Charlie Fuller's last Moth resurfaces

Long time readers of this blog may recall my mention of Clayton Fuller's older brother Charlie.  Clayton and Charlie grew up in south Florida and knew the well known Moth Boat builder Harry Cates.  Charlie Fuller built several Moths including a Bill Lee Mint design which he built in Harry Cates' backyard, no doubt with Cates supervising the project.  That story is summarized here.

Before he passed away in 2014, Clayton sent me a Moth sail carrying number 1581 and a photo of his brother rigging the Moth in question:

Charlie Fuller rigging his Mint design Moth Boat some time in the mid-1950s.

Clayton was certain that the sail belonged to his brother's last boat, but he couldn't recall what exactly had become of the boat.  Perhaps that one was the one swept away when hurricane Carol battered Cape Cod where the brothers were living at that time.  I looked in the surviving Moth class records and found Charlie's name associated with an earlier boat, Nr 1296.  I assumed that 1296 was not a Mint design since Bill Lee's original boat, (named Mint), is Nr 1335.  Further complicating matters is that I have a period photo showing a completely different Moth sporting a sail with the number 1581.

This Moth, sort of a scaled down Thistle or perhaps International 14 shape is obviously not the same boat as the one in the first photo. Note the open, deck-less hull.

But, somehow, Clayton had a sail with Nr 1581 and a fuzzy recollection of what had happened to his brother's last boat.  At the time I didn't pursue this riddle any further.  But wait, now there's more to this story.

I was contacted by Steven Penny of the Massachusetts Bay Open Water Rowing club.

The MBOW races rowing gigs in open waters.  Steve indicated that his club had recently acquired the boats from a similar ocean rowing club in Connecticut which was disbanding.  A Moth, pictured below, was included along with the ocean rowing gigs:

Compare this and the following photos with the photo of Charlie Fuller rigging his boat, above.

Looks like the same boat to me!

Although missing her mast and boom, the boat came with an old cotton sail with the circle-M insignia but with the number 1296, which was the number of what I thought was an earlier Moth Boat built by Charlie.  

The dagger board also had 1296 carved into the top of the blade.  Both the sail and the blade could have been transferred from his earlier boat.  But how to explain the sail with number 1581?

Here is the boat in the basement where she was stored.  The house is for sale and the rowing club will soon lose storage space.

We had to turn the boat sideways to sneak her up those concrete steps.

Here are a couple of pix to show off her lines.

The main problem for me accepting 1296 as the actual number for this boat is that Bill Lee, the designer of this particular Moth shape was issued Nr 1335 for his Moth, named Mint.  Mint was the very first of this design to be built.  Explanations for this quandary are:  (1). This is actually Moth Nr 1296. The fact that the boat has an earlier number than Mint might be that Charlie bought his number but then delayed in building a boat until after Mint was finished;  (2). an alternative explanation is that this is boat Nr 1581 and that the earlier numbered sail and blade were transferred from his earlier boat and that Charlie later purchased a new sail (the one I received from his brother Clayton) with the correct number.  But, how then do I explain the photo of the "Thistle" shaped Moth carrying a sail with the same 1581?  Did Charlie loan them his sail for the day during which the photo was taken?  Sadly, I may never know since all the folks who knew the right answer are no longer with us.  Additionally, I would tend to dispute Clayton's notion that this boat was swept away in a hurricane.  She's lightly built from 1/8" plywood and is in too good of condition for an event like that to be part of her back story.  Perhaps it was one of Charlie's earlier Moths which met that fate.  Perhaps Nr 1296?  A final unanswered question is what happened to the spars?

Mint's number is carved into her keel.

Another photo of Mint.

Anyway, since returning home from Cape Cod I've been putzing with an old mast in my junque collection to see if I can get this boat back on the water for perhaps the first time in decades.  I also found that an old blue deck cover from an earlier boat more or less fits this one--bonus!

The stays on the old mast were just the right length.  I still need to add sail shape controls, lines and other odds and ends.  Stay tuned.

Cape Cod: Day 2, Part 2

After leaving the Millicent Library, Clayton directed us to Fort Phoenix which is  now a state park.  Fairhaven (and Fort Phoenix) are on the east side of the Acushnet River estuary which in turn empties into Buzzards Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean.  The famous whaling town of New Bedford occupies the opposite side of the harbor.  The fort dates to the beginning of the American Revolution and the first naval battle of that war occurred within sight of the fort when 25 Minutemen aboard the sloop SUCCESS captured two British ships on the 14th of May 1775.  However the British returned in September of 1778 with 4000 troops and burned the town of New Bedford, the fort and several homes in the town of Fairhaven.  The remainder of Fairhaven was spared the torch by the arrival of the Wareham Militia under the command of Major Israel Fearing.  The fort was enlarged prior to the War of 1812 and  helped repel boats loaded with troops launched from the HMS NIMROD in the early hours of the 13th of June 1814.  The fort was decommissioned in 1876.  OK, pencils down; your history lesson is over.  Let's take a look around.

