from the masthead - American Yacht Club

December 2008
Issue 10
Sailorgram
Commodore
Eric Vasquez
978-521-9017
FROM THE MASTHEAD
Vice Commodore
Bob Chadwick
978-373-6106
Rear Commodore
David W. Hewey
978-373-6038
Secretary
Gary Gastman
978-462-6533
Treasurer
Douglas Cornell
978-474-4323
Collector
Pamela Mertinooke
978-388-4515
Measurer
Augustus Harrington
978-463-8882
Membership Committee
Mark Hansbury
603 887 6943
Mooring Committee
Gene Piermattei
978-374-7940
“Together we are Winners.” — Eric T. Vasquez
December 2008 • Eric Vasquez, Commodore
To all my dear friends:
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the membership for giving me the opportunity
to serve as your Commodore this past year. It is an honor and a privilege to be entrusted with
such a responsibility and I am proud of what we accomplished in 2008, both as a governing
board and as volunteer committees. I want to thank all of the members of the Executive
Committee for their leadership, support, and hard work as Directors and Flag Officers, an effort
that made real progress possible on the Club goals of maintaining and improving our membership experience.
Each of the Committees, along with numerous volunteers, made for a successful year at the
Club and on the water. The dedication of our members is truly a testament to the passion and
focus that the AYC has for the promotion of yachting.
I want to express my thanks and appreciation to you all for a job well done!
Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Commodore Eric T.Vasquez
House Committee
David Hewey
978-373-6038
Regatta Committee
Bruce Brown
978-521-6802
Entertainment Committee
Angela Vasquez
978-521-9017
Activities Committee
Rob Brun
978-462-1948
Sailing Camp
Sue Manzi
603-474-9644
Steward/Club House
978-465-9053
Flood Tide. Detail of a painting showing the mooring shed and dinghy rack by AYC member Rob Brun
December 2008
Issue 10
Judy Raycroft’s
Award Winning Chili
Errata and Omissions
The Sailorgram apologizes in advance for any errors in spelling,
grammar, punctuation, or the accuracy of person or boat identifications. The content of Sailorgram articles is the sole responsibility of the author, including stated facts, opinions, commentary,
and humor. We try to include as many submissions as possible
and may, due to space limitations, choose to omit or delay certain submissions for later issues. In other words, the Sailorgram
takes responsibility for hardly anything.
From the AYC Chilifest 2008
Judy was kind enough to provide us with the recipe for her
award-winning chili, as judged by popular acclaim at the 3rd
annual AYC Chilifest this past October. Copy it and serve it at
home, but don’t attempt to pass it off at the 2009 Chilifest or
there may be a widespread tie for first place!
2.5 lbs of lean hamburger
3 cans red kidney beans
1 yellow onion
1/2 green pepper
2 cloves of garlic
1 can stewed tomatoes
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1/2 c red wine
1 tsp cayenne pepper *
2 tsp chili pepper powder *
1 tsp mustard powder
salt & pepper
garlic salt
Mooring Ball Reminder
If you have a mooring ball still in the AYC yard, you need
to pick it up and store it for the winter.
With winter storms and tides you might lose your mooring
ball if left where it is. The club will not be responsible
for any loss.
Saute onion, pepper and garlic in a little olive oil.Add hamburger and brown with spices.Add tomato paste, red wine and
mix.Add beans tomatoes and season with salt & pepper.
Simmer for 20 minutes or so.
* Add more for a chili that is warmer than “medium”
For Sale/Free/Wanted
We will advertise any items submitted for sale by a member for one
issue and will repeat those ads only upon the request of the person
placing it. There is no charge for listings. Contact the Sailorgram.
The Wanderer’s new owner showing her distinctive color scheme
DAY SAILOR FOR SALE
16' Mistral Day Sailor on trailer with 3.3 hp Evinrude (run
only about 1 hour). Boat has not been in water for three
years so needs cleaning. It is a fast and fun boat with a
trapeze. Asking $1300. Call Gary O. at 978-270-5003.
