Friday and the Wind is Good

Harold is getting ready for a sail on Monday, Oct. 3 with the guys so we will be leaving port for five days or so starting Monday. He is going on his annual men's sail and the guys are quickly building bunks down below for the trip.  We do hope that the guys do keep track of the adventure and they often do have some stories to tell. They think the wind will be west so they may head to Maine ...

Anyway, today, Friday is a good day for a public sail and we will be available on Sunday, too.  Anyway, next week it will the men's chance to sail away from home...and these guys are funny...boatbuilders, tradesmen and professionals, they also cook, read, and discuss various topics. What I don't know for sure is if any one of them has ever done the unthinkable...gone shopping with a woman and held her handbag. I do not think so! That is OK, though. We still love you guys.

Photo by Barry O'Brien

Photo by Dan Tobyne.

Not Bad for Late September!

We are having some late summer/early fall banner days and the sailing today (Sunday) should be nice. We are going out on two public sails - 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.  Thank you Tom Ellis of the Schooner Lannon for sending this picture from his boat...what a great perspective. And, below we have two great pics..one of the Lannon and one of the "crowd" at the Heritage Center dock during schooner festival. Last night, we had dinner in Gloucester with Bruce and Kathy Slifer, and friends and it was great to listen to this group as there are Gloucester natives among them...and we learned a lot about our new city where we will be spending a lot of time. This city or 'town' is full of neighborhoods, stories, opinions, projects, people, dreamers, doers, artists, poets and I am finding it to be an unexpected experience... I think I am in love with Gloucester!! I do.  I am...Can't believe I can actually say it but it is true...

Anyway, please come down for a sail. We are having a lot of fun!

Photo by Tom Ellis

Schooner Lannon, above, and the Ardelle, schooner Roseway and Alabama at the docks. Bottom photos by Rick Detwiller

Salty Dog Day at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum Cancelled

Salty Dog Day was cancelled due to rain!

I was hoping to see Chuck but they cancelled my day (Salty Dog Day) cause of rain!

The Essex Shipbuilding museum left us this note:

Unfortunately, due to a forecast of heavy rain tomorrow morning we have had to cancel Salty Dog Day.

 

We were all geared up and ready to go! We want to thank all the people who would have participated in putting on this fun-filled family day. Look for us next year, come have fun and learn about the long history dogs have had with the maritime industries. 

A Good Time Was Had By All

 

Thanks, Bruce for sending these great pictures. Top photo is of Sarah Slifer and son, Seamus, who was celebrating a birthday and below is  Rockport Vet Dr Ray Cahill his wife Maggie and their boys Will and Jack . Bruce was part of the Ardelle crew from the beginning and the sail with family and friends was hopefully the first of many. During the sail, Bruce and Kathy and friends sang a sea shanty and raced around the outer harbor with the Lannon. According to Bruce, Tom Ellis said he got 2 calls from folks on shore watching the Ardelle and the Lannon having all that FUN out there in the harbor. It was really spectacular , Bruce said. Great weather last weekend...hope we get some more good days!!


Thanks from The Slifers

Mug Up! at the Madfish and a Great Sunday

Photo by Laurie Fullerton...taken from Pavilion Beach with my iPhone...not enough lense strength but you get the idea...a good time sailng around with the Schooner Lannon and Ardelle...on a Sunday.

Photo by Len Burgess

We had a great visit to the Madfish and joined in the Mug Up yesterday morning. Good Morning Gloucester posted a nice array of photos. Thanks so much for the invite and for the lobster roll!  Later on Sunday, Harold had a private sail at 2 p.m. with Bruce and Kathy Slifer and their friends. They were great company, sang some amazing sea shanties and were great guests. As you all know, Bruce helped build the Ardelle and Kathy kept us fed most of the year with her great lunches.  At 430 p.m. Harold did a public sail and happy and tired at 6:30 p.m. he said he had a great day...and the Ardelle crew and guests also had a great time sailing around with Tom, Kay and Heath Ellis of the Schooner Lannon. The two schooners were having a great time semi-racing and just sailing around together. They looked great from shore, too!
Here is the GMG post about our visit.

Great Fall Weekend, Flat Seas and a Good Breeze

Schooner Ardelle and Schooner Fame - together at last! Photo by Len Burgess

Ardelle has a stand up if you like policy! Well, not really but it was schooner Fest! Photo by Len Burgess

Sailing along the Gloucester side! Photo by Len Burgess

These pictures were taken a little earlier this month but this is one of those great September weekends (Sept. 17 and 18) and one of the good ones for sailing. Fall sailing - as most sailors know - has some of the best days. Yesterday, on Gloucester harbor, we spotted Whitney Shattuck of Marblhead on Arion. He was sailing to Gloucester for the night but arrived early enough so that he just kept sailing. He shouted to us "we have been to Marblehead and back three times today..we just can't stop sailing!" The conditions are beautiful, flat, and the sea is sparkly. That is what we can get in the fall...after the late summer hurricanes there is a kind of reprieve and everything is calm...and steady, breezes that is.

