The Concordian
a newsletter for lovers of Concordia yachts
Number 19 Spring 1995
This may not have much to do with Concordias, but I think most readers will find it of interest: sailing aboard the J boat Endeavor while watching an America’s Cup race.
My work often requires that I spend several weeks each month flying throughout the Orient. After a multitude of time zones and sleep deprivation my mental and physical state upon arriving home is one of sheer exhaustion. Upon catching up on a stack of accumulated mail, imagine my reaction to a note from Elizabeth Meyer with an invitation to sail aboard Endeavour during an America’s Cup race the next day. Overload. No way. Want to, but physically unable. I dashed off a fax stating my problem and requesting a rain check. (Fat chance.) I tossed and turned all that night in agony but then decided I’d be a fool to pass it up. I booked an early morning flight from Seattle and re-faxed saying I’d be there.
Who has not seen pictures of Endeavour? For the uninitiated, Endeavour was built for T.O.M. Sopwith to challenge for the
America’s Cup in 1934. Although considered faster than the American defender, Rainbow, she only won two races before being defeated by superior crew work and tactics. She was probably the most beautiful of the ten J’s built. She languished for years until Elizabeth took over the rebuilding project in 1985. Over $10 million was spent in her total reconstruction and she is absolutely stunning in design and finish. The finish work was completed by the Royal Huisman Shipyard in Holland. She was launched in 1989. No doubt Elizabeth’s owning the proper and impeccably maintained Concordia yawl MATINICUS for 18 years set high standards for Endeavour. Having the means to take on such a project was one thing, but to carry it through with such a high degree of perfection came from Elizabeth’s sense of nautical history and knowledge. Endeavour is 130’ LOA and has a displacement of 162 tons.
Endeavour’s home port is Newport, but she is currently on the West Coast for the Cup races and a summer cruise. I met her at the San Diego Yacht Club. Hertowering 165’
mast was visible miles away. Departure time was scheduled for 1100. I had arrived at 1000 so was able to witness the crew of eight preparing for the day’s sail. Her freeboard relative to her length is low, but because of her immense size it is still about six feet above the waterline. Admirers were everywhere and I felt quite privileged to announce to a crew member that I was expected. What a rush. My duffel was taken and, since I had been invited to spend the night aboard as well, I was escorted to my own stateroom on the port side. Port out, starboard home? All the staterooms aboard Endeavour were POSH.
Elizabeth was having a light breakfast by herself in the main saloon when we met. As a fellow Concordia sailor, we had become acquainted through various fleet activities. I could immediately sense the magnitude of operating a vessel of this size. Although Endeavour has an experienced crew and very capable captain, much of the organization falls on Elizabeth. After several months in San Diego and the frenzy of the America’s Cup, it seemed she was ready for a break. A yacht of this size and pedigree is a magnet for crowds of curious folk. Of course, it also attracts some very interesting folks judging from the name dropping I heard and the other guests we had on board. her Husband Michael was occupied during their stay in San Diego having shipped his Herreshoff S sloop out from Newport to race against the local PC’s.
Elizabeth commented how different it was to go cruising on Endeavour than on MATINICUS. Early on she had planned a Maine cruise just like she would on a Concordia. It turned out that Endeavour traveled in one morning what it would take MATINICUS three days to cover.
Besides entertaining guests Endeavour is also available for charter. That keeps the crew hopping and helps with expenses. She was doing an occasional day charter in San Diego.During her upcoming cruise to the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia and Alaska this summer she will be available by the week. Only $60,000. Food, fuel and moorage extra. She had done a charter the previous day and life lines and life raft canisters were required on deck. To return Endeavour to her sleek profile the life lines were being removed and the canisters placed below in the lazerette.
Before the rest of the day guests arrived the crew removed the mains’l cover, brought head sails on deck and rove the 1 1/2” sheets. Endeavour has a Park Avenue boom which is triangular with the bottom facing up. It is over 3’ wide and coated with non-skid.Crew members can easily walk its length, either to tend the sail or simply as a neat place to hang out when under sail.
