Launching a Chesapeake Classic
I've been absent for several days - time off over the holiday weekend to visit my parents down on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The wind was light so not much sailing to speak of but I did attend the momentous launching of a classic Chesapeake Bugeye on Saturday at the waterfront estate of one Sydney Dixon. Built by Dixon and John Hawkinson using traditional tools and craftsmanship from native white oak and Osage orange wood stock - the boat is 44 feet on deck with an additional 15 feet of bowsprit. Dixon has christened her the "Katherine M. Edwards" after his Aunt May...reportedly a woman of strong character with a love for classic sailing craft.
If you're wondering a "Bugeye" is a two masted working sailing vessel once used for dredging oysters...they owe their ancestry to the classic Chesapeake Bay log canoe.
Finally...we were treated to a brief Civil War reenactment as part of the launch. Mr. Dixon certainly knows how to launch a classic sailing boat in style.
3 comments:
I am currently at a location that is cursed by having no Internet access other than a slower-than-normal dialup connection, so the suspense was killing me as those pictures gradually filled in.
I began to see the shape of the boat as the first picture started to appear, and my response was "oooh."
Then the third picture started to load, and my response was "OOOH!"
As the pictures finished loading, my response was "AAAAH!!"
That is one beautiful boat.
Thanks! Wish I could take credit ;-)
4 June 2007
After the storm, my mine cleared.
And a high wind arose and blew the tropics north.
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running quartz crystals through a blender.
sand through your engines.
bubbles in your bays.
estuaries reaching out toward forbidden seas...
sand through your eyes.
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5 June 2007
Calm as baby's breath
as peaceful as the storm's eye
Clouds spread and drawn with rough strokes of stratospheric winds
a warm and windy tropical day.
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7 June 2007
Black water at dusk.
Lighting on the horizon.
Warm winds coming in across the darkening waters.
A flash of white wings as an egret takes flight.
And Thunder like God clearing his throat.
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8 June 2007
Morning star in the still of the clear, dark waters.
a sky as clear eyed as a young girl.
bruised and tattered storm remnants limp off in the gathering light.
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