September/October 2000 Issue 14 www.goodoldboat.com 00 95 $7 (Canada $9 CDN) 09 > 0 74470 97035 4 On newsstand until Oct. 31 Secret eaves turn to muted rusts, reds, classic children’s series about childhood establishing his home there. He sailed in and golds in Down East Maine. adventures and sailing which begins with merchant vessels all over the world, LThe weather cells move more Swallows and Amazons. In Secret Water, ending his merchant marine career as the quickly and winds pick up, flinging the children have a password that they senior engineering officer aboard Texaco sea spray against the multi-colored must be able to say forward and backward: tankers. lobster buoys. There are fewer sails on “akarabgnadabarak” and “karabadang- Shortly after graduation from college, the water. The visitors have gone. baraka.” The Peapod tender that serves Art bought a 31-foot C&C Corvette, Maine residents know winter is Secret Water is a double-ender that teases which he sailed on Maine coastal waters coming, and they’re preparing for it. the casual observer by having both and used to court his Maine sweetheart, After a three-year refit, 1999 was variations of the password as names, one Sandy. Following their wedding, they the first season Art Hall had had his painted on one side and the reverse made their escape from the reception Allied Seabreeze in the water, and he painted on the opposite side. Art says this aboard the Corvette. Next, Art and Sandy was having a hard time facing the is the source of untold queries and briefly owned a Pearson Ensign, but they season’s end. When Good Old Boat explanations. primarily cruised as a family aboard technical editor Jerry Powlas and I Like the children in the Swallows and Northern Light, a 30-foot custom cutter asked him to go for one last cruise, he Amazons series, Art began sailing as a that was designed and built by Sandy’s did not resist. His child. When Art was father, Dick Lagner, a naval architect. wife, Sandy, and still in grade school In 1990, Art noticed a familiar- two teenage by Karen Larson in Connecticut, his looking Pearson Triton in a boatyard. He daughters prefer father bought Rondo, even pointed out to Sandy and the girls summer to late-fall sailing and had a secondhand Pearson Triton (hull #124) upon occasion: “That looks just like the become involved in other activities, for family sailing. Back in the 1960s, two boat that Papa Bob (the girls’ name for abandoning Art to the role of quasi adults and four children thought nothing their grandfather) used to sail.” Eventu- tour guide for a couple of sailors “from of close quarters and “primitive” ally he stopped for a closer look, was away,” as they say in Maine. Never- amenities for their vacation lifestyle. struck by the similarities, and realized theless, he was happy to have an Many families went camping. Art’s family with joy that it was hull #124, the boat he excuse for one last weekend cruise “camped aboard” with the two boys had grown up on. He bought it. before hauling his boat in Belfast. sleeping in the cockpit under a boom tent. The Triton had seen better times in Just south of Belfast, in the cottage earlier years with Art’s family. Now she community of Bayside, is the mooring “Mainer” at heart was in need of a complete renovation. where Secret Water, Art’s Seabreeze, In the best tradition of an East Coast boy The deck was delaminated; trim was awaited her last sail of the season. who wanted to make his living at sea, Art decayed; from cushions to countertops, Secret Water is the name of one of the went to the Maine Maritime Academy in the interior was in need of a refit; the books by Arthur Ransome in his Castine and became a “Mainer” at heart, plywood cabin sole was shot; the 32 Good Old Boat September/October 2000 Water’s second life electrical and faired the 12 wiring was After a three-year refit, holes.” ready for Art also performed replacement; a much-loved Allied Seabreeze miracles inside the and the boat boat: repainting the was a cosmetic overhead with one- nightmare. Art goes cruising again in Maine part polyurethane, says it looked resurfacing the as if it had countertops and been painted with a broom. Three years with deck delamination. He removed and vertical surfaces, completely redoing later this boat was in tip-top condition discarded the outer layer, removed and the head compartment, and rewiring from the inside to the newly Awlgripped replaced the rotten core and built up, the electronic equipment. (There was topsides and deck. Shortly thereafter, job faired, and refinished the