s on the water. And, one and all, Brockways, Diablos, sharpie-skiffs, gigs and Tenacious, they are school-built. Sometimes they’re all out, or at the dock. It’s some sight. So, it’s about time to leave City Point, well wait! Inside the Administration building and the building just east of it are photographic displays, interpretations of the sharpie developed as a school project by a history teacher, John Buell, and three of his students, Ashley Pherson, Elanya Delacruz, and Amie Smith. This display is remarkable. One walks away from these pictures - they are done quite large and are chosen from photographs in the Mystic Seaport archives - with a sense of the sharpie and the flatiron skiff as an integral part of a seaside community, of work and family life. This installation deserves wide distribution. They could easily travel around the country, from maritime to maritime museum, expanding our appreciation of the sharpie and the flatiron skiff beyond anything currently in print. Those photographs show how local, often taken for granted things, are often a fine part of our lives. And, we’re almost through. The Quinnipiack. If she’s in, she’s on the Sound School’s pier, shares it with the school. This is a Chapelle designed Gulf Coast schooner. She is a 91-foot Maine built, shoal draft, pole-masted, centerboarder. Owned by Schooner Incorporated, a community organization devoted to Long Island Sound, she is often involved in school projects, but I think that’s getting beyond the scope of things. Another story, another time. And that’s about it, almost. If it’s about four in the afternoon as you’re leaving City Point, driving east past the stilts building before circling towards Howard Avenue, look seaward. Against the eastern harbors shore, out toward Morris Cove, and marching down Light House Point Reach to the steady throb of a diesel, you’ll see a white, streaked hull, an old sixty-foot, rebuilt who knows how many times, oyster dredge. That’s a Bloom Brothers boat, comes in every day - its quitting time - been working the sound, maybe she’s the Louis R.... A hundred years ago the prototype of boats like this would be slowing down about where that bridge you’ll soon be going over is, throwing a line to the sharpies rafted at the mouth of the Quinnipiack and Mill Rivers waiting for a tow, heading home, Fair Haven bound. No more. But 352 years later, New Haven is still minding the oyster. And, after a visit like this, I wouldn’t be surprised if our visitor stopped at Mystic Seaport, bought a copy of American Small Sailing Craft, and, some cold winter evening, commences reading, pages 104-133, “The Sharpies.” And maybe next summer, harbor map in hand, a bit more curious, there will be more visiting. Maybe our small craft fan will bring a boat, really look around, understand what made the sharpie. There are trailer ramps, one at Lighthouse Point and one in West Haven, and canoe and kayak put-ins at Fair Haven and City Point. ■ Note: Despite the school’s busy schedule, Steve Pynn, the principal, and many others went out of their way to show me how the boat shop and boat handling classes are taught, and the nature of the harbor, its rivers, and the City Point architecture. I did a good bit of reading at the New Haven Colony Historical Society. It is a smoothly run, beautifully organized library. * Some Aspects of the Sharpie and Its Work.” Log of Mystic Seaport, Jan. 1976 ** Migrations of an American Boat Type. USNM Bulletin 22, Government Printing Office, 1961 *** Note: If you go to Schooner Inc., web site (www.schoonersoundlearning.org/html), you will find a complete description of this schooner. Web Sites of Interest A growing list. Send your favorite to the Editor. www.archive.museophile.sbu.ac.uk/ rowing/ www.bb62museum.org/ usnavmus.html www.bostonharborheritage.org www.by-the-sea.com www.ctrivermuseum.org www.dabblersails.com www.drathmarine.com www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ DinghyCruising) www.hoginsails.com www.home.infi.net/~edonovan/ behind/images/minehead.jpg www.mysticseaport.org www.openwater.com www.perssonmfg.com www.pilotgigs.co.uk www.riverswest.org www.RowingHistory.net www.scillyonline.co.uk www.shawandtenney.com www.smallboatforum.com www.steamboating.net/ www.tsca.net www.upperdeckboats.com Letters Attracting Young People The best way I’ve ever seen in attracting young people to good stuff is to do the stuff yourself and bring your own small people with you, maybe with a young friend. Those people grow up doing it. If you want already half grown people to come to meetings, give them a challenge, friends to show off to, and lots of free food. One of the big successes in Sacto chapter is having a couple of overnight events each year. The children of families come, run around, play in boats, some of which are made to order for their size, eat marshmallows after their bed times, camp out, eat sandy food, hear the raccoons rattling the garbage cans, play in boats some more, and go home. We’ve never had a discipline problem among all the children in Sacramento TSCA because they are never bored. Apropos of members' not going to meetings: Invite everybody to row or sail to it, or at least plan it for a good tide so they have the option of coming by boat. Plan for lots of fun, mixed with small, efficient amounts of business, followed by food and music. That’s the word from Queen Tule. Cricket Evans (aka Queen Tule is a member of the Sacramento Chapter). Rockland 2002: International Festival of Seamanship and Boatbuilding July 11, 2002 See the Fall/Winter 2001 issue of The Ash Breeze The Ash Breeze - Spring 2002 __________________________________________________________ 9 TSCA awarded a Gardner Grant of $1,000 to the Maine Humanities Council in the fall of 2000 to start making a video documentary on the various building techniques used to create Peapods along the Maine coast. Here is their well-written proposal. Juliet Bennett P.O. Box 402 Brooklin, ME 04616 (207)-236-6820 julietbrownie@hotmail.com Maine Humanities Council Community Outreach Grant Proposal 1. Describe the idea of the project: I am filming a video documentary concerning Peapods. These little boats indigenous to the Maine coast, played an essential role in the life and history of Maine and are still being built today. I intend to document interviews with several aging builders who are still building Peapods well past “retirement age,” some are even into their 80s. Within this documentary I intend to introduce the Peapod in its historical context, illustrating how and when it was used. I also want to follow the thread of a particular Peapod that is still in use today. 2+3. What will happen or be produced in this project, and when? My aim is to produce a 20-minute video to be launched in Autumn 2002. SUMMER 2001: I have been obtaining suitable equipment to film with. I have also been meeting with potential participants to establish relations and plan interviews. WINTER 2001: I foresee the remainder of the winter as being used to master my digital video camera, continuing interviewee contacts and having consultation meetings. SPRING 2002: I plan to begin conducting the filmed interviews in the Spring once I am completely comfortable with my equipment, and the boats are underway. I want my interaction with the camera and microphone equipment to be unobtrusive during the interviews. SUMMER 2002: Towards the end of the summer I aim to have selected my footage from the filmed interviews and be ready to go into an editing suite to piece together the final product. AUTUMN 2002: Launching of the video. Research so far has taken me to Vinalhaven, Brooklin, Jonesport, Deer Isle, and the maritime museums in Bath and Searsport. I have been making preliminary contact with the people I want to interview. The Apprenticeshop’s library has provided a source for Peapod lines, plans, magazine articles and reference. I also have taken the lines off and am drafting plans for a previously unrecorded Peapod. This research is enabling me to draw up a structure for my interviews. 