Professionally Restored 1st Place Winner of Concours d'Elegance

Belle Aventure was the winner of the Professionally Restored 1st Place at the 19th Annual WoodenBoat Show. She was refastened and refit here at Boothbay Harbor Shipyard.

Belle Aventure, a 1929 Fife, designed and built by William Fife and Sons in Scotland, is owned by Mike McCue. Capt. George Moffett, who represented the owner, the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard shipwrights and staff are responsible for the high quality refastening and refit of this yacht.

At the 19th Annual WoodenBoat Show, the boats were divided into three categories: sail, power, and oar/paddle and judged for their quality of construction and restoration, quality and correctness of all on-board systems, and caliber of finish and appearance.

All boats exhibiting at the WoodenBoat Show; on land or in-water, were invited to participate in the Concours d’Elegance to compete for awards in a number of categories. The quality of this year’s entrants was among the best they had ever seen, which made the judges’ choices very difficult. All the winners can be viewed here and in the upcoming September/October 2010 Woodenboat Magazine.

Our own Capt. Dave is now on Belle Aventure and continues to varnish and keep the boat at its best.

Belle Aventure Spends a Winter with Us in Boothbay Harbor

There are 100 Fifes still in existence and only about fifty are still sailing. At the end of last year, Belle Aventure became the first Fife to grace our completely redesigned and environmentally
controlled large yacht facility. Designed and built by William Fife and Sons in Scotland, this classic spent a Maine winter having her hull and support systems reviewed and upgraded.
The next phase of this project will include the complete refastening of her hull planking. Her actual fastenings are not screws but rivets which measure 7/16ths by 7" and the heads are
peened over on the inside of the vessel.

Our crews will exercise great care when removing the furniture and fixtures required to get to each of these 5,000 1929 naval brass rivets.
Details both great and small will allow this pedigree yacht to return to yet another series of global sea adventures.

Watch the VIDEO on the upgrade of
Belle Aventure at Boothbay Harbor Shipyard.

Progress of Belle Aventure

The two-year refit and refastening of Belle Aventure is less than three months from completion. The enormous task of refastening is 95% finished. The keel rabbet and stern post are left to be fastened.

The hull topside is being faired and the final coats of primer are being added.

The interior joinery (woodwork and cabinetry) in the cabins is near completion except for the paint and varnish.

A new engine bed for the new engine was built along with the cabin soles in all three heads and the shower drains, which have been rebuilt. Both the mechanical and electrical systems are in their final stages.

Nat Wilson is in the process of finishing the sails. The three new jibs and mizzen are completed with only the mainsail still to be sewn.

For the launching, we will wait for a very high tide in April.

Boothbay Sailmaker Receives Award

Nathaniel S. Wilson, Boothbay Harbor Sail maker will receive the NMHS 2010 Distinguished Service Award from the National Maritime Historical Society. Nat will be honored for his thirty-five-year career as a sail maker and rigger, recognized as the pre-eminent sail maker of traditional sails in the country, if not the world. Some of the ships and yachts that Nat has made sails for have been built or refit here at Boothbay Harbor Shipyard such as: Alera, Valora, Harvey Gamage, Belle Aventure and Discovery.

The Society salutes his extensive record of helping to keep many of the historic and replica ships sailing, such as USS Constitution, USCG Eagle, Sultana, Clearwater, Spirit of Massachusetts, Pride of Baltimore II, American Eagle, Lettie G Howard, Mayflower II, Godspeed and Discovery. Nathaniel Wilson sails are sought after for vessels large and small, from performance and classic yachts to hearty working craft. The vessels that hoist his sails span the history of water navigation, from replicas of Viking ships to modern vessels, and are true-to-form in look, materials, construction, and performance. The Society also salutes Wilson’s support of sail training and maritime heritage educational programs. His reputation of generosity in sharing his craft and its history precedes him: be it for visiting ships, school groups, or middle and high school history teachers, or the impromptu demonstration for the interested visitor who comes by his loft. Click arrow on right side of the following booklet to turn pages.

Open publication - Free publishing - More sails

Olympic Sailing Begins

Feeling the wind in your hair and breeze on your face on a massive smooth sailing schooner is one of the most magnificent feelings of the summer in Maine. Of course, there are those that would agree with the wind and breeze, but differ by saying, they like the sleek lines that allow for that need for speed, especially with the 2008 Summer Olympics starting today in Beijing.

A total of 400 athletes with 272 boats from 62 countries and regions compete in 11 events of nine classes of the sailing regatta. The events last from August 9 to 23.

Representatives from all teams marched on the stage and displayed their flags at the Olympic Sailing Center Themed Park, where the launching ceremony of the Olympic sailing regatta was held on Friday, August 8. You can follow the races here with the International Sailing Federation or the Olympic site with more dates and results.

Fifteen boats from Yngling class and 26 boats from Finn class finished two races on the opening day of the sailing regatta on Saturday afternoon. Watch a VIDEO of the Yngling in action.

The first race of the 2008 Summer Olympics started with the Ynling Fleet. Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson from Great Britain, lived up to their billing as favorites with a second and third place finish in Saturday's two opening races putting them in the overall lead.

On Sunday, the 49er fleet begins its races. It will be a tough one, with a great depth of ability so the winners could come from amongst many of the teams. In the right conditions, the races are short and quick and can be very physical for the crews.

Sitting comfortably in our state-of-the-art newly renovated 6,000-sf climate controlled service bay is a member of the famous Fife family, Belle Aventure with her sleek lines. Fife yachts have competed in races worldwide including the America’s Cup Races (started in 1851), which predates the Modern Olympics (1896) by 45 years.

Italian TV Film Crew

Feeling that it was just the right time to visit Maine with the gorgeous foliage and lack of tourists, Cristina Borgogna Di Capriasco gently requested to have multiple shipwrights pose in front of the 275 gallon oil sign with tools of their trade. They kindly posed one at a time with a variety of tools such as a chain saw, trunnel hammer, welding gear, laptop computer and about nine others.

Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor Shipyard had a team of six Italian TV crew here last week filming for the European show "Classic Boat". In addition to the still images of the shipwrights, they conducted interviews on two large projects in process here at the shipyard: Ernestina and Belle Aventure.

Each show is broadcasted in 4 languages: Italian, French, English and German. It is a 12 months program, with 24 episodes of 24 minutes each, which began in 2004.

Classic Boat's goal is to pass on the passion and the complicity of sailors, owners, and artisans who dedicated their whole life and their energy to the restoration of boats and ships. The show tours shipyards, showing the ancestral knowledge laying at the base of a restoration project.

Hosted by Michel Dejoie and produced by M & N Yacht, Classic Boat is a television program totally dedicated to classic and vintage boats, as well as to sailors, skippers, owners… but also to artisans and sea carpenters.