Aileen Shields Bryan

  26 Mar 26:

Who came up with the concept for the Sunfish? Aileen Shields Bryan, Alex Bryan's better half. As in Alex Bryan and Cortlandt Heyniger of ALCORT Sailboats 

"Aileen Shields Bryan, daughter of Corny Shields, was among the best female sailors of her time. Sailing from the Larchmont YC, she won the Women’s National Championship Adams Cup in 1948 as well as Atlantic Class and 210 Championships. In 1950 she and her crew, Margot Gotte, wrote a detailed, 3-page article for Yacht Racing Magazine, titled “How to Win a Sailboat Race”. 

Also in 1950 Aileen married Alexander Bryan. Her husband, along with Cortlandt Heyniger, had designed and built the Sailfish, which was essentially a sailboard with a lateen-rigged sail. Aileen had a hand in it’s creation: Aileen, after taking the Sailfish (which did not have a cockpit) for a sail while pregnant, thought the craft would be more comfortable with a place to put one’s feet. Her ideas were taken to the drawing board and thus the Sunfish, with a cockpit and a slightly wider beam, was born. The Sunfish has since become the most popular recreational sailboat in the world.

The spark that set off Alcort’s extraordinary success was Aileen, Corny Shield’s daughter and perhaps the best female sailor of the time: winner of the ’48 Adams Cup and Class Champion in both Atlantics and 210’s. Corny credits Aileen with introducing Long Island Sound to “the greatest spinnaker-handling asset to come to yacht racing – the spinnaker turtle”. But, Sunfish was her greatest gift to sailing. The story goes: After Aileen married golfer Alex Bryan in 1950, her time on the water was dutifully in a wet bathing suit on the rough sandpaper deck of a Sailfish. For America’s leading yachtswoman, this had its limits. Not wanting to flop around on its flat deck when pregnant, like a beached whale, she “insisted” that Al and Cort build her a wider boat with a cockpit well for her feet, so she could more naturally sail, seated athwartships holding a hiking stick. It’s easy to imagine her saying, “Hey guys, let’s make a real sailboat”, one that’s more fun and easier to sail properly than this uncomfortable, tippy board we’ve been peddling?”

Aileen’s concept was drawn out in dust on the shop floor by Carl Meinelt… a 1-foot wider Sailfish with a cockpit well. Sunfish was born to become “The most popular fiberglass sailboat ever designed, with a quarter million sold worldwide” said the American Sailboat Hall of Fame in 1995.

National Sailing Hall of Fame. Bryan, Aileen Shields - National Sailing Hall of Fame

Skipper uses the same technique for holding the tiller as in the photo above...

We think Aileen is the lady we see in early Sailfish and Sunfish advertisements.

Thank you Aileen.

Happy St. Patricks Green Boat Day!

 17 Mar 26:

Sláinte

Clark and Skipper

Sailfish Sportabout Plaque

 16 Mar 26:

I've seen these Alcort plaques in the past and wasn't really looking for one, but today this Alcort Sailfish Sportabout plaque popped up on fb Marketplace. 

It seems that there may have been a waiting period for the kit or built boat to be produced, but in the meantime you got a plaque to look at.

The "Sportabout" name dates to the late 1940s - early 1950s. I like these colors, maybe we'll use them someday. 

I bought a brochure a few years back on ebay, and think I paid about the same for the brochure as I did the plaque, neither was cheap :)

Learn more about our full size Sailfish WINNIE.

The Little Sloop Molly, American Revolution and Gunpowder

 12 Mar 26:

Captain John Pasteur and the little sloop MOLLY are on our minds...Pasteur was a Patriot Privateer and later a "Virginia Boats" Captain...

From the minutes of the Virginia Navy Board in Williamsburg... January 3rd, 1777:
"Capt John Pasteur appeared and agreed for the Sum of four hundred and twenty five pounds, to deliver unto the Naval Board of Commissioners a Schooner Boat called the MOLLY, together with the Rigging Tackle and Apparel belonging to her - The money to be paid him upon his giving a Bill of Sale for the said Vessel."
"Ordered that Capt John Pasteur take the Command of the Schooner Boat Molly this day Purchased of him by the Board."

John Pasteur was close friends with John Sinclair, both mariners and residents of Church Street, and both who eventually took commissions in the Virginia Navy. And both married to Wilson women, Honour and Ann. Also in the mix is Sinclair's sister Margaret, who married Edward Lattimer, who later became Pasteur's First Lieutenant. There is more to learn about all of them, and their ties to other Isle of Wight County Mariners.

But enough about people, let's talk about boats! The little sloop MOLLY was built in Baltimore in 1770 and her original registered owner was Josiah Parker. MOLLY had a crew of four men and her first Master was Charles Fulgham of Smithfield, and before March of 1774 MOLLY was sold to a syndicate headed by John Pasteur. In early 1776 she cast off with John Pasteur as Master and was sent "to southward," returning with 7500 pounds of powder....and we're not talking flour, although flour was a prized cargo as well.