Wanderer continued from page 5
impressing people with a lot of show. He knows boats are there
to be used and enjoyed.And he knows that it doesn't matter
what your boat looks like as long as it is safe, seaworthy and
you can trust it.
Joel Miller, the Wanderer's new owner, explained over the past
2 years she's been undergoing extensive rebuilding "from the
backbone up." He cut new horn timber and keel pieces from
an oak tree which was growing on his property in Lee, NH, and
replanked some of her with white cedar from a local sawmill.
She also has a new bowsprit, new cockpit and an all-new interior. He's now finished and launched her again this October for
an extensive cruise to the Carribean with his new bride.
The day may come when you run across Arthurs' old Wanderer.
She'll be sporting a very non-traditional red hull and colorful
trim, but her original homespun, "can-do," yeoman spirit will
still be very apparent.
Looking eastward on the dirt road by the AYC. Painting by Rob Brun
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December 2008
Issue 10
A special series highlighting the many different boats of the AYC
A line drawing of Art Berube’s Wanderer, compiled
from photos and some studied conjecture.
The architect’s drawings for the original Seabird yawl
can still be found, but Art’s had a full keel and a modified
cabin trunk.
WAN DERER
The Wanderer
Art Berube’s Seabird Yawl
by Jim Grenier, Sailorgram Editor
It was 1970 when I first took notice of what I then figured might be the
homeliest and possibly the most ragtag boat on the Merrimac River...
boxy cabin trunk. Unlike many of the craft around the AYC
mooring field, she was all wood and rough finished; all paint
and canvas with only her spars left for varnish.To me, she
looked more like a backyard project than a yacht.
T
here were plenty of boats on the river in those days and I
probably knew most of them by sight -- at least those
moored from Hudson's float to Plum Island, because Captain
Paul York and I passed them every day at dawn and again at
sunset. But this boat, the Wanderer, sitting in mooring field of
the AYC always stood out from the rest.
I turned to Captain Paul and pointed her out to him. He was
salty as they come and knew boats like I didn't. I expected
him to have some funny and slanderous comment to make
about this odd duck among the swans.
I remember the first time I noticed this boat. It sat low in the
water, hunkered down low like a great seabird at rest.And it
wasn't the prettiest bird in the flock, not by a long shot. She
was long and narrow, hard-chined and slab-sided with a low
"She's a helluva boat." he said. "A boat just like that even
crossed the Atlantic.A helluva boat."
continued on page 4
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December 2008
Issue 10
Wanderer continued from page 3
"Charlie Powers told me to get a piece of locust and showed
me how to square it up and I installed it for a new sampson
post. I did all kinds of things like that!" Art's eyes light up when
he talks about her and is obviously proud of how he could look
beyond her disrepair and see the great boat she had been and
could be again.
I looked back at The Wanderer with less humor and a lot more
respect.
"And even if the fellah that owns that little ship doesn't go anywhere past the mouth of the river I bet he has more fun on her
than most men on their fancy boats.A boat like that is for using,
not for impressing folks."
"It took some time – years, actually – but when I was done she
didn't leak a drop. I had a lot of fun on that boat, my kids and
their friends too." Art chuckling his way through the statement.
Clearly he has lots of great memories of that boat banked away.
Captain Paul could tell a lot about a man from his boat.
These days you can't look out to the AYC mooring field and
find the Wanderer, but you can still find her owner who sometimes runs the club launch.The Wanderer was a fixture at the
club for well over 30 years. Many members can conjure up her
unique lines and rig. Sure, she's gone now. But her spirit is still
there.At least for me.
I'll bet some club members looked upon the Wanderer as I did
when I first saw her. Maybe they thought she was homely and
unseaworthy. But they couldn't be more wrong. Her design was
the brainchild of Thomas Day and Charles G. Mowers who
developed the design specifically for The Rudder in 1900.At
25' 7" it was big enough to cruise, yet small and simple enough
to build in the common man's yard.They called it the Seabird
Yawl. In an age when a sailing yacht was the domain of the
wealthy few; where it took real money to buy a Herreschoff or
Fife, the Seabird inspired a whole generation of less-privileged
folks and opened up the possibilities of boat ownership to
common men. The Rudder and the Seabird helped make boating much more mainstream. One might argue publishing the
lines of the Seabird did more to open up yachting to the general public than any other single event in the 20th century.
