January 2007

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year! The Trumpy M/Y Stargazer III is back in the water after a major topsides refit, planking around portholes, transom and top transom skirt, with teak covering boards with combings. We T-splined her sides and transom. We was stripped by long board, faired and painted. She has come out beautifully. I think even Mr. Trumpy would be proud. Bernard Smith led the paint crew and Don Thibeault handled the carpentry and they both did a great job. Stargazer’s owner and captain have been wonderful to work with. While in the water, she is now getting paint and varnish with a few woodworking projects. Stargazer and Emma are sitting side by side and look like a photo op.

On to the next story, people who have seen our lumber room know I have some huge, beautiful boards. Some are 4 feet wide and several hundred years old. Six years ago, I got a call from one of our lumber suppliers, Kelly. “I just uncovered something you might be interested in. Three 2-1/2” x 18” x 27’ matched Honduras mahogany boards,” she said. Kelly didn’t know when or where they came from but she knew I was the customer who was sure to say yes.

When they showed up, I buried them deep in the lumber stacks in our shop. Someday, I knew there would be a special project that would call for this mahogany. The years have passed. I tucked the location of those boards in the back of my mind. Then Justic, a 75’ Consolidated Commuter built in 1929 showed up. She had projects that needed long lengths and there had been many repairs over the years. There was a tapestry of many different types of mahogany.

She was built with old growth Honduras and that is what I’ve been saving all these years. My ship had come in for the wood I had been saving.

Justice’s Captain and First Mate Bryant and Corine Akers have been hands-on, removing everything from the inside. We drained the water tanks in preparation for the haul out. We had only one last thing to do, burn off a little fuel. I volunteered to go for a ride. When the engines started, you could hear 1800 horses. Justice (formerly Jem) responded more like a 21-foot boat with big engines.

We headed up the Intracoastal. Once it was clear, the captain brought her up to speed. Her knife bow sliced through the water. The rush of wind made my eyelids flap and my heart pound with excitement. You usually don’t do those kinds of speeds on a 1929 wooden boat. We headed to the boatyard. We have a dream team working on here. Don Thibeault is Justice’s project manager. We’ve got a great carpentry team with David, Douglas and Charles handling the woodwork. Duol Thach and his three sons are handling the interior bright work. Jon Dunn and his crew are handling the topside bright work and Bernard Smith is heading up the hull paint crew. Justice’s own crew have rolled up their sleeves and work right along the rest of the crew.

It’s funny how things work. I remember last year, I tried to help one client find a pre-war boat suitable for restoration. I said then that I would like to do more pre-war projects. I must have wished hard because we are working on two pre-war yachts from the same year, 1929, at the same time.

The second yacht is a 1929 102’ John Alden Schooner, Summerwind, formerly called Sea Gypsy. Her adventure started in Spain, where the new owners found her. She was loaded on a transport ship and arrived in Fort Lauderdale and we towed her up to West Palm Beach. This might be corny but I’ve always loved schooners. If there was a schooner sailing by, I always stopped what I was doing to watch them go by whether I was Camden, Maine or St. George’s in Grenada, where they had a fleet of Island Trading schooners in the 1970s.

I once bought a Tanchook Island scalloper, a baby Bluenose, up in Nova Scotia. She was 28 feet. After getting her loaded on a trailer, a husky silver-haired man briskly walked up to me and asked, “Where do you think you’re going with the Vernon Langille Tanchook!” I told him, “To Maine, to restore here.” He asked if I wanted to see here big sister. Of course. I followed him to the maritime museum in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia. He was the curator and the big sister was the schooner “Bluenose II.”

I went straight to the wheel and sat on the box. My eyes rolled up and down her rig. It was faill and her sails were put away on shore. It made no difference. You could feel the power she possessed. He asked me if I wanted to see the rest of here and he showed me around.

I went back to the wheel box and sat there a while longer. At that moment at the wheel, it was a childhood dream come true. So when I wished to work on more pre-war projects, I couldn’t have wished for two greater projects than Justice and Summerwind.

Now for some Trumpy news:

-The Gitana, formerly Adabab, Contract 236, a Mathis Trumpy built in 1938, was bought by an Englishman who wanted to export her to the Med and have her restored in Spain or Turkey. He moved her west in Florida and left her tied up at a marine unattended over the holidays. She sank and water under for over two weeks. She has been re-floated from what I understand but I haven’t seen here. What the future holds for Gitana is uncertain.

-The next is Norsaga, Jinofor II, Contract 367, built in 1954. We recently received an email that she is going to be parted out and items from the vessel are for sale. The owner’s name is Tim Dugger, 386-673-3373, email: daytonatents@cfl.rr.com.

-On this Trumpy, I’m not at liberty to say her name but she broke her moorings in November, it was night and she went ashore onto granite rocks. By sunrise, she lay sunk. Three days down. She is now on hard ground, here engine pickled. I have been asked to make a determination on whether she can be saved.
The future of these three Trumpy yachts are uncertain. I will let you know the rest of the stories as they unfold.

One more Trumpy story. Freedom, 104’, Contract 181, built in 1926, is being restored by a crew put together by Earl McMillan. I am enclosing some info that Earl sent me.

And, I haven’t talked about North Carolina yet. We are close to finishing the first two phases. We have the first building up and three acres cleared and compacted for storage and projects.

Nathaniel Smith, my partner and brother-in-law, will be moving up in late March to open up the new facility. We will be opening in April 2007. Bookings will be handled through Moores Marine Florida. Call Stephanie at the office at 561-841-2235 and we’ll try to reserve your pick of haul-out dates.

We have settled on the name Moores Marine Yacht Center. Our Florida operation is still Moores Marine. We’ve already started calling it North and South although North Carolina is still very much the South.
I will leave you with what I started this letter: Happy New Year from all of us.
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Until next time,
Jim Moores