Description:
Model History Flemming 55.. Charting the Course at Mystic Seaport.. Westward Ho!.. 2009 Mylne Classic Regatta..
Contents:
Model History Flemming 55
If a boat appears in the Model History feature in Classic Yacht you can fairly well assume it is a personal favorite of mine. This is certainly true of the Fleming 55. As an engineer I have a silly fondness for things that are, well, properly designed and built for their intended use. If your intention is to cruise under power to latitudes high and low, the Fleming 55 demands your attention as a result of the sheer focus with which it is designed and built.
The Fleming 55 story begins with the legendary Alaskan 49, designed by Fleming 55 Arthur DeFever and built by Grand Banks in the 1960s. Tony Fleming was in Hong Kong at the time working as the technical director for American Marine, builder of all things Grand Banks. After almost 20 years of steadily improving the Alaskan trawler series Tony left to develop a new pilothouse motor yacht design. The result is the Fleming 55.
Well, the initial result was the Fleming 50. Eight of those were built, followed by a handful at 53 feet and now over 200 Fleming 55s have been sold around the world. The visible differences between the three versions amount to little more than the added cockpit length. Whats not immediately apparent to the casual observer are the dozens of refinements made over the years, inside and out, that make this one of the most finely tuned cruising yachts of all time.
Built of fiberglass (those topside seams are tooled into the hull mold) by the Tung Hwa yard in Taiwan since 1987, the 55-foot examples were first launched in 1991. Shes not a trawler; the hard chine semi-displacement hull can be driven to almost 20 knots with twin 500hp Cummins QSC 8.3 diesels, although most have been powered with Caterpillar diesels ranging from 210hp to 475hp apiece. The goal for Tony Fleming was to create a refined and dependable cruising yacht capable of taking her crew in comfort and safety wherever they might wish to go.
As a result, the selection of every item on board reflects the Fleming philosophy.
The hulls clipper bow helps keep the foredeck dry. Shes got fine forefoot for a clean entry and long, deep keel to keep her tracking steadily and to protect the running gear as much as possible. The Portuguese bridge forward of the pilothouse is one of the essential design elements that tells us this boat is ready when you are.
Other cruising details: the anchor chain is stowed in a massive tube to prevents its tumbling.
An Aquadrive anti-vibration system is fitted to each main engine and propshaft, stifling vibration at the source. An elaborate main engine exhaust system works with the extensive sound insulation to muffle the vast majority of engine room noise. A simple dumbwaiter leads from the overhead galley cabinet to the bride, arriving exactly where youd want it, inside a cabinet right in the middle of the flybridge seating group.
The four-burner cooktop in the galley is recessed and includes individual potholders for each burner. Each of the three staterooms has been arranged with real-world stowage capacity. Lockers, drawers and cubbies abound everywhere you look. Both heads have shower stalls and medicine cabinets with security locks. The Fleming 55s hull is constructed robustly as you would expect. Theres no core below the waterline, just 13 layers of fiberglass mat and roving laminated with blister-resistant epoxy resin.
Frames and stringers are laid eight layers thick. This boat has good bones. At a leisurely 1,600 rpm the Fleming 55 can make 8.4 knots and burn just six tenths of a gallon of fuel per nautical mile. Thats five gallons per hour and a range of over 1,600 nautical miles, two very cruising- friendly figures. Is she perfect? No, of course not. My first disappointment is the lack of a full-length watch berth in the pilothouse.
And no boat with this svelte a profile will have much in the way of stand-up headroom in the engine room. Finally, the guest head butts up against the master stateroom bulkhead, a small price to pay for a layout that devotes so much space to a grand, multipurpose cockpit. But for those with the means and the appreciation of the hundreds of little details that make this boat what is it, there are few better choices.
What to pay for cruising bliss? I found 20 for sale in early March, ranging from $590,000 for a 1991 to $1,795,000 for a 2008, both in San Diego, California. The majority of Fleming 55s on the market are in Maryland and California, nearest their dealers.