The Wanderer was purchased by life member Arthur Berube in
1970 from Pappy of the Pappy Bakery in Lawrence. Pappy had
acquired her in 1940 but she had sat on a mooring while he
was in the service. Unattended for long periods of time, she
invariably sunk. She was refloated and used again, but she eventually ended up in pretty poor condition at Charlie Powers'
boat yard.
There she sat, waiting for the right person to come along.And
that person was Arthur.Art, as he is often called, had never tackled a boat like this, though he had owned a power boat at one
time. He knew a wood boat in tough shape is a major commitment.Yet there is something telepathic between a man and the
right boat. It's kind of a love story.And so Art's affair began.
The Seabird Yawl has proven to be one of the most popular
small yachts of all time, thanks in part to a later adaptation by
Charles MacGregor for easier plywood construction, and various adaptations for larger vessels. Phil Bolger and others have
admittedly borrowed heavily from the Seabird.
"I did all the work myself, says Arthur,"there were a lot of things
I didn't know how to do and so I figured things out as I went."
Just by her bearing, one can tell she had a workboat influence.
Hard-chined and v-bottomed, her Chesapeake skipjack heritage
is quite obvious. But skipjacks are shallow boats with centerboards.The Seabird was a departure with deeper draft.The original Seabird prototype indeed started with a centerboard but
Thomas Day converted it to a fixed and ballasted keel to prepare for his historic Atlantic crossing in 1911.This was one of
the smallest boats to ever make the passage at that time.
If it weren't for her workboat heritage and influence, yacht
esthetics might find plenty wrong with her. But like an old farm
tractor, its devotion to necessity softens its shortcomings and
force boat lovers to find honesty, dignity and purpose in her
lines. Real boatmen look upon her with admiration and respect
where the angular hull lines and the angular cabin structure
might lead an unknowing person to feel otherwise.
In all things, and especially boats, form follows function.The
Seabird Yawl was designed to be inexpensively built, easy to sail
on short cruises, single-hand, and to ride out even heavy seas
easily. She was designed to be functional, not graceful. In that
light, the Seabird was all that and more.
Arthur and crew member aboard the Wanderer
powering out of the AYC mooring field.
Many boats of this design were built by home craftsmen as was
continued on page 5
4
December 2008
Issue 10
Wanderer continued from page 4
intended, but many more have been professionally built.The
Wanderer with a full fixed lead keel, was built in 1938, carvelplanked cedar on oak sawn frames, in New Bedford by three
Fortin brothers with plans to sail her to the Bahamas. It is
unknown but possible they made that trip in 1939, but she was
in the hands of someone else in 1940.
Arthur's Wanderer was a gaff yawl. Sailors understand the ease
of handling a yawl provides.They are simple to balance and you
can leave the self-tending spanker alone and deal with the
mainsail and single headsail.The gaff rig brings the center of
effort lower which increased the boat's stability -- though with
a displacement of over 5000 lbs.The Wanderer had stability to
spare. Like many old gaffers, the Wanderer used gaff jaws and
mast hoops to attach the sails to the masts.As a compromise to
modern convenience the sails were bent to the spars using
bronze sailtracks instead of lashings.
The bow sported a hogged plank bowsprit, and a short boomkin
hung from the stern, adding to the visual length of the boat and
making her appear even lower in the water than she actually was.
interior layout. He made two very long berths that ran the
length of the cabin. It was simple enough and he added more
sleeping area for the small boys in the bow. She had a small
galley with a water hand pump and ice box, and a Colman
2-burner propane stove for coffee and an occasional meal.A
head on the port side rounded things out and made life a bit
more comfortable.
One of the most unique parts of the Wanderer's rigging was
the V-shaped port side ladder attached to the mainmast spreader.This had to be a lot easier and more comfortable than hanging from a bosun chair when working aloft.
