The Kick Off to Boat Season 2011

Don has a friend who commissioned a boat to be build by Doug Hylan on the Benjamin River in Brooklin.

As they finished the boat they had an open house towards the end of January, so we went down to take a look. I was eager to go because I wanted to check on the progress to Robert and JoDee Baird's cat boat, the Mollie B., which is undergoing a fairly involved restoration there.

Doug had moved the Mollie B. outside for a breath of fresh air, and to open some room for the open house.



Here you can see the tale tell signs of a major refastening, and I think new ribs, as well.



This is the Deliverance, which has the look of an old fashioned sardine carrier:



Check out the fancy detail on the bottom of the sliding door:


In this one you can see Don plotting a course for Head Harbor:


On thing that I think about when I go aboard some of these yachts, is how luxury is relative. For example, here is the master stateroom on the Deliverance:

The picture above is the starboard side berth, looking forward. Below is the port side, looking towards the stern.

As you can probably piece together, the stateroom is about 8 feet long, and, at it's widest, about 9 or 10 feet wide, if that. You have to climb down a ladder to get into the room. Keep in mind that the Deliverance might be worth a half million dollars, and the only other place to sleep on the whole boat is the kitchen table in the galley. But to sit in that stateroom, even with its narrow berths, and the only natural light coming through two deck prisms and two 6" portholes, you feel like it would be the neatest bedroom in the world. Part of it is the finish, and the thought put into everything in the room. Nothing is happenstance, nothing is an afterthought. Every piece of wood is carefully thought out, individually crafted, and designed to squeeze the maximum utility and comfort out of every cubic inch of available space. Part of it too is just the romance of a big boat.

Anyway, I think there is a lesson that can be learned from this, namely, that living space can be small and wonderful at the same time, the two terms are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Here is the galley, with a footprint of 2' x 7', yet still beautiful and functional:

Compare that with the engine room, which is probably 8' x 12'. You can tell someone has their priorities right.

Here is a . . . uh . . . freezer? . . . ice maker? . . . something beautiful, anyway:

And on the starboard side, a tool locker, complete with benchtop vise:


Anyway, it is a beautiful boat, and it was a fun afternoon. A great start to the 2011 boat season.