Delaware River Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association July & August 2021

March 2012 Next Meeting: Topic: July 12, 2021 @ 7pm meeting August 9, 2021 @ 7pm meeting Open Boating at 2 PM Union Lake Sailing and Tennis Club Millville, N.J. TO BE ANNOUNCED www.ulstc.org for directions

Rebuilding “Scraps” a 13.5’ Skin on Frame Kayak By Kevin Brennan

At the age of 13 I asked my father if I could join Boy Scouts to which he agreed. It is something I have never regretted for it opened up a whole new world of outdoor opportunities which I pursue to this day. One of the side benefits to becoming a Boy Scout was a subscription to Boys Life magazine which always had an advertisement for Folbots that captured my imagination. Folbots were brightly colored fuselage framed skin on frame boats that were sold as rigid models, folding kayaks and from what I’ve learned kit boats. My family were not boat people, we didn’t live near the water and rarely did anything by it except for 2 weeks every summer when we vacationed at Lake Winnipesaukee. The reality of actually owning one was pushed to the back of my thoughts in favor of dreaming of how I would use it and the places it would take me. I remember sending Folbot a dollar or so to get a full color brochure complete with a sample of the covering vinyl, which was about 1 inch square. I never did get beyond the dreaming part and for years now I have thought it would be neat to pick one up, just because. Along comes Tom Shephard and the Maritime Museum. In September I was poking through the boat donations up for sale and there was a rather battered and forlorn kayak frame that kind of looked like it might be a Folbot. I was heading down to sail for the MASCF weekend even though the pandemic had cancelled that event and had the mental conversation with myself the entire way down of if I should bother to look at it. Suffice it to say that common sense did not prevail and while it wasn’t a Folbot I struck a deal with Tom for what my wife called kindling and she was right, it probably should have been hung in a bar or burned.

As found

The boat measured out to 13 and a half feet with a 24-inch beam. It has 7 yellow pine ½ inch plywood frames and not one of them are perpendicular or plumb to the centerline. The tops of the frames were horribly split from the oversized nails used to secure the ½ inch plywood cockpit deck, complete with flaky gray lead paint. The stringers are also yellow pine, complete with knots, and one was broken and another badly cracked. Despite all its faults the boat had pretty fair lines. All in all it was very crudely built as you can see in the photo. My objective was to bring it back to life as cheaply as possible but in a most respectable manner. No attempt would be made to straighten out the frames and no wood was to be purchased. I would be using offcuts and what I had laying around the shop to cobble something back together. I would be taking a lemon and making lemonade, it is what it is. Repairs made included removing and replacing the deck, the seat and floorboards with ¼ inch plywood, replacing 2 stringers, and reconfiguring/rebuilding the cockpit frames to get a little more foot room and cockpit space.

Template to raise the deck structure

Ready to cover

The boat is covered with 9-ounce aircraft dacron shrunk around the frame which is a pretty durable covering as long as you don’t go dragging across the rocks or oyster shells. The starting weight of the frame before I began the project was 32 pounds, without any covering either. Finished weight is now 30 pounds all in. It is now named SCRAPS and brightly painted in homage to the Folbot I thought it might be.

Sea trials have shown that I might be a bit too big for this one. Foot room (size 10.5) is just enough with my shoes pushing up just a tad on the fabric, which really is not a big deal. It is a little twitchy in waves, but on flat water it does just fine. I have decided that I had my fun with this project and I’m offering if up for sale for the bargain price of $175. Let me know if you are interested and we can figure out the details. Stories from the Days of Sail By Duncan Wright At our November 2020 chapter meeting, member Duncan Wright gave a presentation titled Stories from the Days of Sail. The presentation was EXCELLENT and well received. Duncan provided me with his script for that presentation and has granted permission for me to present it in the Mainsheet. For the remainder of this year I will serialize his work each month. Enjoy.

