Sprouting Seeds...

Mike Wick

Mike Wick's Melonseed, aptly named Pepita, scandalising sail at the basin of the ISM, during the 2009 Wooden Boat Festival in Philly

Mike is building another Melonseed, this one with some design modifications he wanted to implement after his experieince with Pepita.

above photos thomas armstrong

Mike is introducing camber to the deck, visible here in the model, hoping to achieve a drier sail.

The new boat is a Cortez Melonseed, I think drawn by Roger Allen of the Florida Maritime Museum at Cortez, FL, with the hull built from a kit by the FMM by Ted Cook.

Mike is finishing the boat himself.

these photos courtesy John Guidera via Mike Wick

Barry Long

scribing the skeg

one of the completed hulls

both boats half stripped

Set up, keelson, stem and transom in place, twelve strips on each boat

Two at once.

Steam bent stems cooling.

And set up.

Two full sets of molds laid out.

Setting up the strongbacks for the work to proceed upon.

Barry first saw a Melonseed in an historic photo, and the boat grabbed his imagination, but it wasn't until years later that he saw this boat in MD and began his research in earnest. A year later he'd finally identified the Melonseed.

all photos in this segment courtesy Barry Long

Melonseeds evolved in the Mid Atlantic region and there's been a revival of interest in these boats in recent years. Howard Chapelle wrote about and surveyed these boats and they are included in American Small Sailing Craft, the bible for those interested in traditional American small craft. Although this revival is mainly centered in the home waters of this boat type, the popularity of the Melonseed has spread to other areas, the Midwest, the Deep South and the Northeast, at least.
Two friends of mine are currently building or finishing Melonseeds and I wanted to write about these elegant small sailboats. There's a Melonseed Yahoo group and I wrote to them inviting members to submit their build photos and text, more of that later.
Mike Wick is a fellow member of the Delaware River TSCA group and is a Melonseed devotee. Mike is a prolific boatbuilder and collecter, and has a livery of around 13 boats. He recently sold his lovely Oughtred McGregor sailing canoe to a friend up in the Thousand Island area, in an attempt to lighten his load. He's currently finishing out his second Melonseed. This one is to a design by Roger Allen, head of the Florida Maritime Museum in Cortez, Florida. Dubbed the Cortez Melonseed, an original strip planked hull was built by Mike Lucas, which he gave to Mike, who used it as a male mold for a cold molded hull, seen in the photos.That done, Mike pooped off his hull and passed it on to Roland Anderson who took over the original hull to build another melonseed. The model Mike is using to work out his deck modifications is a lazer-cut kit made by Ted Cook and are available from the Florida Maritime Museum. As seen in the photos of the model, above, Mike is making some modifications, mainly building in a camber to the deck to make his boat a drier sail. Mike's other seed Pepita was designed by John Brady and built by Carl Weissenger, and is a gem of a small boat.

Barry Long set himself an ambitious project. The Virginia based graphic designer and photographer decided, after falling in love with the Melonseed, to build a brace of seeds, one for himself and one for his better half. He's basically done that, but is still adding the finishing touches. He's also chronicled his build on a weblog, which has to be the most detailed, erudite, well written and photographed build blog I have ever encountered. Build blogs can get a little dry, but not so with Barry's, which is interspersed with amusing and enlightening asides, a host of informative comments from his followers and witty, introspective, informative and insightful commentary on the building process. Not to be missed! Barry seems to be completing the dual project and I've pushed him to get the pair done for the October MASCF in St, Michaels this year, owing to my completely selfish desire to sail one, or both of his sprouts this Autumn. I anyone reading this can make this annual celebration, I highly recommend you do so! Also, Barry's photos here will be best read from he bottom up. There are tons more photos at Barry's website.

27th Mid Atlantic Small Craft Festival

photo courtesy John Armstrong


Brother John and I made the trip down to St. Michaels, MD last Saturday for the 27th MASCF. Just in the gate and the first attraction was a beautifully crafted West Greenland skin on frame Qayaq. Owner built by Jennie Plummer-Welker, great attention was paid to details, such as holes in the runners for the rib lashing so as to avoid a bumpy skin.

Cockpit

Nice toggles!

photo courtesy John Armstrong

John and I then headed straight for the dock where we sighted Silent Maid, which we hadn't expected. We were greeted by prodigious boatbuilders Wendy Byars and John Brady, down from the Independence Seaport Museum in Philly. John runs the museum boatshop, Workshop on the Water and Wendy is a frequent volunteer. Silent Maid was lauched last summer at the museum and has been visiting up and down the East Coast since. My brother also volunteers, in the museum library, and we were soon aboard the Maid, invited for a sail.

John powered us out to the race course just in time for the annual free for all, with what seemed like a hundred small boats of all descriptions, from a Chesapeake log canoe to some very small decked sailing canoes.

Ready to start sailing

Find John's blog here.

