Recent Beaton’s Projects

Here are some pics taken at Beaton’s over the last year. There’s always something interesting going on at this classic boatyard.

Finally (he says) figured out how to easily upload pics direct from my iPad to the WordPress app. (Upload them one at a time.). Hope some of you haven’t given up on my glacial posting pace.

A local family brought this collection of dinghy parts to Paul Smith and asked him to recreate this family heirloom. The dinghy was used for several generations until it was beyond repair. Next photo shows the result of Paul’s efforts.

Ready for another generation or three.

New butterfly hatches for a NY 32, designed by Herreshoff and built by Nevins in the Thirties.

Quest in the paint shop looking Beaton Fresh.

Paul and Jeff in the seemingly never ending task of refinishing all the bright bits removed from the Stonington motorsailer Barnegat.

Here’s the Hankin’s skiff Legend ready for another season. She had the hull paint stripped and a few punky bits fixed.

One of the stranger projects this year. Paul is restoring the bow half of an E-Scow to be displayed at Bay Head Yacht Club.

A sure sign of Spring when the yard Garvey makes her appearance with fresh paint. She was built at Beaton’s in the fifties.

Finally, here’s Myth getting her yearly beauty treatment.

Summer on Barnegat Bay

We’re long back to our regular Summer schedule of at least one sail a week and and a visit every few days just to “check up on Sjogin”. Here are some photos from the last few months or so.

Once again this Blog is languishing compared to my steady stream of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts. Still, I like to take time and put together occasional longer posts here.

And to reacquaint you with your writer, here is a pic from early this Summer experimenting with a design for a spot to sit aft with the curve of the coaming just so.

That’s Beaton’s to leeward and hove to of course. The tiller is wrapped in a few turns of the main sheet to keep it out of the way.

Reading on the proposed stern seat. This is one of those projects that get thought of for years before actually making it so. Just a few boat cushions in place to dial in the exact seat height.

An early Summer appearance by Julia.

What’s wrong with this picture? One can only hope that this is the extent of this year’s surprises. Quickly fixed and continued on, hove to on starboard. Astonished that the clevis pin didn’t roll overboard.

Waiting on crew. Had quite a varied guest list this Summer. And a couple of folks that had never sailed before, always a treat for me.

Jeffrey, Julia and Action, the One Eyed Wonder out for a great sail two weeks ago watching the Duckboat Worlds.

Daniel, here from Florida visiting his Grandparents for his annual Sjogin sail. He remembered his prior lessons and drove us around for quite a while.

I don’t understand why I’m not smiling too. Taking Julia’s niece Kayliegh and friends out on a barely breathless day. Terrible Sjogin conditions with little air out of the East and a building bobble of too many motorboat wakes. The ladies had a great time in spite of it all.

A Peter Slack photo he snuck in while taking Duckboat World pics.

Another one from Peter. Just enough air to keep us moving and to allow watching the Ducks go by without too many worries about what’s ahead.

And finally here she is hauled last week for some paint work and a bit of garboard caulking. She’ll go back in soon for the start of the sizzle season. The next Post will undoubtedly include images of the first fire and sail of the off-season.

Thanks for sticking around and I guess some of you are used to these lapses.

Updates to the Sjogin and Beatons Pages here soon.

Fair winds all.

Beaton bits and a sailing video.

Here are a few pics of goings on at Beaton’s over the past few months.  Spring has long sprung with the usual bustle at Beaton’s.  The docks are getting full and the average water levels have reached ideal Sjogin conditions.

Serena, the Joel White Flatfish and the A-Cat Lightning looking Beaton Fresh.  Serena was built at Beaton’s a while ago.  She’s a sistership to Charlotte, built by them in 2003.  The building mold is in the yard and ready to go.  They’re great daysailers with shallow draft.  Give Tom a call.

The rebuilt foot of a very large catboat mast.  This one will live again thanks to the attention of Paul Smith.

