Hello all.
Just linked back up with WordPress after a password kerfuffle. As some of you may know that there is a public Sjogin Page on Facebook and an Instagram Page under the same name. Both have regular (far more irregular here) updates, news from Beaton’s, our gardens and such. Keeping up this blog has been indifferent over the last few years due to the ease of posting on social media.
Still, I’ve been writing here for almost fifteen years. It’s been a fine journey, meeting lots of interesting folks both analog and digital. Ten years ago Sjogin’s lines were recorded and Paul Gartside drew several versions in different lengths. To date I’ve heard of or seen a half dozen new Sjogins built or under construction around the world. Five years ago Sjogin and my search for her origins were featured in WoodenBoat Magazine. A high honor indeed.
I’ve signed up a friend to help manage this page and the prospect of posting here regularly and having it show up in my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds. We’ll see; you’ve heard such good intentions here before.
Here’s a photo from 2017 showing her still varnished rub rails and Malachy Green house trim. Both are now Bronze Green; Kirby Paints of course.
Hold Fast all as we struggle through these grim times.
Russ
Dear Russ!
For a few years now I follow the publications about Sjogin. She´s a really pretty boat!
Since my childhood I share the passion for sailing and for nice boats with my father, despite we don´t live quite close to the seaside. From here (Cologne/Germany) it takes a three hours drive to the Netherlands where our boats were we kept them for a long time since the 80ties. This distance was the reason why we tended to GRP hulls instead of wood – we only had little time to care for.
That´s why we both had a Drascombe, my father had a Longboat, I still have a Lugger which still is used by my son.
Unfortunately four years ago my father died too soon. He always dreamed of the kind of life you seem to spend – and so do I. I´m sure you have worked a lot during the past years, so please enjoy as much as you can! Since he passed away I use the Longboat in the summer when we go to the Mediterranean coast in Spain, where both boats were located since 25 years now.
To make a short story long I would like to tell you why I write to you.
Due to the distance to Spain – which means not to be able to go sailing every weekend – my father and I decided to look for a slightly more comfortable boat to keep it in the Netherlands once again. It should be a decked boat, a least to have a dry berth when it´s raining. But we didn´t fulfill in my father´s lifetime.
Two years ago I found a nice one – still GRP because I still will spend a few years working and I spend lots of time rebuilding an old house in Spain. So I preferred once again a durable material not requiring too much care.
She still cannot compete with the beauty of Sjogin but I consider her a good compromise having a traditional shape built in a modern way and I think she´s quite unique. Only about 40 items have been launched between 2000 and 2010. In every harbor people ask me about her. I hope you would like her, too, despite she´s not of made wood. She´s a Brendan 2000 built by green ocean yachts. It´s a pitty that I can´t insert photos into the comment. You´ll find some fotos in the web.
I like her a lot, but I still envy you for Sjogin and the shipyard around!
Take care, especially in times of corona!
Greetings
Johannes Mertens
Johannes,
Thank you so very much for your comment. I looked at your Brendan 2000 and she is a beautiful boat regardless of her construction material. Who was her designer? I can understand why dockside folks enjoy seeing her. Since you mentioned your Drascombes, have you read “Australia the Hard Way” by David Pyle. It’s my current read on board and tells the tale of his trip in an early Drascombe Lugger from England to Australia by way of Iraq and the Tigris River. Amazing story.
Your comment about your father’s desire for life such as I seem to live was especially touching. I wonder daily just how I’m able to be a good steward to Sjogin and live where I do. There’s an American expression in use since the early 1900s that refers to someone “Living the life of Reilly”. Just who Reilly was is lost to history but it refers to living a good life with no worries. I keep waiting for him to knock on our door and reclaim his life.
Thanks again for your comment. When I hear from folks like yourself that have been touched by Sjogin and my blog it makes the past fifteen very worthwhile. Take care in these troubled times and look forward to sailing again.
Sjogin’s out of the water now for bottom and topsides paint and should be back in commission next week. I’ll post some sailing pictures shortly thereafter.
Best regards,
Russ Manheimer
Living the Life of reilly originated in a popular song of the 1880s, “Is That Mr. Reilly?†by Pat Rooney, which described what its hero would do if he suddenly came into a fortune.
Russ. I found a series of pics of Sjogin in my inbox this morning. I have no idea why, unless it has to do with my foraging around Wooden Boat and Off Center Harbor websites. Or maybe it has to do with my ancient ties to Brooklin, Maine. I have no ties to Maryland whatsoever but perhaps my being half Swedish has something to do with my reaction to this boat.
Currently I am living in Uruguay, 200 yards from the Atlantic for $700 a month, plus the cost of some of the best beef in the world (or so sayeth the Uruguayans) and great reds for $4 a bottle.
I will stay until the Pandemic ends and I can return to the USA and my family – probably another year. I envy your slow sails. Maybe a Sjogin is in my future. I am currently building a CLC 15 ft Skerry with a South African friend who comes from a ship building family in Durban.
Thank you for putting this out. It has given me great pleasure on this drizzly morning.
Ken Ingram
Kenneth,
In addition to not posting often enough I also miss such interesting comments as yours. Did you receive the photos by email? Curious.
Thanks for your comments, appreciated.