MARCH MEETING:
Tuesday, March 1, 7:30pm
Red Dragon Canoe Club,
211 Edgewater Ave,
Edgewater Park, NJ 08010
MAINSHEET
Newsletter of the Delaware River Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association
March 2011
Program by Bob Wolfertz,
Fiberglass Double Paddle
Canoes
Rob Roy Canoes
“Marion Brewington”
Delaware River
Chapter TSCA
Chapter President:
Ted Kilsdonk
Ted Kilsdonk@redted.us
Chapter Vice President
Frank Stauss
fstauss@verizon.net
March Program
Next months speaker and program is by Bob Wolfertz. Bob builds fiberglass double paddle canoes to the short Rob Roy style. He will be bringing 2 of his canoes to the meeting. One is a new lapstrake prototype and
the other is a canoe he builds from Bart Hathaways old mold. For you
old time TSCA people you should remember Bart's canoes from the
Mystic small craft meets and his ads in MAIB. Bob has even been kicking
around the possibility of making a Ducker in glass. Come out and welcome our speaker and new TSCA member. Tom Shepard
Secretary:
Michael Bill
mbill@theratears.com
Treasurer:
Paul Skalka
paul_skalka@monet.prs.k12.nj.us
Newsletter Editors:
Karen & Bill Rutherford
karen.s.rutherford@verizon.net
Lapstrake Canoe
Website:
www.tsca.net/delriver/index.html
1
TSCA DVC
Meeting Notes: Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011
It’s time to pay your
2011 Dues for
Membership to the
Delaware River
Chapter TSCA
Dues $20
Meeting at Red Dragon CC, 6 attendees
Called to order at 7:35 pm by Ted Kilsdonk
Minutes for January approved as published.
Treasurer’s Report: No report.
2011 Dues ($20) are due, send to Paul Skalka.
Bills & Communications:
John Brady – meeting at ISM warehouse in March or April?
President’s Report:
Need more presentations!
Send your check to
Paul Skalka,Treasurer:
19 Farm Rd,Trenton,
NJ 08638-1427
Include your name,
address, E-mail
address, phone number
Committee Reports
None
Old Business:
Follow-up on meeting with ISM exec
Send articles to Karen Rutherford for inclusion in newsletter
New Business:
Eastern Messabout
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1st weekend June, 2011 @ Elk Neck State Park (Maryland)
4 melonseeds under construction locally
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Mike Wick and others
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Follow on www.traditionalsmallcraft.com
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Feb 19th – “Ol’ Shep’s Scenic Tour” of Harve de Grace
Upper Bay museum
Lunch
Chesapeake Maritime Museum
Kevin Brennan
5-6 day cruise of Cheapeake
“Alla Spartina”
Dave Lucas
Has set of 16’ melonseed molds available
Meeting adjourned 7:45pm
Presentation: Phil Maynard videos
o
“Cabin Fever Expo”,York PA 1/14 – 1/15 Model Engineering show
2
http://traditionalsmallcraft.com/index.html
By Mike Wick
Steve Brookman and I are building similar models and similar melonseeds right now, so we decided to start a builder's
website. It is titled Traditional Small Craft of New Jersey and the Delaware River Basin Web address is
http://traditionalsmallcraft.com/index.html. The article below is one of many posted on this web site.
Moggie “How come two melonseeds?”
By Mike Wick
Ten years ago, John Guidera and I met and started sailing together. I had a small MacGregor decked Sailing
Canoe, and he had a Tomas Firth Jones designed Melonseed. We sailed along the Maryland and Virginia barrier
islands, Assateague, Chincoteague, Wreck, Paramore. My canoe was too small for this kind of sailing and
camping, so I found a Bolger Gypsy in bad condition. I fixed her up until the point where there was almost
nothing left of the original boat, and she became a great camp cruiser. Still is. But, thanks to my sailing with
John, I was in love with Melonseeds
Down in Cortez, Florida Roger Allen had designed a 16 foot melonseed, a Cortez Melonseed. David Lucas
started building them in his open air shop. He and his friends built about nine boats. This was my chance to get
a melonseed of my own. I arranged to give a presentation at the monthly meeting of our Delaware River
Chapter of the TSCA and see if I could talk our members into building a few boats. Carl Weissinger had built a
lovely 16 footer named JOLLY CODGER to John Brady’s design, and I asked him to bring along his pictures,
because the two designs were almost identical. He said he would, but he also said “She is for sale, Cheap.”
