Sail Tales

By Captain Robert Engel

Sail Tales is about the adventures a humble sailboat owner had over the years. So where does one start writing about these adventures? You start at the beginning. That beginning was in 1967 when I was helping a friend of mine, Frank, re-build an old wooden boat that he had bought. Frank took the whole boat apart and then rebuilt it from the frames up. It was a sleek little craft and I found myself involved in his project.
Frank found a similar craft and with his promise of help, I bought it. I spent the whole winter and most of the spring doing the things that had to be done to the boat to get it ready for the summer of 69. I knew nothing about about sailing. But how hard could it be to learn? I soon found out.
My sailing adventures started that summer. I learned quickly that unlike a power boat, a sailboat is not a craft that you get aboard, turn a key and then drive it like a car. You have to sail the boat. You have to do what the wind lets you do. You cant go directly where you want to go because the wind wont allow it. You have to finesse, you have be diplomatic, you have to learn to tweak a sail rather than over trim.
Well, I learned to get that sailboat from point to point. I also learned that time on a sailboat is not the same as time on land and I learned this on my very first trip on my first sailboat. That three hour trip ended up taking thirteen hours. Read about it. The time of a sailboat trip can not be predicted. If you need to get to a certain place at a certain time take a bus not a sailboat. An afternoon trip has more than once become a late nighter. Leave your watches ashore. Thats what I tell everyone before they step foot aboard. I dont know what time well be back but Im certain that we will be back. My very first sailboat trip was not a late nighter but rather an early morning return.
Speaking of time, How long does it take you to hang a calender on your wall? You get a stick pin and put it through a hole in the calender and stick the pin in the cork board. Thirty seconds? It took me the better part of three hours to hang a calender on the boat. First I had to get the tape from the old calender off the wall. For this project I had to find the razor blade scrapper. Then I had to run to the hardware store to get new blades for it. The scrapper got the top layer of the tape off the wall but the sticky part of the tape just rolled up into little balls. I had to go back to the hardware store for some solvent to get the sticky balls off the wall. Then and only then was I able to re-tape the new calender to the wall. I have since put the scrapper in its place so I can find it next time. I hope I remember that place. Imagine what a project it is to install a new pedestal steering system or an new diesel engine. Imagine the time it takes to make an old boat a safe craft, a boat ready to sail, and the keyword is safe. It took me the better part of four years to make my Morgan 38 the boat I wanted it to be. And notice Im not saying anything about the cost. Thats another story. And these are some of the stories I tell. This is the third boat I have redone. But it is the last boat that I will redo. Im getting too old for this rebuilding stuff.

Parts of Sail Tales tells about projects such as what I have just described. But the majority of the stories are about sailing trips where something happens. If you are a sailor or if you own a sailboat, sit back and try to remember trips that were dull and boring. They dont pop into your mind. But what does pop are the adventures, the thrill of the wind that is blowing just a bit harder than you would like. You remember the trips where the rail is in the water for most of the day and how you were able to keep the boat under control. You remember the trips where there was no wind and the day became a motor day. You remember entering an anchorage and finding someone there from your marina or someo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 5, 2009
• ISBN: 9781462834365

Captain Robert Engel

I have been sailing for forty-three of my sixty-nine years. Most of my sailing experience has been in boats that I owned, ranging from my first sailboat that was a twenty-four foot 1938 Mallard to my current boat, a 1970 thirty-eight foot Morgan sloop. I did deliveries up and down Long Island Sound, for owners, on very small and very large boats while living in Long Island, New York. I am currently a live aboard in Norfolk, Virginia. Sailboats are my passion since I raised my first sail in 1967 and since then sailboats have become my life.

Book preview

SAIL TALES

Captain Robert Engel

ABOARD EVENING STAR

A 1970 MORGAN KEEL/CENTERBOARD SLOOP

Copyright © 2009 by Captain Robert Engel.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in