Shortly before departure the other guests arrived, including one of my sailing heroes, Bill Ficker, winning Cup helmsman aboard Intrepid in the 1970 defense. Also J.J. Isler, the original tactician aboard Mighty Mary this year, and her 19 month old daughter. She brought along her mother and two of the grinders from Mighty Mary, Shelly and Amy. There were about 15 guests total.
We pulled away from SDYC right at 1100 and powered out to the starting area along with hundreds of other boats. ESPN on-the-water commentator Peter Isler pulled up alongside and exchanged waves and goo-ga’s with his wife and daughter. Endeavour then spent the next hour or so jockeying for position in the spectator fleet. That was some trick given the large swells, limited maneuverability and aggressive tactics from the other boats. In fact, J.J. Isler commented that staying on station in the spectator fleet was more stressful than calling starting tactics on an AC boat. With the help of a bow thruster (retractable) and large four-bladed propeller (feathering) the captain did an admirable job, although he still had crew standing by with fenders, just in case. It was noisy from all the diesel engines and 8 overhead helicopters, and smelly from the exhaust.
Just prior to the start of Race 4, lunch was served on deck. With such perfectly maintained teak decks I was quite surprised to see that potato chips were on the menu. I instinctively went around picking up after messy eaters to prevent stains. It was quite rolly but the motion of Endeavour was minor compared to the filled-to-the-gills party boats.
It wasn’t until the ten-minute gun that we got a close look at Black Magic and The Mermaid. After watching every race on ESPN it was pretty uninteresting watching it live and without graphics or commentary. Interestingly enough, there was very basic commentary on marine channel 72, so we could hear what was happening. As it turned out, there wasn’t a lot of excitement. Bill Ficker and I watched the start together and I enjoyed hearing his comments. J.J. Isler showed only minor interest and spent most of the time playing mother and keeping her young daughter out of mischief. Mermaid ahead by two boat lengths at the first cross and behind by ten at the second. More of the same. We decided to depart the fleet and go for a sail.
Hoisting a 1,500 pound J boat mains’l is not a casual affair: Guests are asked to go below or to the aft deck to stay out of the way. The (two) port running backstays are taken forward. The topping lift is taken up and the boom gallows lowered. Port and starboard preventers are in place to keep the boom centered. The sail stops are removed but the sail is kept in place on the boom with light string that breaks during the hoist so the furled sail won’t come off the boom. The boat is powered slowly almost into the wind, just enough to keep the sail to port. The two-part halyard is taken up via an electric powered Lewmar winch. The captain, keeping a constant eye on the leech, gives a thumbs up to continue the hoist, or a fist to stop should a batten get caught on a weather runner. The process takes about ten minutes. One of the guests was Hood Sails president Tim Woodhouse, who had made Endeavour’s sails. He mentioned that the clew loading on the main was 30,000 pounds and that the luff would stretch 1 1/2 feet. Endeavour has three mains. This one, the largest with a fair amount of roach, another slightly smaller one for sailing in the Caribbean in stronger winds and a trys’l used for passage making. This particular sail was due for replacement after six seasons of racing (against Shamrock V, or Velsheda, the only other true J’s in existence, or against other large yachts in an occasional regatta) and cruising.
An inner stays’l and a small quadrilateral jib were hoisted forward. The term “small,” of course, is relative. There are load cells on each headstay with readouts at each running backstay winch to monitor the rig. The numbers would really climb when the bow went through a wave or when a puff (what’s Cayard’s term, a “stinger?”) hit. Quite impressive. It took all eight crew to tack the vessel. Guests were not encouraged to participate. Since this was a mere cruise, the electric overdrives on the coffee grinders were used, although I did see a Mighty Mary grinder give them a try.
Everyone that wanted to got a chance on the wheel. During my trick I noted that with 12.2 knots apparent wind and close reaching, we were sailing at 10.5 knots. Very impressive. The helm was quite responsive, but this was pretty easy going. The captain was always nearby - just in case. I had my picture taken with Bill Ficker on one side and J.J. Isler on the other. They weren’t too impressed, but I was.