That’s how I got my first melonseed.
My wife objected to the name, JOLLY CODGER, saying one of the words was false advertising. She wouldn’t
say which word. Since melonseeds used to be called pumpkinseeds, I renamed her PEPITA. As soon as spring
arrived John and I trailered our melonseeds down to Cortez for the festival there. We had a wonderful time,
gunkholing, racing, and partying in Cortez, Sarasota, and Cedar Island. During the race for the famous Mullet
Cup, David Lucas beat me by about a boat length; That was my big mistake. David is a fine sailor, how could I
make up that boatlength. I considered every “go-fast” Vectran, Robline, Dynema, Titanium, spent uranium ballast,
I went down the list but nothing seemed very practical.
David solved my problem. He didn’t even ask, he just built a new bare hull and gave it to me. I heard about it
from friends. That’s a man who knows he is a good sailor. So, I drove an empty trailer to Florida and picked up
my new hull, planted her in my garage and slowly began building my new Cortez Melonseed. I couldn’t beat
such a good sailor as Dave with an identical boat, so I used the bare hull as a male mold and cold-molded my
new hull around it. As soon as I got my boat, MOGGIE, to the fruit-bowl stage, I popped her off David’s hull and
passed that on to Roland Anderson.
Now, I am on the home stretch with rig, hull, deckbeams, rudder, centerboard all finished. I am waiting for some
milder weather to finish up. My garage is under a foot of snow right now, but once I dig it out, it’s back to
work.
Continued on page 4
3
Continued from page 3
Heatlamps, propane heaters, tarpaulin tents help with the temperature. I am excited about building the plywood deck. I put a deck on my Bolger Gypsy out of 4 mm occume, but even with fiberglass on both sides, I get
a little oilcanning from that deck, so MOGGIE’s deck will be 5mm. Two sheets of ply are each cut into two
pieces to make four corners of the deck. I want the deck to be cloth and epoxy on both sides, so I will make a
curved cradle and nestle each section into the cradle. Then I epoxy the cloth on the bottom side and wait until
it reaches the green stage, but not too green. At just the right moment I carry it over to the boat and capsize it
into place. I quickly fasten each quarter of the deck down onto the deckbeams and the gunwales. “Will it work
?” I hope so.
Moggie's Cut List - Once my boat is all finished, then the fun begins. My boat will be identical to David’s
LAYLAH, but David is a good sailor. “Will I be able to beat him ?”
Project Photos:
I trailered the strip plank bare hull up from Florida
and mounted it on sawhorses in my garage. It will
become the plug to shape my new boat. My one car
garage is crowded; you can see two other boats
hoisted up to the rafters to make room for the new
stablemate. If there were more room, there would
be more boats. Notice the temporary transom ,
there will be more about that later.
The keelplank’s two halves are cut out of 9mm
occume, scarfed and glued together but just laid
in place on the hull. I will have to bevel the edges
so the staves of the hull will land smoothly on top
without any gaps. This requires an electric plane
and a seven inch grinder to make lots of sawdust,
and it took away almost half the wood in the
plank.
Photo to the left:
Five staves are temporarily laid out on the starboard
side, (port side while she’s inverted, but I will call it
starboard, at this stage). I ooched them back and forth
to try and find the best lie. At these wide stations near
the middle, best angle seemed to be about fifteen degrees forward of vertical. As I worked further forward,
and the hull narrowed, there was less edge set if the
angle were more like 20 degrees, so I made wedge
shaped staves wider at the gunwale and narrower at
the keel. All staves are cut from 3mm occume. I had
allowed for possibly using thinner stock or steaming ,
but it wasn’t necessary.
