John Atkin's Ben Bow Found -- free to right person.

[OEX]

I believe I just found Jonh Atkin's Ben Bow. She is a gaff cutter rig now with the Turner reefing main and a topsail mast. Her main is a bit short and tall in gaff terns---this is all the original spars, etc of Ben Bow, just adapted to Gaff by Atkin---he mentions the gig in his writing. She still has here nameplates on the stern and she is exactly the same as Ben Bow in articles, plans, and Of Yachts and Men.

I am hoping someone on this site will restore her. I will give it the person with the best plan of attack, etc.

Her frames and floor timbers are gone-=--iron sick, her stem is gone, but the rest of her dead wood, keel are fine with a bit of planning and re-rabbiting. Her planks are a bit blasted by the iron, but are still good (70-80% of them)--white cedar. Her keel ballast is iron and fine, but I imagine the bolts are shot. Her deck and cabin are in good shape, but the interior is 75% gone. Some of her whale/last upper most plank is gone towards the stern. Her rigging is in good shape, but sails are gone, as is the engine. Most of her hardware is still there and in great shape. I have her rigging now. She cannot be moved too far without some strengthening. I do know a few shipwrights that would do this work with pride and NOT at yard prices at all!

I would love to take her, but am three boats behind. She is outside, over grown and uncovered. I cannot spend the $ to move her, but if someone wants to pay for her to be moved here then i can store her for a bit free.

I really hope someone takes this project on and i can see her and sail in her some day---I have been reading/dreaming/drooling about this boat for a long time, but timing is bad---I just happened to meet someone who had her given to him years ago and could not get to her.

I will get pictures ASAP, but I am very sure this is Ben Bow and that her rig was changed from a knockabout to a gaff cutter with a bowsprit, etc. The mast has the same hardware as all the pictures of Ben Bow, so seems to have been cut down and changed to a topsail gaff.

If no one takes her she will be hauled off soon and.... I am keeping the rigging if this is so.

Please spread the word and let’s not let this one go away. I will have the pix on my web site www.woodenboatrescue.org, (http://www.woodenboatrescue.org,) please contact me though that site. (I have about 12-15 other free boats there).

Ross Gannon would most likely love to take this one on for someone, he also would give it a survey for less $ for the Wooden Boat Rescue Foundatio —He is a friend/relative of mine The Wooden Boat Rescue Foundation (http://www.woodenboatrescue.org) , or Richard Fewtrell a great shipwright just near here---or your guy---?

Cheers, Bruce

[OEX]

I just look at my post---sorry for the spelling mistakes---too mant :-0 , guess i am just happy to have found Ben Bow.

Cheers, Bruce

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Come on, somebody - this is a boat that really deserves a rebuild! And which will make a wholly practical smallish cruising yacht, at the end of it.

[Greg Stoll]

I may be missing something, but I can't find it; there are only three boats listed, and only one of them is a sailboat.

Greg

[Disco Bay]

Likewise. I'm only seeing three listings; nos. 13, 14, & 15. I'd very much like to see more. I've a buddy in that market at the moment. What gives?

[OEX]

Sorry I am getting the posts worked out. Someone odd got onto the site, we had to clean it up--learning this self-posting program, and I work full time. I lost five of my post and need to get them up again. In the mean time, please look at www.classicworkboat.com. (http://www.classicworkboat.com.)

I have these boats at this time:

20 cat boat
44 Peterson schooner
38 aft cab Chris craft
40 wheeler
32 Noank Lobster boat
28 friendship/New England sloop boot---Gloucester type or mid Maine coast--pending
26 gaff cutter Ben Bow Williams boat (not John as I first wrote)
38 Maine cruiser/lobster boat--pending
30 Trojan cruiser
50 William Hand motor sail--pending
30 Ralph Winslow sloop---pending
24 Atkin’s Shore Liner

Just e-mail me if you are interested in any of these and I will do my best to get stuff to you.

Thank you, Bruce.
Bioelf@mindspring.com

[Jack Heinlen]

For those interested in more about Ben Bow:

http://www.boat-links.com/Atkinco/Sail/BenBow.html

As originally drawn, with her marconi rig.

http://www.boat-links.com/Atkinco/Sail/images/BenBow-1.gif

http://www.boat-links.com/Atkinco/Sail/images/BenBow-3.gif

Salty!

[ 10-30-2004, 09:53 PM: Message edited by: Jack Heinlen ]

[Jack Heinlen]

This boat really does deserve to be saved, assuming her survey didn't turn out to be considerably worse than first blush. It's too bad she's been uncovered for so long. However, her pedigree might make up for the amount of work involved.

Make no mistake about it though, this is a major project; a labor of love, skill, and/or money. It could, easily, take more time than building new.

