Jeff Evans
08-27-2002, 03:30 PM
I took a drive out to Provincetown, MA on Sunday to have a look at my fantasy boat. Stormy Mayo, a whale biologist started building her in the mid 1970s and had to put off construction for about 15 years or so for personal reasons. Now he's back in the game. He had to replace much of wood down in the bilge as she sat for almost 20 years in the rain with no deck.
She is a traditional looking schooner 37' on deck strip planked of African Mahogany over bent white oak. Construction began in 1974, I think, by pouring her 8000 lb. external lead ballast. She'll take 2000- 4000 more internally! Her deck and deck houses are in place, built of what I believe was 3/4" mahogany ply. She has a 40 HP diesel that is below decks, but not yet installed. The prop shaft is bored and much of the interior is framed, but it is very much a construction site still. For a boat her size, I'm amazed at just how small she seems inside.
Stormy says he wasn't completely confident in his building ability as an amature, so he glassed the outside of the hull, deck, and deck structures all around. The boat is now covered in white fairing compound and being ground and sanded to final shape, and he hopes to paint her within a couple of weeks. (could glassing just the outside of the hull contribute to future rot problems?) The interior is being finished with spruce strips nailed to the frames.
He has the sails ready for her from another builder who started with the same plans but gave up and never finished her. I believe he has the spars from another similar failed construction. He is making patterns for the bronze parts and will have them cast in CT. William Peterson (murray's son) has the patterns, but won't release them. To have him cast them in Maine would have been about 3 times as expensive as casting them himself. He is also wondering how he's going to produce the 57 blocks that her traditional rigging requires!
I also had a chance to look over his grandfather's 13' Swampscott Dory (actually built in Swampscott, MA, back in the day) for comparison with my 16'er under construction now and his Bahama Skiff, i believe he called it. Both beautiful small sailing boats. I shot two rolls of film and if I get some photos scanned I'll post them.
It was such an exciting trip I just had to share!!! Oh, he's also a fanatical dalliah gardener (sp?). Wow.
Cheers,
Jeff
[ 08-27-2002, 04:35 PM: Message edited by: Jeff Evans ]
She is a traditional looking schooner 37' on deck strip planked of African Mahogany over bent white oak. Construction began in 1974, I think, by pouring her 8000 lb. external lead ballast. She'll take 2000- 4000 more internally! Her deck and deck houses are in place, built of what I believe was 3/4" mahogany ply. She has a 40 HP diesel that is below decks, but not yet installed. The prop shaft is bored and much of the interior is framed, but it is very much a construction site still. For a boat her size, I'm amazed at just how small she seems inside.
Stormy says he wasn't completely confident in his building ability as an amature, so he glassed the outside of the hull, deck, and deck structures all around. The boat is now covered in white fairing compound and being ground and sanded to final shape, and he hopes to paint her within a couple of weeks. (could glassing just the outside of the hull contribute to future rot problems?) The interior is being finished with spruce strips nailed to the frames.
He has the sails ready for her from another builder who started with the same plans but gave up and never finished her. I believe he has the spars from another similar failed construction. He is making patterns for the bronze parts and will have them cast in CT. William Peterson (murray's son) has the patterns, but won't release them. To have him cast them in Maine would have been about 3 times as expensive as casting them himself. He is also wondering how he's going to produce the 57 blocks that her traditional rigging requires!
I also had a chance to look over his grandfather's 13' Swampscott Dory (actually built in Swampscott, MA, back in the day) for comparison with my 16'er under construction now and his Bahama Skiff, i believe he called it. Both beautiful small sailing boats. I shot two rolls of film and if I get some photos scanned I'll post them.
It was such an exciting trip I just had to share!!! Oh, he's also a fanatical dalliah gardener (sp?). Wow.
Cheers,
Jeff
[ 08-27-2002, 04:35 PM: Message edited by: Jeff Evans ]