Miami Yacht Club Florida Late 1940s

History is marked by "flowering" time periods, a confluence of time, location and people that melds in a dynamism that creates something interesting and different. (Some of these periods have enormous influence on world history, Paris in the 19th century springs to mind; a center of radicalism in mid-century, a center of frenetic artistic bounty in the late century.)  Such was the case with small boat sailing out of Miami during the post-WWII years. A combination of professional builders and amateur tinkerers pushed the development of three small boat classes, two of them local. However, in this history, the two local Miami classes, the Suicide and the Cricket, "flowered" and then disappeared, their effect negligible on the later history of small boat sailing . The long, lean, Suicide dinghy with the wishbone rig was the fastest sailing class in the U.S immediately after WWII. The Cricket was an all-out racing cat-boat with a wishbone rig and a sliding seat. (The Mothboat was the third class - what we call the Classic Moth today.) Miami Yacht Club on the causeway was the focal point for racing these unique craft.

In search of more archival material on the Suicide and Cricket class in Miami, I turned to George A of Mid-Atlantic Musings. George has a vast collection of Mothboat historical material including the Miami period. Sure enough, George was able to produce the Walter Dietel album. Walter was a German immigrant who designed and built his own Mothboats and Suicides in Miami after WWII.

Photos from the album are featured below. Some of the photos are from the Miami Y.C and some, I think, are from the Coconut Grove Sailing Club.

A Cricket coming at the camera with a Suicide in the background.

Walter Dietel Album

A Cricket on a trailer with Mothboats launching.

Walter Dietel Album

A Cricket and a Suicide. I think this is the race committee boat that is throwing them a line. (See photo below.)

Walter Dietel Album

Three Crickets. This may be a start, or possibly a leeward rounding - hard to tell. You can definitely see the sliding seat in use on the leftmost Cricket.

Walter Dietel Album

Jerry Gwynns champion Suicide Joker.

Walter Dietel Album

A Suicide kicking it up on a reach.

Walter Dietel Album

On the launching beach, a mixture of Suicides, Crickets, Mothboats and what looks to be a Whitman EZ-build chine decked canoe (International Canoe) with most likely Lou Whitman himself standing over it.

Walter Dietel Album

The peanut gallery, in rapt attention to the racing, consigned to a log on the beach, .

Walter Dietel Album

Walter Dietel, from whose photo album these images were taken, with his home-built, amateur designed Mothboat.

Walter Dietel Album

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Kaagweek 75 Years Ago

Kaagweek and Sneekweek are the two big sailing regatta weeks in The Netherlands. Kaagweek occurs first, somewhere around the middle of July. I came across this historically interesting video of Kaagweek filmed in 1940, seventy five years ago.

Unfortunately the video settings restricts embedding on Earwigoagin, Click here to view the video.

After viewing this video several times, thinking about it and researching, Ive come to the conclusion this sailing regatta video offers up so many layers of meaning and so many unanswered questions, it ranks as the most fascinating sailing video Ive viewed

My first viewings of this video took in the pastoral beauty, the windmills, the myriad of, now traditional, Dutch classes heeling gracefully as they race their way up the small fingers formed by the dike systems, the spectators dining at the waters edge, the formal race committee attire, the pretty women walking the dock, ogled by young sailors. People are having fun, which is the whole point of a sailing week. The soundtrack of wistful swing tunes from that era adds to this period piece.

It was then I realized that the 1940 Kaagweek took place two months after the Nazis had overrun Holland. This Kaagweek was taking place in occupied Holland. Kaag looks to be about 15 km. from Rotterdam and during the invasion, the Nazi Luftwaffe had completely leveled the center of Rotterdam.

The 1940 Kaagweek must have been held with the Nazis approval. The question becomes whether this video was put together as Nazi propaganda to show that "normalcy" had returned to occupied Holland, or whether it was filmed surreptitiously as a home movie by a Dutch videographer. The production values suggests it may have been Nazi propaganda. Of note is at the 8:21 mark of the video, there is a stern-faced spectator wearing the Jewish star.

