Massachusetts boatyard closes its doors

The Edey & Duff boatyard in Massachusetts, founded in 1968 by Mait Edey and Peter Duff, has ceased operations.

The company was unable to continue after the unexpected death last December of longtime general manager Dave Davignon, Boatinglocal.com reports.

The yard specialized in classic designs during its 40-year run, turning out such sailing classics as the Sakonnet 23, the Doughdish, the Stone Horse 23, the Stuart Knockabout and the Fatty Knees dinghy, as well as the Hunt-designed Conch 27 center console.

Click here for the full article.

Edey and Duff website

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Hurricane Earl Advancing on US Coastline; Boat Owners Group Says 2008 Hurricane Has Lesson for Boaters

ALEXANDRIA, Va., August 31, 2010 - Four days before 2008's Hurricane Hanna struck the South Carolina coast and ran up the eastern US seaboard, she was downgraded to a tropical storm. But that still didn't stop the damage to hundreds of recreational boats deluged by the storm's intense rains. And with Hurricane Earl now forecast on a parallel course just eastward of Hanna's old track, Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) is again urging boaters from the Mid-Atlantic to New England to protect their vessels from the forecasted heavy precipitation.

"Normally it's a hurricane's storm surge and high winds that cause the most damage to recreational boats," said BoatUS Director of Damage Avoidance Bob Adriance. "But a hurricane doesn't have to score a direct hit to sink boats. Heavy rains can cause significant damage, especially with boats stored on lifts, or those stored in the water that have their scuppers or drain holes clogged by leaves or other debris."

Read the complete article.

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Panbo Blog: Raymarine SeaTalk-SeaTalkNG converter, nice

Aug 24, 2010
Ben Ellison, Editor

What's yellow, white, and blue, and will help a lot of boats integrate older Raymarine SeaTalk1 instruments and sensors into SeaTalkNG/NMEA 2000 networks?

Well, check out the new SeaTalk-STng converter above, which retails for $95 and is also putting the Plus in Ray's new Raystar 125 Plus GPS. The manual PDF can be downloaded here, and I think it will please a lot of people who've messed with this stuff.

Those yellow connectors above let you not only adapt a mini network of up to five SeaTalk devices -- like ST40 and ST60+ displays and their transducers, and/or a LifeTag wireless MOB system -- to a SeaTalkNG backbone, but also power them...

Read the complete blog entry

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Inside IYRS: A visit to the composites technology program

Written by: Tom
8/8/2010 7:56 PM

Although the wooden boat restoration program is often what people think of when they envision IYRS, the school has been steadily developing other marine trades programs. The systems program, for instance has been running strong for a number of years now, and this year we are rolling out a new composites technology program. You can read all about the program here.

The program is set up in Bristol, right next door to the System Program facility. The space was still being set up when I visited a few weeks ago. Here's a glimpse of how things are looking so far.

One of the first things you notice when you walk in the shop is that they have some BIG things there. For instance, it's pretty hard to miss the walk-in oven.

Click here to read this entire IYRS Blog entry. (Lots and lots of photos.)

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On Board with Mark Corke: Battery Connections

You see all sorts of things when surveying boats and one of the most common has to be problems with the electrical system. Not only do things need to be both neat and tidy to make fault tracing easier but there is a safety concern too.

This photograph shows how not to connect up your batteries and has at least 5 infringements of the ABYC guidelines but there may be more, not to mention that it looks just plain wrong.

Firstly there should be no more than 4 connections to each battery terminal, frankly I think that is too many and if you need more than two or three at the outside then a bus bar should be installed and the loads wired back to that.

As you can see this terminal has 7 cables attached to it, some of those are the wrong color,i.e. red when they should be black or more commonly yellow these days. There is at least one cable with no captive ring terminal and the wire end is simple squashed under the ring terminal above. One of the cables in addition to being the wrong color as already mentioned is suffering from heat damage causing a breakdown of the insulation possible caused by an undersized cable causing resistance in the wiring. Finally, the terminal should be covered with a protective shroud to prevent short circuits.

Read the complete blog entry.

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Building Ravn: a 19-foot faering: Launch Day!

363 days after turning the boat over she finally got a taste of her true element. I worked late into the night sanding, varnishing and completing other chores so I could take her to the Toledo Wooden Boat Festival yesterday. My wife and I drove to Toledo and launched her about a mile and a half from the festival.

When I thought of launching Ravn I envisioned a larger affair with friends and food, but the actual launch was better than I imagined; just my wife and I at a quiet boat launch with no one else around. I tied a glass nazir (a Turkish bead that symbolizes the eye of God) around the stem with marline and tucked a spruce bow and a raven feather in the marline. Then I said a little prayer to God, poured my favorite beverage on the bow stem. Gave her a little shove off the trailer and she was afloat for the first time!

Read the complete blog

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Sixth Edition of Ida Lewis Distance Race Friday, August 20, 2010 Newport, RI

The race's sixth edition is scheduled for Friday, August 20 2010, with classes for IRC, PHRF (including Cruising Spinnaker and a new Youth Challenge), One Design (including Club Swan 42) and Double-Handed boats of 28 feet or longer. It is a qualifier for the New England Lighthouse Series (PHRF); the Northern and Double-Handed Ocean Racing Trophies (IRC); and the US-IRC Gulf Stream Series.

Friends and family are invited to the Awards Ceremony on the deck of the Ida Lewis Yacht Club during a Barbecue Fest Saturday evening.

For more information visit the Ida Lewis Distance Race website

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Onne van der Wal Photography: Workshops - Summer 2010

We are really excited about the first workshop which will take place during the Museum of Yachting's Classic Yacht Regatta on Sunday September 5th. The workshop will be from noon - 4:30. Don't miss this exciting opportunity to shoot beautiful boats aside Onne.

A second workshop will be offered on Wednesday, September 22nd from 3pm - 7:30pm.

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John Vigor Blog: The beauty of lapstrake

A READER CALLED JONATHAN in Fort Lauderdale, Florida wants to know what I think of lapstrake planking. "I was recently visiting in New England and saw lots of lapstrake wooden boats," he says. "What's the advantage?"

Well Jonathan, the first thing is that it's beautiful. If you like looking at pretty girls, you'll like looking at lapstrake. It emphasizes all the curves. That's not actually why boats were built with overlapping planks, or strakes, in the first place, though.

Because each plank overlaps the one below it, the thickness is almost doubled along each edge. That makes it very stiff and strong - suitable for one-design racing dinghies, smallish fishing boats landing on beaches, or ship's launches that take a good pounding. And because it's so strong, a lapstrake (or clinker-built) hull is normally much lighter than it's carvel-planked cousin.

Read the entire blog entry.

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Maine lighthouse is for sale

The property has a million-dollar view, but the quarters are cramped, the grounds are nothing to brag about and a loud foghorn blares every 10 seconds.

For the right price, the picturesque Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse in Portland, Maine, can be yours. The 72-foot conical light tower in waters a mile off the southern Maine coast is being auctioned by the federal government.

The property isn't for everybody. It's hard to get to, located on a wave-swept rocky ledge where landing a boat can be treacherous and, once there, a person has to climb a 30-foot ladder to get into the tower.

Read the complete story.

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