Thousands of pictures were taken that day, by us and of us. We returned to SDYC more enthralled with having sailed aboard Endeavour than having witnessed an America’s Cup race. We all knew how that turned out. Endeavour backed effortlessly into her slip and within minutes of guests departing, the crew was washing down and polishing away.
Next morning I enjoyed a lazy hour walking the decks and admiring every detail. It was hard to miss the occasional Concordia touches: folding Concordia berths forward for the crew, the giant skylight over the main saloon, just like a Concordia. And the oh-so-subtle moon and star hiding in the covestripe fore and aft. I even answered a few questions to the dock walkers. Having just made a presentation on J boat history and Endeavour’s restoration to a historical group I felt confident in my answers, but still insignificant compared to Endeavour herself. At 0759 a uniformed crewmember popped out of the forward hatch and headed aft with the ensign under his arm. At precisely 0800 the colors were hoisted. Perfect, just like Endeavour. At 0805 the rest of the crew appeared on deck with buckets and chamois. The polishing continued.
Although there was no racing that day, Endeavour was still entertaining guests and going sailing. I couldn’t stay, but watched as guests boarded and Endeavour pulled away at exactly 1100. I felt most fortunate to have enjoyed such an experience.
Endeavour will be heading towards the Pacific Northwest and on to Alaska in mid-June. Her ports of call have yet to be determined, but wouldn’t it be fun to have a little raft up of Northwest Concordia yawls and one big blue J boat?
NEWS FROM THE FLEET:
PHALAROPE #13 - Dan & Sarah Beard, Kennebunkport, ME: Life in our town has settled down a lot since George Bush is no longer President. PHALAROPE provided Sarah and me with another wonderful season last summer. It started with launching in early May and a few day sails. Then the barnacles set in. I think that every boat in the area, freshly painted or not, got them. We had a white blanket from waterline down. Back to our railway, scrape and repaint, this time with cayenne pepper added. It seemed to work. No more barnacles for the rest of the season. The bulk of the summer was spent in the Penobscot, Blue Hill Bay, Frenchman Bay areas -- about 6 weeks of actual sailing.
Sarah and I gave each other 18-speed full size folding Montague bikes, adding a wonderful dimension to our travels, allowing both exercise and side trips that we would not have been able to do on foot. We also had the pleasure of having our son-in-law, Dave, with us while daughter Amy was in a summer school graduate program. On our way Down East we stopped at Tony Correa’s Open House which was a wonderful gathering at his new showroom on the Damariscotta River. There were only 4 wooden boats out of about 30.
We met up with Edgar Crocker on CROCODILE, Hank Bornhofft on MAGIC and Jim Brown, who was without SONNET, at the WoodenBoat Show in Southwest Harbor. The three boats had a pleasant evening in Somesville where it was actually warm enough to enjoy a swim. We have enjoyed watching the stages of SONNET’s rebuilding at Rumery’s Boatyard in Biddeford. It appears to be a first class job.
Late August took us across from Southwest Harbor to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. We had superb winds both ways and only a bit of fog. We met a lot of wonderful people and the Concordia was usually immediately identified and admired.
This winter’s projects are to recaulk the cockpit floor, wood much of the exterior brightwork and some engine work. We don’t know where 1995 will take us, but with PHALAROPE it should be grand. A major challenge for us will be to sail with a two month old grandchild and its parents. Does anyone have a tried and true arrangements for crib placement, day and night, with four adults aboard?
GOLONDRINA #65 - John Eide, Portland, ME: The Newsletter is great. I look forward to it every fall and spring and find it a good way of recapping the season and getting the process going again in the spring. You’ve got to check your facts! GOLONDRINA was the first Concordia to finish on corrected time in the 1994 Camden-Brooklin feeder race, not WINNIE. At least that’s the way I read the results sheet. Yeah, in the overall scheme of things it really is unimportant, but I’ve got to fan the flames of this friendly rivalry between Peter and myself. Anytime that an original fractional rigged yawl can beat the tallest masthead rig of the fleet, I feel I’ve got to flaunt it.
