Category: 219

Our House

Ice!!!

First ice of the season; just skim and slushy bits, nothing too solid yet. Though Sjogin’s bilge has frozen over, the pump hasn’t. It allows the electric pump to be used, followed by scooping out most of the slush. Fred, one of the Beaton irregulars, is keeping an eye on her between my visits.

The new Beaton Flatfish, Serena, is at the varnish build up stage. Her rudder’s done along with the seats and margin boards. I expect the spar work should start soon.

The above and other recent pics follow:

serena
Getting ready for one of the half dozen varnish coats.

Claire
Sjogin’s slip mate this winter, son David’s Claire.

Sjogin
Last Saturday, blowing 30, about 20 degrees. Getting colder but no ice then.

Skim ice
Skim ice in the pond this morning. Should be gone with a brisk nor’wester.

Bilge
And skim ice in the bilge. It’s that time of year, though much later than usual. Just slush mostly, easy to scoop out with the bailer.

Donut
Ice donut on the stern line.

Crescent
Ice crescents form around the pilings and then are set adrift. Not a bad day.

219
Early last Saturday morning.

Sneakbox
New hunting machine turned up this month. It’s towed to a likely spot and anchored. The sloping gray deck is said to be sufficiently camouflaged to not need marsh stuff.

No 2007 sailing yet.

Over the last two weeks either the water’s been too low or the breeze insufficient or no time. Still managed to have a fire and a cuppa every weekend morning. Today looked promising with a chance of showers and temps in the 40’s with a light mist but absolutely no breeze. Had a watch below, finishing Melville’s Billy Budd.

Beaton’s is making good progress on the new Flatfish, Serena. The cabin top’s on and sheathed with the finish work in the cockpit started. Looking forward to an early Spring launching.

Pics follow:

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How appropriate for drinking tea and rum while reading Billy Budd

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Quiet morning at Beaton’s last Saturday. Just time for a fire and tea. Could have gone out but we went to see the NY Philharmonic with Dave and Cheryl. Very warm day; 72 in Central Park by the afternoon.

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Nothing like a sizzling slice of Joe Leone’s provlone and hot sausage bread.

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The view from the shop window at Beaton’s last Saturday.

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Sunrise, January 4th.

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Brant in Stockton Lake as seen from our bedroom window.

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Flatfish progress.

Visit from

Julia this morning. Bright sun, not too cold. I went down earlier and got the fire and tea ready. While I waited I almost finished reading (for the Nth time), The Riddle of the Sands, Erskine Childer’s Frisian frolic. Perfect book for our thin waters. Nice breeze today, about 8 to 12 from the SW but spent the morning in the slip as Christmas needs called. (Tree erection and lighting today.)

Julia
Julia on board for tea and a mild smoking from the ship’s stove. Very cozy.

Bright
Bright below with the sun aft. Tea warming and waiting for a splash of Pussers.

Aft
Showing off her delicate quarters.

Swag
The usual swag seized to the mast.

Serina
Progress on the new Beaton Flatfish. Learned this weekend her name is to be Serina, a character in E. B. White’s story The Sword in the Stone. This continues the convention of naming this fleet for characters in White’s books. Charlotte, my Brother’s Flatfish, is named for his best know character.

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And here’s Tom, surveying progress in front of Serina. Oh that Herreshoff bow.

Squirrel
Finally, a local recycling our leftover Thanksgiving gourds and pumpkins. We’ll probably have vines all over the place come summer.

Ship’s work today

as I’m making up a new set of dock lines. Stocked up on shop scraps and sailed off the dock into a declining NNW breeze. About 45 or so and pretty damp so the stove felt welcome. Had some Joe Leone hot sausage and provolone bread crisped up on the stove along with the usual tea and Pussers. A very pleasant morning with some occasional sun.

Here are some pics from today, last weekend and other odd bits….

Reaching
Reaching to Swan Point. About 5kts worth of wind with occasional gusts to 12.

PRM
Swan Point ahead. Plenty off water today, surprising with the Westerlys we’ve been having.

Tony
One of the Beaton irregulars enjoying the Bay.

JL
Hot sausage and Provolone bread from Joe Leone’s, a world class purveyor of Italian delights.

Sunrise
Sunrise as seen from our tiny patch of salt marsh last Thursday.

Sheep
Finally, one of the highlights of my commute from Manasquan to Route 1. The farm is between Clarksburg and Roosevelt in Western Monmouth County.

First fire and tea of the new Off Season

last weekend. After struggling to get the stove pipe together, friend Paul loaned me a crimper to narrow the top of the first section. (The lower section in the photo below.)

Pics follow, including some other photos taken in the last week:

First fire
First fire after finally hooking up the new stove pipe. Last years Galvanized elbows rusted away. Thanks Paul.