any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without

permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

62536

Contents

BOOK DESCRIPTION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

CARTOONS FROM NEWSPAPERS

BOOKS YOU HAVE TO READ

RULES

SECTION ONE

1

2

3

4

5

6

SECTION TWO

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

SECTION THREE

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

SECTION FOUR

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

SECTION FIVE

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

SECTION SIX

46

47

48

49

50

51

AFTERTHOUGHTS

52

53

54

55

56

57

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Mike O’Shea

I want to dedicate this humble writing adventure to Mike O’Shea. He was a sailboat owner and a friend from my first days in Long Island. Mike was a good looking bear of a man with a booming, loud, rasping voice and a full chested laugh that he used often. The party started when Mike showed up, be it a back yard party, a dock party or the 7-11 where he went for coffee every morning. He was a crew member in most of The Around Long Island Regattas that our crew sailed. He was just a fun man to be with. And he adored his family, especially his grand kids. Mike was the man I helped deliver the Tartan 37 in the I Need A Crew story. He also got confused about the price of teak in the story, Cheap Teak Ain’t So Cheap in Texas story. One afternoon in October of 2008 he finished mowing his lawn and was sitting in his backyard recliner, drinking a lemonade and soaking up the sun. He called Barry, a mutual friend and told him what he was doing and said, Life is good. That night Mike passed away. All who knew him loved him and will miss him.

62536-ENGE-layout.pdf

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Sail Tales is about the adventures a humble sailboat owner had over the years. So where does one start writing about these adventures? You start at the beginning. That beginning was in 1967 when I was helping a friend of mine, Frank, re-build an old wooden boat that he had bought. Frank took the whole boat apart and then rebuilt it from the frames up. It was a sleek little craft and I found myself involved in his project.

Frank found a similar craft and with his promise of help, I bought it. I spent the whole winter and most of the spring doing the things that had to be done to the boat to get it ready for the summer of 69. I knew nothing about about sailing. But how hard could it be to learn? I soon found out.

My sailing adventures started that summer. I learned quickly that unlike a power boat, a sailboat is not a craft that you get aboard, turn a key and then drive it like a car. You have to sail the boat. You have to do what the wind lets you do. You can’t go directly where you want to go because the wind won’t allow it. You have to finesse, you have be diplomatic, you have to learn to tweak a sail rather than over trim.

Well, I learned to get that sailboat from point to point. I also learned that time on a sailboat is not the same as time on land and I learned this on my very first trip on my first sailboat. That three hour trip ended up taking thirteen hours. Read about it. The time of a sailboat trip can not be predicted. If you need to get to a certain place at a certain time take a bus not a sailboat. An afternoon trip has more than once become a late nighter. Leave your watches ashore. That’s what I tell everyone before they step foot aboard. I don’t know what time we’ll be back but I’m certain that we will be back. My very first sailboat trip was not a late nighter but rather an early morning return.

Speaking of time, How long does it take you to hang a calender on your wall? You get a stick pin and put it through a hole in the calender and stick the pin in the cork board. Thirty seconds? It took me the better part of three hours to hang a calender on the boat. First I had to get the tape from the old calender off the wall. For this project I had to find the razor blade scrapper. Then I had to run to the hardware store to get new blades for it. The scrapper got the top layer of the tape off the wall but the sticky part of the tape just rolled up into little balls. I had to go back to the hardware store for some solvent to get the sticky balls off the wall. Then and only then was I able to re-tape the new calender to the wall. I have since put the scrapper in it’s place so I can find it next time. I hope I remember that place. Imagine what a project it is to install a new pedestal steering system or an new diesel engine. Imagine the time it takes to make an old boat a safe craft, a boat ready to sail, and the keyword is safe. It took me the better part of four years to make my Morgan 38 the boat I wanted it to be. And notice I’m not saying anything about the cost. That’s another story. And these are some of the stories I tell. This is the third boat I have redone. But it is the last boat that I will redo. I’m getting too old for this rebuilding stuff.

Parts of Sail Tales tells about projects such as what I have just described. But the majority of the stories are about sailing trips where something happens. If you are a sailor or if you own a sailboat, sit back and try to remember trips that were dull and boring. They don’t pop into your mind. But what does pop are the adventures, the thrill of the wind that is blowing just a bit harder than you would like. You remember the trips where the rail is in the water for most of the day and how you were able to keep the boat under control. You remember the trips where there was no wind and the day became a motor day. You remember entering an anchorage and finding someone there from your marina or someone there from two years ago that you met at a different anchorage. These are the tales you tell your friends, these are the tales you remember and these are the tales I tell.

Where did you find the name for your boat. A name has to have some meaning and it has to be a name that does not demean the boat in any way. I found the name Felicity for my Morgan 30 in a poem by Emily Dickinson. I found the name Evening Star for my Morgan 38 at a store that sold pizza cutters. Both names were perfect. I say I found these names but in reality they found me. When naming a boat you have to have patience. Wait and the proper name, the only name, the magical name, will find you.