3A. Describe the oral history questions and technical equipment to be used: I plan to conduct interviews with the Subject being interviewed next to their Peapod (whenever possible,) explaining its different features and related history. The clear advantage of video is that it is an easily absorbed format within which explanations can be verbal and visual simultaneously. Several builders, including the eldest, are now beginning boats that will be in progress in the spring. My interviews will fall into three categories: historical background, builders and methods, and Peapod owners. The Historical Background questions will include what these boats were used for, and how they were used. Why/how were they an integral part of early Maine coast industry and life? Early building methods will segue into the specific “tricks” of modern day builders, whose specific questions are given below. The Peapod owners can elicit the intimacy of a boat and the people who own it, as well as showing how well, hard and long these boats can work for. Since the outset of the project I have wanted to create a professional final product. This summer I have invested my own money in a digital video camera (SONY PD100A DVCAM.) I have also purchased a Sanheizer wireless microphone so that the interviewee can move about the boat they are describing freely, without having to worry about tripping on a cord connected to the camera. 3B. Historical background: Wade Smith and/or Sarah Blachley of The John Gardner Small Craft Workshop, Mystic Seaport Museum. They are familiar with the extensive collection of Peapods in the museum and the interpretation of their history. 10 _________________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Spring 2002 There are several local historians who would be well equipped to give a historical perspective. At the moment I am trying to find who would be the most comfortable in front of a camera. I have been speaking with Maynard Bray, Peter Spectre, Sam Manning, Ben Fuller, and Anne Witty, who I may also interview at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath where she is the curator. 3C. Builders: Jimmy Steele of Brooklin, Maine, has been building Peapods since the 1960s and now has a one-man production shop. He is well established with a world-wide reputation (and list of clients.) Questions would revolve around his unique solutions for speeding up the building process. How he cuts the stem rabbet with a router, how he rivets with pneumatic tools and how he makes patterns for each plank. He is quite an outgoing chap and I think he will respond well to the camera. Frank ‘Junior’ Day of Brooklin, Maine, is a 4th generation boat builder. He is a little shy and a little deaf but if I am able to get him to warm up to the camera he has some interesting stories to tell of the clamming factory on the Benjamin River and the Peapods that used to work the river. At 80+ he is building a Peapod for summer 2002 launch, “while he decides what boat to build next.” (As just last Fall he launched his sixth “last boat,” a 21’ lobster boat!) Phil ‘Filo’ Dyer of Vinalhaven, Maine, builds Peapods to the patterns from his father-in-law, Hookie Gustavson. He is a talkative fellow who enjoys sharing some of his solutions to problems faced along the building trail. He builds his pods the right side up, whereas Jimmy Steele builds his bottom up over a permanent jig. It is the last Peapod built by Gustavson which I have taken the lines of, as none of his boats have been previously recorded in plan form on paper. I am considering interviews with other builders, designers, and users. 3D. Peapod owners: Lance Lee of Rockland, Maine, owns the last Peapod that Hookie Gustavson built. Lance Lee is also the founder of the Apprenticeshop of Rockland. He is well versed in the utility of the Peapod in times past and present, as he is both an active user and scholar. He used to watch a fisherman daily who worked off of Vinalhaven with a Peapod now held in Mystic Seaport’s collection. Charlotte Beal of Jonesport, Maine, during the Depression would row out off Beal’s Island with her family in their Peapod and collect driftwood to burn to stay warm. This Peapod is now in Mystic’s collection. 4. How will you publicize your project for the broadest community involvement and exposure? It will be suitable for broadcast (i.e. PBS,) for display in museums and schools, and for reference or purchase by other boat builders and scholars. I intend to collaborate with local museums and libraries to arrange press releases and publicity in their newsletters. As you can see from the attached letter from Anne Witty, the curator at Maine Maritime Museum, such institutions are eager for such a documentary. Maine schools will also be made aware of the film through press releases to their history departments, to arrange showings in the appropriate classes, and to make the video available for sale/loan to the school system. I have been doing some archive work at NE Historic Film and I would want to put a ‘new film release’ advertisement in their newsletter. Mystic Seaport has an excellent youth education program, and has expressed interest in just this type of film. Several Nautical periodicals (Woodenboat, Classicboat, Maritime, Sea History,…) currently review new books and documentaries, and through this public review it would gain further audience. At present I am researching the PBS requirements for submitting a film for broadcast. 5. Who will carry out the project? I plan to film and conduct the interviews following consultations with experts on video and on the documentation of small historic craft. I have a background in video production, having graduated from Plymouth University, UK, in 1995, with a degree in Media Studies. I then worked in London as a film editor for two years before coming to Maine. Since then digital technology has come to the fore. I am now concentrating on gaining the necessary familiarity with digital equipment to create a durable and high quality piece. D’Arcy Marsh, a freelance cinematographer has offered to consult on this project at a greatly reduced rate. He has 30 years experience in producing films, with a specific focus on educational films and programs for use in the classroom. (e.g. Voyage of the Mimi, the Weymouth Expedition,..) We are having technical and stylistic consultations. D’Arcy has found that a one-on-one interaction between interviewer and interviewee works well. It is then clear what one’s role is and where to address comments. With the side screen of modern cameras, one can be both cameraman and questioner, working through the camera, yet being present as a person. If there are many other technical helpers milling around it gets confusing for the Subject. I feel comfortable talking about boats, as in 1997 I came to Maine from England to serve a traditional boat building apprenticeship at The Apprenticeshop of Rockland. I have sailed almost 8,000 nautical miles at sea. I am thoroughly conversant with the technical aspects of construction and use. For my final solo project at the Apprenticeshop I built a 15foot lap strake Matinicus Island Peapod. During the building of this boat I began to learn about the Peapod’s history. Ben Fuller, the TSCA’s Gardner Grant Coordinator is a local expert on documenting small craft. He has been my consultant, evaluator and advisor for the use of TSCA’s grant and the future of this project. As described in (6) I will be consulting with other experts as the project progresses. 