... More Spring Days in the Boatyard.

This spruce came from Hog Island..sat in the river awhile and is now being made into a spar for the schooner Adventure.

Tractor comes in handy when moving wood.

Our neighbor Simon Koch removes the tarp from Tikka. 

The Ardelle is looking good in the creek.

Daisy and Hazel like this weather.

Simon gets a ladder to check out Tikka after taking the tarp off

Harold has been cutting and moving wood.

It is just way too nice to work inside these past spring days and the boatyard is surely jumping with activity.  Bruce is getting ready to make the second spar for the schooner Adventure while others are taking off tarps and getting boats ready.  It is that time of year after all...it just came early!

Spring in the Boatyard

Bill Holmes and Bruce Slifer stand by the new spar Bruce made from the spruce tree cut down on Hog Island

Harold has been on the tractor, at the sawmill, under boats and just about everywhere around the yard these past few spring days.

Bill Holmes of the Schooner Adventure

Harold, Bill and Bruce next to the Adventure's new spar

Nice job, Bruce!

 There is a lot going on at the boatyard these past days with the good weather bringing everyone out and lots of other folks in the industry coming by to talk about...well, wood, mostly, and Harold has had the sawmill going all week. Trees keep arriving...cherry, pine, oak, and more, and Harold keeps cutting. Meanwhile, Bruce Slifer has finished the first of three spars that will replace the existing fore and gaff booms on the schooner Adventure. Bill Holmes helped out and the first one looks great.

A Good Day at the Maine Boatbuilders Show in Portland

Harold talks to boatbuilder, sailmaker and sailor Bruce Dyson, his wife Leanne and friends.

Harold talks with Fred Sterner from the American Schooner Association

Chris Hood of C.W. Hood yahcts and his beautiful 32-foot daysailer design.

Eric Graves of Boothbay Harbor Shipyard (left) and friends

A Steve White design from Brooklin Boatyard

Anohter shot of Chris Hood's award winning daysailor the 32-foot Katama.

We had a good day at the Maine Boatbuilders show yesterday and Harold got to catch up with a lot of boatbuilders and people in the industry. The Maine Boatbuilders’ show is a regional favorite and takes place in Portland, ME usually around St. Patrick’s day.  It has always attracted some serious buyers and some serious boatbuilders and also some serious gammers and we sort of fit in to the last category yesterday as folks now trying to get into the charter sailing trade we couldn’t really say we had a boat in the works this year but we got to pass out brochures on the schooner Ardelle.  It is a great show so if you are in the neighborhood check it out!

Zack and the Carriacou Sloops

Zack Teal in the winter of 2010. Zack is now on the Harvey Gamage for the spring term of his junior year. His Dad offered up this student blog today and we think it is great! Pictures are found through the link at bottom. Zack and the Harvey Gamage are currently sailing towards the Dominican Republic.
 Great story, Zack!

STUDENT BLOG ENTRY: CARRIACOU SLOOPS

On our first day ashore in Carriacou, we had a nice tour of the island. We left from the pier and drove up one of the six major streets on the island (they were barely big enough for two cars to pass). Our driver pointed out the local furniture shop, which was an open building with a few big tools and stacks of lumber all around. Most of the lumber is mahogany, local to the island. Our driver then took us the highest point in Carriacou (it was only 945 feet above sea level), where we could see everything. There was a hospital there, which was built on a high point to blow away mosquitos during a malaria outbreak… The people in the hospital have a nice view.

We then went on a search for a man named Dave and found him walking down the road with his daughter. Dave took us down the road to see a local man, Alwin build a fishing boat. We heard about the boat builder from a photographer named Alexis Andrews in English Harbor. Alexis has been doing a movie project about the Carricou sloops to record and pass on the knowledge of the few remaining boat builders in the area. When the bus stopped next to two rickety houses, I couldn’t figure out why. Then I saw it: two logs spread out on the lawn and the frame of a small sloop. I love boat building, and I know a lot about it, so I was excited. Dave introduced us to Alwin, a kind man in his fifties. He got into boat building after a fishing boat he was working on sank. He was one of the only survivors. This chilling experience lead him to boat building; he wanted to understand how boats work and make them more seaworthy. Alwin showed us the project which will take him about six to eight months of finish, working alone. This amazed me because he only used a chisel, clamp, chainsaw, straight edge and hammer. Even with these tools, the work looked perfect. He used local wood: white heart for the keel and white cedar for the frame, but imported the wood for planks from another island. We didn’t want to hold him up longer, so we left and spent the rest of the day at the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen.

Zack

Recent photo of Zack and some members of the crew/classs

Ardelle Shines in Regional Photo Contest

Congratulations to Susan Plutsky for winning second prize for this photo.