At the other end of the mast work at Beaton’s scale is Speedwell’s new mast foot.  I had Paul remake the foot to match the existing Duckboat mast step.  With the limited bury it will make the rig more secure.   It had a round foot that would allow the mast to rotate as spritsail did.  This may give me a chance to setting up the sail as a lug.  We’ll see.

New decking in front of the South Shed whose East wall still bears the sctatches and dings from Sandy.  Our community will have them for a long time.

Once again WoodenBoat has seen fit to have me write an article for them.  It’s in the May/June 2018 issue of WoodenBoat Magazine and tells the story of a boat that once again graces the waters of upper Barnegat Bay.  There’s also a sidebar celebrating 54 years of Paul’s work at Beaton’s.

And here’s a video taken a few weeks ago just as the marsh was starting to green up.  If you keep you focus narrow it’s easy to imagine what it was like a few hundred years ago.  Hove to of course.

Still waiting for Spring like weather….

and keeping to a Winter like schedule…..

Here’s a sure sign of Spring.  The Beaton’s garvey ready for another year of service.  She’s over fifty years old at least. Her fairly flat sheer is due to the keel starting fail when building her. David Beaton said “that’s enough”.

Taken while underway a few weeks ago.  At least some of the comforts of home.

The Port tack is the preferred one for a healty draw on the stove with the hatch open.  Hove to yet again.

After one of the seemingly endless Northeasters we had in March. Very wet snow and had Sjogin down about an inch.

Kent down for a watch below.

And finally your Happy Skipper leaning against the backed jib. Sjogin didn’t seem to mind.

I’ve finally straightened out my WordPress protocols so once again, I’m promising more frequent Posts.

Ice free but precious little water

Waiting for the usual Goldilocks winter sail where it’s about forty, bright sun and a light easterly breeze. Still, life continues below deck at the dock. Heating conditions now adjustable by way of a damper. Progress indeed.

Bay down about a foot or so and flat calm.

Very quiet below absent the usual snap from the stove and sizzle in the skillet. New read on board is the life of Merce Ridgway, Bayman, a look at life on Barnegat Bay sixty years ago. Happy to have the Oyster farmers now but what a loss.

Note the new damper.

Just warm enough below to start defrosting the ports.

Had a lunch visit from Kent and his very good friend yesterday. Plenty of room for the three of us.

Sailing pics soon.

Shackleton like conditions relenting

Thanks to the folks at Beaton’s, the T Dock is ice free using ice eaters and a bit of a thaw. The cold is returning for a while but we hope for a return to more average temps.

Here are some pics from the last few weeks. Fingers crossed for a path to open water. It’s been a while but it’s alway a treat to sail down to the edge of the “pack ice” down Bay. Especially with the stove going.

Thawing out down below. Quite a display of frost in the cabin. Most of it came off the newly painted cabin with a gentle scraping. The rest melted.

The only defroster on Sjogin.

Here’s the ice eater in action. Moving relatively warmer water from the bottom, only a foot or so in this pic, does the trick.

Here we have the T Dock ice free. You can see open water out on the Bay. This may and probably will freeze over again, but the worst should be over.

One of the treats of quiet winter visits is surprising visitors. A Hooded Merganser (I think) can be seen to the left, obviously annoyed he’s been rousted from his ice free feeding grounds.

Happy New Year!

A chilly start to the year. After a fairly mild December, Winter has set up camp for the duration. Here are three pics from my first visit of the year. Delighted to find little to pump. Good so far with a nasty Northeaster on the way.

 

 

 

Best wishes for a Happier New Year to all. Thanks for following along for another year.

Looks like it may be a while for that first sail of 2018.

Russ

Fresh snow

We’ve had a few light snowfalls over the past few weeks. Looks like I won’t get in a last Fall sail but an early Winter sail is in the offing.

Here are a few pics.

Just enough snow to be photogenic. Sails go back on soon after some TLC from Mark Beaton.

Traditional Christmas Wreath in pride of place. The fresh snow really sets off the varnish.

Under the rigging pole. Note the Malachy Green rub rails. Fine work by Beatons and Paul Smith as always. Sjogin is so lucky to have such stewards.

Thanks all for following along and my best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a fine new year.