Shutter or Whiskey Plank

What is it with alcoholic beverages and ships? We all know the tradition of breaking a bottle of champagne on the hull of a ship for its christening before it is launched. However, pouring whiskey on a plank of the hull of a ship is a bit more unknown.

In December, the shutter plank, or whiskey plank was installed on the CHEROKEE, the Sparkman and Stevens six-meter yacht being build by Boothbay Harbor Shipyard as an exhibit, at the Museum of Yachting.

Why a celebration for this plank? A whiskey or shutter plank is the last plank, which needs to be put in place to finish a ship's hull. The Shutter Plank Party is an old tradition. Sometimes a glass of the last captain’s favorite drink is poured on the plank. However, the drink of the last captain of the original CHEROKEE is unknown so they used whiskey.

After a whiskey plank is put on, the hull can be treated, sealed, and painted, and work begins on the inner fixtures of the ship. Because this marks a turning point in the construction, it is traditional to take a brief moment to celebrate the mounting of this special plank. Often, this tradition involves shots of whiskey for all.

Although the CHEROKEE is still far from finished, once the shutter or whiskey plank is installed, a major milestone in the construction has been reached.

It has been a while since we have checked in on the progress of the CHEROKEE, from the lofting to the completed hull. A larger view of these images can be view here.

If you would like to see more great pictures and read more details of this project click into the CHEROKEE Blog by Tom Daniels.

Boothbay Harbor Lights Boat Parade

On a cold winter Saturday night during the holiday season, one might ask what happens in a small coastal town in Maine. One special activity in Boothbay is the Boothbay Harbor Lights Boat Parade. On Friday night Joe Reardon, Micheal Connors, Jeff Dick, Michael and Pam Bauregard and Michelle Farnham gathered to decorate the Glenn-Geary for the parade. The red lights went up on the port side and the green lights went up on the starboard side with white and mixed colors in between. The lights were powered with a generator donated by Kevin Roux.

At 5:00, the parade began to circle the harbor from the town float around the east side to the shipyard on the west side and back to the town float. The judges made up of merchants from town, looked at the 13 participating boats and chose our own Glenn-Geary, piloted by Capt. Dave Thompson wearing his white beard and red Santa hat, as FIRST place. The shipyard won bragging rites for the year, along with $100 and a silver engraved cup. Congratulations to all who participated in this celebration. Pictures of the event are available here.

Red and Green

As we enter into the holiday season, the colors red and green come to our mind as colors of seasonal decorations. Where as, in the summer, those colors mean something very different for those that maneuver sailing ships and powerboats along the coast of Maine. Red represents the port (or left) and green represents the starboard (or right) side of a ship or boat.

Historically, before ships had rudders on their centerlines, they were steered by a specialized oar. Located in the stern (back) of the ship, this oar was held by an oarsman. However, like most of the rest of society, there were many more right-handed sailors than left-handed sailors. Therefore, the oar was usually on the right side of the ship. The Old English word steorbord evolved into starboard, which meant, the side on which the ship is steered.

Originally, the port or left side of the ship was known as larboard. Larboard is derived from the practice of sailors mooring on the left side (the larboard or loading side) as to prevent the steering boards from being crushed. The term larboard, when shouted in the wind and weather, was presumably too easy to confuse with starboard. Later in the 1850’s, the word port came to replace it, referring to the side of the ship where cargo is loaded from the port.

So, if you have difficulty remembering left-port and right-starboard, here are a couple of suggestions:
1. "Port", "left", and "red" are all short words while the other side are long words “starboard", "right", and "green".
2. Or if you are a wine lover this one might be the easier to remember. “Is there any Red Port Left in the bottle?

International WorkBoat Show

Boothbay Harbor Shipyard representatives Capt. Dave Thompson and Dave Ernst, head for the International WorkBoat Show this week in New Orleans.

The International WorkBoat Show is the largest commercial marine tradeshow in North America serving people and businesses working on the coastal, inland and offshore waters. One thousand companies will display products and services for commercial vessels and the companies that build, service and operate them.

In the future, BBHS will be teaming with Cummins to install propulsion and auxiliary engines from 50 to 2000 horsepower (37 to 1492 kW). Boothbay Harbor Shipyard can install engines into such boats as: gill netters, ferries, yachts, tugboats, fishing boats, fire boats, seiners, and crew boats.

Installations such as the Cummins engines in the tugboat Lucinda Smith are an example of the teaming effort. See a video on the tugboat Lucinda Smith installation here.

International Sail Training Association Conference

On November 14 and 15, 2008, Boothbay Harbor Shipyard was proud to help sponsor the first joint Sail Training International/American Sail Training Association annual conference, which was held at Halifax. It was the first Sail Training International conference to be held outside Europe.

More than half of the 400 delegates from 28 countries were sail training tall ship operators from around the world. Other attendees represented ports that host the Tall Ship events. Click here for a new video on Sail Training International.

“Bringing our conference to Halifax is one of a series of initiatives we have embarked on to extend our global reach and influence, working with our member national organizations.” For more details on the conference click here.

“The American Sail Training Association is a founder member of Sail Training International. The joint venture on this year's conference will strengthen our links with the international sail training community as a precursor to the Tall Ships® Atlantic Challenge 2009,” said Mike Rauworth, Chairman of the American Sail Training Association.

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.

New Service Provided: Cathodic Protection

Cathodic protection is one of the most effective ways of reducing or eliminating the corrosion damage that invariably affects metals that are in contact with sea water.

Metal hulls, rudders, propellers, stabiliser fins, ballast tanks, water tanks are all areas that need protection. Paint provides only minimal protection from the corrosion of metal.

On the right is the famous ship the Cutty Sark. Below the ship is one example of corrosion damage, rust flaking off a stringer plate behind the figureheads on the Cutty Sark.

Boothbay Harbor Shipyard has expanded the scope of services to our customers to include the ability to perform an electrical signature analysis of metal hulls. This tool helps identify the risks of structural and mechanical corrosion.

This pier side activity begins with all onboard systems shut down and the placement of a submerged device adjacent to the hull. Starting with quality issues related to shore power, a multi-input data logging system documents the results of activating the entire range of onboard systems.

The analysis and interpretation of these results allows for a cathodic protection plan to be customized for each vessel. Correcting these risks not only protects the longevity of the hull but can extend the life of mechanical and electrical components.

It is recommended that a new analysis be performed at the conclusion of any major change in electrical related components. New equipment has the potential to create additional cathodic risks.

When the yacht is going to be harbored for an extended period of time, additional data logging can provide indication of risks based on the electrical signature found in that particular location.

An inventory and specifications of onboard systems and equipment is required to be able to provide a price quotation for this service.