Essay by McManus Mate Richard McManus
Saltaire Sailing 1948
Cape Cod Baby Knockabouts (CC’s) being readied to race in 1948.
A CC at speed, same era.
Edna Lange, Margery McManus and Dot Schmidt, 1948
The Schmidt boat would later become the club boat (I THINK).
The Schmidt boat would later become the club boat (I THINK).
CC’s Racing, 1948 off Saltaire dock.
All photographs Dr. Richard G. McManus
Copyright Richard G. McManus 2008
Copyright Richard G. McManus 2008
The CC's (Cape Cod Baby Knockabouts) were built in the 20's and 30's.
They were handsome and very well designed for use on the Great South Bay
as they drew about eight inches of water with the centerboard up, were
fast upwind and down, and were pretty entertaining to sail. They were 18
feet in length and usually needed a crew of three to race but could sail
with six. Cape Cod Shipbuilding had built them extremely well with cedar
planks and sturdy structural members. They had a lead ballast beneath
the floorboards to help them stay upright.
By the late 50's they were dwindling. Someone would decide that by golly
they could do the care of the boat themselves right on the beach in
Saltaire instead of sending the boat to Southard's boatyard inBay Shore .
Within a year the boat would be a planter, rotting out and hopeless. The
fleet kept getting smaller. By the 1961 there were only five left--the
club had one, the Paul Connelly's had 'Con-Tiki' the fastest and best cared
for of the CC's, the Lapps, Oliver Hull and Hugh O’Brien had one.
Con-Tiki sailed away from all the others in any races that were held in
that era, and the cost of keeping a CC up had become a real problem. The
sailors wanted a different class boat, but finding the right one did not
go smoothly.
There are a series of good stories about this. The Tom Connelly's
purchasing a Cape Cod Rhodes 18, a very nice and fast boat, but the
price was prohibitive and the one they purchased remained the only one
for some years. TheRhodes also had the disadvantage of a deep rudder
and centerboard, so one had to approach the various flats cautiously.
Then the Ervins and another family bought a Puffin. This was a cute
little boat, about 14 feet long and kind of chubby, like a catboat. They
were fiberglass and relatively light. A sales rep came down to
demonstrate the little boat one day in 1959 or so. Unfortunately while
the boat was being put through its paces it capsized in front of a dock
full of prospective customers and interested spectators. ** (see note below) That was a problem. Worse was that the little Puffin was too slow to fight the
powerful tides on the GS Bay. Sailing it into a tideway was a
pilgrimage, with the boat going backward over the bottom no matter how
lovely she might look on the water. In fact I came close to throwing
Johnny O'Shea right off the boat when, on a sailing picnic, he insisted
on sailing the damn thing straight into the channel for about 400
successive tacks near Captree Island as we attempted to sail to the
inlet. Each time we came up to the dock at the same fisherman, who
looked at us with a great deal of curiosity.
My dad had been a resident atMass General Hospital
seen the Boston Community Boating Mercury fleet, which had already
established itself as a very hardy bunch of sailboats. He bought Mercury
#653 in 1961 (I THINK) and Ann Buchler, later Riley skippered the little
boat against the CC fleet. While the Mercury was NOT perfect for the
Bay, it was a great improvement, and the second year four other boats
were purchased. The Ervins, Standards, Frank McManus and the Gibson's all
purchased Mercurys. The following year Jonathan Leigh and the O'Sheas
purchased them as well and the era of the Mercury began. These boats
will probably outlastFire Island , as they all look about the same more
than 40 years later. Not fast, not sporty, and not smelling good like
the old cedar CC's, it was the Mercury's that got many of us racing.
They were evenly matched and didn't overly favor the better cared for
boat. You could have your teenager paint them with bottom paint and do a
bit of varnishing on the rudder and you were in business for the season.
They were an excellent teaching boat and even if you planed one into a
buoy (I did that) the resulting damage was minuscule.
Better boats came later but the Mercury's ruled the 60's and early 70's.