But how cool to own and sail Ben Bow! Properly set up she'd cross oceans, albeit in less than luxury. That low cabin top...

I suspect you'd have a guardian shipmate in the spirit of Billy Atkin aboard if you did so. Couldn't have it much better than that. smile.gif

P.S. Pics please! smile.gif

[ 10-30-2004, 11:04 PM: Message edited by: Jack Heinlen ]

[OEX]

Thanks Andrew and Jack.

OK pictures of Ben Bow are up on the site web page (http://www.woodenboatrescue.org) ---my e-mail is Bioelf@mindspring.com--the contact button on the site is not linked to me yet.

Pat Atkin contacted me about Ben Bow---seem she was last seen in the water around Westport, CT. Cross your fingers that the Atkin family has interest. Mystic Seaport my also be interested.

Cheers, Bruce

[Jack Heinlen]

Hoo boy. From the look of her it is gonna take either an institution, or an Atkin fanatic with more energy/money than sense. Hard to say for sure, maybe she looks better in person, but man, what a mess!

If it were I, I'd salvage the hardware then loft and build new, with a dutchman of the original keel in the top of the new for good luck.

Good luck, in anycase. This isn't your typical rebuild, to say the least.

It's a shame someone didn't look after her better than that. :( Even wooden boats by masters come to difficult ends.

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Someone tell me about this boat. I don't know the history, altho I know the Atkin name.

[Jack Heinlen]

See my post above, Peter for Billy's own words about the boat.

I don't know much about either her history or design beyond that. She was part of a series of meditations by a genius on what hull shape goes to sea well. Ben Bow was, by the reports I remember reading, a fine sea boat: kindly motion, able, and comfortable for her size.

[OEX]

In "Of Yachts and Men" William Atkin dedicates 7 chapters to Ben Bow. Pages 72 - 93. get is on Amazon ( web page (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1888671076/qid=1099317445/sr=8-3/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i3_xgl14/104-1806283- 2063918?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) )

She is an English Cutter style. Little over hangs, vertical bow, etc---like a Falmouth working boat or Quay Cutter. He built her lighter in displacement than others and was happy with that. Her sea going ability was very good and she was fast. Nice open deck plan.

She does need a very dedicated restorer, I think she can be saved with about 25% of her original material there. I would be easier to loft her and recreate---but that is not the same boat. Keep most of her deck, her keel and stern dead wood, cabin and cock pit, hardware, and rig---the rest will need to be recreated.--i.e. much of the hull including knees and stem, outer portions of the deck (20%), all the interior and a new engine.

I have a 26 hp Yanmar with 50 hours I will sell very cheap to the person willing to complete this restoration.

I have a shipwright that is willing to take a trip down to her and come up with a couple of realistic numbers to have it restored to differing levels---these would be real and fair #s as best as can be estimated.---again NOT yard #s at all. Contact me at bioelf@mindspring.com if you want the #s.

cheers, Bruce

[OEX]

Here is a note from Pat Atkin in reply to a note i sent to her.

"Dear Bruce:

Was reading the chat room and saw your posting.

Thank you . I will supply a set of BEN BOW plans, as a gift, to anyone who takes the boat to use in building a replica. Your gift of an engine is great. Perhaps we can get someone interested.

.......So, keep me posted if you get someone interested.

The offer stands for any Atkin boat you find. I will be happy to supply plans for SHORELINER, if you find a taker.

Pat "

This is great!!

So right now you can get a free almost new Yanmar and the plans to Ben Bow---alll anyone needs to do is get on this project!

Cheers, Bruce

[Ruaridh]

For some perverse reason I feel compelled to add my thoughts to this thread....please don't think I meany ANY disrespect to the topic starter or anyone connected with the Atkins family by my opinions.

This boat is well and truly b*ggered, as we'd say here in Scotland. I think that the chances of ANY part of her turning out to be better than it at first appears are vanishingly small, and of course lots of her will turn out to be much worse.

Others, including the family of the designer, have correctly advised that the way ahead here would be to build a new boat, salvaging hardware, inspiration and detail from what's left of the original. Becuase plans and assistance from the company of the designer are readily available, there isn't even much to be gained from taking lines or construction notes from the original, as there may be with other historic vessels.

So far so good. But the conclusion I can't help drawing is that the accquiring / moving / posession of this original is a bit of an irrelevance to getting the new one built, save for the afforementioned hardware and the kudos of keeping the original name, numbers etc. - In short, don't put the cart before the horse.

Anyone who was to take on this project and make any kind of success of it would have to already be well down the road towards starting to build a traditional 30 foot wooden yacht anyway, whether by themselves or by financing it. It goes without saying that this is no small undertaking. So what you're really looking for is someone who's already at that stage, whom you might be able to persuade to forgo their chosen design and build a 'Ben Bow'.