So what, exactly, happened to the Wanderer?
The original Chesapeake skipjacks didn't deal with currents and
tides like we do here on the Merrimack River.This means auxiliary power is important on any boat too large to row. Some
Seabirds were built with inboard engines, but the Wanderer
relied on an outboard engine. "It looked kind of odd having
that big engine hanging off that narrow transom, but it was all
I needed and it never let me down. I just changed the plugs
every now and then and flushed it out every year," says Art.
"And it really looked pretty crowded when I hung my dingy
back there too!" (see the photo on page 4)
Art had grown weary of all the constant upkeep and maintenance an old girl like the Wanderer demands.Art explained "It
was just getting to be too much for me to do by myself. I loved
the old boat but knew it was time to let her go." It’s a common
story among wood boat owners.
Art sold her to a man from Vermont who planned to take her
up to Lake Champlain.After she was sold the man drove down
from Vermont a couple of times and started the required work.
But he stopped coming. Checking in on the new owner,Art
was told that he no longer wanted the boat and wanted to get
rid of it. So Art's son bought it for cheap and gave it back to Art.
Yet it still was just going to sit there. Now what?
Just as he figured out how to restore an old boat,Art also taught
himself to sail. "I learned to sail on that boat. I took her out on
the ocean and just figured it out myself.When I got good and
comfortable I asked my wife to come out with me. She used to
go with me all the time in my old powerboat, but she only took
one trip on that sailboat and that was that. Never set foot on it
again." Art flashed a quick smile. "But my boys and their friend
were with me all the time.We always had a great time." Over
the years he had done more than a few trips to Cape Ann,
Boston Harbor and all over the Gulf of Maine with his boys
Christopher, Kevin and their friend Peter.
Arthur and his wife were at the 2006 Antique and Classic Boat
festival in Salem, MA.There they met a young man name Joel
Miller with a very impressive small boat restoration project on
the dock. Recognizing a great opportunity to do the right thing
for the aging Wanderer and for the aspiring young wood boat
enthusiast,Art made him an offer he couldn't refuse.Two days
later the old girl was trucking her way to Derry, NH for a
renewal in the hands of someone with the desire to do it right.
The Seabird lines drawings I managed to locate online didn't
seem to boast much room down below, with two berths, a couple of lockers and focs'le storage. "She didn't have much headroom, but I didn't mind it. I'm not too big myself.The boys
always seemed to have enough room" explained Art.
These days Art sails his small sloop Forever Young. Its red hull
and his grandchildren's handprints on the hull sides certainly
make this boat unique in its own way. Like Captain Paul
showed me, you can tell a lot about a man from his boat.
Clearly Art loves to be on the water and loves his family and
grandkids. He is truly unique and not one who cares for
Not long after he started sailing the Wanderer,Art changed the
continued on page 2
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December 2008
Issue 10
AYC Closing Day
photos by Eric Vasquez
continued on page 7
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December 2008
Issue 10
Closing Day continued from page 6
7
FIRST CLASS
MAIL
US POSTAGE
PAID
Topsfield MA
Permit 325
The American Yacht Club
P.O. Box 1360
Newburyport, MA 01950
December 2008
AYC Items For Sale
Hats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 13.00
AYC Pins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 5.00
Decals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 2.00
Burgee – Small . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 20.00
Burgee – Large . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 25.00
Heavy Knit Shirts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 35.00
Collared AYC Shirt
Navy with Red & White Trim M, L, XL, XXL
Pique Shirts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 25.00
Collared AYC Shirt Slate Blue
Collar with Navy Trim S,M
Please notify Pam Mertinooke if you are interested
in any of these items. 978-388-4515
A few AYC Clip-On Blazer Crests, to be worn only
on a Navy Blue Blazer, are available for $10.00 each.
E-mail Eric at: [email protected]
Issue 10
American Yacht Club
P.O. Box 1360
Newburyport MA 01950
Organized 1885, Incorporated 1890
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