My son Matthew grew up on my sailboats. He was born then he was toddling around and falling and all of a sudden he’s sixteen years old, sitting at the kitchen table during dinner asking if he can take the boat out by himself. What do you say? How do you answer? Where did the years go?

I bought a boat with the help of a bank. At that time I wasn’t making a lot of money. I was a school teacher with a sick kid. But the bank gave me the loan anyway. During the winter months I defaulted on the loan and the bank called and wanted me to sail the boat to a town near them so they could repossess it. I told them no way. It’s my job to make the payments and I didn’t do that. It’s your job to repossess it. This is not a sailing story but it is about a sailboat that I owned. Another story is about the time I had to abandon a bachelor cruise because of a death in the family. I insisted that my crew take my boat and continue. They had one great adventure and I missed the whole damn thing. And the Sail Tales go on and on. They are stories about the things that I remember. They are all sailboat stories. These are my stories but I know that they will help you remember your sailboat stories, your Sail Tales.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There are several people I have to recognize for the help and support that was given to me over the years as I tried to write these stories.

First I would like to thank my wife Debby for understanding the time that I spent trying to complete this endeavor and for doing the FINAL EDIT, the most important edit.

Next, I want to thank Frank Madigan for getting me onto my first sailboat. By the way, Frank came up with the name Sail Tales for these stories. Thank you Frank, I think, for getting me into sailing.

Nicholas DiCampli was a live aboard at The Bay Point Marina in Norfolk Virginia, where I now keep my boat Evening Star. He was the best read man I knew. He read my stories, said he enjoyed them but I had better, Continue polishing the stone. I did continue polishing but Nick died. He never read the final copy that appears here. I keep wondering if I polished the stone sufficiently.

Thank you also to my daughter-in-law, Amy Engel and to Vanessa Jones and to John Funke. All gave me the encouragement to continue. But Amy, Vanessa and John are close to me and I didn’t know if they were just saying what they did just to make me feel good.

Thanks to my step-son, Bryan Noll, who crews for me and fixes things on my boat. His body is still young enough to bend into the corners that my old body can no longer navigate.

And last but not least I want to thank my seven year old grandson Lil b for keeping the pages in order and yelling at me when he found a page numbering error. And there were many.

INTRODUCTION

An introduction is written last and read least. I am writing this introduction because it seems necessary. Unlike most sailors who write about sailing and their boats, I don’t have 300,000 miles under my keel. I have never had a boat designed especially for me and the only new boat that I have ever owned, cost less than $7000. The boat that I own now is worth about $45,000 but I have a whole lot more money and time invested in it. I am simply an average middle class, sailboat owner and have been , since 1967. But I will attempt to capture your interest anyway.

I consider myself an experienced coastal cruiser with an average amount of race experience. I have been down the ICW only once, alone, on my 1970 Morgan 38 K/C sloop Evening Star. The trip started in Norfolk, Virginia. I went as far as the West Coast of Florida, to a small town called Dunedin, four miles north of Clearwater. I then followed basically the same route back to Norfolk. I read somewhere that offshore means, out of sight of land and out of your friggin’ mind. I adopt this concept wholeheartedly. On this trip I stayed inside most of the way because I was alone. I have had a good time sailing and owning my simple sailboats. I have owned five since 1967 and several power boats prior to that. I learned to sail on the waters around Long Island, New York, specifically the waters of The Great South Bay. I moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1998, after I retired from teaching school in The Sayville, New York, School System. I continue learning to sail in Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay. I have met many nice sail-men and sail-women over the course of my sailing experience, and very few of them I would not like to meet again.

These stories that I try to tell, are not a history, or a log book, of my sailing experiences. Some of the stories are about things that happened to me while on the water, some are about just sailboat things. I wrote these stories as I remembered them and then tried to organize them in some kind of chronological order. The sailing stories are organized by the boat that I was sailing at the time. The others are organized within the time frame of when they happened.

Each section contains a short history of each sailboat, and the stories are organized under the name of that particular boat. These are stories of my sailing experiences that I recall. They are stories from my humble time on the water and the time spent on and around the sailing community. But, the stories are all true. These things really happened. The father of my friend Frank told me once that you remember only the sailing trips where something happens. All the rest are forgotten.

