Over 50'/Under $50,000

Fancy a bit of DIY? From the looks of this 55' Bruce Roberts-in-progress, nothing more than the efforts of a rank amateur are required to finish her off in the spirit of the original project.

This "solid glass with foam core" beauty (which is it? solid glass or foam core?) sports an interior that could have been metaphor in a Conrad novel. Clearly, it started out (two decades ago?) as an attempt to make a professional job of it. Then the mad desire to just finish that became a slapdash race to the bottom of the scrap wood pile.

The horror.

Latest Round In Court Goes to BMW Oracle ...

The New York Supreme Court officially ordered AC officials to redeploy the yellow "follow me" flag after it ruled that Alinghi's choice of Ras al-Khaimah for the challenge venue was off.

Justice Shirley Kornreich decided that the choice could be in the Southern Hemisphere or in Valencia, where it was last held in 2007.

See here

Abby Bought a Boat

As controversy continues to swirl around Jessica Watson, the Aussie sailor who is heading east on her circumnavigation in an effort to be the youngest, pinkest solo sailor to do it, Abby Sunderland (little sis to solo sailor Zach Sunderland) has finally got a boat to have a go at it herself.

Best Bay Boats - Catalina 27

By their sheer numbers -- there have been more than 6,500 built in a production run since 1971 -- and their versatility alone, we could not pass on the Catalina 27 as a "Best Bay Boat".

In addition, they are cheap, fast and roomy. In short, C27s are the perfect boat for racing or cruising on the Chessie. John Kretschmer describes them as "simple but successful ... styl­ish but definitely affordable boats with semi-modern hull shapes and high-volume interiors."

More here: C27s on the Chesapeake

Nautical word of the day ...

FIRST RATE. Originally a term referring to the largest class of naval sailing vessels, especially those that carried 74-120 guns.

Course from hell

This was the course laid out for a recent Magothy River Sailing Association race. We assume the shotgun was needed for RC self-defense!

Schooners!

The Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race from Baltimore to Portsmouth starts today!

more on Shockwave V disaster: before and after ...

Great Boat Show weekend!

Toured some yachts we could never afford, splurged on some gear, saw Bob Bitchin shilling for his advertisers (am I the only one who thinks that's the only real point to his videos?). Oh well, at least we got the gear.

(photos to come)

Couple news items:

-- If you were able to get aboard that lovely Hinckley at the show, you might be interested in this story over the weekend in the NY Times that points to troubled waters for the company.

-- Australian yachtsman Andrew Short, a Sydney-Hobart and Volvo veteran is killed along with his navigator, Sally Gordon, after washing up on the rocks off Flinders island in the Bass Strait. That's Short above in happier times. Sad news indeed.

Nautical word of the day ...

TAKEN ABACK. In nautical jargon, to be taken aback is to suddenly have the wind shift, either through bad steerage or sudden weather change, so that it is coming over the bow and giving the ship sternway, 1754. To be taken aback can dismast a ship.

For those hard to reach shots ...

Boat Show fever ...

Despite our annoyance at having to pay for the privilege of being pitched already criminally overpriced marine products, we here at Sailing Maryland admit to a bit of giddiness ahead of this weekend's Annapolis Boat Show. Maybe this year we'll finally out tack the Hinckley Yachts bouncer and get inside of one of those beauties.

As usual, though, the best part of the show is the "free" seminars put on by Cruising World in the ballroom of the Annapolis Marriott Waterfront Hotel, including several by Jimmy Cornell.

Sibling Rivalry

Zach Sunderland, the 17-year-old who recently completed a solo circumnavigation now has a little sister in his wake. Abby Sunderland, however, plans to upstage her brother by doing it non-stop. She'll be leaving next month, just a few weeks after her sweet 16.

Her glam shots aren't quite as polished as Aussie rival Jessica Watson. Watson leaves from Sydney in a few days. Presumably, Abby plans a West Coast departure, same as her brother.

Slocum Meets Google Earth

Here's a fascinating resource we found recently that traces Joshua Slocum's historic voyage on Google Earth. Waypoints are marked and text from the classic tale are attached. Great way to waste a few hours on the Web.

Here you go: Voyage of Spray download

Sighted on the Magothy ...

New solo challenge? Just say (goat) "cheese"!

A first in yachting: Cruisersforum

Wave forms ...

NOAA Samoan Tsunami animation

Weekend Weather

A little blowy, but otherwise not bad -- assuming it doesn't rain on Saturday:



NOAA Hourly

NWS Annapolis-Baltimore

NOAA Marine Forecast

Nautical word of the day

SLUSH FUND: In nautical jargon, slush is the fat and grease from boiling meat. Slush would be sold when in port and the money would be distributed among the crew. Nautical use of slush fund dates to 1839.

Grounded Hawk

Hawk, the 47' custom-built aluminum fractional sloop owned by the sailor/author Starzingers (Following Seas, Blue Horizons, The Voyager's Handbook) is on the hard at Cypress Creek on the Magothy for a thorough overhaul.

Beth will be appearing for a seminar at the Annapolis Boat Show.

Best Bay Boats - Tartan 37

There's a saying that goes something like this: "I know only two sailors who haven't run aground. One never left the pier and the other was a spectacular liar." On the Chesapeake, even the liar grudgingly owns up.

No doubt a shallow draft is a big plus here and that puts a bullet next to the Tartan 37 centerboard version (4'2" with the board up) on our list of Best Bay Boats.

The Tartan's interior build quality is excellent -- in fact, on a par with many of the Asian built yachts.

The balsa-cored decks and hull keep down the displacement. We've seen one local Tartan 37 hulled below the waterline and it wasn't pretty. On the other hand, we know of at least a few that have done circumnavigations.

Overall, T37s seem like sturdy little cruisers and great Chessie gunkholers.

Some 450 boats were built from 1976-1988.

There's a pretty good range on the pricing, but the median gets in around our $50K "affordability" benchmark. We admit that at 37' LOA, she comes in a bit over our original size parameter. But, hey, for this boat we're willing to bend the rules a little.

More info:

Tartan Sailing Association

Chesapeake Bay Tartan Sailing Club

Jack Hornor's Boat U.S. Review.