I still need to have a custom flue made with a proper cast iron damper. Maybe copper? Are you reading this Quinten?

Candy
A bowl of “candy” from Venice. It’s Murano glass, twisted to look like wrapped candy. Tres cool.

Plan
This may be hard to see but it’s the Construction drawing of a 24 foot Scow Motorsailer I designed for Phil Clarke in 1978. I drew this for him while taking the Westlawn course. Through Phil I met the Beaton family and the rest is a very pleasant history for the last 25 years.

Solitude
An image of Sjogin and myself taken and refined by a local Artist, Paul Barlo. There’s a great story about this image that I’ll get to soon.

Lift
Another Barlo work of the old lift at Beaton’s with the Yard Garvey lying in the slings.

Progress

on my annual maintenance program for Sjogin. The major project this year is stripping the house sides and cabin top along with renewing the brightwork. Over the last week or so I finished removing paint and have started in the other direction.

Also find below a variety of pics taken over the last few weeks.

Pics follow:

ready to strip
All the sealing has been done; epoxy on the old canvas and Pettit Sealer on the house and hand rails.

Tools
My paint stripping tools. There’s a piece in this month’s WoodenBoat about making handles for Red Devil scraper blades. The bent file can cut both ways and is handy for lifting old paint. It also makes a great seam cleaner as it can shave the sides of the seam back to clean wood.

aft
The house all primed as well the bare spots (many) on the topsides. The Yard will do the bottom.

forward
The view from forward.

beds
September beds. It’s pretty much a plant eat plant world now.

9/11
September 11th at Our House.

masthead
Finally, back to Sjogin for a snap of her masthead and fly.

Progress pics

of this Summer’s work on Sjogin. She was hauled on the 1st and put in the South Shed at Beaton’s. She’s in the back, near large doors that are open to the breezes. It’s often 10 degrees cooler in there on a hot Summer afternoon.
This year’s projects include stripping the paint off the canvas cabin top, rails, hatch, hatch frame and the cabin sides. All will be patched, puttied, sanded and sealed and then painted or varnished.
Also some garden and sailing pics as well. Went sailing with John H. on Wednesday in his Sandpiper. Tacked down along the 3 foot line behind Island Beach. Ran back to SPYC as the sun set. Delightful.
Here they are:


It begins. Fan on the foredeck to help the breeze blow away the paint fumes.


The hatch off and the paint half stripped off the canvas.


Implements of destruction.


Dodgy bits; the canvas is missing and will need an epoxy patch. I plan on sealing the canvas with thinned epoxy. Also the cabin top was nailed on with galvanized nails which are now little volcanoes of rust. They need to be cleaned up, sealed and filled.


Not too bad for 44 year old Fir plywood. The corner of the cabin top needs to be sealed and refastened.


John H sailing along Island Beach


Sunset over Barnegat Bay.


Sunrise this morning at 6:10. A perfect summer day. I plan on taking off this afternoon to get caught up on my hedge trimming and weeding.

Late afternoon

garden pics taken yesterday as TS Beryl spun off shore. Great light that unfortunatley the pics below don’t do justice to. The garden is on its own now. An occasional feeding and watering when absolutely necessary but its basically a plant eat plant world. The Japanese Anenomes are gearing up and will put on a fine show come Labor Day. Our favorite Daylilies are in their glory now, creating their own sunshine.

Here they are:


Favorite Daylilies along with the Buddleia on the far left. We had a Hummingbird last Saturday.


Hydrangeas and Bee Balm


Sunflowers and our Herb and Basil beds along with the ever present Lamb’s Ears


Asiatic Lilies and Daylilies


Rose (Hip) walk. Most of our beach roses have bloomed and are now setting cherry tomato size hips. After some pruning we’ll get further blooms but nothing like the first glorious flush in June. The light pink flowers are a type of semi-wild Malva.


Late blooming Rosa Rugosa and Malva.

Surprise visit

last weekend from Steven Bauer and Family. He’s a fellow participant in the WoodenBoat Forum from Portland, Maine. They were on their way to Ocean City, NJ for a family reunion and stopped overnight at a friends house near by. Steven was able to find Beaton’s and showed up just as I was ready to make sail. Went for a quick sail and then had a tour of Beaton’s. We’re going to try to go sailing together later this week if the weather gods allow.

Here are some pics including one from our garden:


Steven and Mary Bauer


Gavin and the girls.


Wet sanding Ghost’s bottom in preparation for the first race of the season. The Barnegat Bay Yacht Racing Association (BBYRA) represents the 10 yacht clubs on the bay and organizes the weekly regattas. The first race was held last Saturday but abandoned due to severe weather. The A Cats don’t race if the winds are over 18kts. Check the Link on the right under “Boats” for race results.


Our shade garden and porch. The damn ferns are starting to flop.

Russ