6. How will you evaluate the project? I plan to consult with and show the final video to several small craft scholars for their evaluation. Sam Manning, the illustrator for Bud MacKintosh’s “How To Build a Wooden Boat,” lives locally and is accustomed to apprentices asking for his evaluations. Maynard Bray, a renowned small craft scholar lives in Brooklin, ME. He is happy to answer questions when the interviewer is armed with paper and pencil. Although he will not appear on camera he will give a precise evaluation of the finished product. I also would like to gauge the response to the video in local museums. The curator would no doubt evaluate the film before accepting it, and then a questionnaire could be available to the public who viewed the film. 7. Why is the project important to your community, organization and co-sponsor? I received support for this project from The Traditional Small Craft Association whose grants are offered in memory of John Gardner, one of the foremost scholars of American working craft. The grants are intended to foster the preservation of activities surrounding traditional small craft. Peapods fall into this category, as from the late 1800s they played an integral part in the workings of the Maine coast. Initially used by lobstermen, Peapods were adopted by lighthouse keepers, mail boatmen and were often carried by coastal schooners as tenders or lifeboats, as they became the ubiquitous choice for coastal living. They were locally built craft, with unique facets of form and build, specific to each region, use, and builder. With the advent of the internal combustion engine the Peapod’s popularity as a working craft waned. However, even today there are a handful of Peapod builders along the Maine coast, and Peapods still in use. These Peapod builders are not getting any younger though. If we want to preserve the essence of their knowledge and memories then now is the time to do it. With the advent of digital equipment we have an opportunity to bring history to life in the modern format of video that people can absorb easily. We can also create archives of footage, which can be preserved, with less risk of degradation than previous technologies. Furthermore, this Spring several of the old timers, as well as younger builders will be building Peapods. This opportunity to film the stages of building, done differently, with the excitement of the builders to convey that energy to the audience, is a chance not to be missed. Here is an opportunity to collect these oral histories, to preserve knowledge gained over lifetimes, so that we will not have to learn it anew, and to bring a part of Maine’s heritage to its people. It is critical that this endeavor happen now, as the seasons continue to pass for these builders, whose sturdy craft will soon outlive them. 8. Budget The money I have received so far from the TSCA has helped cover my initial costs of visiting builders and researching sources and digital equipment. I have invested my own money in the acquisition of good equipment and am now looking for financial support to assist in the completion of this project. Consultancy fees @ $100/session Editing costs Transportation Administration supplies Total $ 300.00 $ 278.00 $ 360.90 $ 61.10 $ 1,000.00 variants which populate — or once populated — our waterways. Each of the entries is illustrated with photos of the craft as it now appears, or once appeared, and is often supplemented with basic lines drawings. Most are welldocumented. Some — the rescued ones — are delightful enigmas, bereft of maker’s name or, in a few cases, even a donor’s name. But they radiate their original beauty or inspiration still, and confer that dignity on the rest of the collection. Book Review Mystic Seaport Watercraft: Teaching Connoisseurship in the Candy Store First off, every small boat you have ever desired is in here: The exact boat, or its grandfather or grandmother or cousin or sibling. Second, if you are shaping in your mind a boat that has never yet actually been built — the germs of the shape of it are here as well. And third, if you are proud of your own small boat, that pride will deepen as you observe the flow and direction of a tradition which has driven both high craftsman and weekend duffer, both professional and “messer-about,” to the shores of ponds and bays and oceans for past centuries. Mystic Seaport Watercraft is the latest, monumental, Third Edition of the catalog of all 450-plus craft at Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport Musem. But to call it a “catalog” — a mere list — is a misnomer. It is rather an anthology, each craft with its story of provenance, of use, of preservation or of rescue. It is also an anthology of archetypes: vessels which exemplify their type, despite the often elegant The book’s 400 pages encompass sections on Sailing Craft (cat-, sloop-, ketch-, schooner-, and square-rigged); Rowing Craft (flatand round-bottomed); Power Craft (inboard- and outboard-powered; steamers, tugs, draggers, motorsailers, and rumrunners); Canoes (paddlers and sailers); and Iceboats. That’s quite a range in type, time, technology — and many a fine place to start or end arguments on taxonomy. What “makes” a dinghy: size? use? sail footage? propulsion? shape? history? One thinks of the plump 10-foot yacht tender — perhaps a 10-foot “Hoogar” with a tumblehome bow. But how about an 18x5-footer under 125 square feet, dubbed Suicide Class by enthusiasts of 1930, designed by L. Francis Herreshoff? Indeed, the classes of craft span the range of thought that humans have put into a type. Simple beginnings, practical and continuing, are overlain by an efflorescence of craft continually evolving in a search for “performance,” exploiting highly specific niche environments conflating geography, emerging materials, imagination, craftsmanship, and — of course — money. For but one example, see the proliferation of dories — famed as the heavy workaday craft for the schooner fishery — but consider their apotheosis in an 1880 sailing 12-footer with “extreme topside flare” and “raking ends” and “metal sheathing on stem and stern, most likely as protection from ice.” Canoes are well-treated. The ancient and highly developed dugouts, bark canoes, and Inuit “Qajaq” skinboats emerge anew in gentlemanly variants on the MacGregor Rob Roy styles of the late 1800’s, and an exciting proliferation of gradually more-extreme paddling and sailing craft in the early 1900’s. And likewise rowboats. The stolid flat-bottomed skiff is juxtaposed with its citified cousins, the elegant wherries and Whitehalls, not to mention a provocative diversion into sliding-rigger racing sculls. And the agile oceangoing whaleboat, itself an “extreme” form considering its use, meets its nearcontemporary in a 48x2-foot racing six of 1871, reportedly used by Massachusetts Agricultural College to defeat Harvard and Brown on the Connecticut River near Springfield. Suffice it to say that Mystic Seaport Watercraft is a valuable reference, and an inspiring work of dedication and intelligence, with a touch of wry humor here and there welcome in those of a curatorial bent. The thanks of smallcraft folk everywhere should be extended to Maynard Bray, Benjamin A.G. Fuller, and Peter Vermilya for their scholarship and wit, and to Mystic Seaport for having gathered unto itself this magnificent — and growing — aggregation of human artifacts for our consideration. —j.p.s. ——— Mystic Seaport Watercraft, Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc., Third Edition, 2001. (First Edition 1979, Second Edition 1986). ISBN 0-91337294-3 (cloth); ISBN 0-913372-95-1 (paper). Mystic Seaport, 92 Greenmanville Ave., Mystic, Connecticut 06355-0990. A Shorter American River Skiff by Steve Weld John DeLapp’s Natoma Skiff (Ash Breeze, Summer 1989) is a delightful boat, and it was a sad day when mine flew off the car and was damaged beyond repair. But another TSCA member had just the right consolation; “Good excuse for a new boat”, he said, and that set the wheels turning. Now, I must admit to being a DeLapp fan-his sheerlines and stem profiles are among the best I know, and when he published an article in the Winter 1994 Ash Breeze showing his version of L. Francis Herreshoff’s guideboat-inspired pulling boat, you can bet that I paid attention. He called it the American River Skiff, and it looked like the right boat to replace the Natoma. Except... The boat-hanging space in the shed is pretty well used up by a 15'-6" boat, and the American River Skiff was drawn at seventeen feet. Besides that, the Natoma Skiff, at 38" beam and 65 pounds, was a breeze to flip up onto the shoulders, as one does when portaging a canoe. The ability to portage-carry encourages solo spur-of-themoment cartop forays, and a boat that couldn’t be hoisted to the shoulders probably wouldn’t get used much. Could a shorter American River