This story continues on the web site,
http://traditionalsmallcraft.com/index.html
4
From: Sedge Island Skiffs <sedgeislandskiffs@live.com>
Subject: Re: Melonseed Skiff
To: "Steve" <Steve@otterwater.com>, "Mike Wick" <mikewick55@yahoo.com>
Date: Friday, February 18, 2011, 5:15 PM
Sedge Island Skiffs
On 2/17/2011 11:02 AM, Sedge Island
Skiffs wrote:
Hi,
A friend had told me about you website a
week ago. I think it’s a great website.
Having grown up on the Jersey Shore, I
guess I’m naturally attracted to New
Jersey built boats. NJ does have a very
rich boat building heritage so it’s great to
see a website like yours. I am a
professional boat builder and live and
work in the Toms River area. This past
year I built a cold molded Melonseed
from Jersey cedar past year and brought
it around to some of the boat shows in
the area. So you might have seen it,or
met me if you went to any of the shows.
Building Jersey boats is the foundation of my business plan, unfortunately it doesn’t pay the bills so repair
work has become the bulk of my business. Do you prefer only home built or amatuer built boats to include on your site ? Because I’d like to send you some photos f my boat during construction as well as
completed to include on your site if it’s OK with you. Thanks,
George M. Kerr
Sedge Island Skiffs LLC
sedgeislandskiffs@live.com
FOR SALE-18”Jet Band Saw
18” Jet Band Saw with aprox. 8” height extension (will cut over 12” thick, albeit slowly). Saw has 3-phase
motor that would need to be replaced for most shop use. For sale at Cook Machinery, Winslow Twp, NJ.
In good basic shape, limited accessories. Asking $400. See Mike Bill for details.
Michael C. Bill, Cell: 609-636-0604, mbill@theratears.com
FOR SALE -Cortez Melonseed $5000
It's a steal for $5000 and I really don't want to see it go to some
place where they don't appreciate it. This is the last boat finished
here at the shop and it incorporates everything we learned from
the others. Jim's a perfectionist. The cockpit is a little wider than
mine so you can sit inside if you really want to. It has a built in foam
cooler in the back. It self bails if it gets swamped. It's completely
indestructible and it's fast.You'd have a hard time building one for
this price which includes a new trailer. If I had it I'd take the track
off the mast and put hoops on and sand it down some to make it
slimmer and lighter but that's all. Dave Lucas <skipjack@tampabay.rr.com>
5
Catboat Rendezvous February 2011
What do Catboaters do in the dead of winter? They Rendezvous in Mystic, of course, to exchange banter,
tips and techniques, tell lies and hoist a few. It is great fun: you meet
lots of like-minded people, learn a few new things and see some fine
presentations. This year, the feature presentation was a multi-media
photograph and video extravaganza of the meeting of the two mighty
catboats “Kathleen” and “Silent Maid”, as they met in five races coming
down the coast of New England last summer, narrated in person by
the skippers themselves, Tim Fallon skipper and owner of “Kathleen”
and our own John Brady, skipper and builder of “Silent Maid”. Soon to
be out in DVD, this was filled with exciting, up close shots of the two
boats, Captains and crews against a background of catboats, rocky
shoreline and hospitable yacht clubs. It truly is a visit to the past when
C.C. Hanley’s “Harbinger” design
meets Edward
Schoettle’s B Class
Cat “Silent Maid”.
Told with good
humor and sportsJohn Brady & New Painting
manship, it was the
highlight of Saturday’s luncheon program presented to over 400 knowledgeable Catboaters; you could have heard a pin drop.
The luncheon is preceded by an annual meeting most
notable for its brevity; it lasted less than five minutes,
only a shade longer than last year. Before that three
Karen, Paul & Tim Fallon
awards were given with great good humor, one being
the Broad Axe award for building or restoring a Cat, this year given to a Californian – yes they have shallow water out there; the award is the actual broad axe that C.C. Hanley used in his boat shop on Long Island to craft the original “Harbinger”. Present to witness all this were Catboaters and fellow Delaware
River TSCA members Bill and Karen Rutherford and Paul Skalka. We cheered on the prize winners and
proudly represented the boat from Philadelphia.
