Master Mariners Wooden Boat Show

We love boat shows and especially wooden boat shows but lately we have had busy times and I have been very…immobile due to ankle surgery, casts and whatnot since mid-April. Boring times it’s been. I am still on the mend but able to get out and around using something called a knee scooter. Yes, it’s pretty much what it sounds like–a scooter for your knee to rest on while you go about your activities. It’s too big for the boat–so are crutches for that matter–but works well for everything once I’m off the boat. Exactly the sort of strange looking contraption that you think you’d never be seen dead near much less using. Ah, until you’re in a situation of being a bump on a log or regaining your mobility using it! I now think it’s downright beautiful. David and I had a great weekend–last weekend–that included attending the Master Mariners Benevolent Association Wooden Boat Show.

Here are a few photos of the day.

One of the best things about visiting a boat show is seeing details of construction or the ways various boaters have dealt with similar equipment and issues to those you have.  Here is a Fortress style anchor on nice wood chocks atop the cabin of Encore, a Concordia yawl owned by Bert Damner. It was great to learn that Bert, like me, loves varnishing and, like me, hates sanding prep to varnish. anchor chocks on a Concordia Yawl

When we visit a boat show, we also often see boats that remind us of one we considered buying or almost bought.  At this show, we saw the Rhodes Design No. 398, SV Nike, a 37′ cutter rigged boat built in Maine in 1937.  She was very similar to a Rhodes cutter we once considered purchasing in Maryland.

Rhodes cutter SV Nike

A really nice thing about going to the wooden boat show at the Corinthian Yacht Club is the view of the San Francisco Bay is spectacular. Across the water in the distance is the San Francisco skyline. From the yacht club we can see boats sailing the bay, the ferry and Angel Island. It was a warm and windy day — perfect for Bay sailing, too. Spaulding Marine Center’s Freda in the foreground of this photo. There is a lovely video and photos about her restoration on the Center’s website.

Freda and the view of San Francisco Bay

I suppose the boring isolation aboard Mahdee for a couple months really has made me much more appreciative of any of the sights and sounds away from the boat. No matter the reason, I really enjoyed the boat show. The day was festive, a New Orleans-style ragtime jazz band playing on the club deck with tunes familiar to David and I. Our listening began with a series of Rags skillfully performed and as we were leaving, the clarinet led the Whining Boy and I couldn’t help myself from singing along quietly and hearing the voice of David’s godfather, Frank Gillis, singing it as he often did. The music wafted over the air mixing with the other sounds of the day perfectly. The boats were fully adorned with private signals, flags, festive ship’s dress, and burgees representing participation in various classic boat regattas. The wind cheerfully whipped the colors in a really delightful way.

Flags and Burgees

Besides burgees and signals and flags, sometimes there are a few people that you meet at a wooden boat festival who mange to epitomize the event. During the Master Mariners Wooden Boat Show this year at the Corinthian Yacht Club, that person would have to be Shelly Willard. I didn’t know Shelly before the event, but I happened to see her standing alongside one of the boats in a navy blue lace sundress complete with the perfect straw hat and nautically-themed ribbon on the hat with a big bow and long ribbons streaming down her back. Perfect. I snapped the picture below of Shelly while she was visiting one of the boats. I then learned that she is an active member of the Corinthian Yacht Club, involved with their Education and Speaker Series, and is a total wooden boat devotee who is spending a good bit of time later this summer visiting Maine, a Mecca of wooden boats.

Shelly Willard Corinthian Yacht Club

We saw boats big and small throughout the show. Most were in the 30-some-foot range but we even saw a cute little 10′ tender originally built by the Stone Boat Yard. It is the sort of tender that would have been provided to an owner of one of the big yachts built by the famous Alameda-based boat yard. The tender at the show was restored by Bill and Grace Bodle, former owners of the Stone Boat Yard and who now own and operate the Sugar Dock in Richmond.

Tender built at Stone Boatyard and restored by Bill and Grace Bodle

Another small boat that was on display, Roy Fox, a cat-rigged ketch, had the cutest little interior. A footwell of a seating space with wood stove, a v-berth, and a single burner galley co-existed happily inside. This was a boat with a place for everything and everything in its place.

Roy Fox

Roy Fox

Tiny Galley

Roy Fox tiny saloon with wood burning stove

Mahdee in Print–again!

We’re happy. Even little Musk Ox is smiling bigger than usual. You know we’ve told you that Mahdee was the talk of the day back when she was built in 1931–articles in Yachting and so forth. She also was honored by Roger Taylor in his first book of Good Boats in the late 1970’s. Now we’re very happy to see her in good company of other fine American schooners in Bjorn Rudolph Arp’s book Great American Schooner Yachts LINK

Here’s the description of the book:
The schooner yacht was developed in the United States, though very little has been written about them in this country — until now. In this in-depth look at some of the great American schooner yachts, the author uses both the original plans and drawings and current and past images to discuss their construction and history. Not only are the schooners featured in all their glory, but there is also detailed information about the designers of these boats and their contributions to the trade. See William Burgess’s efficient beauty with the Rose of Sharon, Cox & Stevens’s large steel-hulled cruising yacht the Deva, and Samuel Crocker’s innovation and tradition with the Mahdee. This worldwide overview of the greatest sailing yachts ever built will be a wonderful resource for designers of these vessels, historians, and shipping enthusiasts.


Skipping up the Coast

David looking at charts

After lazing about for the day and watching the big surf hit shores at San Simeon, at 6 pm on Saturday afternoon, we set out up the coast to pass Point Sur in the night.  On our trip down the coast last fall, we had a rolling sled ride down past Point Sur with high winds over 20 kts, short and steep waves, and overall conditions that I’d not want to be motoring against going up the coast.  I was nervous on this trip since the weather forecast by NOAA and other forecasting services last fall for our passing of Point Sur was for no wind but yet we had much!  This time, the forecast was also for very little wind (2-6 kts with a few bouts of 10-15 kts) so I kept my fingers crossed.  This time, all was well and good.  We motor sailed into less than 5 knots the entire way passing Point Sur around 2:30 in the morning.  We decided to bypass Monterrey and continue on to Pillar Point Harbor at Half Moon Bay.  We dropped the hook in the harbor just past noon.

We sat back and watched the holiday antics of many boaters nearby.  Pillar Point is an enjoyable place to be.  New things include the newly restored Monterrey Clipper fishing boat that seemed to be ferrying tourists around the harbor.  We know the fellow who worked on the restoration so we’re hopeful to go and track him down sometime before we depart the harbor and talk to him about the successful project.  Several cruising boats were in for the holiday weekend including a very large aluminum hulled boat with three children aboard and a life-sized skeleton hanging on a noose above the transom.  Nice boat, poor taste in decor.  The small boat center seemed to have kayaking classes ongoing and we were visited by a family in a wooden outrigger canoe.  All-in-all a nice afternoon of bay-watching.

This morning, we’re still lazing about.  It’s chilly so I’m sitting in our chart house bed with the down comforter all puffy around me.  Heavenly.  However, we are likely to have visitors since people (yes, strangers) often stop in and ask questions about Mahdee when we visit a new harbor, so I’d best put away the bed and make things “decent” here in the chart house. I’m really enjoying cooking on our gimbaled Taylors kerosene stove.  We purchased the stove a few months ago from a friend (he had found an even nicer kero stove for his boat) and now we have the ability to cook huge meals on the wood/coal Shipmate or use the Taylors while underway or for smaller fare–like breakfast this morning!

Fair winds,

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