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Reader WaveDancer disagrees with my assessment that the video was Nazi propaganda. Ive dragged his comment over to the main post:

"I doubt that this video was German propaganda. After the surrender of The Netherlands, it took some time for the German occupation to show its true Nazi colors. PS: Whereas de Kaag is definitely in Holland, Sneek is not! The country should be referred to as The Netherlands. Wavedancer (who was born there, just around that time)"

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Wikipedia states that 205,000 civilians would die in the occupation of Holland with 1/2 of that number being Dutch Jews who died in the Holocaust. Many of those young sailors shown in the video would be forced to labor in German factories during the war. Im not sure how many sailing regattas were still held in Western Europe during the summer of 1940 but by 1941, sailboat racing had ceased (with the exception of the Nantais Moth, which the Nazis and the French Vichy government allowed to be built during the war).

July 10, 2015 also marks the 75th anniversary of beginning of the Battle of Britain, the approximate 2 month air battle where the Nazi Luftwaffe came within a sliver of destroying the British RAF. That the Nazis didnt break the RAF would mark one of the turning points of  World War II. Goering and the Luftwaffe would then turn in September of 1940 to bombing the British cities in an attempt to force capitulation.

One of the mysteries of my life is how my loving mother, with her parents and siblings, endured the chaos, death, and destruction of the London blitz, and later the V-1 doodlebug, and V-2 rocket attacks. I never detected any true bitterness from her. She still maintains the attitude of always looking forward, never looking back - probably a residue of that British "stiff upper lip".  The courage it took to maintain day-to-day living under such conditions still amazes me.

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December 25 31 Final Work Day and 2015 ROUNDUP A Great Year!

I had planned on more than one final work day before the end of the year, what with such good warm weather so late this year but a wrenched back put the end to that. The last work day was devoted to the cabin sole. I want to check out how good the pieces I have done look, before committing to do the rest. I have been doing the bottom side of this flooring to encapsulate the wood in plastic to avoid a softer surface on which mildew could potentially grow, not that mildew has been a problem for ILENE.

Another non-boat day for calling Dave to make an appointment for January to work with me on cleaning and lubricating the winches and steering gear and fixing some pesky wires that no longer transmit sound to the cockpit speakers, etc. And then I had to figure out what parts and supplies I need for these jobs which involves a lot of calling and computer searching before ordering. But the non-boat water relatedday involved some play too: While my two favorite ladies, ILENE the boat and Lene, her mate, are thoroughly land locked on the hard in New York in late December, I had fun with Dames at Sea:

And while laid up resting the lumbar-sacral region I have been reading this months selection of my book group (all right, it was my suggestion): Jules Vernes "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea". So avid readers may expect another book report soon.

So what can I say about 2015. I sure got a grand dose of sailing and boating related activities - a lot of water under our keel. It was a very satisfying year, the year that my beloved Lene finally lost her ability to continue to claim "Im really not a sailor.".
We began the year in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to which we returned on March 5, after a lovely multi-stop visit to Key West Florida and 20 miles past that. Next were a lot of great passages and ports until we got back to the Harlem on May 26, the 146th day of this calendar year. Also: a two day trip down to Gravesend Bay to sail with LHermione, 17 days on the Club Cruise to Block Island, five days with Bob on s/v Pandora from The Connecticut River around Montauk Point to Hampton Virginia and 22 additional days of day sailing from our mooring and back for a total of 190 sailing or living days. My career high total, and possibly a number that what with aging, may never be equaled or exceeded. And as they say in the infomercials: "But wait, theres more! Add on 21 days involving the water that are not related to living, sailing or working on a sailboat, and 25 work days on ILENE. (Or course, many of the cruising or living days also involved some boat maintenance and repair, but those are not counted as lowly work days.) So the grand total this year was 236! A goodly percentage of the 365 available. I have nothing to complain about.

The way I have looked at it, sailing is a social activity with much of the fun coming from sailing on other peoples boats and inviting them onto ours. Most of the sailing days, including the first 146, were aboard ILENE. But 5 were on Pandora, 4 on Deuce of Hearts, 2 on Ohana and 1 on Pas de Deux, totaling 12 -- 178 out of the 190 were aboard ILENE.

Continuing my lifelong desire to share my boat with present and future friends, a total of 38 different people in addition to Lene sailed with me on ILENE, at least once day this year. Some sailed multiple times and others, not counted among the 38, did not sail, but came aboard for meals. Friends of mine, of Lene, from the Yacht Club, from our Synagogue, and from our condo.

