1971 O'Day Day Sailer II CYANE Spring Cleaning

23 Feb 25:

 Spring cleaning for CYANE. Skipper wanted to get the snow off of CYANE so she pressed WILEY into service to pull the trailer around to the wash rack. 

A few days earlier we had near record snowfall, 8 inches at our place.

After a few days there was still quite a pile of snow on the boat. The good news is CYANE is parked in a sheltered spot,  but the spot does not get enough sun during times of the year when sun is desired to dry things out a bit.

The first small victory was knowing where the key for the hitch lock was, right where we thought it would be.

We towed CYANE to Virginia in 2021 on 4 year old tires...and she sat. The code 2517 is the WWYY Week Year that the tire was made, so sometime July 2017ish. While the tire looks okay, there are microfissures all over it and 6 years is the recommended life. So time for new tires.

Skipper makes it look fun...

...it was like an archeological dig...

...and I got to finish.

Foredeck cleaned off, now to see what is under the tarp.

Gear that we pulled out of the cuddy, including a ten year old fire extinguisher. The age limit in Virginia is 12 years, so as long as the pressure gauge reads good, it has two more years. The gear was damp but not mildewed.

Meanwhile in the Sunfish Shack everything was dusty but dry.

Skipper lodged a complaint that her wagons were full of other people's junk, so I cleaned out two of them. And put a new tire on a Gorilla Cart. I need to find a better spot for the electrical cords, which are for use with the generator if we have a power outage. We keep them handy because we are still traumatized from living in Florida and Hurricane season.

There is a 19 foot Drascombe Lugger in here somewhere. It is actually mostly ready to roll if we move some cardboard and boat cover. But we'll check her out soon, because Webb told us that gear multiplies in the dark.

CYANE scrubs up real nice. She needs to d an afternoon of Yard Sailing and then she'll be ready for a Spring Fling.

Outlaw Trailer Court, Inc. We are trying something new with the safety cones, suggested by Ben.

Abaco Dinghy HENNING Rub Rail

14 Feb 25:

We are still staring at this rub rail, like by staring at it, it will magically reproduce itself. A good portion of the rubrail was rotten, so we removed all of it and kept a few pieces to be used as a pattern. It would be easy enough to cut the roundovers on top and bottom, they look to be about 3/4", but the middle cove has us stumped. Any thoughts on how to shape the shouldered groove?

Log of HENNING.

P. D. Gwltney Sr. Gasoline Yacht

14 Feb 25:

We are looking for information on P. D. Gwaltney Sr.'s Gasoline Yacht named Jean & Virginia, shown here on the Pagan River in Smithfield about 1905. 

Image credit: Smithfield A Pictorial History. Segar Cofer Dashiel. 19177. 

Image credit: Smithfield A Pictorial History. Segar Cofer Dashiel. 19177. 

We think that Jean & Virginia was built by the Gas Engine & Power Company in Morris Heights, Bronx, New York, USA. There is another yacht built by Gas Engine & Power Company named Virginia bumping around up North, a 40 footer with the same clipper bow. A sister ship?

Image Credit: Antique Boat Museum

Please help us solve the mystery!

SERO Innovation New Builder of Sunfish Sailboat

12 Feb 25:

SERO Innovation of Marine City Michigan are the new licensed builder of the Sunfish sailboat. They are hoping to have boats on the water in the late Spring. They are also the manufacturer of the SOL sailboat.

We think Alex and Cortlandt would be happy that Sunfish manufacturing has returned to the US.

Spring Is Around the Corner

11 Feb 25:

Spring is near and it is a good time to start sorting flotsam and jetsam in the flagship, Skipper's Drascombe Lugger named ONKAHYE (Dancing Feather). You can see that ONKAHYE leads a pampered life when not sailing, with her own spot in the air conditioned garage. We try to keep her escape path clear, right now only a few bikes in the way. She can squeeze out past the Mustang, but it is smarter to move the car first. 

While we try to keep only ONKAHYE's gear in the boat, there is some overflow from the resto of the fleet, spare PFDs, a stray Sunfish cover awaiting repair...overall it takes 5-10 minutes to get the gear sorted. 

Snow showers today, but the daffodils are also poking out...

Log of ONKAHYE.

Alcort Icefish

18 Jan 25:

I don't think we can call ourselves true sailors until we have sailed an Alcort Icefish. The Icefish was actually one of Alcort's first boats, marketed around the same time as the Sailfish in the late 1940s. Here is our friend Alan heading out on his Icefish, if I remember he described it as "terrifyingly fast." 40 mph or so over the hard water.

There was one for sale on facebook marketplace recently, maybe it can still be yours...

But in the meantime, Skipper and I will stick to the wet water. 

 If you like "White Wings and Black Ice," check out this website: https://hudsonrivericeyachting.blogspot.com/2025/01/orange-lake-january-2025.html

Cheers,

Kent and Audrey

Navy Curtis (NC) Flying Boats 1919

 15 Jan 25:

NC-4, in the first photo below, was the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic back in May of 1919, flying from Rockaway, New York to Plymouth, England with a few stops along the way. The photo was taken in October 1919 at the Navy Wharf in Washington, DC. 

What is more amazing beyond the Transatlantic crossing was the logistics effort to disassemble the aircraft, safely return it to the US in a ship, reassemble and then launch on a publicity tour of the Eastern US. That's a lot of parts and pieces to keep track of. We also like the little sightseeing canoe in the photo, reminds us of something Capn Jack and Audrey would do.

NC-1 is shown here flying near Rockaway, she made it almost all the way to the Azores, and had to be abandoned at sea after being damaged in a landing, with the crew safely aboard a support ship.

We also enjoy seeing photos of the maintenance crew and flight crew, working together to make it all happen. Check out the flight crew's gear, we really didn't have aircrew flight clothing back then, so oilskins and thick long johns were the uniform of the day. The pilots could hide behind a tiny piece of glass in their open cockpit, while the navigator poked his head out of the bow cupola to take sightings with his aerial sextant. Meanwhile the Flight Engineer worked from engine to engine on the wing, checking oil and water, adjusting timing, etc...Hard core.

Abaco Dinghy Month

14 Jan 25:

This month's WoodenBoat Calendar photo of WIDGET, built by Winer Malone, reminds us that it is time to get out and work on our Abaco style Dinghy. The warm waters of the Bahamas and WIDGET look inviting, and beautifully photographed by Benjamin Mendlowitz.

More Snow

11 Jan 25:

Another tiny bit of snow came down Friday night, enough for Skipper to make a snowman. 

The snow was melting fast, so we headed over to our local park to take a few pictures.

Then today a huge pileated woodpecker dropped by to hammer one of our trees.