Richard
Richard McManus
They were handsome and very well designed for use on the Great South Bay
as they drew about eight inches of water with the centerboard up, were
fast upwind and down, and were pretty entertaining to sail. They were 18
feet in length and usually needed a crew of three to race but could sail
with six. Cape Cod Shipbuilding had built them extremely well with cedar
planks and sturdy structural members. They had a lead ballast beneath
the floorboards to help them stay upright.
By the late 50's they were dwindling. Someone would decide that by golly
they could do the care of the boat themselves right on the beach in
Saltaire instead of sending the boat to Southard's boatyard in
Within a year the boat would be a planter, rotting out and hopeless. The
fleet kept getting smaller. By the 1961 there were only five left--the
club had one, the Paul Connelly's had 'Con-Tiki' the fastest and best cared
for of the CC's, the Lapps, Oliver Hull and Hugh O’Brien had one.
Con-Tiki sailed away from all the others in any races that were held in
that era, and the cost of keeping a CC up had become a real problem. The
sailors wanted a different class boat, but finding the right one did not
go smoothly.
There are a series of good stories about this. The Tom Connelly's
purchasing a Cape Cod Rhodes 18, a very nice and fast boat, but the
price was prohibitive and the one they purchased remained the only one
for some years. The
and centerboard, so one had to approach the various flats cautiously.
Then the Ervins and another family bought a Puffin. This was a cute
little boat, about 14 feet long and kind of chubby, like a catboat. They
were fiberglass and relatively light. A sales rep came down to
demonstrate the little boat one day in 1959 or so. Unfortunately while
the boat was being put through its paces it capsized in front of a dock
full of prospective customers and interested spectators. ** (see note below) That was a problem. Worse was that the little Puffin was too slow to fight the
powerful tides on the GS Bay. Sailing it into a tideway was a
pilgrimage, with the boat going backward over the bottom no matter how
lovely she might look on the water. In fact I came close to throwing
Johnny O'Shea right off the boat when, on a sailing picnic, he insisted
on sailing the damn thing straight into the channel for about 400
successive tacks near Captree Island as we attempted to sail to the
inlet. Each time we came up to the dock at the same fisherman, who
looked at us with a great deal of curiosity.
My dad had been a resident at
seen the Boston Community Boating Mercury fleet, which had already
established itself as a very hardy bunch of sailboats. He bought Mercury
#653 in 1961 (I THINK) and Ann Buchler, later Riley skippered the little
boat against the CC fleet. While the Mercury was NOT perfect for the
Bay, it was a great improvement, and the second year four other boats
were purchased. The Ervins, Standards, Frank McManus and the Gibson's all
purchased Mercurys. The following year Jonathan Leigh and the O'Sheas
purchased them as well and the era of the Mercury began. These boats
will probably outlast
than 40 years later. Not fast, not sporty, and not smelling good like
the old cedar CC's, it was the Mercury's that got many of us racing.
They were evenly matched and didn't overly favor the better cared for
boat. You could have your teenager paint them with bottom paint and do a
bit of varnishing on the rudder and you were in business for the season.
They were an excellent teaching boat and even if you planed one into a
buoy (I did that) the resulting damage was minuscule.
Better boats came later but the Mercury's ruled the 60's and early 70's.
Richard
Richard McManus
***post note by JOH:
Among the great mysteries of Maritime History are:
Did the Savannah go down off Fair Harbor
Could the S.S. Californian have saved the victims of the Titanic??
Did the Bismark go down under enemy fire or was she scuttled by her own skipper?
But perhaps the greatest mystery is :
What caused the “uncapsizable” Puffin to capsize in front of hundreds of prospective buyers on Labor day in 1959?
What was the weather?
What were the sailing conditions?
Who were the crew?
The controversy lives on. Check us text week, same time, same blog for the controversial epic: The capsizing of the Uncapsizable Puffin:
Eyewitness accounts of that terrible day.
Serious speculation.
The greatest intrigue until the grassy knoll.
And you can read about it here
Only on: WWW.saltaire38.blogspot.com
1 comment:
This site was... how do you say it? Relevant!! Finally I
have found something which helped me. Kudos!
Post a Comment