Skiff do the job? The original weighed 90 lb., and noodling with a calculator suggested that one could achieve a weight of about 75 lb. if the length were reduced to 15'-6" and the planking thickness to 5mm. So far, so good. I knew that I could portage-carry a 92 lb. canoe, but its beam is 6" less than the American River Skiff’s. A good deal of speculating and simulating with crude mockups ensued, and in the end, it seemed possible that the tradeoff between beam and weight would result in a boat that could be flipped to the shoulders. John DeLapp was kind enough to publish lines and offsets in his Ash Breeze article, and the AutoCAD drafting program, despite its lack of a fairing function was sufficient to produce a set of lines at 15'-6". (It’s worth noting that any builder worth his salt could make a shortened version of an existing boat without drawings. But the drawings help in planning the arrangement and visualizing the outcome.) There was no construction and arrangement drawing with the published lines, but general knowledge and experience with the Natoma sufficed to produce the accompanying drawing. The layout is almost exactly the same as the Natoma, although the after seat moved a bit to get a little more stern trim with a passenger. The foot stretcher for the forward rowing position was omitted, since at 6'2", I found the center thwart more convenient than a stretcher. Shorter folk might want to add one. The project went ahead. I asked John Brooks of Mt. Desert, Maine, to build her, mostly because he had done light pulling boats, but also because his joinery details showed a sure and artistic hand. Mt. Desert is too far for shop visits, but we kept up a pleasant correspondence by email and snail-mail, and from time to time photos would arrive showing progress. One day in late April, John called to say that the boat was ready, and that he was going to be in Kennebunk, an easy drive away for me. So that Saturday, the racks were on the car and off I went, John’s directions in hand. On arrival, about the first question I asked was “What does she weigh?”, and to my relief, John replied, “72 pounds”. We put her on the car, and John took off the gleaming white new painters. He couldn’t bear to think of them getting dirty on the road, so I had to tie her down with “experienced” rope. A couple of hours later, with a sacrificial splash of wine and the pronouncing of her name (“Foxpaw”-there’s a story behind that, but it will have to wait for another time) we went out for a first spin. It was a pretty good day for trying a new boat, with about 10 knots of breeze blowing down a mile fetch. She went smoothly upwind and down, the flat of the bottom staying immersed in the largest of the 14 _________________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Spring 2002 chop, and showed no noticeable tendency to round up with the wind on the quarter. Probably there will be conditions where the flat bottom will pound, but I haven’t found them yet. Of course, being light and keel-less, she makes leeway in a crosswind. In general, she is more maneuverable than straight-tracking, so even pulling is necessary to keep a straight course. The other side of the coin is that the ability to spin quickly is handy along an intricate shoreline. (For really small water I carry a paddle, and while you wouldn’t want to paddle her all day, she gets along well enough, particularly heeled over.) As you would expect of a light boat, she feels quick underfoot. Being narrow on the waterline, she is initially tippy, but picks up secondary stability as her topsides immerse. I haven’t made an accurate assessment of her speed, but at the Mystic meet she seemed to compare favorably with other boats. She attains most of her maximum speed very easily-probably about four knots with not much effort. The outriggers and the strong flare get a lot of the credit for this, allowing 8'-3" oars on a waterline beam of maybe 28". Speaking of the outriggers, John Brooks got them just right-they slide easily in and out of their traps, but don’t creak or rattle. The oars are made to the DeLapp pattern from the Ash Breeze article, but with Cullerstyle square looms which keep them in the locks when left to trail, and also make it easier to lash them to the thwarts. The other critical part of the boat’s success or failure, from my point of view, was whether my guess that I would be able to portage-carry her was correct. Fortunately, it was, but only just. The limiting factor seems to be not the weight, but the beam which, at 42", has my arms extended and spread enough that they don’t contribute much power when shouldering the boat. The combination of beam and weight seem to be the most that I can deal with, at six feet and a bit, and not particularly strong in arms and shoulders. It becomes necessary to give a good, powerful thrust with the hips to start the up-and-over motion that ends with the boat resting more or less comfortably on the shoulders. The forward edge of the main thwart is amidships, so the boat balances well there and is comfortable enough for short carries. While you can always shave ounces, I don’t think you could get her much lighter on the same scantlings. As it is, she feels like a “real boat”, substantial enough so you don’t go in fear of breaking something or holing her on an obstruction. (In fact, I rammed the transom of a catboat at nearly full speed, and was unable to find any damage to either boat.) I’m more than satisfied with her looks. Shortening her from 17'-0" to 15'6" gave her a more pronounced sheer, and slightly more upright ends, but they’re just as pretty as the original. John Brooks suggested five planks per side instead of the six I originally drew. The planking lines are shown on the body plan and the inboard profile. John tuned them up some on the moulds, and they look just right. He also did a nice job with the thwarts and knees and everything you see when looking into the boat, so she is a pleasure to contemplate while rowing, or even when she is hanging in her slings awaiting the next outing. So I think I’ve got a winner here. Fast, good-looking, and easy to manage ashore and afloat. You couldn’t ask for better. Adirondack Museum No-Octane Regatta Weekend June 14, 15, and 16, 2002 www.adirondackmuseum.org The Ash Breeze - Spring 2002 __________________________________________________________ 15 Sleeping with Ospreys, Fishing with Pelicans Camp Cruising the Ten Thousand Islands of Everglades National Park, Florida December 25-30, 2001 By David Thomasson and April Dixon S mall-boat sailors sail for many reasons. For us, no other form of sailing is nearly as rewarding as shallow-water camp cruising in remote natural places that receive very low visitation. The Ten Thousand Islands is one of our favorite winter destinations. The Ten Thousands form an archipelago of hundreds of small, sandy barrier islands that border most of the southwest side of Everglades National Park. They stretch in a NW-SE oriented arch for nearly one hundred miles from outside the park at Marco Island in the northwest, to the southern tip of the park. The islands are most numerous in the north, and in the southern section give way to a ragged, mangrove-lined coastline broken by slow-moving rivers and broad bays, such as the Lopez, Chatam, Shark, and the Harney. Most of the smaller islands are mangrove-covered, but the larger ones with slightly higher elevation are dominated by tropical hardwood vegetation more typical of the Caribbean. Some of these are designated for tent camping that requires a permit issued by the National Park Service. Coral shoals fringe the west side of the islands that are closest to the Gulf of Mexico, and extensive mud flats and oyster beds surround most islands on at least three sides at low tide. This region is home to some of the world’s most extensive mangrove swamps, where freshwater flowing from the interior of Florida is mixed with the saltwater of the gulf to create a stunning variety of estuarine and terrestrial life. It is also a shallow-water sailor ’s paradise…one of those last, great untamed places that not only offers superb sailing