Belle Starr in Racing Form?

Seriously? Can you imagine a full keel cruising design in a field of hard core racers? Neither can I. But there she was, out spreading her wings during the annual Shipwrights' Regatta, in Port Townsend Bay.

Yesterday dawned under heavy clouds, pouring down rain, with thunder and lightning crashing all around. It does Doryman credit that he turned over and went back to sleep.
...not for long...
The plan had been to go sailing, rain or shine. Fortunately the storm melted away with the morning and by noon, in time for the start of the Shipwrights' Regatta, the clouds peeled away to reveal a brilliant sun. The Stone Horse, Belle Starr was as delighted as her skipper. Sporting her new mainsail, she was lovely in tanbark.

And no, she did not race, sorry to disappoint. You supposed she took honors? Only points for grace and beauty. While the field duked it out in the first race of the 2018 season here in Port Townsend, we kept clear of the marks and enjoyed the break in the weather. There is more than one way to win.

A Wee Pram

Yet another Stone Horse story...

The Sam Crocker Stone Horse, Belle Starr has been mentioned in these pages many times. Hopefully you are not tired of hearing about her yet, because here is a new chapter.

Cruising on Belle Starr is a treat. She's a well mannered boat and comfortable. Except for one thing. Headroom. Inside, one must sit down, no options. Please don't get me wrong, the design appeals to me aesthetically, wherein lies a quandary.
Most of the time, the low profile is just what is needed. Under sail, there is no obstruction for a clear view in all directions. The flush deck is a joy for working around. But there are those wet days at anchor when it would be nice to stand up, if only in the companionway, to get dressed, or take a look around.

There is a local boat, also designed by Sam Crocker, called the Macaw. She is obviously a big sister to the Stone Horse. In this photo of her, please note the raised companionway doghouse. Very pleasing to my eye. How would Belle Starr stand up to such a design change? After all, the Macaw is a thirty-six foot boat.

So, I sketched a raised companionway for Belle, to fill the available deck space, and came up with a trunk three feet wide, five feet long and a foot high, with a sliding hatch, shown here.

Still not convinced this protuberance would not spoil the look of a well designed boat, I decided to mock-up the add-on in the shop, with heavy cardboard. The full sized model was soon abandoned, because it quickly became apparent that with a tweak here and there, what I would have was a Wee Pram.

A tender less than six feet long apparently has few uses, because I was not able to find many appealing designs for such a vessel. My calculations showed me that the Wee Pram would carry 3-400 pounds, so I designed one of my own.
The pram will fit over the hatch, behind the mast. The aft transom has a removable panel, to facilitate access to the companionway.

The forward transom will notch around the mast, to help secure the load. I may even install deadlights in the hull panels, to give a more cabin-like appearance.
(hard to tell which is the bow and which is the transom, eh? This is the view looking aft.)
Cold weather (and an unheated shop) have temporarily suspended construction, though here in the Pacific Northwest, freezing weather doesn't last long, so look forward to photos of the Wee Pram-as-trunk-cabin, in the near future.

Splash

By now, you may be tired of looking at the starboard view of Belle Starr. I promise, this is the end of the recovery saga, it's time to party!

Here she is, back in her element. Ship-shape and bristol. The observant will note the anchor chain. Whatever evil lurks below, waiting to chafe innocent anchor rodes, will find this one harder to chew.

A far cry from this.
Thanks to all who stepped up to help bring her back.
Brings tears to my eyes.

Paul Miller
Philip Morley
Martin Schneider
Lynn Watson
Claire Acord
John Acord
Heather Hicks
Marty Loken
Doug Follett
Steve Follett
Scott Marckx
Allan Woodbury

And all of you, my friends all over the world, who offered moral support in a time of need. Thank you.

Doryman's Boatyard

As you might guess, the restoration of Belle Starr is at the top of the list. Working outside definitely has it's drawbacks and I've known all along that when spring weather approached, there would be a frenzy of activity. Nothing new there - to a sailor, the weather dictates everything.

Belle Starr is a happy boat. She's very near being ready to launch. All that remains are the fiddly bits, the structural work is complete. In fact, I have a friendly wager with a fellow sailor about who will launch first. Sometime late this month is my best guess. Despite being very anxious about splashing her, I want Belle Starr to be better than before her accident. This view of the starboard side was a ragged hole not too long ago.

The starboard side from the interior. Those pesky, leaky deadlights have been re-bedded at last!

There are some upgrades this time around. New winches grace the deck to assist in keeping the halyards tight. I'd like to have winches for the new genny too, but that will have to wait. The interior is handsomely reworked. With the boat completely empty, refinishing everything was imperative. It's very rewarding to sew up loose ends. For instance, there will be no more hauling and stowing plastic jugs of water. A rudimentary water system featuring a bladder tank and hand pump now simplifies that task.