PART 4; NAVIGATION

Lee Shores

“When in Doubt, Stay Out” *

“I was once cruising with a friend who was a good fore and aft sailor, but who got scared on one occasion when we were on a lee shore and it came to blow on hard. He was anxious to run blindly for the mouth of a narrow river obstructed by a dangerous and often- shifting bar, (on which the sea was breaking heavily at the time), with the passage across which neither of us was acquainted. He called this prudence, but it was in truth the rashness of panic. I knew we should in all probability lose our vessel if we made the attempt he proposed, and I insisted on keeping to the open sea. We close reefed our little vessel, and facing the gale, put her at it, got a good offing by sailing for some distance on the tack which took her best away from the land, and then hove her to. She rode the gale beautifully, and next morning my friend “agreed that my plan had been the most prudent plan after all. But safer still it is, when cruising in a small boat, “to so watch the weather forecasts and the glass, that one never allows oneself to be surprised by a strong gale when at a long distance from a secure harbor.”

E.F. Knight Small-Boat Sailing (1901)

Clawing Off

We were nearly landlocked on a lee shore in a heavy gale, with a leaky ship. The land on the weather bow was the island of Diego Ramirez, that on the weather quarter, Saint Ildefonso Rocks, and the on the lee-beam, the coast of Cape Horn. “No alternative was now left, but to either run in the channel between Diego Ramirez and the coast, or to set a press of canvas and endeavor to beat off shore. Either of these resorts would be attended with great peril and danger. I resolved, however, to choose that latter, so that I could have the former-that is to run through the channel,” as a last recourse.

G. Little Life on the Ocean (1844)

Running a Ship Ashore to the Best Advantage

In September 1797, at the age of 23, I bought a cutter in Havre de Grace. I loaded a cargo, and prepared to sail to Mauritius. But the “vessel was detained several days by the difficulty in procuring men. Those who were engaged one day would desert the next...” At length, however, with some additional pay, I succeeded. “To delay proceeding to sea a moment longer than was necessary would have been incurring a risk of the loss of my men, and the pay I had advanced them. Hence I was induced to sail when appearances were very inauspicious. A strong north wind was blowing into the bay with such violence as already to have raised a considerable sea; but I flattered myself that, as the sun declined, it would abate...” We sailed from Havre about noon, and “we were under full sail; but we had scarcely been out two hours” when we had to reef. The wind and sea increased towards midnight; then “an extraordinary plunge into a very short and sharp sea completely buried the vessel, and with a heavy crash, snapped off the bowsprit by the board.” We had no spar suitable for jury bowsprit; as a result, we could carry only a greatly reduced amount of sail, and “made so much leeway, that it was evident, as soon as daylight enabled me to form a judgment, that we could not reach Havre; nor was it less evident, that nothing but an abatement of the gale could save us from being stranded before night... We now cleared away the cables and anchors...While thus engaged, the man at the mast head announced the appalling but expected intelligence of ‘breakers under the lee’...” “No one on board possessed any knowledge of the shore we were approaching, but our chart denoted it as rocky. It was easy to perceive that to be thrown among rocks, by such a sea, must be the destruction of us all. Hence it was of the utmost importance to discover, and to anchor off the part of the shore most free of rocks; and with this view the mate was looking from the masthead. As he perceived an apparently clear beach east of us, and within our ability of reaching, we steered for it; and when the water was only six fathoms deep, we lowered our sails, and came to anchor. But as our anchor dragged, a second was let go, which for a moment only, brought the vessel head to sea, when one cable parted; and as we were drifting rapidly with the other, we cut it, then hoisted the jib, and steered directly for the clear space on the beach. Going in with a great velocity, on top of a high breaker, we were soon enclosed in its foam, and in that of several others that succeeded. The vessel, however notwithstanding she struck the ground with such violence which appeared sufficient to dash her to pieces, still held together...and as the tide was falling, she soon became still and water so shoal, as to enable us to go ashore...” “We were fortunate, not only in the selection of the spot, but also in the circumstance of its being nearly high water when the vessel struck... “ “As the alarm gun had been fired, the peasantry had come down in great numbers; and when they perceived us leaving the vessel, they ran into the surf...and supported us to the shore.” With the help of many kind people over several days, we repaired the hull, heaved the vessel off, and returned to Havre. “The reception I met with at Havre, from my friend James Price Esq. of Boston...was kind and friendly in the extreme, and tended to counteract the effects of my deep mortification, and to raise my spirits for the prosecution of the original plan.”