Charting the Course at Mystic Seaport
Mystic, Connecticut Mystic Seaport visitors will soon be able to explore the rugged, undiscovered and somewhat fantastical terrain of 16th- and 17thcentury California and its surrounding waters with the Museums newest exhibition, Mapping the Pacifi c Coast: From Coronado to Lewis and Clark, The Quivira Collection. Drawn from the private collection of Henry Wendt, this traveling exhibit features more than 30 historic maps, illustrations and books made between 1540 and 1802, all of which reveal Europeans changing understanding of the North American Pacific Coast.
Opening May 2 in the Museums Mallory Exhibit Hall, the exhibit leads viewers on a voyage of exploration, beginning with the collections oldest map a rare 1544 woodcut by Sebastian Munster and ending with Thomas Jeffersons decision to commission the Corps of Discovery. The rare documents illustrate cartographers early visions of foreign lands and waters, regions replete with sea monsters, mythical kingdoms and the very first contacts between Native Americans and Europeans.
The [maps] show the state of knowledge of this new world at the time the map was made. They have historical significance. And aesthetically, theyre great to look at. Thats the other part of the appeal: theyre works of art, said history buff and lifelong sailor Wendt. The exhibition is divided into four sections Fact and Fantasy, California as an Island, Secret Russian Explorations in the Pacific and In the Wake of Captain James Cook helping to lead visitors on a chronological journey through developing European perceptions of the Pacific Coast.
Further enhancing the visitor experience, Mystic Seaport is also offering viewers a free mp3 audio-guided tour narrated by Wendt himself. A selection of 18th-century nautical instruments drawn from the Museums own collection will also be on display. From sextants to chronometers, visitors will see first hand the types of navigational tools early explorers used to determine their exact locations on the watery world.
Visitors can then continue their navigational quest in the Museums Nautical Instruments Shop and in the Planetarium lobbys permanent exhibit on 19th-century navigation. Mystic Seaport will additionally open The Map Spot adjacent to Mapping the Pacific Coast, providing an activity space for visitors of all ages that boosts map literacy and appreciation for maps recording and imagining the world. The Map Spot encourages adults and children to use and make maps and maritime charts at different activity stations, while large-scale wall graphics will challenge aspiring cartographers visions of the world.
Through varying hands-on activities, visitors will discover the paramount role maps play in their lives, while also seeing maps as tools that serve specific purposes. Entrance to Mapping the Pacific Coast and The Map Spot are included in Museum admission. The exhibition will run through December and is open daily during regular Museum hours.
Westward Ho!
On days when life seems unnecessarily ridiculous, complicated and frustrating, it occurs to me that I really just want to sail away. The pressures and complications that form the landscape of my life are so frequently oppressive and omnipresent, that for the most part, I simply yield to them without protest and do what I am told without even realizing I am submitting to the collective will of a culture that really may not have my best interests in mind.
Yet simply sailing away, while it has occurred to me daily in the past 15 years or so, seems impossibly out of reach. I believe this is exactly so for most of us, even the most adventurous. A bit of summer cruising is all I usually get, and mostly, its all I have the courage to expect. However powerful the allure of the horizon, duty calls, after all. My reality, you could say. While my choice has been to be somewhat passive in respect to accepting the daily grind one shouldnt make the mistake of believing everyone chooses to live a life of quiet desperation.
There are people who plan great things and accomplish them, and its their stories that are at the heart of all that is extraordinary. Here you learn another of my little secrets. By day, I am essentially a salesperson. I know you see me only as a writer, but that is simply a matter of your perspective. From my point of view, there is an office to serve. Understand, I have never believed that the intricacies and art of the deal make for best selling material.
I dont own any Seven Secrets of Sales Success books that I would ever admit to having read. What a bore. Thats not the kind of sail I am interested in. I will admit that these days, the implausible stories of business failures and the tracking of sales and stocks has become a terrifying chain of acquisition, divestment, disillusionment and implosion, and is anything but boring. All the more reason to simply want to sail away.