I have tried to avoid using the names of those people involved but I have used the real names of only those people who are still close to me. All other names have been avoided. Only the people that know me might be able to figure out who these characters are. You have to be a character to be part of any sailing adventure.

Several of the stories are adventures I have had with my son Matthew. Please understand that Matthew grew up with a father who loves his sailboats. I think I have fostered that love for sailboats in him. I know I have.

My sailboats and the memories, I write about, don’t match the experiences of the sailors that I read about in various sailing magazines. But as I have said before I am only a humble sailor who loves the water and who loves to feel the power of a set of sails filled with the wind, but not with too much wind.

CARTOONS FROM NEWSPAPERS

A Non Sequiter Cartoon 8/29/95 by Wiley Miller

This is a seven-frame newspaper cartoon.

Hagar the Horrible 3/09/02 by Dik Browne

This is a six-frame newspaper cartoon

Hagar the Horrible 10/10/?? by Dik Browne

Hagar is standing in front of a mirror and says, Wow! When I spend the time, I can still make a great impression!

Helga talking to their daughter, Your father took a bath, trimmed his beard, brushed his teeth, splashed on lotion and put on clean clothes!

Their daughter says, It’s not like daddy to do that!

Helga says, I know, but sometimes it happens to men when they reach a certain age . . .

Their daughter all flustered says, Oh no! You mean . . . There’s ANOTHER WOMAN?

Helga says, No, he’s going to the boat show.

B C 04/08/99 Home News Tribune

B C is on a raft with a stick for a mast and a square sail. He is looking into the water.

What’s this? It appears to be a piece of paper. The piece of paper reads, IF YOU HAD FLOWN YOU’D BE THERE NOW.

B C 03/19/99 Home News Tribune

BC is on the same raft as above with what looks like a mouse. The mouse says, Look, red sky at night!

B C says, Yeah! . . . Sailors’ delight!

Mouse says, Doesn’t take a whole lot to please a sailor!

Hagar the Horrible by Dik Browne

Picture a raging storm-tossed sea. Rain. Lightning striking. Waves breaking. Hagar’s dragon sailboat is in a deep trough between waves looking like it surely will be swamped. His other crew member asks, Hagar, why did you take up sailing?

Hagar answers, For relaxation!

BOOKS YOU HAVE TO READ

Aiken, Zora and David, Good Boat Keeping

International Marine/ McGraw Hill, 1995

Bode, Richard, First You Have to Row a little Boat

Grand Central Publishing, 1995

Bruce, Peter, Heavy Weather Sailing

International Marine/McGraw Hill, Thirtieth Anniversary Edition

Caswell, Christopher, (Editor), The Quotable Sailor

The Lyons Press, 2004

Calder, Nigel, Boat Owner’s Mechanical and Electrical Manual (For Reference)

International Marine/McGraw Hill, 1996

Calder, Nigel, Marine Diesel Engines (for Diesel Owners)

International Marine/McGraw Hill, 1992

Junger, Sebastian, The Perfect Storm

Harper Collins Paperbacks, 1998

Kretschner, John, At the Mercy of the Sea

International Marine/McGraw Hill, 2007

Pardy, Lin and Larry, Storm Tactics

Pardy Books, 2002

RULES

Nothing on a boat is level or square.

A rule of physics; On a boat there is no such thing as an easy, quick job.

A rule of physics; You are working on the deck of a sailboat boat and you drop something. If it is important part of the job, it will go overboard. If it is not an important part it will land on the deck.

On a sailboat, you must throw your watch away and never allow your guests to wear a watch.

If you think that something may go wrong, it probably will.

Crackerjacks and peanut shells are not compatible with interiors of sailboats.

When you are sailing your boat alone, you are the center of the universe. As soon as someone else comes aboard the center shifts just slightly, but it shifts. The shift is overwhelming if that someone is a woman. You are no longer the center of your universe. She is.

It is illegal in most states, for a sailboat to leave the slip without having aboard all the necessary safety equipment and a can of Dinty Moore Beef Stew or a can of Sweet Sue Chicken and Dumplings.

If two sailboats are in sight of one another it’s a race.

Changing the name of a boat may be bad luck but a man doesn’t own something until he names it.

The wind vane at the top of the mast will always point in the direction you want to go, thus making expensive navigation systems unnecessary.