conditions, but affords us an opportunity to glimpse into one of the world’s most complex estuaries. And while there have indeed been negative environmental impacts to parts of this region (particularly on Florida Bay) from unleashed south Florida development, the place and its intense rhythm of life go on much as they did a millennium ago. As you glide along in that dreamy, inter-tidal realm where clear shallow water meets the gulf, and land and sky seem to become one, the hubbub of wildlife activity often competes with sailing for your attention. Below you, dolphins and big fish slice into schools of little fish. Overhead, bald eagles rob fish from ospreys. A surprise exhalation right next to the boat may be a sea turtle or a manatee. Ahead of you, sharks and stingrays cruise the shallows. A low tide at sunrise will always showcase raccoons and a menagerie of colorful wading birds patrolling the flats for stranded morsels. Boat traffic here is minimal: canoes, sea kayaks, and a few day fishermen in flats boats. Yes, sailing here is wild…and often challenging. This is an ever-changing, harsh place that demands our attention and tests every aspect of our 8 miles * small craft preparation and handling skills. Winter brings cold fronts with clocking winds; and summer brings rapidly developing, intense thunderstorms and an occasional hurricane. An island that was on the chart last year may not exist this year. Navigational charts, an extra anchor, tide chart, compass, and a full array of safety equipment are essentials in this remote location, not luxuries. Even in winter, the mosquitoes and no-see-ums 16 _________________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Spring 2002 sometimes prod us to question who is really the dominant species; they also remind us that every living thing here is in one way or another woven into the food web, including visiting sailors! In the past, we have sailed the Ten Thousands in our 18-foot New Haven sharpie, Kingfisher. This year, we took our first extended cruise in Beluga, a newly purchased 1986 Sea Pearl 21. The Sea Pearl is a modern cross between a dory and the L. Francis Herreshoff whaleboat, Carpenter. Like Carpenter, she has soft chines and a hard, flat bottom. In order to make her a more perfect family daysailer and beach cruiser for two, she was lengthened from 18 to 21 feet, while keeping the same proportions. This gave her a beam of 5 ½ feet and a length to beam ratio of 3.8 to 1, also the same as the Carpenter. The transom was modified from sharp double-ended to tombstone to easier mount a kickup rudder. The bow was modified to provide more deck space forward and give her a more modern look. Beluga carries 400 lb. of water ballast in twin tanks, and sports an unstayed cat-ketch rig. With camp tent enclosing seven feet of dry sleeping space, we found that this little beach cruiser met our needs very well. In the past, we had anchored out and slogged all our camping gear to the islands; on this trip we planned to sleep onboard for five nights. On Christmas day we arrived at Collier-Seminole State Park, southeast of Naples on Hwy. 41. After filing a trip plan with the park rangers, we launched late that afternoon at the park ramp where the tannin-rich fresh waters of the Blackwater River emanate and flow gently for seven miles to the Gulf of Mexico. The weather had been in the low 80s for weeks, but now that we were there, the first real cold front of the season was on its way with rain predicted for the night. Low dark clouds moving in from the northwest reinforced the prediction. As April succinctly put it, “If we ever need rain, all we have to do is go on a sailing trip.” Belted kingfishers, cormorants, little blue herons and white ibis joined us on the falling tide for a late afternoon cruise toward the coast. This upper section of the Blackwater is tightly bound by dense impenetrable mangrove forest that rises from the landscape on stilt roots. Stream width at this point is approximately twenty-five feet. We cruised calmly along with the little 4-horse twin purring at low speed; Beluga’s canoe-shaped hull left no wake. I thought about what a joy an electric motor must be. We met a few canoes heading upstream on their afternoon return to the park. Being in the “heart” of south Florida, many paddlers were Latino, and greeted us with “hola!” as we cruised by. This added to the already exotic feel of the place. Water depths ranged from 1 to 5 feet as they do throughout the islands. April watched birds through the binoculars while I piloted. masts, raised the tent, and started making dinner. The air was calm and heavy. This was a quiet place; a private vegetation-lined room. After a satisfying meal of April’s homemade chicken chili, we braced for the approaching cold front that would influence our sailing for the next day and a half. An osprey landed and settled in for the night on a lone deadfall overhanging the river a hundred or so feet from us. I wish that I could tell you that I slept well that first night, but it rained cold buckets all night, and I got up twice to bail the rear cockpit. After drying out from our first night’s drenching, April raised the main sail, and we darted toward the gulf with the wind coming over our stern. The Sea Pearl is noted for sailing comfortably on either of her sails alone. We were loaded to the gills with gear, and I was curious to see how she would perform under these conditions. I am happy to report that she was as sweet as sweet gets: balanced, nimble, and fast. Being heavily loaded, we made the decision not to take on water ballast. The final miles to the gulf were spent passing between ever-broadening bays dotted with mangrove islands, red and green channel markers, and dense oyster shoals that were exposing their razorsharp edges as the tide fell. Yes, even though Beluga was only drawing 7-10 inches with leeboards up, water depth required keeping her very near the channel. Great blue herons, white ibis, and oystercatchers were all over the oyster bars. Locals call this “Everglades backcountry,” and it is here, in the winter months, when the shallow water Overhanging branches prevented the stepping of masts until we were approximately three miles down river. So, with an hour of daylight left we anchored bow and stern next to channel marker 24, stepped The Ash Breeze - Spring 2002 __________________________________________________________ 17 is a few degrees warmer than that on the coast, that one is most likely to see a manatee. We kept an eye out, but never saw one. The start of this trip was all too reminiscent of the time we spent here in our little 400 lb. sharpie last year, when the wind gusted out of the N-NE at 15-20+ knots for six consecutive days! When sailing from north to south along the coast, winds of that direction deal you anything from a beam reach to a downwind sail. And while the land generally affords some lee buffer to these conditions, one of the potentially dangerous features of this area are the openings between the islands…”cuts” or “passes,” as they are locally known, where rivers and rivulets breach the land and spill directly into open bays. As the small boater crosses these bays he is slammed with gusts, waves, currents, and cross currents that test his skills…and nerves. In these conditions we hug the coast as tightly as possible, veering away from land only to seek water deep enough to cross. We broke out into the gulf at Gullivan Bay and turned southward, toward the national park. I thought to myself “we’re honking-on like an aquatic sports car.” The boat felt great, but I was still a little nervous as we started to cross the first bay where we took on gusts and waves rolling out of the interior. Another major reason why we bought the Sea Pearl was because of her quick reefing system. The booms attach to the masts via rotating goosenecks, so all one has to do to reef is release the downhauls, roll the sails onto their masts, and then re-attach and tighten the downhauls again. We were still sailing on the main sail alone when April took two turns on the mast; we sailed that way all day, sweet and mild mannered. Lunch