I believe we were born to expect something better than to live our lives by the rule of the dollar. More eternal than the pursuit of wealth are the great sagas of the past, and in these, all of us can fi nd something inspiring. Epic voyages are at the heart of our fantasies, from Ulysses to Shackleton, Columbus to Vancouver. Such great explorations and adventures are universally enthralling. In a day when it seems all on earth that can be done has been done, where do we turn for another such adventure involving wooden ships and sturdy people willing to take a risk to learn something?
Well I have first hand knowledge of such doings, and Im going to share it with you. Actually, I only saw a movie about these things. It was made here in Seattle, complied painstakingly by John Sabella and his team. John writes a column in this very magazine, but thats really not his day job. He has had a few careers in his life, but his abiding interest has been in documenting maritime subjects, including commercial fishing, on the North Pacific from Seattle to the Bearing Sea.
Although not a fisherman, John knows something of the hard, dangerous life occasioned by fishing in northern waters. And it is this interest and his study of first the boats and men, and finally the facts of survival in this bitter environment that has brought us to his attention, and he to ours. Johns real focus in fact is media production and compiling the records of our marine heritage in an easily accessible form before those records are entirely lost.
This interest has led him to produce a number of videos on classic boats which you can explore on his website, the address Ill provide further down the page. I think you should know about the subject of Johns latest documentary, the yacht Westward and her families of owners. All of them have in their way broken with the traditions of land bound responsibility and the rules of the game that we drones follow dutifully. The Westward makes everyone who possesses her sail away.
Its simple, really. To sail away one needs a ship capable of so doing. Westward, which is the inspiration for my musings and our escape, was designed by Ted Geary, one of the golden eras greatest marine architects. She cut the mold for the Geary fantails that were to follow. Built for Campbell Church Sr. by the John A. Martinolich Shipbuilding Company in Dockton, Washington, she was launched in 1924. But she is no ordinary yacht.
She is built in the style of a north Pacific cannery boat, but with rather more graceful lines at the stern where she fl aunts Gearys trademark fantail. As a yacht built to cosset people and not hold fi sh, she has some extra house that makes life aboard gracious and spacious. At 86 feet, shes a large boat but not so large that a small crew cant handle her. Churchs planned use for her was Alaska voyaging, and he supplemented his family boating experiences by putting her in service, catering to the most wealthy, successful and powerful people of the day.
Later, his son Campbell Jr. would make a thriving business out of the vessel with a supporting cast of boats and camps in the wilderness. But Church Sr. showed the way. Westwards passengers experienced nothing less than the wilds of Alaska in the days when it was untouched by civilization. There they might on any day shoot a brown bear or moose, or row up to a glacier from which it was possible to dive in and take a swim. The first paying guest aboard Westward, and arguably the most important, was George Eastman.
Thats Kodaks George Eastman from Rochester, NY. Mr. Eastman taught Church Senior to take 16mm films. This was a most fortunate thing, yielding to posterity a legacy of 300 reels of remarkably competent film footage. These reels innocently display the wealthy of the time engaging in sports of a kind that are now entirely out of fashion. For instance, Sabellas documentary has a section devoted to whale hunting from the deck of Westward, and to accomplish this she was equipped with a cannon
to do the work in a thoroughly efficient manner.
My dream has no place for whale hunting, and it was as disturbing to view this event as a sport as it was to see photos of skinned bears shot for fun. But you have to admit this is really different than what you do for a living. And to run this show, to be at the helm of this boat and give the Roger Maris salute to income taxes and parking tickets really does have universal appeal, doesnt it? It was appealing enough to Don Gumpertz and his wife Anna Louise to cause them to buy Westward in 1967 after the Churchs had owned her for forty years.
Having refitted and engaged her in a few years of shake down cruises, they took her cruising. They left port one day, turned right and sailed her all the way around the world. I met Don at a Seattle showing of the film and was impressed by this soft spoken, unassuming man that did exactly what I fantasize about every day. He just done did it. The Gumpertzs sailed their forty year old power boat everywhere you could take her, returning five years later.