Similar to one of our TSCA boat meets, this gathering starts on Friday and runs thru Sunday morning: Friday offered attendees a guided visit to the dry docked “Charles W. Morgan” and/or a wander thru Mystic’s
“library” of small craft in Rossi Mill and finished with happy hour at the group’s headquarters for the weekend, the Mystic Marriott, complete with attendee donated slide show, cheese and crackers as well as the
afore mentioned libations. Saturday morning started bright and early with a seminar on Catboat Sailing for
Beginners (with a few experts sprinkled thru the audience). This was hosted by John Conway, author of
“Catboat Summers”, a delightful book about an old wooden cat adopted by his family. John used a rigging
model with all the usual strings to pull to raise, lower and reef the Cat’s single sail. I thought I knew how
to handle a four cornered sail, but have to admit to picking up a few pointers.
Next door, Karen was studying fine art with Peter Arguimbau who gave an excellent workshop in his renaissance oil painting methods to a crowded room. Karen, an artist herself, had to admit she picked up
some pointers as well. Saturday evening Peter proudly boxed up a painting of “Silent Maid” for John Brady
to deliver to Peter Kellogg – the happiest day of an artist’s life: a sale. Peter had another painting of the
two boats that John did not prefer – it showed “Kathleen” out front.
Two other seminars filled out the morning: a Builder’s Seminar featuring Marshall Marine and a seminar on
Catboat Cuisine by Catfood editor Jane Walsh and friends. The Builder’s Seminar was an interesting his6
tory of Breck Marshall, the founder, John Garfield and now Jeff Marshall,
second generation, who runs the company. A very impressive 800+
Sanderlings (18 ft racing/cruiser), 275 Marshall 22’s (cruising/racer) and
over a 1000 Sandpipers (15 ft daysailor/racer), thirty one of which are in
Barnegat Bay and hotly raced. Of note to us small craft sailors, the
Sanderlings are the fastest growing segment with the larger boat people
picking them up and becoming trailer sailors traveling to races up and
down the coast all the way to Useppa Island in January on Florida’s west
coast.
Karen attended the Catfood seminar and came away with some fine onepot meals and tips on grilling on a handrail attached Weber grill. Of interest is the group’s tendency towards foods similar to those of our
small-boat campouts and single burner camp stove cookouts (Ramen
noodles, anyone?). One fine tip: fill any vacant space in your cooler with
Styrofoam peanuts to keep air to a minimum and food cooler longer.
Local TSCA’er George Spragg
The seminars continued after lunch – shades of St. Michaels. Rather than take loads of questions after
their luncheon presentation, Tim Fallon and John Brady did Q&A in a separate seminar on Advanced Sailing
Techniques. More use of the Catboat model to get higher performance from that single, four-cornered sail
interspersed with tales of flag-stealing and other high-jinks during the racing tour down the coast. We
hope to see these two beautiful boats in competition again soon. Anyone out there with deep pockets to
build a third?
Another seminar explained boating insurance, for those of us with boats valuable enough to insure. There
were some interesting tidbits like the difference between salvage and a tow – important to sort out before
accepting a line from a helpful tow service……….
The Saturday evening dinner theme was “Winter Rendezvous”, super casual with shorts and flip-flops encouraged to bring back memories of summer celebrations after an exciting race or cruise. Bill and Karen
sat with Rick and Robin Batchelder of Catboat “Stray” moored in summer on the east side of the Connecticut River among the shallow water marshes surrounded by wildlife preserves. If a boat has to stay in
one place, that sounded like pretty good place to be.
