HYC Cruise Day 7 July 31 Second Lay Day in Block Island

Shanghai departed after the fog lifted and CJ reported that they made it to a mooring in South Cove at old Saybrook in the Connecticut River.
True North rested up after Bruce felt ill from the dinner the night before. The folks on Blast continued exploring this island via automobile and planned dinner at Deadeye Dicks.

We detached and stowed Ohanas dink engine and then hauled the dink aboard and discovered the cause of the leak when water that had entered the inflatables starboard tube flowed out through a separation between that tube and the blue conical cap at its aft end. Drained of air and water it is rolled and stowed with the outboard.

Ohana and ILENE then took advantage of our rafted condition to take a 4.5 hour day sail past the southern coast of the island aboard Ohana, leaving ILENE on the mooring. We experienced moderate winds under clear sunny skies accompanied by big ocean rollers from yesterdays winds. We saw Mohegan Bluff and the SE lighthouse from the sea, from a distance.

Our fastest speed was sailing back into the Great Salt Pond.

After our return, Rolo, Laura and Christain headed off to swim and dinner while Lene, Bennett and Roger dined at Elis, a small gem of a restaurant one block back from the main road through the Old Town. Elis is a fine dining experience that Ken and Camille, who plan incidentally to meet up with us in Stonington CT, tomorrow,  introduced us to a few years ago. This was my third time there and we have never been disappointed. It opens at six, takes no reservations, does not advertise and is always full. I got there early and  waited on line while Lene and Bennett shopped for souvenirs. Im not going to describe the menu but it is imaginative and if we paid a lot more for this food in Manhattan we would not be dissatisfied. And the walk back to the Boat Basin helped the food settle.

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The Swallow Scow Plans The Rudder Magazines Second DIY Scow

The Rudder magazine launched their second scow, the Swallow, a 24 foot, three person scow in December 1898, just three months after they started publishing the plans for the 16 foot Lark scow. A year later, in the November and December 1899 issues of the magazine, they would serialize the Swallow plans, and like the Lark, issue a stand-alone plans and building booklet  The design is credited to Charles Mower but the prototype builder, Larry Huntington, was a renowned scow designer in his own right. I cant imagine that Larry Huntington didnt have a large say in the design of this scow so I personally would credit the design to a collaboration, a Mower/Huntington design.

As with the Lark scow, the Swallow proved very popular with amateur builders and was built around the world. Unlike the Lark, the Swallow didnt make it wholly into todays sailing scene. In looking at all the modern day scow designs, it appears to me that only the Sea Island One-Design seems to have inherited a large portion of her DNA from the Swallow. (The Sea Island One-Design ended up wider, particularly at the back end.)

For those who wish to delve further, you are in luck; the Library of Congress has scanned the Swallow plans booklet into PDF format.

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Click here for the Library of Congress PDF scan of The Rudder plans booklet of the Swallow scow.

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The following photos were harvested from The Rudder Swallow plans booklet. As always click inside the photo for a larger view.

The cover of the booklet.

The lines. The very shallow arc bottom was also the shape of Larry Huntingtons Seawanhaka scow, Question, of 1895.

Two photos of the prototype on her maiden voyage in December 1898, The Rudder magazine editor Thomas Day skippering and Larry Huntington crewing. The day was cold and blustery.

Entering the harbor.

Group boatbuilding party planking the hull and flipping her rightside.

Compendium of launch and sailing photos.

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