Richard Cleveland A Narrative of Voyages and Commercial Enterprises (1850)

Third Times the Charm By Kate Livie, reprinted from Chesapeake Bay Magazine Submitted By member Mark Showers

The most accurate Dove yet takes shape at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

It’s a fresh spring day at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum when I first meet the next incarnation of Maryland Dove. The build, started in 2019, is well underway. As lead shipwright Joe Connor guides me into the huge white tent along the museum’s bulkhead, the effect is straight out of Gulliver’s Travels. Her huge skeletal timbers dwarf the shipwrights who busily swarm, attaching planking, securing knees, breathing life into this sleeping giant. Once complete and splashed into St. Michaels harbor this fall, she will briefly tower over the deadrises and buyboats in the museum’s fleet before setting off for her permanent berth at Historic St. Mary’s City—a time traveler from the Golden Age of sail. In the last century, Maryland Dove has been resurrected three times: once, in 1934, to commemorate Maryland’s tercentenary; again in 1977, to serve as a floating exhibit for Historic St. Mary’s City; and finally, the current iteration under construction at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Counterintuitively, as each build has gotten progressively farther from the original in time, it’s gotten closer to period accuracy. We’ve learned a lot about 17th-century vessels in the last hundred years. Thanks to advances in maritime archaeology and new technology including submarines, scuba equipment, and remotely-operated underwater vehicles, Connor and his team are building a Maryland Dove that those English colonists might have recognized. That so much attention has been lavished on the Dove may surprise students of Maryland’s early history. For starters, it was the larger Ark that carried 140–150 settlers and their supplies in 1634 as they established the Maryland colony. The Dove, it’s now believed, followed behind with little on board but ballast. Her mission was to serve as a coastal trading vessel along the Chesapeake and other ports on the East Coast. But Dove’s time as the Maryland colony’s pickup truck was short. In 1635, loaded with furs and corn on a return voyage to , she foundered and sank. According to Joe Greeley, the former waterfront director at Historic St. Mary’s City, the location is a mystery. “She’s lost at sea, somewhere between Maryland and England. It could be 20 feet off our dock, it could be right off the coast of England—we’ll never know. It’s a big ocean and ultimately, if the ocean wants you, the ocean will take you.” Despite the short lifespan of the original Dove, her outsized Maryland colonial symbolism has endured, something that can largely be chalked up to practicality. Of the two founding vessels, Dove was significantly smaller—40 tons to ’s 400 tons—and therefore cheaper to build and maintain as a replica. The first incarnation of the Maryland Dove (the name given to the three replicas built by the State of Maryland in the ’30s, ’70s, and today) was a slapdash affair. The budget was tight—the build began in 1933 during the last year of the Great Depression—so the state got creative. Maryland’s Conservation Commissioner Swepson Earle retrofitted a 36-foot motor sailor by lengthening the hull an extra 10 feet, adding a superstructure to mimic the 17th-century upper decks, and swapping in a ketch rig. Local Sea Scouts made her sails and rigging. The overall effect might not have been accurate or pretty (Commissioner Earle pronounced it “a fair resemblance”), but for an elaborate prop meant to vaguely represent old-timey Maryland at summer yacht clubs and regattas, it served its purpose. The second life of Maryland Dove started in 1977. Commissioned by Historic St. Mary’s City, this version of Maryland Dove was not a slavish replica either. Intended to generally represent a medium-sized cargo ship of the time, the vessel would serve as a floating exhibit at the museum’s waterfront once complete. The plans for this Maryland Dove were designed by naval architect William Baker. One of the foremost 20th-century authorities on the design and construction of colonial wooden vessels, Baker also designed plans and specifications for famous reproduction historic vessels such as Mayflower II and Gjoa. The work was undertaken by a respected Eastern Shore boatbuilder, Jim Richardson. In a July 8, 1977 interview with the Baltimore Sun, Baker said of Richardson, “There were only two yards in the country I’d let build her. One of them is a yard in Maine; the other one is right here. Since this is a Maryland vessel, it has to be a Richardson.” Richardson’s bread and butter were traditional Chesapeake wooden sailing vessels, but he’d moonlighted on some pretty offbeat projects—such as the 18′ cable car and 65′ Haida dugout canoe from the Pacific Northwest he’d restored side-by-side for the Smithsonian. Richardson came out of retirement for the Maryland Dove project and assembled a team of young shipwrights, men and women, for the massive build at his shop on the Choptank’s LeCompte Creek. With a creative mashup of 17th-century tools, Eastern Shore timbers, and skipjack-style boatbuilding techniques, the Maryland Dove took shape at Richardson’s shop in only 15 months. For over 30 years, the 1977 Maryland Dove served as a floating exhibit and ambassador for Historic St. Mary’s City. During that period, Historic St. Mary’s City’s focus on living history deepened, based on 20th-century archaeological advances and research. The site’s interpretation expanded into four different hands-on exhibits that told the story of early Maryland history, reflecting the highest standard of period accuracy. And as new information came to light about sailing vessels in the 17th century, Maryland Dove was the next exhibit to be reassessed. In particular, Historic St. Mary’s City was interested in moving away from the general tobacco trading ship the 1970s version represented. For the third life of Maryland Dove, they planned to build a replica that looked and sailed like the original. To meet that challenge, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum started by sending lead shipwright Joe Connor and rigger Sam Hiltgartner on a pilgrimage to learn about 17th-century boatbuilding in the most immersive way possible—by observing and exploring an actual Swedish warship, Vasa, constructed in the 1600s. Remarkably intact, the Vasa sank on her inaugural voyage and spent four centuries submerged on the bottom of the Stockholm harbor before being carefully salvaged in the 1960s. Through the discovery of wrecks like the Vasa, knowledge of the maritime world of the past was vaulted from conceptual to physical. Where Will Baker’s research was done in archives, Connor and Hiltgartner were able to learn from the real article in Sweden, recreating elements from the past such as rigging, lines, and construction with a time-traveler’s expert eye. The result is a vessel that will balance modern practicality—Coast Guard certification and the ability to take out passengers—with painstaking period detail. In particular, a new Boyer rig and sail plan will allow the new Maryland Dove to sail closer to the wind, an essential element of a coastal trading vessel. In the hull, Connor has incorporated period boatbuilding techniques including wood fasteners, wood joints, and big timber joinery. A wealth of other small details breathe authenticity into the project. Hiltgartner and other shipwrights have handcrafted an impressive inventory of individualized blocks for the running rigging—another lesson gleaned from the Vasa. During the pandemic shutdown, shipwrights took bags of oakum home to spin into caulking, custom-turned handmade bolts in bronze, and smithed hinges and latches for the ship’s interior in backyard shops. To date, despite the inevitable slowdowns of 2020, Connor and his team have kept the Maryland Dove build roughly on time for its scheduled launch this October, with rigging and finishing to be completed in Fall 2022. As Connor walks me through the sawdust piles and catwalks of Maryland Dove’s build site, he seems satisfied with the progress. “We’ve all got a lot more gray hairs but we’re all still moving somehow. We’ve pieced her through most of the big challenges,” Connor says. He acknowledges it’s been a herculean effort, but one he’s tried to approach with his team one step at a time, with an appreciation for the importance of the project and its legacy. “We’re getting a chance to use all the right materials, start with a really good design, and cut joints and install pieces that will outlive the craftsmen making them,” says Connor. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—and it’s incredibly exciting to be a part of that.” Kate Livie is a Chesapeake writer, educator, and historian. An Eastern Shore native and current faculty at Washington College’s Center for Environment and Society, Livie’s award-winning book Chesapeake Oysters was published in 2015.

