Grown Ups Go Sailing: Coney Island Mission XI

Took my brother-in-law out for a sail yesterday, which started kind of airless and lumpy, but ended up being fast and exciting. Without really planning to, we ended up in the neighborhood of Coney Island (I swear the boat would just drift there on her own, if set loose), where Marc expressed a desire to go ashore. Now that September is here, the birds are already less territorial, which allowed us to access the higher eastern shore of the island.

I was looking for the USCGS marker we found here last fall, but without any luck. However, did find the rather odd inscription pictured here: LNNRT, in letters that seem to have been made out of rather sandy concrete. The remains of other, illegible, letters were nearby. Here you see a picture of the LADY taken from the approximate spot where the letters were found, and a picture of the letters themselves.

Our lean-to remains in remarkable condition, as do our stone walls. We are hoping to return soon to begin buttoning the site up for the winter.

Sister Ship to the Lady found in Marblehead

While driving down Rockaway Ave in Marblehead on Friday, I stumbled across this Brutal Beast sitting on a trailer. This is not only the first Brutal Beast in our immediate neighborhood that I have seen (outside a a museum) but closer inspection indicates that she comes from the same generation of Brutal Beasts as the LADY. According to the serial number incised into her transom, she was built at Pert Lowell in Newbury in 1985, and has the hull/sail no 107.

These pictures, which were taken with my phone (which I didn't realize had been set to Black and White) don't capture much of the detail of #107's restoration, which appears to be pretty far along. Additional ribbing (bent oak?) has been added in between the main ribs, and the forward thwart has been removed, but that may be only temporary. 107 looks like she is still a few months away from going the water, but we hope to run into her at sea next year.