This weekend we are doing public sails and have the schedule listed on our website but basically today come down around 4:30 p.m. and tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.  We are having a lot of fun and while Capt. Burnham is our fearless leader we have a great crew, too, including Perry and Alden Burnham, Zach Teal, and Owen Brown.  Thanks you guys!!!

Sunday Sailin' and a Few Dan Tobyne Pics

Last Sunday, Dan Tobyne tooks some shots of the Ardelle and it was such a nice morning and the photos are so nice we wanted to post them here. We are having a great time so far doing charters in the afternoons out of the Maritime Heritage Center in Glouceseter (now called Maritime Gloucester). Yesterday, we had folks on board from Melbourne, Australia (yeah!), New Mexico, Michigan, San Diego, Calif., and Texas. It is a learning curve for me but many of the folks on board had really done their reading and research on Gloucester. They knew a lot about the area...and they even recognized the Maritime Gloucester location as the place where they filmed different scenes from the Perfect Storm. We didn't have as much wind as we wanted so we sailed along the shore and they got to see some kids jumping off the famous Greasy Pole, they watched the Blynman Bridge go up and we sailed along the Eastern Shore past Beauport. We saw a lot and I realized that just being in Gloucester itself is very cool, but being on the water and around the harbor is fantastic!  It is a working port, a living port, and a vital port..I think it is going to be great to get to know this place better!

Sailing off on a Sunday

A different perspective

Hope the earth is not flat.

Sunday morning sail

From left Chuck Redman, Harold, Robin Tattersoll, Bill Cronin and Kirk Williamson during the Mayor's Cup, Schooner Festival weekend.

The Schooner Ardelle Has Hung It's Shingle ...

Thank you, again, Good Morning Gloucester for posting this information about the schooner Ardelle. It looks like great weather this week so do come sailing!

The Schooner Ardelle Has Hung It’s Shingle

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Joey C

The schooner Ardelle is fully operational now and is located down at Maritime Gloucester on Harbor Loop. Capt. Harold Burnham is aboard and he and his crew are doing afternoon sails at 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.  Harold Burnham tells us that he is going to run the charters from Weds. Through Sunday at 2 and 4:30 so do come down for an afternoon sail or call him at 978-290-7168 for more information.

The schooner Ardelle was an epic project for Burnham and what is most amazing about it is that just one year ago, there were a few frames up in the Burnham yard after hosting a Frame Up and keel signing ceremony on Labor Day 2010. Here it is one year later and Ardelle  is fully-rigged, Coast Guard certified and ready for a sail.  The community support has been amazing, so please do come down and support this new endeavor!

Click here for all the GMG Schooner Ardelle Coverage

http://goodmorninggloucester.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/the-schooner-ardelle-has-hung-its-shingle/

Schooner Fest 2011

Ardelle on the day of the race!

Harold and good friend Bill Cronin of Charlton, MA

We had about 39 on board for the schooner race. 

Three Burnham-built schooners..the Thomas E. Lannon, the Schooner Fame and the Schooner Ardelle

Ardelle sailing into inner harbor in Gloucester

Steve Willard, on bow of Ardelle looks at the Essex-built schooner Roseway.

Henry fires the cannon...you are awesome, Henry!!

Dan Tobyne..who documented the entire building project for the year shoots with an artist eye. He is also one of the good ones all around. Thanks, Dan, for everything.

Our young miss does not like the sound of cannons!

Harold and the shipwrights, crew, family and friends.

The crew watches the Alabama at the start of the race. We need more cowbells, I mean topsails!

Looking over at the schooner Liberty Clipper

The afterguard...Uncle Stevie, Robin and Bill. 

The Alabama, American Eagle and the Ardelle at the start of the schooner race. Photo by Carl Gustin.

Getting ready for the start. Photo by Carl Gustin

The Ardelle and the American Eagle at the start of the schooner race.
Photo by Carl Gustin

Seriously, folks, the Ardelle is really comfortable with a big group!

We had the building crew on board for the Schooner race over Labor Day weekend...about one year almost to the day that we had Frame Up day - Labor Day 2010 - and the first frame for the Ardelle went up...here we are Labor Day weekend 2011 and we are sailing in the schooner race. Thank you Mike Dyer and others for these photos!!

