The models of Bob

I mentioned somewhere back in Earwigoagin that my temporary job as a sailmaker for the Naval Academy went away in July. In the midst of being a somewhat older gent looking for a job in a down economy, my friend Bob Blomquist mentioned he needed someone to drive his extra vehicle down to Sarasota Florida, as he had taken the plunge and retired full time to Florida. Bob is the boatbuilder, Chesapeake 20 sailor, and the sailor I camped out with at the Mid Atlantic Small Craft Festival.

The car delivery was, more or less, a hammer down dash to Florida (with a break at Charlestown SC with Mothist Mark Saunders) and a quick turnaround flight back, but I did get to stay overnight at Bob's new digs. Being a Florida dwelling, Bob's new home is more airy and light filled than his previous house in Baltimore and I got an opportunity to take some pics of the large sailing models Bob has scattered about his living room.

First is the modified Bolger Chebacco daysailor/cruiser that Bob intends to build. (I'm not sure when, as Bob has immediately become a partner in an E-scow and has joined the local Sarasota fleet of hand me down E-scows that race every Wednesday during the Florida winter season.)

Bob's previous racing class was the traditional Chesapeake 20 class out of West River Sailing Club, situated about 18 miles south of Annapolis MD. Bob built his own Chesapeake 20 but, before commencing construction, he did a study model to work out the decking details. The undecked Chesapeake 20 model is shown below. Above the model is a photo of a Whitehall skiff that Bob and Mark Hasslinger built in the early to mid 1980's.

And finally the most mesmerizing one of the lot; a Crotch Island Pinky. Bob didn't build this one. His Chesapeake 20 crew, Jim Reuter found this model in the attic of a house he had just purchased. It was stored next to Howard Chapelle's book "American Small Sailing Craft". The scribbles and calculations of this unknown model maker filled the page where Chapelle documented the Crotch Island Pinky hull shape. Bob added the mast, sails and stand to the still roughly finished hull.

What an absolutely stunning, curvaceous hull this Crotch Island Pinky has. I love all manners and shapes of sailboats but this model arrests my attention anytime I'm in the same room.

Sailing the Heritage Race on the Classic Chesapeake 20

I see that Tillerman lamented he hasn't done much sailing. Well neither have I this spring, for many of the same reasons; graduations (TOH to Chris and Sally on successfully completing their advanced degrees), family trips and just lack of motivation.

Depend on a good friend to get you out of a funk. Bob Blomquist, star of several previous posts, featuring his Bolger Light Schooner and other boat building project, called up and asked if I wanted to crew on his Chesapeake 20 for the long distance Heritage Cup out of West River SC. In the 21 years that Bob has raced the Chesapeake 20, I had never crewed for him in a race. I had almost raced with him twenty one years ago when Bob was trying out his first 20, but those races were cancelled for two much wind. We ended up bombing back and forth on a reach until we sucked the very long mainsail bag most of the way into centerboard trunk. So much of the black bag ended up trailing astern that it looked like we were being chased by the serpentine Chessie Bay Monster. It was so bad that we had to park the Chesapeake 20 on the shallows while I dove over, swam under the boat and dragged the rest of the sail bag out through the bottom of the centerboard trunk.

The Heritage Race is a grand long distance tour of West River and Rhode River. The usual course length is about 8-9 miles. All fleets out of West River SC are welcome to take part and this year saw the Nacra 20 and F16 catamarans, the Albacores, the Flying Scots and the Chesapeake 20's milling around before the mass start off the club dock. Bob pulled off the perfect dock end start at the gun and in the light northerly we beat up to Rhode River. We had pulled out to a 200 yard lead over the fleet as we started on our approach to Rhode River. As we tacked over to starboard to head into Rhode River, we gradually became becalmed and our race fell apart from that moment on.

A wind line appeared from the East as we crawled into Rhode River. We weren't sure if if this wind line was going to filter down to the fleet, but it did and the cats and some of the trailing Chesapeake 20's roared up to us. We stayed in the middle of the river but the new breeze hugged the eastern shore and those furthest tucked into that shore sailed around us. Further up the river this breeze petered out and the old breeze, now backed into a light westerly sprung up and favored those on the other shore. In the Chesapeake 20's, Clay Taylor caught a nice westerly puff at the turn to Flat Island and sailed out to a 100 yard lead that he never relinquished. Our middle of the river strategy put us even with all the rest of the Chesapeake 20's but at Flat Island, two of them were able to carry more wind around the island and we exited Rhode River in fourth. The course was shortened but we couldn't make any inroads on those ahead on the run back to the club. A very tricky light air race, especially in the Rhode River, but still the perfect antidote to being too long away from a sailboat.

The Chesapeake 20, our local Classic class, has it's origins in a development class at West River in the 1930's and 1940's. The history of the Chesapeake 20 class is best digested if you peruse the class website.