Reef before you need to reef.

Think about it, a lot of the equipment that you put on your sailboat you really don’t need until you really need it, and all the while you hope that you won’t need it.

The relentless stink of a quart of milk spilled in the bilge will be the reason enough to sell the boat.

While in the state of Florida, you must carry pyrotechnics and a whistle while operating your dink.

Hey guys, don’t pee into the wind.

I know it’s difficult, but throw away, out of date flares.

In the twelve volt system, if something fails to work, check the ground wire first.

When you push the tiller or turn the wheel, the stern moves. A sailboat is not a car.

Go to all the dock parties at your marina.

You can listen to NOAA for weather but weather listens to no one.

Remember to KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid!

Usually, the only light bulb to fail is the one in the anchor light.

If your boat looks good from twenty feet away and someone comes closer to get a better look without being invited, tell them, Get the fu— away from my boat!

A young lady lives on the boat across from me. It is a 1970’s prototype power boat. She didn’t like the boat very much and she often told me so. Just last week the owner told her that he would give the boat to her if she would assume the back dock fees that were owed. She agreed. Early one morning she knocked on my hull and told me that she was now the proud owner of the boat. She was overjoyed.

The next day she asked me how to go about fixing two leaks in the cabin top, where she could get foam and material for new cushions, she was going to make new curtains, why was there a white powder on her hands when she touched the deck? She asked me how to do this and then how to do that.

What is it about boat ownership that causes a person to become obsessed with "fixing it up?

A neighbor man hauled an old rowboat into his front yard cut the bottom out with a chain saw. He buried the old boat to the waterline. He was going to plant flowers in it. He walked over the other day and asked me what kind of paint to use on the hull. He was going to sand it down and paint it and fix it up.

SECTION ONE

SAM’S SONG

SAM’S SONG WAS A 1938, TWENTY-ONE FOOT, WOODEN SLOOP.

1

MY BOATING HISTORY AND SAM’S SONG

I have been the proud owner of a power boat since I was twelve yeas old. At that time a friend of mine, Gary, and I built an eight foot pram in his garage from plans his father had. We built this pram because Gary had a small outboard engine sitting in his garage and we needed a boat. So we decided to build the pram. Gary had a lake next to his house in Wanamassa, New Jersey and we launched this pram on this lake. We named this little pram, Melissa, because we both fantasied about Melissa, the girl who lived down the street from of us.

We had a very good time that summer exploring the lake. The following year Gary and I had a falling out over this craft. He said that because the engine was his and because his father gave us the plans, and because we built it at his house and stored it in his garage over the winter, the boat belonged to him. I had some money invested in the material, and my labor building it, but that didn’t seem to matter. I guess possession is nine-tenth of the law. We parted ways. The only thing we did together after this was fight. Fist fights. So much for joint ownership.

I saved my money, working at the A&P store after school and at the Asbury Park Boardwalk during the summer. And with my dad’s credit, two or three years later, I bought a thirteen foot Boston Whaler when they first were introduced. I put a 40 horse power Johnson on the back of it and I was the king of the water on the lake in Belmar, New Jersey, until the engine was stolen.

Three years after that when I was twenty I bought, I can’t remember the size or the make, but It was the same boat that was on the TV program Flipper. I owned this boat until I graduated college in 1967. I started my teaching career that September in Sayville, Long Island, New York and soon met a colleague, Frank. Frank had a sailboat. The thought of using the wind for fuel was a grand idea. Frank’s sailboat was a1939, twenty-one foot Mallard and I got involved with him as he was re-building that boat.

At the time, I didn’t know that Frank had experience sailing. His father was a sailor and Frank had done a lot of sailing with his dad. Frank also owned a small powerboat and I have written about an adventure that we had on that boat. He asked me if I would be interested in buying another Mallard. He knew where there was one but didn’t know much about it. I told him that I was interested.

We went to look at the boat in Mel Leach’s boatyard and Frank seemed to feel that this Mallard was in decent shape. I didn’t know much about wooden boats but I would learn quickly. The price was right and I bought it. I was now the proud owner of a 1938 Mallard, a wooden sailboat, that needed a lot of work. Mel hauled the boat to my backyard. I sold the Flipper boat.

I worked on this Mallard over the winter and into late May of 1970 with my five year old son, Sammy, helping me. I named the