You really do need to see this part for yourself, and this central piece of Westward history matches my personal take on the ultimate escape from the worlds stupid stuff about as well as I could possibly imagine. My hat is off to Don and his wife, Anna Louise, whom he has survived. Their adventure is the stuff of dreams and it surely must comfort him that they lived this improbable experience together. Extraordinary. As Westward served Don and Anna Louise, so in turn did she fi nd new ownership in Teresa and Hugh Reilly, who purchased her in 1993.
The expected refitting may have exceeded the usual run of work demanded by a seventy year old boat simply because of the use that was intended of her. That is a story for another telling, but here I can do no better than to quote Hugh himself. We are leaving Port Townsend on Sunday, headed for San Francisco, the beginnings of a voyage that will take us down to Mexico. We will spend March and April in Mexico and early May we are leaving Cabo San Lucas for the Marquesas in French Polynesia.
It will be a two-week crossing and we will spend the summer, our summer, in French Polynesia, the Marquesas, Tuamotu Islands and the Society Islands, Tahiti, Bora Bora, the les Sous-le-Vent, the Islands under the Wind, French Polynesia. I am hard pressed to explain my rationale for doing this, it probably requires a pretty deep therapy to dig into my psyche and find out why this is going on. If I am crazy, I
am having fun doing it.
Although Hugh may have a hard time putting his rationale into words, I do not have so much trouble with what I imagine would be my justifications for such madness. You see, I believe I can perfectly explain such behavior as the desire to sail an eighty-year old boat around the world. If you have the boat, and you have the guts and the resources, what would you do? Do you prefer to read self-help books or collect parking tickets? Perhaps you find joy in dealing with insurance companies, or pondering how to get out of your latest jury duty summons?
Maybe you like jury duty; how would I know? But for me, Westwards capabilities are the basis of the dream. Theres lots to explore. Poke around until you fi nd the section on Westward. As a decent navigator, Im sure youll find the way. Look under Classic Yachts. Thats always a good place to start! Speaking just for myself, I have to admit that Ill be going to work tomorrow, because I have responsibilities. But one of us needs to break away and taste freedom. The Reillys are looking for a partner to keep Westward on the move. I dont know what a share costs. Youll need to check with Hugh and see what hes thinking. Im afraid even to ask.
2009 Mylne Classic Regatta
On Sunday, July 12th over twenty classic and elegant yachts designed and built by Alfred Mylne will gather together in Scotland, at Rhu near Helensburgh. Their common cause: to celebrate the design and work of Alfred Mylne (1872 1951). Alfred Mylne started out in the yacht design business working for another famous Scottish yacht designer George Lennox Watson. One of Mylnes jobs in 1892 was to draw up the plans for the Royal Yacht Britannia, and his initials can still be seen on the original plans for this yacht.
In 1896 Mylne left Watson, and at the age of 24 set up his own yacht design business at 81 Hope Street Glasgow, near Central Station. Mylne quickly gained a reputation for building fast and seaworthy yachts and became one of the leading instigators of the International Metre Rule in 1906. Mylne designed and built over 400 yachts in a career that spanned two world wars. In 1945 he handed the reigns to his nephew, also named Alfred Mylne, who continued the business through austere times.
In 1959 he was joined by a yachting journalist and enthusiastic designer and sailor, Ian Nicolson. Ian, after an apprenticeship in Canada, decided to spend his airfare home on building his own yacht and sailing single handed across the Atlantic. Ian is now the author of over 23 books on yachts and yacht design, and has regular columns in many yachting publications. In 2007, David Gray, an enthusiastic naval architect based in Fife, bought the business from Ian, and with Ians help, started the enormous task of digitising and cataloging the entire archive of over 10,000 drawings and documents.
It can earnestly be said that A.Mylne and Co. is the oldest continually operating yacht design business anywhere in the world. So what makes a Mylne special? Mylnes designs are often confused with those of William Fife, a close personal friend and friendly rival of Mylne. To the trained eye, one would notice a slight increase in sheer (the deck line is not so flat), and slightly fuller sections. The reason? Mylne felt that a yacht should last for 50 years.