Sunday dawned bright with sunshine, so perhaps Spring is truly on its
way. A Sunday Morning Forum included sea shanties sung in full voice
by Mark Alan Lovewell, a Chantey-man who meets the cruise ships in
Vineyard Haven, intermixed with sea stories and humorous tales. Poetry included some couplets involving mermaids and a reading of the
Cremation of Sam McGee. Sea stories included adventures traveling
the inland waterway to Miami and peeking in the cabin to see mattresses floating about. One recommendation included getting a copy
of “Skipper Bob’s Guide to Anchorages on the Inland Waterway” a
publication of the Wilmington, DE Power Squadron. Another recommendation was to hitch a ride on the ACL or ACCL small ship cruise
line that head down the coast, tying up every night in one of the intercoastal waterway towns. That sounded good; wonder if they
would tow one of our 15 ft catboats along behind so we could sunset sail the harbors……
All too soon our winter boating adventure was over and it was back out to the snow piled parking lot to
head home. We’ll all be better for the rendezvous, however, for not only picking up good tips, meeting new
friends, but now we’re enthused to pick up that sandpaper, scraper and paint as soon as it gets warm.
Respectively submitted, Mr. Cleat.
7
John Gardenar TSCA Boat
Shop at Avery Point, Groten ,
CT on the University of CT
campus - Great Location
Boat Shop
Interior
Bill Rutherford &
George Spragg,
our tour guide
George proudly
show’s his latest
creation, a 14ft
rowing boat based
on Tom Hill’s Lap
Streak Canoe
8
UPCOMING EVENTS
April 5, 2011: Date and location TBD, perhaps at ISM
boat storage
May 3, 2011: Annual Bid-and-Buy auction
May 20-22, 2011: Wooden Boat Regatta,
Rock Hall Maryland. Carl Cramer of Woodenboat
magazine is doing the planning.
June 3-5, 2011: Eastern Messabout,
Elk Neck State Park, Maryland
July 2011: Small Reach Regatta,, in Maine. Register
early if you want to go. This is open for sail and oar only
(no motors).
The Delaware River TSCA holds a general
membership meeting on the first Tuesday of
every month. Visitors are always welcome.
Stop by and check us out! Meetings are
normally held at the Red Dragon Canoe Club
mansion, 221 Edgewater Ave Beverly, NJ
08010-1415 on the Delaware River in
Edgewater Park, NJ. During the warm
weather months, members bring their boats
to meetings for a round robin of evening
rowing and sailing before the official meeting
starts.
Thanks to the continued hospitality of Jim Wesson at Freeport on the Piankatank, the highly informal
Urbanna Creek Rum and Rowing Appreciation Association Small Craft Gathering, AKA the Urbanna Meet
will be held on the weekend of May 14-15, 2011. I just looked to see how many years ago this was
founded by our intrepid Jim Thayer and cohorts, and discovered that last year was the 30th, but we forgot to
publicize it as such. But since we skipped a year when we moved from the Rappahannock, it's probably the
32nd anyway. So whatever. Like I said, it's informal. Same as usual, primitive camping that feels luxurious
since the place is so pretty, or stay in a local B&B and get good food and shopping for the wives. Come see
the FD Crockett in Deltaville. Covered dish on Saturday night. OK to come Friday night. See you then.
Let us know if you're coming.
Vera and John (V England [mama5england@hotmail.com])
Independence Seaport Museum
211 S. Columbus Blvd & Walnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19106
215-413-8655
www.phillyseaport.org
Directions:
By Foot - From the Independence Visitor Center on 6th and
Market streets, walk south on 6th Street two blocks to Walnut Street. Turn left on to Walnut Street (going east). Cross
Front Street and continue over the Walnut Street pedestrian bridge. The Delaware River is straight ahead and Independence Seaport Museum to the right as you descend the
steps (there is an
elevator if needed).
By Car - Take I-95 (from north or south) to Exit #20 (formerly Exit #16) marked variously Historic Area, Penn's
Landing, Columbus Boulevard., or Washington Avenue. At
the light turn left on to Columbus
Boulevard (aka Delaware Avenue). The Hyatt
Regency Philadelphia at Penn's Landing is about one mile up
on the right. Immediately after the hotel, at the light, turn
right into the driveway under the
Walnut Street pedestrian bridge.
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