An obviously exultant Wendy, (aka Sailorgirl) at the helm. Check out Sailorgirl for Wendy's view of the entire 5 day experience

Part of the fleet as they jockey for position prior to the starting gun.

One of my crew mates aboard the Maid turned out to be Barry Long of Eye In Hand. He has a huge repository of beautiful images of the last three years at St.Michaels.

They're racing!

Marianne is a log canoe from about 1916, owned by the CBMM,

and true to type, she's quick.

Sabot, gunter rigged catboat designed and built by Fred Bennett

Buna Mon Iya, a Crotch Island Pinky designed and built by Peter Van Dine and owned and sailed by George and Marla Surgent.

John Allen on his 16/30 racing canoe. The design dates from the glory days of canoe racing very early 20th C. Many of the 16/30's were hard chine, as this appears to be.

Later in the day John heads back out for more. These boats developed in the Lake Ontario region and were considered the setup for canoe racing by their devotees. A revival of the design has been spurred by research and development at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, NY.

Timm Schlieff sailing his Nat Herresoff designed Coquina in the race. You can just see the committee boat behind him.

Later, near the dock. Timm builds boats professionally in West Virginia. The Coquina was Capt'n Nat's favorite boat and he sailed here summer and winter in Marblehead.

Ahoy, Two Keys! Ships boat (replica) for the Kalmar Nyckel, Delawares tall ship. She's a period shallop and sports a small cannon, which may have been the starting gun for this race.

Nice big Swedish standard. Kalmar Nyckel brought the first Swedish settlers to America and sailed up the Delaware River to New Sweden in 1638. New Sweden is today known as Wilmington, DE.

Two of the volunteers who make Little Key possible, Dave Dawson and Bob Reed

Here she is at rest.

I have a soft spot for decked sailing canoes and the day brought me into close proximity of two of the finest I've seen, brought down by a northern contingent.

This is Apple Pie, built by Dave Kavner and Dan Sutherland, and owned by Dave. Both of these characters were also involved n the 16/30 revival mentioned above. Here's a shot of the rudder designed and built by the third member of this triumvirate,

Bob Lavertue, mastermind behind the Springfield Fan & Centerboard Co., maker of finely crafted metal bits and pieces, including the bronze folding fan centerboards installed on both boats. Bobs work is unequaled and he supplies metal parts for sailing canoes with vintage design and a level of craftsmanship worthy of the Victorian originals.

As you can see on his 18' Pretty Jane, built by Will Clements. Both Apple Pie and Pretty Jane are built to JH Rushton designs. Rushton was the pre-eminent canoe builder in Victorian NY and if these boats interest you Atwood Manley's book is a must.

One of the things I was most keen on for this day was meeting Steve and Bruce and Spartina, above. I was hoping for a sail aboard Spartina, a John Welsford Pathfinder built by Steve Earley. Unfortunately I did not manage to track them down until rather late in the afternoon and too late for a sail. Oh well.

Bruce and Steve trailed the boat from Steve's home in Chesapeake, VA to Crisfield MD where they launched and set out on a multiple day tour of the bay with stops designed to sample some of the bays best crabhouses and other attractions. Steve reports that they encountered up to 27 knot winds and made 7.5 knots surfing 3' swells and never felt in any peril. John Welsford's Pathfinder has it's roots in the English Coble's and all his designs are known to be extraordinarily seaworthy. Steve and Bruce have an exemplary weblog wherein they chronicle their many adventures, here.

The CBMM has an active apprenticeship program where volunteers can learn and apply boatbuilding skills. Here's an example. The boatshed is open to museum visitors, and apprentices can explain their work toless knowledgeable visitors.

Apprentice Brooke Harwood explaining bevel and gain in the building of this Delaware Ducker to John and myself.

She is being built in the traditional lapstrake manner, with copper nails visible. In this photo Brooke is adding a plank.

Dubbed the small boat house , this stunning open shed houses Chesapeake workboats in various stages of decay and disrepair. Most of the boats here have placards describing them, but I was unable to locate one for this darling. Less of a morgue, more a sanctuary, this room is calm and contemplative. If I was more of a scholar I could relate what type boat this is, I would guess an oyster boat, but does it really matter? Her beauty shines through the decay.

Still life in the Skipjack shed.

A Northumbrian Coble owner built by Robert Slack to a design by Paul Selway, the boat is a modern adaptation of a traditional British workboat and exhibits the distinctive powderhorn sheer of the originals. Meaning a sheerline which incorporates both convex and concave curves. Robert had just moved his boat and unfortunately caught the mast on a tree branch above and injured the mast step, which he'll now have to rebuild! Robert reports that Paul fisher has drawn a larger version, 17' or so, but it has yet to appear on the website. Soon, I am told.

A Penguin!

The Penguin was designed by Phillip Rhodes in 1938 and featured in Yachting Monthly in 1940 after which the class took off. Penguin is designed for amateur construction in plywood and is still racing with a viable and enthusiastic following.

I'll be right here next year! Camping on the CBMM grounds.