Tall Ships Race the Great Lakes

[AJ Oliver 154]

Dear Kiwi Sailors -

 

I thought you might enjoy these pics . .

 

On July 12th a fleet of Tall Ships raced from Cleveland, and we went out on a spectator boat to take some photos. What a sight!!

 

The Age of Sail came alive again right before our eyes.

 

The Pride of Baltimore and the Lynx (pic # 103) are quite similar in terms of design and sail plan (1812 era schooners). They were racing seriously, and it was neat to see them pile on every scrap of canvas they possibly could to get just a little more speed. Wind was perfect for a broad reach, and ideal for those boats - SSE at about ten knots.

 

Unable to match the Pride of Baltimore's speed and sail handling, the Lynx opened up with her deck guns (with powder only, of course) out of what must have been utter frustration.

 

Schooners, the basic design of which was developed in Holland during the 1600's, were the favorites of many Atlantic fishermen, pirates and privateers, because of their speed and ability to sail upwind far better than the square riggers (see pic # 84) - as I'm sure most of you well know.

 

http://intheboatshed.net/2010/07/15/keb ... -schooner/

 

Fair Winds, Dr. Skip Oliver

Sandusky (Ohio) Sailing Club

[Guest]

Skip - Many thanks, wish I could have been there.

[SloopJohnB 322]

I have a set of plans for the "Pride of Baltimore", its on bucket list to build a 1:24 scale version of her.

LOA (spirted) 2159mm

LOA (hull) 1372mm

Beam 335mm

Draft 159mm

Air Draft 1448mm

SA (total) 1.57m2

SA (working) 1.10 m2

 

Got the frames cut out and a building board set up for the frames, all I need now is a bit of time.

[AJ Oliver 154]

Dear Sloop John B -

 

Super idea to build a schooner - other craft to emulate could be Nova Scotia's "Bluenose", or the "Highlander Sea". I'm just a poor but honest retired POL SCI prof, but I'll be glad to make a donation to help get you started.

 

Here is a link to the ongoing restoration project of the Highlander Sea. It has not sailed since 2008, and they are having major problems coming up with funding and a workable business model. As I am sure you realize, your task is daunting - but so are all tasks worth doing. Otherwise, we would not call them tasks . . .

 

http://www.achesonventures.com/Highland ... ation.aspx

 

I would be curious to know about the history of schooners in New Zealand, if anyone has information on that. Before we had decent road or rail systems around the US Great Lakes, or many steam powered ships (roughly 1830 to 1870); there were as many as 2,000 sailing craft operating in this region at any one time - many of which were schooners. They were the engine of our economic development.

[rigger 47]

for alot of the coastal work the deck scow was used (there were some hold scows as well) here in NZ

 

Jane Gifford has recently completed a full rebuild / restoration

http://www.janegifford.org.nz/history.htm

 

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~tonyf/scows/index.html

 

http://www.maritimemuseum.co.nz/wawcs01 ... -Live.html

 

http://maanz.wellington.net.nz/nzhistor ... /Alma.html

 

the second photo shows the gates of the drydock that was being built at the time to assist in restoration of Alma

[SloopJohnB 322]

Hello AJO

I have seen photos of a 1:24 scale "Bluenose" sailing

http://www.john-dowd.co.uk/index.php?op ... &Itemid=59

 

What a coincided about Highlander Sea, I was reading about it yesterday as it is on the front page of the Sailing Anarchy

http://www.sailinganarchy.com/index_page1.php

 

Thanks rigger for the links about the scows but have you seen the discussion on boatdesign.net about them?

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/sailbo ... 28735.html

 

I am not sure about the early working boatbuilding industry in NZ but it looks like it was mainly scows. but there was a big industry building racing keelers about late 1800's and early 1900's, with the tradition of keeler building is still strong in NZ.

 

NZ has a high tide lift of about 2.5 to 3 meters and a lot of tidal inlets so the scows where sailed on to the beaches for loading and unloading of cargo to the various settlements around the coast of the northern part of the North Island.

 

Another popular type of working boat was the mullet fishing sailing boat commonly know as the "Mulleties" Here's a refer to the Ponsoby Sailing Club who still the mulleties.

http://www.pcc.org.nz/club-history.html

 

There should be some more comments and discussions form other crew members adding more information about the scows and mulleties.