Greetings from the USA

K

keelbolts

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Just wanted to introduce myself as a new member of the forum. I'm a 52 year old school teacher and lover of classic boats. In the US we don't place the value on them you do over here. You will restore what Americans burn. Such a shame. Anyway, I sail Robert Clark's Favona on the Virginia's Chesapeake Bay.
 
Hi Keelboats

There is a school of thought that says Americans value/treasure classic boats far more highly than we do. I understand (not from first hand experience) that there are loads of beautifully maintained classics, for instance in Maine.

I'm on this forum as a skipper of Arthur Ransome's Hillyard 7 tonner Nancy Blackett (aka the Goblin), as my own boat is GRP. I have just bought a Maurice Griffiths Barbican 33 to replace a Golden Hind by the same designer. The Barbican, in its first guise as the Atlantic Clipper, was designed with a shoal draft (4ft) specifically for export to sail in Chesapeake Bay. Who knows, one day....? The draft suits the shoal waters of the UK East Coast just as well.

She is just being renamed - "Santana" - after Humphrey Bogart's beautiful S&S featured in Classic Boat recently. That way I can get picture of Lauren Bacall up in the saloon without further justification!

Anyway, these ramblings have nothing to do with your post, so I will join the esteemed Kilter in welcoming you. We spend a couple of years as custodians of his boat prior to his ownership.

Bill
 
"You will restore what Americans burn"

... maybe i should have done!

th_starboard.jpg


but i guess we're getting there...

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welcome to the forum.

steve.
 
I'm a big fan of Maurice Griffith's boats. Old-timers, on the Bay, describe it as having a lot of water, but spread kinda thin. I love my boat, but a 6' draft keeps you out of a great number of nice places on the Chesapeake Bay. I'll buy any excuse to put up a picture of Lauren Bacall. Thanks for the welcome.
 
Welcome to the forum. I was surprised too, by the comment that we Brits have a better restoration scene than you. Think of the museums you have on the east coast, the IYRS, the new wooden boat centre in Sausloito. I have often felt envious of the American scene. There is a new American news page in Classic Boat magazine by the way, which you may (or may not!!) find interesting.
 
Thanks for the photo. I'll have to check it out when I get home.

We do have pockets of interest in classic wooden boats in this country, mostly in the Northeast and Northwest, but considering a population of almost 300 million and the fact that something like 80% of us live within 50 miles of an ocean, you'd think you'd see more. I believe a big part of it is the American view on things, if there is such a thing. Judging from what I've seen in Classic Boat a prosperous Brit, or even European, might find an old Fife and then spend millions of pounds restoring it. A prosperous American, with the noteable exception of Elizabeth Meyers, will put his millions into some big piece of plastic crap with a jaccuzzi and a wide screen TV. I see it also, in your appreciation of old work boats. On the Chesapeake Bay, where I live, when my father was a kid there were over 1200 Skipjacks working the bay, today we have less than 10.
 
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