was spent on a gorgeous, white-sand beach facing the gulf on Panther Key, maybe twenty miles from our starting point the afternoon before. Most of the larger islands on the gulf have sandy beaches of varying widths on their gulffacing sides…perfect for watching sunsets! The temptation was to sit out the rest of the afternoon and watch the evening “roll in.” But we pushed on, reminding ourselves that we hoped to get deeper into the park on this trip than we did last year. So we sailed on to Picnic Key, where we settled into a little cove on the lee side for the night. The cold north wind was still “up” when we slipped into our sleeping bags. Morning found us “dried out” on an oyster bar. As the sun rose over Gaskin Bay, we watched brown pelicans dive-bomb schools of mullet all around us. By the time we had a leisurely breakfast, the water level was high enough to sail on. The wind had shifted from north to east and had dropped off to 8-10 knots…perfect for our southward course. We dressed comfortably for a cold day of sailing, cranked the motor and putted out of the cove. April raised the sails and we were off, hoping to cover twelve or so quick miles before lunch at Pavilion Key. Pavilion is one of those fine large islands, with a long sandy beach facing the gulf, lots of high ground, good fishing, and a nice position for sailing to points south. We had lots of fond memories from there last year, and were looking forward to returning. No sooner had we settled into a lively morning sail across Indian Key pass, than the wind dropped off to near nothing. We assumed the lull was temporary, offering a perfect opportunity to turn away from land and cruise into the calm gulf. We figured that when it kicked up again, we would be in a perfect position to cruise south to Pavilion Key. We had just enough air to keep moving…ever so slightly. So we set the tiller-tamer on “auto-pilot” and relaxed. A pod of porpoise joined us and Pleistocene-looking giant frigate birds soared overhead. We went deep into the gulf, perhaps farther than I had ever been in a small craft. Recently, we had been discussing the possibility of cruising the Bahamian Abacos in our Sea Pearl, and my mind wandered to thinking about what it would be like to cross the Gulf Stream alone in this small boat…“Scary”, I thought. The day was December 27th, my birthday. It was also the day that we hoped to meet up somewhere/sometime with other members of the Florida West Coast Trailer Sailor Squadron (WCTSS) who were due to enter the islands from the Port of the Islands area. So we searched the northern horizon for their sails, knowing that they, like us, would be having difficulty making way south under such light air. We turned, headed back into the islands, and tucked deep into a gulffacing cove, just a few miles south of where we had started the morning. On the way into the cove our path parted a feeding frenzy of twenty young pelicans and larger predator fish smashing into schools of baitfish. Now, my first love is sailing, but my life-long forte is catching fish. Since there was no wind, I couldn’t wait to get anchored and wet a line, with hopes of putting fresh fish on the evening’s menu. In my hurry, I neglected to tie on a leader and promptly lost two lures to large fish before dark. As I prepared dinner, the mosquitoes and nosee-ums came out in full-force (yes, even in December!), driving us into the tent. Again, we found ourselves grounded in the morning, so I grabbed the fishing pole, tied on another lure, and went casting. A nearby nesting pair of ospreys scolded me for entering their territory. But I was on a mission, and in a short time had caught several jacks, a ladyfish, and a fat, eighteeninch sea trout. While I fished, April strolled the shoreline of the cove, camera and binoculars in hand. The dang no-see-ums and mosquitoes made us wish out loud for a rising tide…and breeze! By the time the tide came in, the breeze hadn’t. So we poled into the mouth of the cove, dropped anchor, April washed her hair, and we organized the boat under a sunny December sky…our first and only sunny day of the trip. The breeze kicked up just enough to get us out of there, before dropping off again. As the day before, we travelled only a few miles south, to Jewell Key, where we officially celebrated my birthday (two years in a row). Jewell Key has a narrow, gulf-facing beach bounded by coral, where we anchored for the night. A full moon rose as we enjoyed a gourmet meal of smoked oysters/chopped clams/ pesto sauce, pasta, salad, and red wine. Ospreys nested all around us, and we wondered if they were the same pairs that were there last year. In the pink twilight of dusk, over a hundred white pelicans stood on Comer Key across the bay. Our leeboards and masts rattled all night as we rolled on swells that had come up just after sunset. Anchoring in the gulf was a bad decision, sleepwise. Morning again brought a light southerly breeze, just enough to move us downwind back toward Panther Key. Our desires to make it to Pavillion Key and much deeper into the park had not been satisfied. Back at Lulu Key we met up with a few members of the WCTSS who had not had enough wind to go farther. We had lunch on the beach, and set off again. Almost immediately, we encountered an intense squall line that looked like it could spawn tornados, coming in from the north. We braced ourselves and ducked into the fully protected lagoon on the backside of Lulu Key to wait it out. The squall moved on as fast as it had come in, taking the breeze with it. We later learned that the lagoon had been full of manatees basking in the shallow warm water. We moved on to our last night’s anchorage, on the edge of Gullivan Bay and Gullivan Key, within sight of the lights of Marco Island. The next morning we strolled the extensive flats that stretched all around us to observe crabs, horseshoe crabs, stingrays, shore birds, and all kinds of shell treasures. After six days in the islands, we were getting really laid back. We hated to leave, but at 11 am we fired the motor and April Dixon and Dave Thomasson are TSCA members who live in Oak Ridge, TN. April grew up in Seabrook, Texas where she learned to sail small craft with her family on Galveston Bay. April is a hazardous chemical reuse/recycle specialist who works for Oak Ridge National Lab. Dave grew up on the water in South Florida before moving to TN. After decades of wilderness canoe camping experience, he fell in love with sailing while sailing a homemade 23 foot New England catboat built by Kenny DeHoff in TN. Kenny built Dave an 18 foot New Haven sharpie in 1983. Dave and April travel to the coasts of North and South Carolina and Florida several times a year. When in FL they sail with the Florida West Coast Trailer Sailor Squadron when possible. The couple just acquired their Sea Peal 21 in 2000. Dave works as an environmental protection specialist for the State of Tennessee. Sea Pearl boats: Marine Concepts of Tarpon Springs, FL www.marine-concepts.com/ ran with the rising tide back into the Blackwater River to Collier Seminole State Park. Despite the fact that this trip had been a little short on breeze, it had been full of adventure and quietude. As usual, April had handled all the navigation chores with the finesse of a fine artist, which left me free to sail and enjoy the natural wonders. And so, after five days of sleeping with ospreys, fishing with pelicans, and nurturing a relationship with our new boat, we found ourselves rejuvinated…and ready for the next trip! Notes on the authors: Everglades National Park: www.nps.gov/ever The national park service offers exceptional maps, trip planning and safety guide, fishing regulations and historical information on the area. Any backcountry/island camping requires a permit and trip plan be filed with rangers at Everglades City. In addition to island camping, the park service also employs elevated platforms (chickees) for camping. All sites are regulated concerning the number of people per night. Collier-Seminole State Park, FL: Provides a wonderful entryway into the region. Great campground and showers. And contains a spectacular