A captured British cannon from the Revolutionary period.

The Royal Navy's "broad arrow" mark is clearly visible on the barrel.

There are several of these 24 pound guns which date from 1828.  These were put in place in 1861as part of an upgrade of defenses during the Civil War. These are fired every year to mark Fairhaven's Independence Day celebrations.

 

One can walk across the harbor from Fairhaven to New Bedford via this promenade/bridge. The sky has that fall look.

We didn't walk the walk, but we did drive over to New Bedford after Clayton suggested a visit to the New Bedford Whaling Museum was in order.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.

After reading this sign I was all set to go in.

MOBY!

Argh! The White Whale!

OK! I'm ready to go in!  What's this? They've just gone to winter hours and are closed on Mondays?!!!  What sort of Halloween trick is that?  Long time readers of this blog know of my mixed success with Museums.  Curse you, red giant squid!  I will return...

Across the street from the Whaling Museum is the Seaman's Bethel.  Of course it was closed on Mondays too.

Herman Melville fans can break out their copies of Moby Dick and read about this sailor's chapel.  This is the very one that Melville describes in his novel.

The museums might have been closed but the shlock shops were open.  I liked this USA map cunningly contrived from state license tags.

Across the street a shop offered this well done replica of a Beetle Whaleboat.  Note the similarity between this whaleboat and the peapod under construction at the Beetle Boat shop.  The Beetle family has been in this neck of the woods a good long time.

Not wanting to leave New England without a visit to a clam shack, we stopped off at Barnacle Bill's.  The chowder and lobster rolls were delicious!

The day was waning and it was Halloween.  We dropped Clayton at his house and thanked him for a great day out!

We returned to the warm embrace of the Earl of Sandwich Motel and, after drawing the drapes against the night's chill, steeled ourselves for the morning's long ride home with a bit of wine and cheese.  Adieu, dear reader!

Art, Beetle Cats, Model A Fords, more Art, old cannons, Moby Dick, Lobster rolls--a busy day out.

My head is spinning just thinking about the busy itinerary which former Moth Boater Clayton Fuller had lined up for us on the Monday morning of our Cape Cod adventure.  Recall that Clayton, who will turn 95 this November, sent me the 8mm movie clip of Moth Boats racing down at Miami YC in the mid-1950s and also the lovely old Egyptian cotton Moth sail a few months ago.  We met Clayton at his home in Wareham and quickly got on the road for a busy day of guided touring.  Clayton first took us to a park in the town of Onset where he showed us his "Aquene"

Clayton Fuller shows Elisabeth his bronze statue of "Aquene".  The statue, dedicated in 1989, was at first controversial due to the bare breast presentation.  Attempts to clothe Aquene, including a bra which Clayton still has in his collection of Aquene artifacts, where part of the early reaction to this work of art.  Clayton indicated that things have since calmed down and Aquene enjoys the passage of the seasons unmolested.

Next on tap, Clayton guided us to the Beetle Boat Company, formerly located in Padanarum,  Massachusetts is now located in Wareham.

Michelle graciously took the time to give us a very thorough tour of the Beetle Boat Shop.

In the fall the Beetle boat shop collects customer's Beetle Cats and cleans and stores them over the winter in a pair of sheds.  There were several hundred Beetle Cats "resting" for the winter on the day when we visited.  More were coming.  I need a boat house like this!  Click to enlarge the photos.

The boats are cleaned and the centerboards and rudders are removed for painting and varnishing.  Each blade is tagged for return to the proper boat in the spring.

Here is the work room where spars are sanded and revarnished.

Along with building and maintaining Beetle Cats, the Beetle Company also builds custom boats like this Herreshoff Alerion.  The Lyman lapstrake runabout is in for winter storage and maintenance.

Another shed full of Beetle Cats waiting for spring.

One of the employees is building this peapod on his spare time.  She's reminiscent of a Beetle Whale Boat.

A close up of the peapod showing the clamps used to hold planks in place during shaping and fastening.  The shop had that wonderful smell of cedar.

Need a cedar skiff?  Beetle will make one for you.

We enjoyed our visit to the Beetle Boat Shop but it was time to move on.  Clayton had many things for us to see before the sun set.  He directed us to the town of Marion to see his son-in-law's A-model Ford trucks.

Clayton's son-in-law Charlie with two of his three model A trucks.  The truck on the left was restored from a derelict which had been buried by a falling tree and left under it for many years.  This truck spent its entire life in the eastern Massachusetts area.  The Model AA on the right came from Montana.  Both have been restored to Apple Pie order.  Charlie also has an A-model roadster pick-up which he refers to as his "summer car".