Gunpowder was essential to the Patriot's cause, and it is mind boggling to picture MOLLY and her crew braving the hazards of the coastal Atlantic, the vagaries of the West Indies and evading British warships during her round trip voyage from the Tidewater. MOLLY's service continues until 1794, there is much more to her record, and Pasteur's, that we will get into this Spring. So stand fast!
(Reference and Image Credit: Lanciano, Claude O.. "Captain John Sinclair of Virginia." 1975.

Women's History Month - Skipper Edition

 15 Mar 26:

There's not may conversations that go like this...

Me: "I wonder if we could paddle SWEETNESS out with a SUP paddle and the sail rig down, rig the boat, sail it, then paddle back in with the rig luffing?"

Skipper: "Hand me the paddle."

Skipper and 1953 Alcort Sunfish ZIPZIP

 12 Mar 26: 

Skipper and ZIP, the 1953 Alcort Sunfish we picked up in 2013. Zip was number 13 of the first 20 Sunfish prototypes, Al and Cort built them and passed them out to family and friends to see if they liked the design. Evidently people did, the Sunfish has been in continuous production since that time.

Order The Sunfish Owner's Manual by Kent and Audrey

Sailmaker Jane Nelle

 14 Mar 26: 

On December 20 1984, the Bristol Phoenix memorialized Jane Nelle. Jane Nelle was a sailmaker at HMCo. beginning in 1923. She trained under sailmaker Billy Paine, and left with Paine in 1933 when he began his own sailmaking business. Her career spanned an era of great transition in sailmaking, from cotton to nylon and Dacron. Today she is thought to have been the first female sailmaker in Rhode Island. She later worked at Thurston Sails in Warren, RI, for fifteen years. She has since been featured as part of an exhibit about remarkable Rhode Island women at the Roger Williams University Library.

Lady Phyllis Brodie Leslie Gordon Sopwith

 14 Mar 26: 

Phyllis Brodie Leslie Gordon Sopwith knew how to take a picture. She was regularly photographed at the helm of the America's Cup challengers ENDEAVOUR and ENDEAVOUR II, and always dressed for the occasion. Her official capacity onboard was timekeeper, which she performed when the yachts competed in the 1934 and 1937 America’s Cup races off Newport. The first ENDEAVOUR, a steel-hulled 130 foot yacht that introduced the quadrilateral genoa to J-class racing, came very close to winning the Cup in 1934 against the W. Starling Burgess designed RAINBOW (HMCo. #1233).

ENDEAVOR I ahead of ENDEAVOR II. 1937. HMM Archive.

Elizabeth E. Meyer - Yacht Restoration

13 Mar 26:

Folks are sometimes amazed at what we do with basket case boats...and we are too...but here's a sailor who has made quite a mark on yachting, with her restoration of the J class yacht ENDEAVOR and establishment of the International Yacht Restoration School, Elizabeth Meyer.

Miss Winnifred Sutton and WEE WINN

8 Mar 26:

Nice looking boat we saw at the Herreshoff Marine Museum, named WEE WINN.

Image HMMCo

LOA 23’10” LWL 16’3” Beam 4’6” Draught 3’0”

"Launched in June of 1892 the Herreshoff fin keeler shown above was shipped to Southampton, England and into the capable hands of Miss Winnifred Sutton. At a time when a woman sailor could be described as not only skillful but “plucky” the combination of Miss Sutton’s ability and Nathanael Herreshoff’s innovative design won 20 of the first 21 races of her first season.   According to the designer’s grandson, Halsey Herreshoff, “Over Wee Winn’s long racing career, she proved herself the decisive champion of the Solent.” (IRYS, 2021)

Love the tiller.

Image: HMMCo

Herreshoff Marine Museum

International Yacht Restoration School 

Paint Splotches

 We need to transfer these patterns over to the new carriage house in Virginia :)

Carriage House Floor Patterns

 24 Feb 21:

We are making tracings of the Carriage House floor art and catboat half breadths, to transfer over to the new Carriage House in Virginia.

Log of the Carriage House.

Steam Boats and Steam Trains

06 Feb 26:

The Surry Lumber Company founded the Surry, Sussex and Southhampton Railway in the late 1800s and the trains made their way to the wharf in Scotland, VA to offload lumber and many different types of wood products. 

2 Million Views!

 05 Mar 26:

Our blog quietly slipped past two million views last month! It's been getting some views lately, we never know why some days peak and others do not. 

We've had a lot of fun sharing information about small boats and plan to keep messing about :)

Thanks for viewing!

