June 2007

Dear friends,

Three or so years ago, we were working on a Trumpy bottom refit when it started to rain and wouldn’t stop. It was like something out of the Bible.

The next 30 days of rain set a Florida record. As the rains kept coming, the ground shifted and I had to re-blocked and reset the jack stands several times. No damage was done but I wasn’t going to do another project like that on soft ground again.

We constructed three concrete pads out of high-compression concrete at a cost of $22,000 on someone elses land. One pad got cut up to lay a new water main. The second had containers placed on it. And, the last has our currant schooner project on it. We constructed 16 steel pole arms with jack stands mounted upside down on them to gently support the weight of the whole hull.

We are building a boat backwards. We have a top and we are building a bottom. It’s a dream job. Each person involved in Summerwind has been handpicked. We have the best materials that can be found anywhere and we are walking in the foot steps of great masters and those are very big foot steps to fill. The only changes we are making are to better distribute the stress that modern rigging has placed on 1929 built Summerwind,. The mast step and ring frames will be high tech but buried deep inside the yacht. Then there’s our crew: Jon, Dave, Don, Jim, Arie, Rich, Jacob, Jermaine, Bernard, Alejandro, Brian, and our metal man Kip who looks like he should be on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s one heck of a crew. So how does John Trumpy get into this letter as he invariably always does in my letters? We are working on Trianon, 80 feet, built in 1960, Contract No. 392.

She is out for some bottom repairs. With her long graceful hull, we picked her up on the nine sling Travelift and set her down. We only had 3/8” of deflection from when we laser targeted her in the water to when we blocked her on land.

Through the years we have turned lifting wooden boats into a measurable science. I’ve decide to put together those great masters John Trumpy and John Alden on the Summerwind. project. I told Mr. Williamson that when we re-do the master stateroom on his Alden schooner, I would like to use parts we saved from Ibis, a 1912 Mathis Trumpy. Ibis’ inset mahogany panels, handmade doors with Tiffany glass and one of the finest Trumpy writing desks I’ve ever seen.

I know Mr. Trumpy liked sailing and I think it’s fitting. I don’t think we’re going to take on anymore major projects in Florida for a while. Our hands are kind of full right now. We will continue to take care of our clients and paint and varnish but any more major projects will have to go to our North Carolina yacht center, which is up and ready to work. Mr. Hollis Baker and I have gone through four boat projects together in the last ten years and he always asked before we start if Nathan was going to be working on his yacht. Mr. Baker is not alone. Webster Rhoads, Capt. Jim Twaddle, Capt. John Russell and many others all ask for Nathanial.

Nathan’s mathematical mind and seriousness nature make him one of the most well-rounded and sought after craftsmen I have ever known. My focus is the Florida operation and Nathan’s is North Carolina, that’s the best of both worlds. The next time I pour a concrete slab, I will own the dirt underneath. It will be in North Carolina.!

Until next time,
Jim Moores

P.S. I hope you have made your arrangements to be at the Trumpy meet. Hope to see you there on June 15th – 17th at St. Michaels, Maryland.