February 2010

Dear Friends,

In my last letter, I had told you that the 1919 Trumpy Grand Lady had a new owner.  Well, I  recently got a call from a young lady, named Katrina Kingsley, on the verge of crying. She is the granddaughter of the boat’s late owner.

The man who was going to buy the boathouse had led them to believe that he was going to purchase the boat as well. It turned out that he was genuine, didn’t have the money and may have been trying to take advantage of a sad situation.

Her brothers have come to the realization that they do not want the responsibility or the liability of boat ownership. The Grand Lady has been moved, towed from the boathouse and hauled out at a ship yard.

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January 2010

Dear Friends,

December has come and gone so fast I found it hard to catch my breath. Ocean Reef’s Vintage Weekend this year was a great reminder of years past. Freedom, the 103 Trumpy built for Albert G. Fay in 1927, Contract 181 took center stage. Alan Jackson brought two yachts, a Burger and a Rybovich. Then, there was Jonathan III, a wooden Burger.

The true gem of the show was Legion, the oldest Rybovich around that has been totally restored by Mike Rybovich himself.

There was of course my personal favorite, 75’ Trumpy M/Y America, Contract 420, built in 1965 for James L. Knight, owned by Ted Conklin, the owner of the American Hotel in Sag Harbor. I have spoken of this Trumpy many times and we have taken care of her for many years. She is a one-of-kind, classic houseboat with the longest foredeck, with exquisite clean lines. As for Freedom, I finally got to see her finished in persona and she is a masterpiece. Earl has a lot to be proud of on Freedom.

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November 2009

Dear Friends,

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: I never had the nerve to dream this big. We just started work on the Honey Fitz, a 92-foot, 1931 Defoe cabin cruiser built in Bay City, Michigan, also known as the eighth presidential yacht and “The Yacht of Camelot.”

She was originally built for Sewell Avery, chairman of Montgomery Ward, as Lenore. President John F. Kennedy renamed the boat after his maternal grandfather, John Francis “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, mayor of Boston. Reportedly, one of Kennedy’s favorite photographs shows him on the aft deck of the Honey Fitz with his daughter Caroline.

Recently, Honey Fitz hauled out at the Rybovich north yard to do some shaft work. Rybovich called us in to laser target the yacht because proper haul out and blocking of wooden boats are critical. After the survey, Rybovich executives contacted us again about the boat, particularly Mike Rybovich. She needed more than shaft work.

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October 2009

Dear Friends,

I’m at an age when I look back and wonder if I’ve made the right decisions in my life.  On my trip north, there was a part I left out. My little journey back to who I was as a much younger man. Leaving Chip Holmes’ place in Darmariscotta, I headed to Thomaston. I haven’t been there in a long time. Getting down to where Newbert & Wallace once stood, where I apprenticed, there was a new shipyard, Lymon Morse sitting there.

I parked the rental and asked a man where the old Charles Morris shipyard used to be.  The man pointed to the shore, “See those wooden beams and the cut-off stubs of piling sticking out. That’s what’s left.” I climbed down the embankment and stood on the rocky beach. I found two iron spikes. This is where the Alden schooner “Summerwind” was launched in 1929. This was also where I worked in my early 20s for a short while. I put the spikes in my pocket and headed to Tennant Harbor to Leighton’s Boat Shop, next to the lobster pound.

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September 2009

Dear friends,

The last time I was in Maine was a long time ago. My son, Andre was graduating from high school. He is now 28. Flying north for my trip, a little storm named Danny was just making landfall and caused cold, overcast rains to greet me when I landed in Hartford, Conn. I briefly stayed with my oldest son, Alexandre, Heather and my three grandsons, in Bristol. The boys are always growing. Marcus, who was still a baby the last time I saw him, is now speaking in full sentences and that happened awfully quickly.

The rain kept pouring and after two days, it was time for me to go, rain or not. It kept up while I drove through western Massachusetts, doing 30 mph, going up and down all the way to Portland, Maine. I really didn’t care. Driving helps clear the mind.

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August 2009

Dear friends,

As I drive alone, south to the Florida Keys, I’m passing one strip mall after another. There’s the occasional beer joint , and old trailers, a little off level, in parks that are full. Junk cars and boats, whole or in pieces, litter lots and yards. Then, I see a stack of lobster traps at the end of a road. When you go over the bridges, you see the Keys’ crystal emerald waters. It’s a long painful drive. The air is clear and fresh except when it is interrupted by the smell of salt marshes and Sargasso seaweed baking in the hot July sun.

The Keys really haven't changed much through the years.

I am headed to Key West to see Capt. Seth Salzmann. He is the captain I mentioned in my last letter, a schooner captain. I met him in Beaufort this spring aboard a Malabar sloop. John Alden had never designed her as a sloop. She was a schooner missing her main mast. Malabar VII, built in 1926 in Wascasset Maine, was preparing for her journey north to Seneca Lake in upstate New York.

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