Kent and Audrey

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Skipper, Jack and ONKAHYE

04 Mar 26: 

Here's Skipper with Capn Jack sailing her 1980 Drascombe Lugger named ONKAHYE in Santa Rosa Sound. The family has been sailing ONKAHYE since 1980, Capn Jack was Master and Commander from 1980-1994, and Skipper has been in charge since then. I'm sure though, that she was secretly, or not so secretly, In Command for the entire time.

Skipper and ROAMER

02 Mar 26:

Skipper sailing the 1974 Drascombe Lugger named ROAMER that we restored a few years back.

 

Skipper's Guide to Small Boat Knots

 02 Mar 26: 

A little book of the 4 basic knots to get started messing about in small boats. Color photos of real knots in use on real boats, the bowline, figure 8, half hitch and square knot. Also includes chapters on the sailor's spar hitch and marlin hitch. Bonus chapters cover nautical terms, how to tie a cleat hitch, wrap a flemish coil, belay a line and whip the end of a line, all the boatcraft skills needed to keep a small ship looking ship shape. The small boats featured in this guide are some of the most popular sailboats ever made, the Sunfish, the O'Day Daysailer and the Drascombe Lugger, so there is a good chance you'll be tying lines on one of these boats.

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Knot-Skippers-Guide-Small/dp/1724677632

Still Life

01 Mar 26:

Last we checked George still had Kirby calendars, we scored one with our last order. 2026 is rolling by fast, and we had 60F in the Boat Works today. First day of meteorological Spring, heading towars the vernal equinox.

 

Mississippi River Skiff Frames

26 Feb 16:

Fast Forward, we are framed up to station 6, sealing up cracks, plugging nail holes and returning plank pieces to the bottom.

We need to up our boathouse game...

Here was the plan back in 2021...There will be a Carriage House v2.0 built when we get the Hampton Roads area. Don't be surprised if it looks similar to the Gosport Naval Shipyard boat houses of the 1840s, with a canal cut to a drydock area behind the Casa :)

Pods

 23 Feb 26: 

Pod 2 made a pretty smooth trip, no damage. The key is to build a good shelf and reinforce all of the frames

Armada Relocation PODS #2

 16 Feb 21:

We loaded PODS #2 with our Penobscot 14 ST. JACQUES, Pelican Icon kayaks SACAGAWEA and CLARK and the parts for the Pascagoula Diamond Bottom Catboat MARGARET ROSE. For this load we built another platform above the boats to hold more boat shop bits.

Boat Furniture

 BARBASHELA Table

Skipper was sad back in 2016 when we took BARBASHELA back to the little skiff back to her Museum home in Biloxi, Mississippi. 

So back in 2016 I made her a porch table using measurements from BARBASHELA's bow. It was a good exercise to see if the lines we had taken off of BARBASHELA were accurate. The bow seat was cut from cypress left over from the restoration and fastened with silicone bronze fasteners. Coatings are BARBASHELAS's colors, Valspar Ultra 4000 alkyd enamel Swiss Coffee, Whipped Apricot and Mark Twain House Brown.

Airport Weather = Marine Weather?

 21 Feb 26:

There are many airports across the country that are close to small boat ports, and those airports can provide a source of weather for a specific area, especially wind. With a google search for a Chart Supplement for the area, we can find phone numbers to the Airport Surface Observation System (ASOS) or AWOS.

The ASOS may also report the weather to websites like airnav, and there is the Aviation Weather Center website, but it is fun to call the number and listen to the up to the minute report for wind, temp, cloud cover and barometric pressure.

Outboard Motor Carburetor Icing?

 20 Feb 26:

We are reviewing carb icing for aircraft, and it dawned on me, is carb ice a thing for outboard motors? Yes, outboard motors with carburetors are susceptible to carburetor icing, particularly in high-humidity conditions with air temperatures between -5F to +60F. The rapid evaporation of fuel and the low-pressure area created at the throttle valve can lower temperatures enough to turn moisture into ice, causing rough idling, power loss, or engine stalling.

Here's a chart from the FAA

Factors and Symptoms: 

Conditions: High humidity (above 65%) combined with cool, damp air is the most critical factor. 

Low Power Operation: Icing is most likely during trolling, idling, or in low-power, long-descent scenarios, where the throttle is partially closed and the engine generates less heat. 

Symptoms: A gradual drop in RPM, rough running, stalling, or hesitation, especially when transitioning from trolling speeds. Once a motor quits, it will not restart until the ice melts.

Prevention: Running at higher power settings helps prevent ice formation. Using fuel additives like isopropyl alcohol (Heet) can help manage moisture in the fuel system.

While less common than in aircraft due to warmer, enclosed engine covers or more efficient cooling systems, it is a real issue for carbureted outboards in the right conditions, often mistaken for fuel contamination.