Sunburn By Frank Stauss

Exposure to the sun is a serious matter for all of us who spend time on the water. Using a proper  Long sleeved shirts and pants are sunscreen in addition to taking other protection helpful. Ideally lightweight, tightly measures is vitally important. woven, dark colored UV protective clothing with a UPF, or ultraviolet Many tips for protecting ourselves from sunburn protection factor rating. UPF 50 or higher were reported in the September issue of is excellent; 39 to 49 are very good. Soundings magazine.  Water breaks the bond between the  Only cloudy days we must still apply sunscreen and the body. Sweat also sunscreen. Cloud cover does not prevent breaks the bond. Sunscreen should be sunburn causing ultraviolet rays from reapplied every two hours. reaching the boater.  At least a SPF 30 sunscreen should be  The suns rays are most strong between used. the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., which is when we are usually out on the water. Despite widespread sunscreen use, incidents of skin cancer of all types are getting worse. One  Choppy water reflects almost all of the theory is that sunscreen users believe the ultraviolet radiation that hits it and product gives them complete protection, so redirects it toward the boater, causing they stay in the sun longer, increase their sunburn under the chin, nose and behind exposure to ultraviolet radiation, and develop the ears. A baseball cap type of head problems. Using protection is a personal choice cover will protect the scalp, forehead which we all should take advantage of. and upper nose, but the ears, lower nose, sides of the face, and the neck remain exposed. A broad-brimmed hat with a long neck flap is recommended. 2021 Meeting Calendar