And 2016, with a three month cruise to Nova Scotia as a goal, starts in a few hours. Before Nova Scotia comes after both a week with Bennett and Harriet (in whose home we will celebrate the New Years arrival) on s/v On Eagles Wings in the Virgins in early April and a week with Lenes family on a cruise liner from Galveston Texas in the Gulf of Mexico in early June.

On the macro level, the world may be going to hell in a hand basket with democracy threatened by big money at home, climate change destroying the world, gun nuts (both domestic and foreign) running amuck, a certain redheaded egomaniacal reality show star trying to move us from love toward hate, educational standards low and sliding, etc. But all I can say is that focusing in on the micro level I am blessed to have such a great life. And I recognize and am very grateful for the bounty bestowed upon me and my family.

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The Larken Klasse Another Modified Lark Scow Resurrected

As mentioned in my post on the Lark Scow - The Laser of the 1900s, Thomas Day of The Rudder magazine encouraged the home-builders of the Lark to be inventive; there was no strong concept of one-design strictness at this genesis of small sailboat development. So builders strayed from the plans, building Larks with yachty looking counter sterns, with cuddy cabins, longer and shorter Larks and they gleefully sent reports of their modifications into The Rudder and Thomas Day published them.

In 1903, in The Netherlands, W. Beekhuis, owner of the boat building yard "Navis" te Loosdrecht, built a small Lark, only 3.6 meters long (11.8 feet). He built them from the time period 1903-1905 but it is unclear how many he actually produced.

The 1903 Beekhuis Mini-Lark

In 1919, A Van Gool, from the northern coastal district of Friesland, The Netherlands, built a Beekhuis type Lark with additional modifications. Having traveled to America and observed American sailboats, Van Gool borrowed the Star type keel and grafted it on the Beekhuis Lark scow hull. He made the hull longer, 4 meters (13.1 feet). He replaced the squat gaff rig with a taller gunter rig. This Larken Klasse would become very popular in Friesland and Twente during the 1920s and 1930s.

The Van Gool/Friesland Larken

In 1934, Romke Vries designed an even higher aspect, full battened gunter rig for the Larken Klasse. By the end of the 1930s the more modern O-Jolle singlehander centerboarder was cutting into the Larken Klasse numbers and, as the Finn dinghy and OK dinghy were introduced after World War II, the class continued to lose popularity. In 1965, the class made its last appearance at Sneekweek, seemingly destined to fade into obscurity.

That is until 2004 where a group of Larken Klasse enthusiasts banded together to start restoring the old Larkens and build new ones. In the short span of 11 years they have built the class up to where they are now getting a vibrant 20+ turnout at the major regattas. An amazing resurrection of a true classic!

The newer Larkens have adopted a more modern keel with a separate rudder. The lead ballast is 34 kg.

The present day Larken Klasse on a reach (Anyone know who the photographer is?)

A vintage photo of a happy Larken skipper.

At this years Sneekweek regatta, artist and small boat racing enthusiast, Jan Tekstra decided to jump into a different class each day and record his race on a GoPro. This is his Larken segment.

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Acknowledgement: All of the history of the Larken Klasse was taken from this article by J.K Kuipers

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As I was tossing this post around my brain, the German Segel Reporter beat me to it by about two weeks and brought out Michael Kunsts post on the Larken Klasse.

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Optimist Gunwale looking for the perfect design

Thinking ahead to the time when we will add the gunwales (gunnels) has got my mind racing. I remember dinghies I sailed as a kid, and they always seemed to have some sizable gunwales to sit on. Some of the plywood Optimist Prams dont offer much surface area for the helmsmans backside. I know our kids will start out in light wind conditions, but it wont take long for them to want to sit on the high-side and hike while sailing.

In my searching for the best solution for this design I looked at the Club Racer by Bateau. They seem to have a comfy looking gunwale, so I looked into the way they created their version. A complete guide to the construction of the Club Racer is located at: http://www.latitude2739.com/club-racer.asp It is a really nice looking Optimist that is the same as the epoxy/wood version of the Optimist as described by the IODA standards. Bateau claims that it differs in that it is much easier to build and will be more durable, and last longer.