tropical hardwood hammock with giant royal palms. We also used the park because the vehicle parking was secure. We paid a very small fee for leaving our vehicle and using the ramp. Any overnight trips that eminate from the park require a trip plan filed with rangers. ■ It takes three NOAA charts to completely cover the Ten Thousand Island area: 11430, 11432 and 11433. Continued on page 20 TSCA Chapter Events Sacramento Chapter TSCA 2002 Schedule June Sunday, June 2: Upper Sacramento River, Bob Ratcliff. June 16 through 21: Delta Gunkhole, Pete Evans/Bill Doll, advance enrollment required. Saturday, June 29: Half Moon Bay Row, Dan Drath/Chelcie Liu. July Weekend, July 12-14: National Event, Maine, Bill Doll. Sunday, July 28: City Front Row, Andrew Church. August Weekend, August 9-11: Loon Lake, Charles Judson. Weekend August 17 & 18: SFChina Camp and beyond, Bill Doll, advance enrollment required. September Weekend, September 14 & 15: Marshall Beach Campout, Don Rich and Sheryl Speck. Weekend, September 20-22: Woodboat Cruise-in Aeolian Yacht Club, Barbara Ohler. October Saturday, October 12: Tomales Point Row, Pete Evans. Weekend, October 19 & 20: Small Craft Cruising Club, Fall Delta Cruise, Bill Doll. November Saturday, November 2: Delta Meadows Row, John and Lynn DeLapp. Saturday, November 30: Wet Turkey on Tomales Bay, Jim & Sunny Lawson. December Friday, December 20, Noon to 7PM: Hogin Christmas Party at the loft, Emily Hogin. January New Years Day 2003: Hair of the Dog on Tomales Bay, Lee Caldwell. Saturday, January 11, 2003: Yearly Planning Meeting, Aeolian Yacht Club, Pete Evans. Puget Sound Chapter TSCA 2002 Calendar June 8-9 weekend Cama Beach cabins. Camano Island. Contact Rich Kolin at 360-659-5591 for info. August 21-25 Cascades Campout/Messabout. Start Wed. at the Colonial Creek put-in and paddle/row to the head of Lake Diablo. A vehicle will transport boats up to 15 feet LOA the one mile/600 ft elevation to Ross Lake. Next 4 nights spent in wilderness campsites on Ross Lake. Return Saturday AM to Thunder Point campground on Diablo Lake and rendezvous there with those who can only make it for the weekend. Pull out at Colonial Creek on Saturday or Sunday. Contact Larry Feeney at 360733-4461 for additional information. September 21-22 weekend Stuart Island Cabin. Depart from Roche Harbor. Escort/tow provided by Stan Snapp and Pass’n’by. Contact Jim LaMantia at 425-882-9928 for info. November 23 Noon - 4 PM: Annual meeting at Center for Wooden Boats. Contact Rich Kolin at 360-659-5591 for information. Delaware River Chapter 2002 Calendar June 15-16 Sailing Canoe Regatta Union Lake, Millville, NJ June 22 (tentative) Berkley Island Picnic Barnegat Bay, NJ Connecticut River Chapter 2002 Calendar July 20 Picnic on Sound at Androsko cottage August 24 Old Lyme Beach Outing and Picnic September 7 Sail New London BBB Small Craft Events September 14-15 Governor’s Cup, Essex September 15 CoastWeeks Regatta, Mystic Wood Boatbuilding Classes 2002 October 26- Dec. 7 Beginning Boatbuilding - eight Saturdays (9am- 5pm) in building a small round bottom, lapstrake wood rowboat. Tuition is $600.00. For more information contact: Michale J Kiefer, Great Lakes Boatbuilding Co, LLC, 7066-103 Ave, South Haven, Michigan 49090, Phone 616-637-6805 Fax: 616-637-3258 The Ash Breeze - Spring 2002 __________________________________________________________ 21 My Favorite Row Petaluma River, CA I thought that members of our club might like to write a short account of a favorite row, or paddle, or sail (with or without the swimming part) for this space. I was thinking of a favorite row, and then I realized that my favorite is a composite of a lot of the trips we have shared. One that comes to mind is a row on the Petaluma River, where we shared the launch and recovery area with a whole clubload of racers, in their bright-colored leotards? Spandex? Lycra? Body paint? We mixed with them in our old GI clothes and rowing fuzzies and our combination hats/ bailing buckets like a bunch of amiable airedales among a crew of race-minded greyhounds. They were off like rockets, while we puttered and pottered and drank coffee and ate doughnuts, and we didn’t see them for hours, until we pulled up at the takeout. They were still there, awarding trophies to one another. It reminded all of us that there is plenty of room on the water for people who like different things, and we all went home glad of our choices. I once collaborated on an article on how to enjoy TSCA meets. The essence was that we should go anyway; windows need washing, yeah yeah, mother in law (The Inspector General) is arriving, rain/hail/snow is either threatening or making good on a threat, go anyway. Once I went anyway, and I was there at the launch ramp watching the tall, sharp-edged waves slamming over the dock, when another car with a boat on it pulled up. A friend got out of his car and walked over, and I tried to open my door. The wind was pinning it closed, so I opened the window. There was an instant cyclone of newspapers, Kentucky Fried Chicken wrappings, memos, registration papers, and what looked like confetti (where did that come from?) until he got around to the other side and squeezed in. “Whaddaya think?” he panted. “Gonna go out?” Of course we didn’t, but the thought of that moment always makes me smile, and that memory sometimes comes up when I hit a rough patch. I guess the point is that we have to make the effort in planning and in showing up to accumulate memories like these. It is a promise made by the law of averages that the next row will add to our stock of good memories to draw on when we need to. Jim Lawson - Sacramento Chapter Mannington Meadows, NJ I expect that I am telling all of you something you already know, but I have found a wonderful place for a “Swallows & Amazons” experience that is not far away for most of us. Mannington Meadows is a brackish lake forty-five minutes from Cherry Hill, NJ. If you take 1-295 South to exit 1 C, perhaps a half mile before the Delaware Memorial Bridge, then take Hook Road, route 551, two miles south, you make a left on East Pittsfield Street. There is a good boat ramp in all but the lowest tides, and high water is about 90 minutes before high water at Philadelphia. A busy day is another boat. Once afloat, I would suggest heading south unless you have a rising tide when you can have a fine explore of Pine Island Meadows in the northern part of the lake among many phragmite islands, but the water can be quite thin at less than half tide. Heading south quickly opens to the lake itself, which has a feeling of expanse but always protection from any but a South wind and wonderful birding. Ducks, egrets, hawks, vultures are a daily experience, bald eagles and mother Cary’s chickens are only occasional but by no means rare. There is a hardwood island available for exploration and possible camping, but I have seen ticks there, and the bald eagle. A trip to Salem and back is probably 16 miles but not strenuous if you harness a falling tide south, explore Salem at low water, then ride the rising tide back to your car. The catch is that the water is very thin for an hour or more either side of low water, and the whole lake seems to be exactly the same depth (naught). My boat draws 4 inches in cruising trim and I can’t even pole at LWS; just have to give up and wait. Low water is best for watching seabirds The other catch is that there are many duck blinds. During hunting season the hunters are universally courteous, but I infer that they would rather I explore some other site. In the late autumn, Sunday is best when hunting is forbidden. The Metro Street Map of Salem County is packed with information. Mike Wick - Delaware River Chapter Sleeping with..... Continued from page 19 Bird's Mouth Joinery Bits In a recent letter to messing about in Boats, John Parks of Sacramento reported that Lee Valley Tools has router bits that are just right for making the edges for 8, 12, and 16 sided Bird's Mouth spars. Lee Valley Tools is located at: 12 East River Str Ogdensburg, NY 13669 www.leevalley.com 20 _________________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Spring 