Bill Buckley’s definition of heaving to

as taken from a 2004 Atlantic piece on selling his boat of many years. Classic Buckley prose, evident in the following description of dealing with an hurricane near Bermuda:

“Cruising in October to Bermuda*, we had to make our way through the eastern end of a hurricane. After a very hard day’s combat using only the storm jib and trysail, I finally hove to for a long night of furious wind. This capitulation at sea is achieved by adjusting the reduced sails to vie against one another in such a fashion as to induce relative immobility.”

My sentiments exactly! Though in Sjogin most heaving to is done with full sails as I try to avoid heavy winds. Sjogin’s getting on in years and I try not to push her too hard.

_______________

Here’s a pic from this morning; foggy and waiting on the next front to come through. Plenty of water and a light breeze at 10:00. Tempting…
Fog

*William F. Buckley: wrong on McCarthy and wrong on the time of year to cruise to Bermuda.

A few pics

from this weekend. March came in decidedly lamb like. Managed to do some bed cleaning and early pruning. Bulbs all showing promise and fecundity.

Jeff
Son Jeff home for an all to quick visit.

Oil lamp
Finally installed a strap eye under the main deck beam from which to hang the oil lamp.

Yachting clothes
Illustration from a 1954 British learn-to-sail book.

Puffin
From a photo of Puffin, the 15′ Hankins beach skiff Jon Walters and I converted to sail in 1977. Jeffrey and David are on board, waiting for Dad. Photo taken at my first Winter rental in Manasquan in 1981.

Progress at Beatons

on the Lucas boat, a 1932? Herreshoff 15. The transom and framing have been removed and the new keel and deadwood is nearly done.

H-15 deconstruction
Say Ahhhh…. Note the plum bob to keep everything in line. Suspended from an overhead wire.

Old bits
Original transom, grown knees and transom frame.

New bits
New white oak knees and frames.

Keel and deadwood
Keel and deadwood. Piece on top is upside down; it matches the keel profile from the plans. The straight side is mated to the lead ballast. The ‘L’ shaped piece is the aft end of the deadwood.

Tom Beaton
Tom came below for a visit today. Discussed space for Sjogin’s mast in one of the shops this Spring. It’s long overdue for a refinishing.

Breezy on deck, warm enough below.

Enough water
Enough water for a March sail but gusty from the NNW, up to 20 kts or so. Home for some Spring clean-up work. Bulbs are busting out all over.

Snow day!

In their infinite wisdom my employer declared a Snow Day. The office, at least the analog one, is closed while half an eye is kept on the virtual office. No too much actual snow here, about three inches – enough to please the eye but not enough to strain the back.

Ourhouse
Cottage sur la mer. Occasionally a dark and stormy mer.

Brant
Brant on dawn patrol.

Library view this morning
Snow still fluffy. Rain later will dispose of most of it. First significant snow this season.

Sunset; northeaster on the way.
Sunset yesterday. Going over the Mantoloking Bridge to pump Sjogin. Swan Point just left of center.

Sjogin, sunset on Jones Tide Pond
Finally another ‘last look’ shot in calm conditions last evening. Pumped her dry and had a token fire. Very pleasant.

Success

Managed to figure out how to change the banner photo. All without the help of son Jeffrey I might add. There are additional minor changes to come (Jeff?) but I think I’ll stick with the new format for now. Comments?

Back to regular fare:

Considerable progress on the Herreshoff 15 being rebuilt at Beatons. The new keel has been scarfed and the rabbet cut. The bed logs for the centerboard case have been fashioned and installed.

New keel
New and old keel. Seems Quest was held together with tradition! As if I don’t know the words to that tune. Phil Bolger had an observation that I like: ‘there’s a lot to be said for overbuilding; when it’s half-rotten it’s still usable.’ There are parts of Sjogin that are….we’ll, never mind.

Also, Beatons has started on a new A-Cat mast. For the first time they will be using the birds-mouth technique. This involves milling a dozen or so 50 foot staves that have a rabbet on one side that matches the edge on the other and gluing them all together.

Birds-mouth spar test
Here’s a test spar Beatons built to try the birds-mouth technique.

Scarfing
Spruce planks being scarfed prior to gluing together to make a 50′ by 12″ by 1 1/2″ planks. In the background you can see the planks being glued with WEST Epoxy. After gluing they will be milled into the individual staves.

Spar stock
Spruce spar stock, fresh from a very old planer.

Marshes next to Beatons
Finally a view of the marshes next to Beatons. The little lump just to the right of center is Hankin’s Island.

Hope you like the new format. A little more tinkering to follow. Still the same old heaving to, same old stove stuff, same old Sjogin. Ain’t it wonderful. Thanks for joining me here.

Russ

Perfect February sailing conditions yesterday

Mild breeze out of the SSE, under 8kts for most of the morning. Was able to heave to on port for about an hour from just outside the basin to near Curtis Point. Usual breakfast. Great stuff.

Back by noon. The breeze picked up later and today; half a gale blowing now.

Ready to go
Ready to go. Easy to sail off the dock with the wind in SE.

Happy Skipper
Happy Skipper; waiting for the tea to brew and a watch below.

The view aft
The view aft, Beatons to leeward.

Reaching
Reaching along the Mantoloking Bay front. Went up to the bridge, gybed and reached back to the Yard.

Catboat
One of my very few watercolors. Taken from the cover art from The Catboat Book. Photo in response to a WBF thread on members wall art.

Happy Ground Hog Day

Looks like we can look forward to six more weeks of Winter, though if it’s like the last six it shouldn’t be too bad. It’s been warm enough lately to prevent any ice in the basin or down Bay as far as I can see. With light winds forecast for tomorrow morning I might go out for a sail and heave to.

Had the usual visit this morning and found the high winds had lifted and moved the hatch forward making things a little damp below. Left one port open and the drop board out; with this brisk northwesterly blowing she’ll dry out by morning.

Ran across the following quote in an 1898 book written by Thomas Fleming Day that was scanned and posted by Google. The book, On Yachts and Yacht Handling, was a primer on yacht management. Day was a yacht designer and the first editor of the Rudder. His most notable design was the Sea Bird Yawl.

“Books were made that man might pass his knowledge to his fellows; through them he speaks to a vast audience, and his power to enlighten is only circumscribed by the ability to impart this knowledge in lucid and interesting language.”

Let’s hear it for lucid and interesting language.

And the same for my ramblings in this current form of our ‘books’.

Pics follow:

Groundhog Day fire and sizzle
First fire and tea of February

Sjogin
An ice free start to the month. And ice free bilges.

Quest
Continued work on the Herreshoff 15.

Old and new keel
Old keel next to the blank for the new one.

Strange doings.

Albert Strange (1855-1917) was a late Victorian/Edwardian artist, yacht designer, writer and lover of cruising in small boats. A group of folks, mostly in the UK, have been hosting meetings and cruises since 1978 under the auspices of the Albert Strange Association. I have a copy of a book on his designs, watercolors and such. I’ve grown accustomed to double-enders as you can imagine and Strange’s canoe yawls share the same waters as Sjogin: the North Sea and the Baltic.

Intrigued by a post on the WoodenBoat Forum from the Secretary of the ASA, Dick Wynne, I finally went over to the Strange side and joined as member number 102.

Constance
Constance, a Strange canoe yawl of 1899.

Here’s a link to the Association web site. Lot’s of interesting cruising stories. Here’s the Post welcoming me. Thanks Dick.

Go Giants!

Russ