They start their process with corner braces cut at angles to the sides and bows to create the width that will be the gunwale. Plywood is used for this process, but I think we could use hardwood to accomplish this same design using glues and screws to bypassing the need to encase the area in epoxy.
All photos - Youth Sailing Foundation of Indian River unless otherwise noted.

To build up the width of the gunwale on the sides of the boat, they employ the use of plywood spacers to hold off the inner strake that will define the inner side of the gunwale. The picture below shows a double piece of 12mm plywood used as a spacer along with an inner and outer strake and rubrail of 12mm plywood. I believe that makes a total width of 3 inches.

The bow and transom are finished of in less thick manner shown below:

 

With the substructure of the gunwale finished it looks pretty nice. Ive been contemplating how well this design would look if we finished the gunwales without a cap piece of plywood. The plywood works well in the Club Racer because it will be sealed with epoxy. Our boats will not have epoxy, and this makes the finishing of the gunwale, perhaps a bit different.

The Club Racer is finished off with a plywood cap piece set in thickened epoxy, and then the edge is routed to 5mm radius for comfort and esthetics.

All this great information and pictures came from the Youth Sailing Foundation of Indian River Co. and their sister site Latitude 27/39 Sail Club.

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May 27 29 First Three Days Home 0 Miles

John and I visited our mutual friend, former HYC member Nick, at the Hebrew home for the Aged in Riverdale, The Bronx, overlooking the Hudson. He has a nice single room with river view but we met him downstairs and had a pleasant time with him. Both John and Nick are retired carpenters and both agree that Nick taught John how to sail. We three will get together later this summer with some other current and former Harlemites and take Nick out for a day on the water. John left me in Manhattan and drove back to Maryland while I got picked up by Steve (who took us for a powerboat ride in Florida) to my first meeting of the Book Group, at the home of former Harlemite, Jim, in Chatham NJ, for a lovely evening with To Kill A Mockingbird.
I visited ILENE for about three hours by subway to pick up some things, clean and scrub out the refrigerators and empty the bilge. I also planned to "pickle" the water maker for winter. Winter is a long way off you might say. Well the water maker is a great tool for remote places where fresh water is difficult to obtain, but a burden in that it requires that it be flushed out for three minutes every five days. I can do this either by visiting the boat, or by leaving the electricity and fresh water pump on, in which case it will do this every five days, automatically. Another thing: It needs non-chlorinated water, the type it makes, for the flush. We have taken to keeping city water in the port water tank for our own use, and making non-chlorine water in the starboard tank for flushing. This also means changing the source of water to the fresh water pump to be from the starboard tank when we are about to flush and back again after the flush. A nuisance, and it means we use the water from only one of our two tanks. So this summer, when city water is available everywhere we plan to go, we have decided to shut down the water maker. This requires propylene glycol, the pink antifreese [My computers keyboard requires me to substutute as "s" because its key for the correct letter is broken] we use in the fresh water system and heads. I have to buy two gallons of the stuff, so another visit is needed -- in the next five days -- to do this job, and others.
I also calculated the mileage, dock to dock, for the nine planned passages of the Harlems 2015 cruise to Block Island and consulted with PC Bruce, who laid out the itinerary. Next step is to figure out what time the tide is favorable on the days for each of those nine passages, especially at the eastern exits from Long Island Sound, where the currents run wicked fast. I contacted (1) Barnacle Buster to set up a bottom cleaning schedule and to enlist him to fix the prop rattle by adjusting or removing the Spurs line cutter, and (2) my insurer, Pantaenius, to reduce the geographic scope of our coverage, now that we will not be going south of NY for the next few years.

Coming your way within weeks will be a statistical compilation of the 230 days of our winters cruise: passage days, miles per passage, total miles, nights on anchor-mooring-dock-or at sea, number of ports visited and how many times in each, how many were new first-time ports for ILENE, average number of lay days per port, how many lunches and dinners off the boat, etc. Yes, I am a confessed compulsive quantifier. I have done this following our prior long cruises. You could do it yourself if you were so inclined -- or should I say possessed) based on the data in the posts of this blog.



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Wooden fly fishing boat plans

Wooden fly fishing boat plans Sample images Wooden fly fishing boat plans Google Search Boat Building Small Catamaran Fishing Boats Plans Flat Bottom Plywood Boat Plans Fly Fishing Boat Plans Wooden Fishing Boat Plans

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