Getting serious, this winter GOLONDRINA is getting a new deck covering. The 1/4” plywood overlay with two layers on Dynel, all set, stuck and bonded with epoxy and coated with Awlgrip is very common, and quite effective. In addition, since the cockpit coamings had to come out to do the deck (and to cut out the only large chunk of rot I found in the carling), I decided to keep going and re-do the cockpit a la MALAY, leaving only the footwell open and gaining all that storage space under and outboard of the seats. Last spring the fuel tanks (mine came with one under each seat) were replaced with about a 35 gallon tank under the cockpit sole. Five gallons were lost in the process, but I gained lots of storage under the seats. When all is done the cockpit will be shaped, configured and looking just like the original.
In the process of checking everything outboard and aft of the cockpit I discovered rot, lots of rot, in the starboard forward mizzen chainplate block. The other five did not show any signs of rot, fortunately, since to replace the upper and aft mizzen chainplate blocks would mean removing the planking! The forward ones and the ones for the main can be removed with only minor hassle from the inside. So, fellow Concordians, make sure that you pull those little bronze plates around the chainplates and recaulk them every few years. I checked all the chainplate blocks before I purchased GOLONDRINA in 1991 and found now problems. Now, less than four years later, major rot was showing. Once I noticed the problem with the mizzen block, and since the canvas was off, I did some exploratory surgery around the main chainplates by removing the covering boards in the area. No problems were found, fortunately, so I gooped up the tops and buttoned everything up again, ready for the new deck covering.
Another one of those all too common Concordia stories occurred at the end of the summer as I was single-handing back to Portland, I left South Bristol, east side of the Gut, late morning with a going tide and a very light wind which held until I was just abeam Cuckolds Light when it died. Lots of other boats were coming out of Boothbay Harbor, motor sailing, with about half heading west, like me, to pass inside Sequin Light. Of course, just before reaching the Sisters, the wind came up from the Southwest. I reset the working jib (I never use anything but the three working sails when sailing alone) and settled down for the fun romp back home. And, of course, it really started to blow just before I got to the mouth of the Kennebeck setting up quite a chop since the tide was still going out the river. I was having fun, but I noticed all the boats around me were working in reefs, the crew getting decked out in their slickers, or they were dropping sails, turning around and heading for shelter -- in general, seeming to not be having that much fun. I did drop the mizzen, though, to relieve some pressure on the helm. Everyone seemed to be packing it in, except for me and a boat closing on me from the opposite course. A Concordia, of course, with two people in the cockpit chatting away and giving the impression that sailing is never a chore, never a need to work up a sweat and that we were all doing what comes naturally in a well designed sailboat. We waved, admired each other’s boat, passed, and then did that dance that we all do after we feel the other boat has passed just far enough -- and dove for the binoculars to check it out! Why do we feel we cannot get them out before the boats are abeam? What is in our upbringing or our socialization or our whatever that says it is not proper to look at the other boat through binoculars before she shows her transom? The etiquette seems to be that if we can see the faces of the other crew we cannot look through binoculars, but that if the boat is far enough away so the other crew cannot be seen, then we feel it’s OK to stare. It’s an interesting dance we play. It was SAXON, but I’m sorry that the wind and wave conditions precluded a closer pass so that a hail could be heard. It felt great to be in a boat that was moving along like nothing out of the ordinary was happening. For a Concordia it was just another Buzzards Bay type day and that’s exactly why they were designed. There’s a fine line, at times, between arrogance and pride, but the combination of Ray Hunt, Bill Harris, Waldo Howland and the A&R crew gave us boats that come as close to perfection as we’ll probably ever see. That gives us the right to be proud. PS: I’m getting to enjoy being chased by and chasing your ex-nemesis ALLURE now that she’s moved to Maine.