Next Clayton took us to the Millicent Library in nearby Fairhaven.  This library, built in the Italian Renaissance-style, was donated to the town by Henry H. Rogers, a nineteenth century industrialist in memory of his daughter Millicent who died at age seventeen in the year 1890. Millicent was fond of poetry and so her father decided that a library would be a fitting memorial.  Mark Twain visited the Millicent and described it as the "ideal library".  More can be found here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millicent_Library

The Millicent Library

The Millicent library houses a collection of memorabilia from the rescue of Manjiro Nakahama in 1841 by a Fairhaven whaleship.  Manjiro eventually returned to Japan.  A very interesting account of Manjiro's story can be read here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakahama_Manjir%C5%8D  The samurai sword on display is a replacement for one presented to the library by a descendant of Manjiro in the early 20th century.  The original sword was stolen from the library in 1977.

The library has a fine collection of Geisha dolls.  Here is a representative example.

This stained glass window shows us a depiction of Millicent Rogers portraying Erato the Muse of Poetry.  Note the carved paneling.  This, friends, is one special library.

This statue of the Messenger of Love by Caroni was first displayed at the Columbian Exposition of 1893 (aka the Chicago World's Fair).

Column detail.  My library back home isn't like this!

We could have stayed all day at the library but the sun was waning and it was time to move on and see other wonders on Clayton's agenda of which I'll relate on my next post.

A quick trip to old Cape Cod

Ah, old Cape Cod, the land of quaint "thickly settled" villages on narrow curvy roads, lovely old buildings, clam shacks, chowder, Pilgrims and, during the summer months, soul destroying traffic jams on those quaint,narrow, curvy roads.  Your diarist prefers the "off season".  Lodging is cheaper and many (but as we shall see, not all) things are still open.  Diaristwoman had a couple days off from the school where she works and so we decided to stretch that into a long weekend and head up to the Cape.  We left on Saturday morning in the midst of a Halloween Nor'easter--rain lashing down and temperatures falling.  The weather progs were bleating about significant snow accumulations but we went anyway figuring we'd be close enough to the coast to miss the white stuff.  We got to about Newark, New Jersey and the rain transitioned into snow.  Traffic slowed to a crawl as we approached the George Washington bridge which leads into NYC.  Long story short, the snow did make the roads greasy and people were doing stupid stuff with automobiles but by the time we got to the Connecticut/Rhode Island border the snow switched back to rain and remained in that state all the way to the Cape.  The slow pace gave diaristwoman plenty of time to research lodging and we eventually called in at the "Earl of Sandwich" motel in East Sandwich, Massachusetts.  After the long drive, the highlight of the day was a fine dinner at a restaurant over at nearby Mashpee Commons called "Bleu". The chef is irresistibly named Fredric Feufeu.   Bleu us not cheap, we dropped a cool Benjamin with Chef Feufeu, but we highly recommend it.  And yes, Gunnar, evenings at truly great restaurants are part of why diaristwoman lets me accumulate a backyard full of Moth Boats.  You can check out Bleu here: www.bleurestaurant.com

 Sunday morning dawned grey and rainy.  Although the Cape missed the snows that indeed did fall west of route I-95, it got the full brunt of the winds which were also associated with this early snow storm.  Gusts during the night and up to mid-morning were in the 50 to 60 MPH range.  We were almost the only ones staying at the Earl of Sandwich Saturday night, but by the time we returned Sunday evening from a dash to the outer Cape the joint was jumping, mostly with locals staying at the motel (which still had electricity) after losing power at home.  But enough of power outages--what did we see that day as we drove out to the fist end of the Cape?  To start off with, we took route 6A, which runs along the north shore of the Cape rather than the faster but less scenic route 6 which runs through the middle of the Cape.  Route 6A is that typical narrow, winding Cape Cod style road which would be perfect in my Bugeye sprite but requires restraint as it goes through small villages such as Barnstable.  Sadly the shoulder-less. two lane road didn't provide many good places to  pull over for photography along the way, but in truth, the rain discouraged exiting the car for photo ops as well.  In the village of Truro we stopped at Truro Vinyards and sampled their offerings: trurovinyardsofcapecod.com  Refreshed, we carried on toward Race Point which is just north of Provincetown.

Approaching Race Point.  One can see the wildness of the dunes and the buckling of the road surface.  In many places the tarmac was well covered with sand.  Don't forget to click on the photos for larger views.

By the time we got to Race Point the rain had stopped but the wind was still up.  The sea was boiling.  We attempted to go for a walk along the beach but were immediately driven back to the car by the sand blasting we received as soon as we opened the door.

Herring Cove is a clothing optional beach.  No doubt something of a showplace in summer.  There were no Moth Boats to distract your diarist this day.

 Another look at the dunes and shattered roads along the outer Cape.

Looking across the dunes one can see the Pilgrim tower which is in the middle of "downtown" Provincetown.

Zooming in on the tower.  It kinda reminds me of the Bromo-seltzer tower in Baltimore!  See if you don't agree:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerson_Bromo-Seltzer_Tower

Finally, we leave you with a look at Wood End Light, one of three lighthouses found at the outer end of Cape Cod.  I'll continue with more of our Cape Cod adventure in the next post.  Stay tuned.