2002 S P O N S O R / M E M B E R S 22 ALBERT’S WOODEN BOATS INC. • Double ended lapstrake • Marine ply potted in Epoxy • Rowboats – 15' & fast 17' • Electric Launches – 15' & 18' A. Eatock, RR2, 211 Bonnell Rd. Bracebridge, Ont. CANADA PIL 1W9 705 645 7494 alsboats@surenet.net Samuel Johnson BOATBUILDER 1449 S.W. Davenport Street Portland, Oregon 97201 (503) 223-4772 E-mail: ssj@northwest.com Richard Kolin Custom wooden traditional small craft designed and built Boatbuilding and maritime skills instruction Oars and marine carving 360-659-5591 kolin1@gte.net 4107-77th Place NW Marysville, WA 98271 3rd Annual WOODBOAT STEW September 20 - 22, 2002 A gathering of wood boats at a small backwater harbor of San Francisco Bay. A 3 day party at the casual Aeolian Yacht Club. The San Francisco National Maritime Museum, The Master Mariners Benevolent Association, TSCA and others will participate. Barbara Ohler (510) 523-9824 email: eldflugan64@hotmail.com We thank our Sponsor/Members for their support and urge all members to consider using their services. Jim Crocket, Boatbuilder 1442 N. Fruit Avenue, Fresno, CA 93728 (559) 233-0131 HOGIN SAILS 1801-D Clement Ave., Alameda, CA 94501 • (510) 523-4388 www.hoginsails.com • hogin@aol.com ROB BARKER Wooden Boat Building and Repair We thank our Sponsor/Members for their support and urge all members to consider using their services. S P O N S O R / M E M B E R S 23 S P O N S O R / M E M B E R S 24 Redd’s Pond Boatworks 1 Norman Street Marblehead, MA 01945 Thad Danielson (781) 631-3443 “Only if our children are introduced to boats at an early age and grow up using them on the water will what we are doing today have any relevance for the future.” – John Gardner (former counselor, Pine Island Camp) Founded in 1902, Pine Island remains true to the simple, island lifestyle established by the current director’s grandfather and committed to providing an adventurous, safe summer. No electricity, an absence of competitive sports and the island setting make Pine Island unique. Ten in-camp activities offered daily, include rowing, canoeing, sailing, kayaking, swimming, workshop, archery, riflery, and tennis. Over thirty camping trips each summer, include backpacking, canoeing, kayaking and trips to the camp’s 90-acre salt water island. Campfire every night. Wright or call the director for more information. Ben Swan, P.O. Box 242, Brunswick, Maine 04011 Fine Traditional Rowing & Sailing Craft NORTH RIVER BOATWORKS RESTORATIONS 741 Hampton Ave. Schenectady, NY 12309 518-377-9882 The newsletter for rowers who are going somewhere. Send $20 for a year’s subscription (eight issues) Open-Water Rowing 26 Coddington Wharf Newport, RI 02840 www.openwater.com WALTER F. HUBNER Cazenovia Boat Works, Unltd. 3455 RIPPLETON ROAD CAZENOVIA, NY 13035 BUY, SELL, TRADE, BUILD AND RESTORE WOODEN BOATS SPECIALIZING IN ROWING SHELLS (315) 655-3223 We thank our Sponsor/Members for their support and urge all members to consider using their services. Builders of Traditional and Contemporary Rowing and Sailing Craft Richard Cullison 301-946-5002 11515 Kenton Drive Silver Spring, MD 20902 www.CullisonSmallCraft.com BOATS PLANS BOOKS TOOLS Specializing in traditional small craft since 1970. Duck Trap Woodworking www.duck-trap.com We thank our Sponsor/Members for their support and urge all members to consider using their services. S P O N S O R / M E M B E R S 25 JUDY RICKETTS-WHITE DESIGN STUDIO © Graphic Design•Advertising Printing•Logo Design•Illustration Web Pages•Corporate ID 860•439•1854 103 Butlertown Road•Waterford CT 06385 jrwdesign@snet.net TSCA Damaged Journal? Burgees Caps Patches T-Shirts Decals If your Ash Breeze is missing pages or gets beaten up in the mail, let me know, and I’ll send another copy right off to you. — Dan See inside back cover. $28 Don’t be left out! Become a Sponsor/Member with the professionals on the preceding four pages. Their ads appear in four issues of this journal for only $50 a year, and they enjoy all regular membership benefits. The ad size is 2-3/8"H by 33/8"W. Digital photos should be scanned at 200 dpi grayscale tiffs on disk. Send camera-ready copy or ask us to make up the ad from your text and sketch. For the latter, you will only be charged for us to scan halftones/photos. $28 26 _________________________________________________________ The Ash Breeze - Spring 2002 Copy Deadline and Article Format Deadlines v23#2, Fall 2002, June 30 v23#3, Winter 2002, September 14. Articles The Ash Breeze is a member-supported publication. Members are welcome to contribute. We encourage you to send material electronically. Text may be sent in the body of an email message or, alternatively, you may use Word or pdf files as attachments. Send photos by US mail or as email attachments in jpg or tif format. Typewritten material or material submitted on computer disk will be accepted too. Please give captions for photographs (naming people and places) and photo credits. Email to: drathmarine@earthlink.net Classified Advertisements $.50 per line (36 characters max.); $2 minimum; photos $10 additional. Include name, address, and phone number. Payment must accompany submission. Display Advertisements $4 per column inch, 2-1/4" wide. For copy-only ads, provide a sketch of your ad in the appropriate size. Camera-ready artwork required for all others. Payment must accompany submission. Members’ Exchange TSCA WARES Back Issues Burgees Original or duplicated back issues are available for $4 each plus postage. Postage will be determined, and a bill sent. Upon receipt of payment your order will be mailed. Please allow 2 to 3 weeks for delivery, especially in the summer. 12" x 18" pennant with royal blue field and TSCA logo sewn in white and gold. Finest construction. $30 postpaid. Volume Newsletter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Year Issue 1975-77 1978 1979 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998/99 1999/00 2001 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1 1 2,3,4,5 6,7,8,9 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 1,2,3 1,2,3,4 1,2,3 Caps Pre-washed 100% cotton, slate blue with TSCA logo in yellow and white. Adjust-able leather strap and snap/ buckle. $15. ($14 to members if purchased at TSCA meets.) T-shirts 100% cotton, light gray with the TSCA logo. $15.00 postpaid for sizes M, L, and XL and $16.00 for XXL. Patches 3 inches in diameter featuring our logo with a white sail and a golden spar and oar on a light-blue background. Black lettering and a dark-blue border. $3.00 Please send a SASE with your order. Decals Mylar-surfaced weatherproof decals similar to the patches except the border is black. Self-sticking back. $1. Please send a SASE with your order. To Order Send your check to: Send your order to: TSCA Secretary P. O. Box 350 TSCA Wares c/o Bruce Thurston 632 East 14th Street New York, NY 10009 TSCA MEMBERSHIP FORM I wish to: Join Renew Change my address Individual Membership ($15 annually) Patron Membership ($100 annually) Family Membership ($15 annually) Overseas Membership with Surface Mailing ($20 annually) Sponsor/Membership ($50 annually) Overseas Membership with Airmail Mailing ($25 annually) Enclosed is my check for $____________________________________ made payable to TSCA. Chapter member? Yes No (circle) Which Chapter? _________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Address ________________________________________________________________________ Town ______________________________ State _______ Zip Code________________________ Name email Marshall Beach, Tomales Peninsula, California - The site of the Sacramento TSCA's annual September weekend campout. Always well attended, always cool in the early Fall air, and always beautiful. Everything is packed in and packed out. Last year campfire cuisine reached an historic high. NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 36 SEAFORD, NY 11783 The Ash Breeze The Secretary, TSCA PO Box 350 Mystic, CT 06355 Address Service Requested Time to Renew? Help us save postage by photocopying the membership form on the inside back cover and renewing before we send you a renewal request.