A Shout Out to Good Morning Gloucester

We have not been able to thank all of the individuals who have helped us out over this past 11 months since we began building the schooner Ardelle. Over the next month or so, I am going to write about those of you who have not been recognized as yet..I hope you know who you are..Bill, Jack, and many others. For today we just wanted to be sure and thank both Good Morning Gloucester and Messing About in Boats for thier consistent and enthusiastic online and print coverage of the schooner Ardelle's construction, launch and arrival in Glouester.

Good Morning Gloucester is an immenseley popular blog published by Joey Ciaramitaro of Gloucester who is a lobster broker and produces one of the most popular blogs on the North Shore of Massachusetts and beyond with well over 30,000 visits per day. I know that blogging requires a lot of time at the computer but I am amazed at the effort Joey and his crew put into being out there in the community and reporting on events, people, happenings, issues, sights and sounds. It takes an amazing amount of work and it is a great blog. The crew at GMG also include contributing photographers like Marty Luster who have been at the yard shooting great shots all along. Thank you Good Morning Gloucester!

To see the coverage go to
http://goodmorninggloucester.wordpress.com/2011/09/04/parade-of-sails-gloucester-schooner-festival-2011/

We would also like to thank Bob Hicks of Messing About In Boats, published in nearby Wenham, MA, who has been publishing our blog in his magazine each month. Bob wrote a final editorial about covering the Ardelle's construction and it was a very moving piece and illustrates not only Bob's talent as a publisher but as a writer, too. Bob, a print publisher and Joey, and online publishing master, have helped get the word out about the schooner Ardelle and we appreciate the many hours you have all put into it!

Schooner Festival Is A Great Day for Essex-Built Schooners!

Three Essex-built, Burnham built schooners together at today's Schooner Festival in Gloucester! Photo by Marty Luster

We have been really busy since we became a charter business on Friday afternoon. We had our first customer Ethel Rhodes of Gloucester who joined us on our first -ever charter sail. Yesterday was Heritage Day at Maritime Gloucester and we had two public and one private charter. It was great...everyone enjoyed themselves. Today we had the entire building crew and their families out to race in the Schooner Festival. Although we did not finish in the top of the fleet, it was a great day and we were able to sail with our three fellow Essex-built, Burnham-built schooners the Thomas E. Lannon of Gloucester, the Fame of Salem and the Lewis H. Story.

Tomorrow we will be running charters in the afternoon at 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. or please just give us a call at 978-290-7168.

Hearding out to the schooner race/ 

Passing Eastern Point

Sailing with the schooner Fame

The last three photos were kindly provided by 

Len Burges

We Are Ready to Roll! Certificate of Operation Is OK and We Are Ready to Charter

Schooner Ardelle is now available for public and private charters - starting now!

One year ago, Labor Day 2010. We have come a long way!!!

What a difference one year makes. On Sept 6, 2010 we held Frame Up day at the boatyard. See photo above. On Sept. 3, 2011, at the start of Labor Day weekend we are now Coast Guard certified and holding our first public sail today, Friday, Sept. 3 at 430 p.m.  We will also offer sails tomorrow, during Heritage Days at Maritime Gloucester from 9 to 11 a.m., 2 to 4 p.m., and 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

It has been an amazing experience since we began construction of the schooner a little less than one year ago. There are so many people we are grateful to for all of their assistance. That is why on Sunday we are entering the schooner race with the shipwrights and their families so they might enjoy sailing on the Ardelle after the long hours of building her. Harold has been going around the clock to get the boat wired and ready and after two days of inspection - and a year of working with the US Coast Guard each week - we have everything in place from horns to lifejackets to fire extinguishers and we think the able crew can make the public sails unique and fun - as was the whole process of building the Ardelle.

We hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend and if you are in the area please do come by and see us! For more information on charters, please go to schoonerardelle.com.  We are scrambling now to shift gears but we are going to be around all fall until the snow flies so do plan to book a sail.

Boatyard Dog

 Daisy, the boatyard dog.

Keeping an eye on the crew

Daisy likes to lie in the road

What are you doing Uncle Steve?

Checking out the docks

Steve is pounding clams - yum.

While we await the start of our charter business, we have been noticing it is a bit quiet now around the boatyard. Well, photographer Nicole Goodhue Boyd reminded us of the not so quiet times when the schooner was under construction. The past 11 months would not be complete without a few photos of our boatyard dog, Daisy. She is a great dog with some major character flaws...but all we have right now are the photos from Nicole when Daisy, the boatyard dog, was just doing her thing. Thanks, Nicole!