He recognized that the racing life of a yacht is short and the cruising life long. Therefore he designed his yachts to be fast racers, but also to have space below to make them capable and seaworthy fast cruisers in their later years. And that is one reason over 100 original Mylne-designed yachts are still afloat today, with the 1899-built Tigris still sailing competitively in the Mediterranean.
These yachts now cover the globe, from New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Argentina, the United States, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Greece, India, and of course England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. There are over twenty yachts coming to the event, including Eileen II (ex Albyn), a 1935 Ketch of 95 feet coming over from Norway (see www.eileen.no). There is also Kelpie, a 1904 52-foot Rater, which after re-measurement now holds the title as the worlds oldest 12-meter.
The 1935 motor yacht Faith (www.yachtfaith.co.nz) is coming from New Zealand, a most able and seaworthy vessel of 75 feet in length, who sailed much of the way across the Pacifi c using her auxiliary sailing rig. Four 25-foot Glen class yachts, built in Bangor, Northern Ireland in the 1940s and 50s are coming from Strangford Lough and Dublin. There are also representative coming from the Royal Mersey Mylne class, and the River class among many others.
There is palpable excitement from the owners and crew for this first ever gathering of Mylne yachts. The racing will start on Monday, July 13 with a run from Rhu to Rothesay. Tuesday will see a Round Bute race. Wednesdays race will be around Great Cumbrae for the larger yachts, and the fi nal race on Thursday will be back to the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club (RNCYC) at Rhu for the Prize giving. First prize is the Keepsake Trophy, presented for the first time at last year s Fife Regatta.
This is a very special trophy, being the last ever design by William Fife, a 12-meter that was never built because of the war. When Fife retired in 1939, he telephoned Mylne and asked if he would like something to remember his old friend by. Alfred asked for this model which he knew to be hanging on Fifes office wall and the model duly arrived entitled A Keepsake. This then represents a great friendship between the two great designers of the time.
It is now presented for Scottish Classic Yachting on the Clyde. The winner of last year s Fife regatta The Truant is attending by special invitation to defend her prize. The social program for the event includes some very special moments. On the Sunday there is a hog roast in the grounds of the RNCYC clubhouse during the registration of the yachts. Silvers Marine, who are sponsoring the first race, will have an open house day.
They will shuttle people back and forth across the narrows to visit their yard to witness boatbuilding old and new in their excellent facility. One of the original Silvers motor launches will be taking part as a Sponsors entry. Tuesday night sees a special reception hosted by the Isle of Bute Sailing Club, supported by Homecoming Scotland. The Isle of Bute is where Mylne had his own yard, The Bute Slip Dock Company, at Ardmaleish Point, so there are strong historical connections between the island and many of the Mylne yachts.
There is a free evening on the Tuesday night, where crews can relax in the many bars and attractions of Rothesay. On the Wednesday night there will be a tour of Mount Stuart, the home of the Marques of Bute, including a whiskey tasting by Adelphi Distillery who will be launching the new Adelphis Fascadale 10 year-old single malt this year. Returning to the RNCYC for the final nights awards, there will be a Ceilidh and Scottish Dinner, plus a charity fund raising event for the Regattas official charity, The Ellen MacArthur Trust helping young people regain their confidence through sailing after serious illness and leukemia.
The Mylne Classic Regatta 2009 promises to be an exciting gathering and celebration of some of the fi nest yachts ever produced and designed in Scotland. Come along to Rhu and Rothesay, where youll get a chance to walk among the yachts and appreciate first-hand the craftsmanship and beauty of these floating works of art. Meet and talk to the people who spend so much time and money enjoying them. When Alfred Mylne designed these yachts they were cutting edge race winners. They were always beautiful - now we see them as true classics.
Coronado
Coronado is one of the most enjoyable waterfront locales in California. Heres what to do if youre in town and you want to spend time by the boats. San Diegos near-perfect climate, gentle breezes and endless sunshine make it an ideal destination to relax and set sail in beautiful Southern California waters. For visitors looking for a romantic setting, a fun family outing or the opportunity to learn from certified experts, San Diego offers numerous options for the most skilled or novice sailors.
Home
|
|