An unexpected bonus to this tragedy was revealed while repairing the rudder, which was snapped off at the waterline.

The two sets of gudgeons and pintles that were underwater were corroded to the point that they could have failed at any time. I'm not a welder (at times like this, I wish I was...) so having new hardware fabricated has suddenly become one of the most costly elements of this repair. It will be good to know that the rudder is once again firmly attached to the boat. Losing steerage is a sailor's nightmare.

Meanwhile, look at what followed me back to the shop... an Old Town canoe. I've had my eye on this beauty for a decade. I haven't had a chance to look up the serial numbers yet, but she's probably in the neighborhood of seventy years old.

My friend Rick Johnson finally took pity on me and we loaded her down from the rafters of his shop. She now graces the rafters of mine. It could be a while before she gets the attention she deserves, but when she does, you'll be the first to know.

Doryman's Boatyard

The end of January brought temperate weather to the Salish Sea, enough to tempt a groundhog out early. Which means activity in the Doryman boatyard. Some of you who have been around for a while may remember the Doryman Melonseed. Aria has been in the wings waiting for a sail rig. The plans call for a sprit rig but since I'm the designer, an easy administrative decision was made to substitute a balanced lug sail.
Why not simply make the sprit sail I sewed last winter into a lug sail? I think it will work. But not as easy as one might imagine.

Redesign in the works, on rainy days. Stay tuned.

Dryer days mean repairs on the Sam Crocker Stone Horse, Belle Starr. I met an interesting boatbuilder a few weeks back - a fellow older than me with a more traditional training - who insisted a Stone Horse has no chine. I said it's a Stone Horse redrawn from Sam's plans to accommodate plywood construction. He insisted the chine made it some other boat. Very interesting proposition.........

Belle Starr as she looked last September. A Hulk.
Sailing season over early. Not much chine left.

Demolition left very little of the starboard side. Paul looks despondent but he's really enjoying himself.

  

About a month later the "A" team closed up that gap and once again, a chine emerged.

Plywood construction methods show quick progress toward healing wounds, physical and psychological.

A couple very wet months suspended that initial push but just recently the clouds miraculously parted. The freshly faired Belle Starr emerges whole again. Gotta love that beautiful chine. I think Sam would approve.



These shots are from two days ago, after some intense sanding and fairing.

She's not finished by a long shot.
 But it's a great relief to have gotten this far.

I believe this is one of Sam Crocker's drawings, but I'm not sure which boat. Looks suspiciously familiar though, doesn't it?

Circumnavigating Lopez Island

Over Memorial Day weekend we took Belle Starr for a circumnavigation of Lopez Island, the southern most island of the San Juan Island group in northwestern Washington State. Catching the last of the ebb, mid-day on Thursday before the weekend, we sailed east from Port Townsend and tacked in fair to light winds, north along the coast of Whidbey Island.

The plan was to sail to the northeast end of Lopez Island, but having spent most of the day coaxing Belle Starr on light airs, we optioned to cross Rosario Strait and enter the San Juans through Lopez Pass, at the southeast end of Lopez.

The San Juan Islands are notorious for contrary currents with migrating standing waves that challenge a sailor's skill. Standing waves resemble the water in a washing machine with no particular direction or design. This condition can occur whenever two tidal currents collide and/or a wind pattern opposes the tidal flow. It's curious to watch a tide rip move over a body of water and suddenly engulf you in what sounds like rapids on a river.

 

As we approached Lopez Pass, we negotiated a tide rip two miles wide and four miles long. With the worthy Stone Horse bucking hither and yon, the pass was difficult to separate from false openings in the islands. Once inside however, the rocky entrance opened into the beautiful and inviting Lopez Sound. Our chart showed there might be good anchorage to the southwest in either Mud Bay or Hunter Bay. As we approached, it became obvious that Hunter Bay was the best choice. We set anchor among several other boats and settled in for a comfortable night, as a full gale developed overhead. A high bluff offered ample protection from the prevailing westerlies.

Since we expected to catch the rising tide to push us north sometime around noon, late morning coffee found us absolutely alone in a bay lovely enough to entice a mariner to stay for a while.

Belle Starr is a thoroughbred however and as the tide turned and a breeze came up from the south, she chaffed at her anchor, ready to run. Under mainsail alone she made an easy four knots toward Spencer Spit, on the northeast side of Lopez Island. Washington State maintains a park at Spencer Spit with several buoys and a low sandy beach for access. Bounded to the east by Frost Island, this anchorage is pretty but the spit doesn't offer much for protection from prevailing winds. The boats we saw anchored there were pulling hard on their moorings so we crept around a headland to Swifts Bay. The tiny community of Port Stanley offered no public shore access, but Swifts Bay was a peaceful spot to spend our second night.