top laminates. more on this in Good Old Boat, March upheaval caused Art and Sandy to sell He Awlgripped the deck and applied a 2000.) Before the Seabreeze had begun the boat while it was in mint condition. new non-skid to traffic areas. her trip to Pownal, Maine, in fact, Art During the boat’s transformation, And he built new engine beds. As he had stripped all the wiring, the bulk of Rondo had been blocked on stands in says, “When the boat was repowered with the equipment that he says had no the Halls’ backyard in Pownal, Maine. the Lehman diesel, some ‘bonehead’ had value — life jackets, fenders, dock- Once life had stabilized again, Art was bolted the engine mounts through the lines, Loran, knotmeter, depthsounder encouraged enough by the results of the skin of the boat. There were 12 half-inch — and tossed them in the dumpster in first renovation to take on another pro- holes. It was a textbook case of how not Connecticut. The old roller furler and ject. He began looking for a larger and to install an engine. I removed the jib were sold, but he salvaged the more comfortable cruising boat. The next welded steel pedestals that had elevated mainsail, the spinnaker, and the drifter. “project boat” was the Allied Seabreeze, the forward engine mounts and then Lest you think Art is a carefree which he found in Connecticut and glassed in substantial mahogany stringers squanderer, we should point out that trucked back home to that familiar spot to form proper engine beds. And I drilled this is one man who made use of every in the backyard. Project boat Like her predecessor, Secret Water was in need of minor structural and major cosmetic repair. In particular, her spongy deck frightened prospective buyers. About 10 percent of the deck was damaged, but Art had already tackled a delaminated deck, so he bought her for a reasonable price. He says if you’re going to buy a project boat, your best bet is to find one that won’t pass a survey, can’t be insured, and can’t be financed. Then, he adds, if you can pay as is, where is, no survey, and cash for it, it’s a buyer’s market. He offered $10,000 less than the asking price and says the seller just about chased him away with an oar but later called him up and accepted the offer. A fine craftsman, Art transformed the boat inside and out over another three- year period. He started with the areas Secret Water, Art Hall’s Alllied Seabreeze is as pretty when sailing in Eggemoggin Reach, facing page, as she is at anchor near Stonington, at right. Good Old Boat September/October 2000 33 The view from the cockpit. Art Hall in his glory, at right; Stonington, Maine, below. ping or a paint job to be done at another time. It was at the end of that first season that Jerry and I joined Art on his last sail. Season’s last sail We met him one Friday late in September in Bayside, south of Belfast. Before having a chance to fully appreciate the architecture of Bayside, a quaint Victorian community where Sandy’s family has spent summer vacations for four generations, we bailed the dinghy, loaded gear on Secret Water, and were off. We sailed across Penobscot Bay in brisk winds to Holbrook Island, salvageable piece of teak and other swap magazine called Uncle Henry’s, just south of Castine, where Art had wood on that boat. If a piece couldn’t which Art characterizes as “a real Maine attended the Maine Maritime Academy be repaired and reused in its original institution.” It was crucial to Art that and fallen in love with Maine. location, it was stripped and used in Sandy have ownership and full Seabreeze designer Frank MacLear is another place. A piece of wood partnership privileges from start to finish. quoted as saying that any centerboarder salvaged from the Triton, in fact, has a He notes, “Her input and contributions requires earlier sail reduction than full- place of honor as part of Secret Water’s should not be underestimated.” keel boats. This suggests that the boat breadboard. Art didn’t just restore this Seabreeze, should be sailed on her feet. Art, Art is a self-described “bottom he put his own stamp on the design of the however, was having none of that when feeder.” When parts could not be interior. He and Sandy attended a we sailed with him. In 25-knot winds, salvaged, he cruised marine consign- rendezvous of Seabreeze owners and took with seas of 3 to 4 feet in the bay, Secret ment shops for equipment such as away from that gathering the best interior Water carried a single reef in the main winches, a forward hatch, and a innovations and then added a few more of and a full jib.