February 2005

Dear friends,

There's so much going on right now, it's hard to know where to start. There's Trumpy yachts everywhere, eight in my neighborhood alone. And everywhere I go, I run into Trumpy yachts, or their owners - even on a Boy Scout camping trip and on Ebay.

Mr. Hollis Baker, who has owned the Sirius and Glory, has bought a new Trumpy yacht, the 73-foot Zarya. This yacht, soon to be renamed Stately Lady, is going through a major bottom refit.

At the same time, we are doing a structural refit on the 72-feet Eleanor, built in 1939, in her engine room with new ribs. In addition, Eleanor, owned by John & Karine Bermingham of New York is getting hull paint and varnish work from us.

Then there's Glory, part of the Earl McMillen III fleet, which is getting new paint and gold leaf from us. Earl is also restoring a 103-footer built in 1926 up north. That job is just getting started and I tip my hat to him. Just rounding up the proper materials is a lot of work.

And there's Emma, which just got new A/C, heads and plumbing. She is ready to go home to the Jenkins family in Lakeland. Docked next to Emma is Blue Moon, for her winter berth. Down the road, at Rybovich Spencer is the former Eskimo, now Sea Hammock. Our guys lent a hand, fitting new ribs and blocks for new bow thrusters.

We've made progress on our boat, Jacqueline, including splining planks, stripping the port side to bare wood, epoxy saturating, fairing and priming her. After opening up one of the engines, we found it had eaten four of the valves. We ended up buying the Trumpy Ibis' engines. Ibis is gone now, but her motors will live on in Jacqueline.

Because I obviously can't get enough on Trumpy yachts, I was scrolling through Ebay when up popped an old article on Tireless. Last year, at Vintage Weekend at Ocean Reef, I ran into Tireless' owner, Dale Fetteroff and the captain, Jim. Capt. Jim though that Tireless must have had a cockpit in the back or a different cabin top arrangement.

As you can see from the pictures, the way she is today is the way she was built. She has an enclosed steering area like a northern boat and an open aft area, which is truly one off. And she had a metal steering wheel and modern devices mounted on the dash, a Loran A maybe, and most surprising of all, a painted main salon was original. I hope you enjoy the story as much as I did.

With all of this going on, my wife Stephanie decided I needed to get away and signed me up to take our son on a Boy Scout camping trip on the Peace River. As we were setting up camp, I heard someone call my name. It was Kevin Walters, owner of Lunetta, a 98-foot Trumpy built in 1928. Lunetta is being restored in North Carolina. He says she is in primer and getting ready for paint. He has new motors and hopes to launch this year. He is two years into the project so he's pretty anxious to splash her. I didn't spend the whole weekend talking Trumpys. My son and I made sifters - he found a shark's tooth - and we went canoeing, too.

Another project ready to wrap up is Sea Baron III, a 1957, 60-feet houseboat. I spoke to my friend and colleague Dan Avoures, the other Trumpy guy, and he said they are in the last stages and should splash soon. I'm sure she came out beautifully.

On a sadder note, Peter Max, the long time president of the Trumpy Yachting Association passed away at his home in Maryland. Peter will be greatly missed by all who knew him. If you wish to drop a note to Susie Max, the address is 413 Cove Road, Queenstown, MD, 21658.

As for the future of the Trumpy association, I recently spoke to Nancy Smith, one of the Annapolis area members. She said the board is scheduled to meet soon.

As I've said, I've been swimming in Trumpy yachts lately, including some interesting visitors at our shop. Robert Bittner told me a harrowing story about his 1959, 47' Trumpy sailboat's travails through two hurricanes. He was scouting materials to take back to Bahamas, where he keeps his boat.

Bittner keeps the Robert Alexander in Green Turtle in the Abacos, Bahamas. She broke her mooring in Frances and poked a hole in her starboard side. They sealed her up with plywood, floated her and put her on anchor. Bittner went back to the States to take care of business. Then Jeanne hit and the boat broke loose again, this time damaging the other side. She now has plywood patches on both sides of the hull and is hauled out in Green Turtle. Robert vows he will fix her.

A few weeks after meeting Robert, Colin and Andrea Chisholm of Miami dropped into the shop. The Chisholms are the owners of Andrea Aras, an 84-foot Trumpy cruiser built in 1963. We had worked on this yacht when she was the Wishing Star.

The Andrea Aras has come back home, in a sense. Colin's mother, Sara C. Chisholm owned her when she was named Aras.

And recently, I spoke to a gentleman whose family used to own the Norsaga, a 53' fishing cruiser built in 1954. He was interested in finding her and bringing her back to life.

These stories really touched me because it shows these Trumpy yachts are more than boats, they are part of family legacies.

Until next time,
Jim Moores