“Side Launch of the Pinky Ardell” 
By Susan Plutsky
Location: Essex, MA 

We just learned that Susan Plutsky won second prize during the 2011 Essex National Heritage Area Photo Contest... for the category entitled:

Experiencing the Essex Coastal Scenic Byway

Photographs that represent the best of what travelers experience along theEssex Coastal Scenic Byway: dramatic coastlines, historic seaports, colonial era farms, small village centers, and a wealth of architecture.

Looks like the ENHA is hosting a 2012 contest so all of you talented folks out there who have been to our yard or photographed the Ardelle should definitely give it a shot..no pun intended. We KNOW how good you all are. 

Photographers get Snapping!

We are pleased to announce the 2012 Essex National Heritage Area Photo Contest!

All photographers are welcome to submit images to the Essex National Heritage Area Photo Contest that capture the essence of the Essex National Heritage Area (ENHA) or speak to Essex Heritage's role in preserving the historic, cultural and natural treasures of Essex County!  Photographs must be taken within the ENHA and represent one of three Contest Categories listed below. Read the completeRules & Requirements then send in an entry form to win!

http://www.essexheritage.org/photocontest/index.shtml

Harold and Dan Go On the Road

One of Dan Tobyne's many amazing photographs of the Builting of the Schooner Ardelle

Harold and photographer Dan Tobyne are heading down East at the end of this month - Sat. March 31 to be exact. They are participating in a talk at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, ME where  Dan will also be exhibiting and selling his photographs of the building of the schooner Ardelle. Dan, who is quite a humble but remarkable guy, took it upon himself to offer the proceeds from the sales of his photographs to a non-profit organization called Windward Passa,ge, a Castine-based organization that provides traditional sailing experiences and sail training to Maine teenagers. If you ever thought a teen might WANT to go on a sailing adventure...just ask 17-year old Zack Teal who helped us build the Ardelle. . Oh, yeah, Zack is sailing now in the Caribbean and won't be back til summer!

Dan used to work with teens in our public school system so it is a organization that he really supports. It is also one of the organizations' Wooden Boat editor Matt Murphy is involved with so we look forward to seeing  the venerable editor who is also a good friend. If you are in the neighborhood, please come to the lecture or support the organization.

Shipwright Harold Burnham To Speak At PMM

Traditional Pinky Schooner Ardelle is Subject of Talk

2 March, 2012 – Harold Burnham, a 14th-generation shipwright from Essex, Massachusetts, will discuss the construction of the pinky schooner Ardelle in a talk at Penobscot Marine Museum. Burnham's presentation will be illustrated with photographs by Dan Tobyne, author and photographer of Thoreau's Maine Woods, published by Down East Books. The free event will be in the museum's Stephen Phillips Memorial Library on Saturday, March 31, from 5-7 p.m.

Ardelle is an authentic wooden pinky schooner, completed in 2011 to run day trips and private charters out of Essex, Massachusetts. Pinkies – so-called for their distinctive, high pointed or "pink" stern – were a common New England boat type used for commercial fishing in the 19th century. Burnham, whose family has run shipyards in Essex since 1819, designed Ardelle, using as a model the pinky Maine, built in 1845 by Ebenezer Burnham. Harold Burnham and his volunteer shipyard crew of friends and family built the 55-foot, 45-ton vessel using local woods from a nearby tree company as well as components salvaged from a replica of the pinky Maine built by the Apprenticeshop of Bath in the early 1980s.

Photographer Dan Tobyne, who is also known for the books Boston's Emerald Necklace and Thoreau's Cape Cod, documented every step of Ardelle's construction. Color prints of Tobyne's photographs will be offered for sale during the event to benefit Windward Passage, a Castine-based organization that provides traditional sailing experiences and sail training to Maine teenagers.

Admission to "Building the Schooner Ardelle: An Evening with Shipwright Harold Burnham" is free, and refreshments will be served. For more information go to Penobscot Marine Museum's website.

Harold, Zack Teal and Jeff Lane in the fall of 2010. Photo by Dan Tobyne

Dan Tobyne pic in September 2011.

Justin Has Tapped into his Roots

Shipwright Justin Ingersoll comes from western New York state and a long history of maple sugar making there.



Sugar maples are running this year!

We have to admire shipwright Justin Ingersoll for his maple sugaring this past week or so. He has been coming here after work to check on his trees and on Sunday he was here until midnight boiling the sap and it looks like he has a pretty good haul of maple syrup.

Although he tapped only two trees in the yard, he  has diligently sat boiling the sap in his make-shift sugar shack all week. Justin is a true renaissance man as he not only can he make his own maple sugar, but he can also hunt with bow and arrow,  build boats, snowboard, ski race and is a champion turkey caller. He can also make awesome pancakes and has been delivering jars of maple syrup all around to go with them so we have to thank you Justin for both tapping into your roots and our trees as it has been fun to watch and the syrup is amazing!