The next day we sailed around Upright Head and southwest through Upright Channel to Friday Harbor, on San Juan Island. The wind shifted from south to west which afforded a comfortable broad reach all day. Friday Harbor is a busy place, offering US customs, food, fuel and entertainment. You can imagine what it was like on a holiday. Tied up at the transient dock seemed threatening as boaters who take their craft out for one weekend a year floundered all around, jockeying for the highest profile. We picked up necessary stores and escaped to an anchorage out of the hustle and bustle. There we found our first wood boats of the trip.

Next morning found us sailing tight tacks into a rising southerly in San Juan Channel. It's a heavily used thoroughfare, so a small boat must be wary. The biggest threat to a gunkholer in the San Juan Islands is not the rocks or the weather, but large private motor boats who apparently determine right-of-way according to tonnage.




An ebb tide in the San Juan Channel flows mightily through Cattle Pass directly into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. With the wind on our nose and the current at our back, we battled our way through mostly submerged rocks and a high chop for two nautical miles before finding a steady breeze on the forward quarter which was to carry us all day, back to Port Townsend.

As a footnote, isn't that Junk interesting? Her skipper was busy, concentrating hard, so I didn't interrupt. But I'd like more information about her. If anyone recognizes this craft, please let me know.

I didn't even catch her name...

Sam Crocker Revisited

The fiberglass Stone Horse one-design produced by Edey and Duff is our standard impression of that boat and few know there were several options available in the original carvel-planked hulls. True to an age when one-off boats were hand-built everywhere, by everyman, options to a design revealed the builder's personality and character. Some of us keep that tradition alive today, despite a culture of mediocrity. It is to those of you I speak.

Joe Evens, on the Oregon coast has a true historic treasure in his barn and is looking for someone to give her the love and attention she deserves. I will be visiting Joe soon, to get the measure of this project. When I do, I'll take you along. Perhaps that perfect person will emerge. Who will take this on? As you will see from the photos, this is an original Stone Horse in very good condition. But she stands to be delegated to the burn pile.



Recently Joe wrote to me and this is what he said:

"She was launched in1948, and first lived on the Columbia, later sailing north to the Puget Sound where she served until a few years ago. She's hauled out now and it's time for major maintenance."


"The boat has a carvel-planked hull, Red Cedar on White Oak. The pictures clearly show a few planks the surveyor marked for replacement.. At some point, the propshaft was removed from the keel and mounted out the port side. This caused some structural problems. It needs to go back, or better, replaced with an outboard. The frames are all good, though the boat needs to be re-fastened. The original galvanized fasteners are beginning to give up. There is a small area of rot on the hatch cover."

"The surveyor indicated that the teak deck was getting thin and should be replaced. Personally, I think that it is serviceable. The deck is beautifully built and is very solid. I am confidant that diligent maintenance would delay that job till the next quarter century maintenance. The builder was obviously a master craftsman. Quality shows everywhere. The mast, boom and the spinnaker pole are truly beautiful, old growth spruce. The rigging includes the original wood blocks and the sails are serviceable."

"Unlike the fiberglass knockoffs, This Crocker Stone Horse is a standard sloop rig, The mast is round and stayed to the bow, no bowsprit. It shows a lot of sail, and uses a wishbone boom to carry it."

"The interior is beautiful and virtually perfect."




"I think that there were only 40 or so of the carvel Stone Horses finished and I suspect that today they could be counted on your fingers."



"It would take a man with no soul to burn it. Or it would be gone with the embers."


Couldn't have said it better, Joe.

Belle Starr

As was reported earlier, the Stone Horse, Belle Starr has proven to be an exceptional boat. And as documentation, I was recently gifted some photos taken by my good friend, John Kohnen of the Oregon Coots.

Here comes John with a boat-full of Coots now...

On Sunday, the last day of the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, tradition finds the participants on the water for a "sail-by". This year was the first time I've joined the parade in my own boat.

Here she is, all dressed up in tanbark, overtaking the MerrieEllen.

For her first weekend out in several years, Belle Starr looked pretty good. At the helm is Kirk Gresham (AKA Captain Kirk) and his crew is Doryman, shooting photos left and right.

With John's permission, I offer you a sailor's view of the worthy cutter.

People often ask me why I find a strenuous, dangerous and difficult activity like sailing so rewarding. These photos tell it all.

Not looking too bad for an old horse.

After the morning fog lifted, it was another beautiful day on Admiralty Inlet.

Thank you John!







This week will be the last of the season for Belle Starr. The storms that have pummeled the west coast are abating, so hopefully the cutter will get a few more miles under her keel, before she is hauled out for the winter. Please stay tuned!