I would suggest that anyone who puts up their hand out of the blue and says 'yeah, great, I'll take her!', would almost automatically be the wrong person togive her to, although I appreciate you probably realise this.

I really like to see how passionate you, Bruce, and others are about this boat, and I hate to be the one pouring cold water - but sometimes it's helpful :rolleyes: . Unless there's a lot of pressure for her to be moved from where she is, I wouldn't sweat it too much if she has to lie there for a while longer. And generous as they are, free plans and engine aren't going to make a huge difference on a project of this size.

Far better to just keep half an eye on her to make sure that important bits of hardware don't get stolen, and cast the net wide to see if you can find anyone who was thinking of building one anyway. (Perhaps via the Atkins'?) Then you can give him / her great pleasure by offering them the soul of the original to build into their boat. Let them be the judge of whether it's worth actually moving her whole or whether thay just want to do a careful salvage of what's useable, and dispose of the remains in whatever (dignified) way they see fit.

[Jack Heinlen]

What Ruaridh said. I think trying to save part of the fabric, aside for spars and fittings, is a fool's errand. Looking at the photos the hull hasn't kept its shape. It's been uncovered for decade. The hope of saving parts of the deck and cabin belie what it takes to build a boat like this. I wouldn't touch it on that ground.

Pat, John's widow, has the right idea, a replica with such fittings as exist.

I hope that an offer still exists for such a builder; that a motor and plans are still there. For a young buck or deer wanting to build and sail the world this is a worthy boat. Build her new.

[OEX]

Thanks for all the input on Ben Bow---most of the comments are well founded---however, please understand that a boat like this means different things to different people. It is important to actually see the boat to make choices---this boat will not be given to anyone who has not seen it and who has not spoken to a qualified shipwright (I am not one).

On The Wooden Boat Rescue Foundation web site, I have a section for people to add their comments about a boat they saw and inspected. I am hoping this will allow people to make an informed decision on coming to look at the boat or not. Well-informed people can make their own decisions, this is why I do not condemn boats when I present their condition, unless I truly feel it’s a goner---such as the Peterson Schooner.

Clearly, I do not feel this boat is the best place to start a restoration or else I would not include suggestions about Ross Gannon or Pat Atkin's note. If someone wants a very easy restoration (contradiction in terms I know) I would put them onto, the Ralph Winslow sloop---just needs a stem and cosmetics. However, I do feel that the right person with the right amount of energy and dedication could very well save this boat in more than just a "that third fastening on the garboard is actually from Ben Bow."---of course it would be a large amount of work. Read anyone of Maynard Bray’s “save a classic” and you will see that saving some boats is just not logical, but instead something based in passion. Link the dream to an energetic person and this boat and many others might be saved. That is our first choice. The second choice is to make replicas based on the originals---NOT just the plans. As we all know many boats were not actually built exactly to the plans---saving them saves the designers ingenuity and resourcefulness.

A Bristol Channel Pilot would think us nutters to have so fully rebuilt their cutters over the last 100+ years. Colin Archer would have told all of Norway to dump his boats after 20-30 years---they were no big deal for him to design and build, but now he is gone. Now William and John Atkin are gone. Often the people closest to writers, designers, or musicians of high talent, do not see the talent in its fullness, or at least to see it as outsiders do. I clearly have the utmost respect for Mrs. Atkin, but she has had the ability to live and breathe these designs and the men responsible for them. The rest of us have only been able to dream.

Please, I hope no one gets me wrong here ---I want and need input, ideas, and advice, but I also need to keep things accurate, and evenly presented. For instance judging Ben Bow's shape based on one picture that was composed of four wide-angle shots, I could not get far enough away from the boat for a single picture to work, could give the wrong impression. Her shape is fine or I would have stated something to that effect.

I am still looking for qualified help throughout North America (right now) to volunteer opinions on the boats offered. Can anyone out there fill that role for some area? I now have over 28 boats free; all are restorable by someone equal to my ineptness. Some might take 10 years and a lot of money, but many are only a few weeks of hard work away from being back in the water.

Please stay tuned about Ben Bow---I am scheduled to go see her with a qualified shipwright next week---I will post the new info on the web site.

Cheers, Bruce

[Jack Heinlen]

Could be correct OEX, and as I said on another forum, surveys via pictures are a fools errand. But you can tell from the pictures she really is rough, and the fact of outside storage and no maintenance for ten years...well.

I really hope more than her shape and a few fittings can be saved. I, obviously, don't have a good feeling about that, but I don't know, and couldn't without looking, with a surveyor, at the physical. Part of the reason I look at her at all, and her drawings, and the idea behind her, long and long, is that ten years ago I might have been just your man. ;) Lovely, interesting, historic vessel.

Keep up the good work, and keep us posted.

Best,

Jack