The modern Chesapeake 20 is a light air demon, perfect for summer racing on the West River. Carrying a large main on a Star mast with a short waterline hull for a 20 footer, I can think of only one other class that has evolved into a faster light air package than the Chesapeake 20, that being the Thames A-rater of England.

The modern Chesapeake 20 has one trapeze but no spinnaker and usually one or two crew.

Here is an head on archive picture of the winner of 2011 Heritage Race, Clay Taylor.



A beam on photo of the Cheaapeake 20. Unfortunately it looks like the jib tack fitting has let go.



Two Chesapeake 20's at a start. You can get a good idea of the transom shape and the bumpkin needed to support the backstay and still clear the leech of the main.



Clay Taylor has been the driving force behind restoration of some of the old Chesapeake 20's. I can't remember which 20 restoration is documented by the following pictures. You can get a good feel for the hull shape of this Hartge design.

Neat 1963 Photo of a Dutch "Schakel" dinghy

Rene' de la Rie, a former 505 sailor out of West River Sailing Club, sent me this image of him sailing a Schakel dinghy in Holland in the 1960's. From Rene'............

"The picture is from the early 1960s, Amsterdam, The Netherlands - the boat is a 'Schakel' and was popular there at the time. I raced it for a number of years. It was a two-man boat and sort of a small version of the 'Valk'. It is a scan from an old print and it may have been its maiden voyage, which would have been 1963, out of the marina where I grew up near Amsterdam. I haven't thought about "Schakels" ("schakel" means "link") for many years. Mine was built by my father and I believe it was the second year of their existence. They were sort of a mini Lightning (the size of a 470 essentially), built from plywood, and were very popular at the time. They still exist but my brother, who lives in Holland, tells me that they are limited now mostly to the northern part of the country (Friesland). There are still a lot of wooden boats in Holland."

More information on the Schakel can be found here

Phone Call on Sunday Morning (Sept 13)

Sunday morning and I was just about to put my head around which project of many I wanted to tackle when my good friend George called. Turns out that my old club, West River Sailing Club, was running the Laser Districts. This had sucked up all of the RC folks, leaving a scheduled Sunday Fall Series for Flying Scots without anyone to run their races. I owe, I owe (Big George for previous work on a shed) so it wasn't hard to say yes, particularly since, according to George, I was the last one on the list. Sunday Series start at 1 pm. so this left some time to do some wet sanding on the Classic Moth, Tweezer, before moseying on down to Galesville.

It was a gorgeous day, the sky peppered with low lying cumulus, lazily making their way to the south. The engine for the one remaining whaler at the club started right up, never a sure thing for club boats this late in the season. I gathered up two hippity hops with anchor rodes, a spare Ollie was found and a start flag attached to a PVC pipe. There wasn't much gas so I made a detour upriver for Hartges Yacht Yard where I found they had closed the gas dock (argh! things change when you haven't been on the river for the summer). I backtracked to Pirates Cove gas dock, filled the tank, putt-putted another 1/4 mile (6 mph restriction) and then opened it up for another 1/4 mile to get to the race course. I had ten minutes to spare for the 1 pm start time.

The Race Course for the WRSC Sunday Series is little over 1/2 mile from the club, tucked into a little bay butting up against the Smithsonian Rhode River Research Site on the North Shore with the entrance to Rhode River marking the Eastern limit to the course area.

A light, shifty Northerly was going to give some trying conditions. I got the weather hippity hop down in what looked like a good upwind spot (though in tracking the shifts over the afternoon, maybe 50 feet to the left would have centered the mark more). I was able to plonk the start line outside the direct line freeway into Galesville (never guaranteed in this area; many times the wind forces the course to include dodgem of high speed stinkpotters and clueless sail cruisers).

I got three races off (WL, WL, finish downwind), lounged around on the bow of the whaler for the afternoon (when RC duties didn't call) and soaked the day in.

After the racing, on the way back in, I spotted what looked like a Dragon sailing back into the harbor. Had to take a detour to look at such a Classic but as I drew closer I saw it was a Luders 16, another very pretty Classic. Had a conversation with the skipper; built in 1954 and restored recently in Virginia and from what I could see it was a great job that was done on her. A wave goodby and putt-putt back to the club to put the Whaler and all the race committee accoutrements away.

Back on shore and some socializing. Flying Scot sailor, Gabor, told me he had bought a beater 505 for singlehanding and he was enjoying it immensely (the jib is roller furling). I didn't ask if he was singlehandedly trapezing as he is an older gent.

I also ran into another good friend; WRSC member Bob B. who had just gotten back in from the last race of the Laser Districts. He is over 70 and sailed in the Radial division with all the kids. Needless to say he got crushed and his back was also complaining quite loudly. Both of us have shared a campsite at the Mid Atlantic Small Craft Festival the past two years but I'm not sure I will be able do it this year.

Amazing what a unexpected phone call on Sunday morning will bring.