January July Monday Jan. 11, 2021 Monday July 12, 2021 ZOOM Meeting, 7:00 pm Union Lake Sailing and Tennis Club 7:00 pm Feature: Building the Sandbaggers Open boating starts at 2 pm By: John Brady Feature: TBA By: TBA February Monday Feb 8, 2021 August ZOOM Meeting, 7:00 pm Monday Aug 9, 2021 Feature: Restoration of runabout Miss Leading Union Lake Sailing and Tennis Club, 7:00pm Lady Open boating starts at 2pm By: John Brady Feature: TBA By: TBA March Monday Mar 8, 2021 September ZOOM Meeting, 7:00pm Saturday Sep 11, 2021 Feature: ABC’s of Boatbuilding Union Lake Sailing and Tennis Club, 9:00 am By: Carl Weissinger Annual Messabout

April October Monday April 12, 2021 Monday October 11, 2021 ZOOM Meeting, 7:00pm Independence Seaport Museum, 7:00pm Feature: Building a Corinthian Sloop Feature: Sailing Around the World Without By: John Brady Instruments By: Mike Wick May Monday May 10, 2021 November ZOOM Meeting, 7:00pm Monday November 8, 2021 Feature: Building Phineas Independence Seaport Museum, 7:00pm By: Paul Skalka Feature: TBA By: Pete Peters June Monday June 14, 2021 December Union Lake Sailing and Tennis Club, 6:00 pm Sunday Dec 12, 2021 Open boating starts at 2 pm King George II Inn Feature: Bid and Buy Annual Holiday Party. Brunch 1 pm By: Membership Feature: Food, fun, friendship, prizes!

Delaware River Chapter From the Snuggery TSCA By Frank Stauss

Chapter President: 9,863 Egyptian Pounds, 1,299 Fiji Dollars Mark Showers 532 Euros, 4,065 Chinese Yuan’s, 2,562 Cambodian [email protected] Riels, 1039 Bulgarian Lev’s, .02 Bitcoin, 13,733 Czech

Krone, 16,171 Cuban Peso’s, 77,853 Iceland Krona, Chapter Vice President: 46,958 Indian Rupee, 968,556 Lebanese Pounds, Carol Jones 1,790,923 Mongolian Tugrik, 258,422 Nigerian Naira, [email protected] 565,200 North Korean Won, 2,413 Polish Zloty, 9,002 South African Rand, 190,210 Hungarian Forint. Secretary: If you look at the above currency amounts they all Carl Weissinger equal $628 U.S. Dollars. That is the amount that was [email protected] made at the Bid n Buy in July. Paul Skalka our treasurer tells me that this was the largest amount Treasurer: ever made at our auction. Well done to the donators Paul Skalka and all of the buyers. [email protected]

Pete Peters wanted us to know that his musical Newsletter Editor: group The Shellback Buoys will be performing on the Frank Stauss AJ Meerwald on August 12, 2021, at its music sail. [email protected] Bring a bottle of wine and relax to the sounds of great music. Set sail aboard the AJ Meerwald, one of Website: the hundreds of oyster schooners that graced the www.delrivertsca.net Delaware Bay in the 1920s! Experience history by Michael Fishkow helping the crew hoist the sails, and learn about [email protected] sailing and the local environment! Go to bayshorecenter.org and click on Music Sails for further information.

The Delaware River Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association works to preserve and continue the living traditions, skills, lore and legends surrounding working and pleasure craft whose origins predate the maritime gasoline engine. It encourages the design, construction and use of these boats. Whether you have an interest in traditional boat building, messing about in small boats, or helping preserve our maritime heritage come join us and share the camaraderie of kindred spirits.

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