Another way to get a free boat...

[rbgarr]

I sail a Shields class sloop (30' open cockpit deep keel daysailer). A couple of years ago an owner in Connecticut loaned his Shields to someone who took her out into Long Island Sound, got caught in a squall and lost the boat to swamping. No one was hurt (in the sinking, that is) and the boat's location wasn't marked. She lay on the bottom for three years, sails still set, until a fisherman found her. Here are pictures of the retrieval:

http://www.shieldsfleetone.org/231salvage.html

[John B]

How neat is that.
I remember talking to the owner of one of the few 30 sq metres we have here. He described striking a rock and sinking his boat while trying to get her home. when they dived for her she was sitting upright on her keel,heeling slightly, sails set beautifully to the tide...... very strange sight he said.

I assume the the fisherman found the rig with his nets. It ( the rig)was destroyed no doubt?

[Ian McColgin]

'rise again
rise again
may the mary ellen rogers rise again . . .

[Randy Leo]

Sidebar...

Sometime in the late 1930's or after the war, in the mid 1940's, my father occasionally sailed out of Larchmont YC with Corny Shields. I do not know the exact details but, I remember him telling about borrowing Corny's Star one afternoon and sinking it under very similar circumstances.

BTW-It was supposedly recovered shortly after the sinking if anyone (or Joe at Cold Spring on the Hudson) was thinking of going on a Star finding expedition.

[Alan D. Hyde]

http://www.shieldsfleetone.org/TwoProud.jpg

A great post, rbgarr.

Thanks.

Alan

[ 02-27-2003, 03:08 PM: Message edited by: Alan D. Hyde ]

[Rocky]

Not exactly free, I'll bet that operation cost a few bucks, unless he was pals with the barge guy. Is it worth it to do this after three years?

[True Love]

rbgarr,

The Shields are such sleak, beautiful boats. So good to hear of a reclamation.

Cheers! TL

[True Love]

Randy,

I have a friend that lives right on the water in Larchmont - what a phenomenally beautiful place to sail. I just go down to the waterfront and sit and think and watch the boats - last time I was there there was a fierce race taking place, yet all was calm and serene for those of us along the waterfront simply enjoying the sport.

TL

[Randy Leo]

Unfortunately, I've never been to Larchmont (tho, heard about it enough over the years!!). Dad lives on the Texas coast now but passed LYC a few years ago when delivering the ill-fated schooner Neris to the Mystic area from the Rappahanock.

Randy

[ 02-27-2003, 04:18 PM: Message edited by: Randy Leo ]

[rbgarr]

No boat is ever really free of course, and I titled this post that way just for jollies.

The guy who instigated this salvage project has two other Shields. He races one and charters out the other for the season to help keep the racing fleet size as large as he can. I can't think of a better way to attract new members to a class. He did the diving himself and has a friend who supplied the barge and crane as far as I can tell from a writeup in one of the Larchmont Fleet newsletters. I imagine there were other costs inviolved with the raising, and of course with rerigging her, etc.

But used boats are going for premium prices as the class seems to be going through a renewed interest and newly built ones sell for $45k.

[ 02-27-2003, 04:52 PM: Message edited by: rbgarr ]

[Rocky]

Curious, what does three years underwater do to fiberglass? What would it do to wood? The first WB I ever saw had an article about a guy who dug a CC out of the mud after 20 YEARS on the bottom of Lake Tahoe! (It was a template, but I think he got the motor running!)

[rbgarr]

Many fiberglass boats have been in the water for three or more years, just not totally submerged. Sometimes they get blisters. I would be concerned about this Shields because the deck is balsa-cored and there's a cockpit liner inside the solid fg hull. That would need alot of drying out and checking. I don't know how you'd know whether you had a basket case on your hands before alot of work was put in first, but that's boats, I guess.

[JeffH]

FYI, Maine Maritime Academy has five Shields for sale... $50,000 for the lot. They're well used, though. I know I sailed them just about every day possible when I was there. They could sail circles (literally, when we were hotdogging some afternoons) around just about everything else in the harbor, and if you trimmed everything just right, they'd steer themselves. Wonderful boats, even if they are that other material. ;)

Sinking seems to be a problem with the design. MMA lost three students back in the 80's when the Shields they were sailing disapeared without a trace. Probably still down there, if you really wanted to go look.

Jeff

[True Love]

Randy,

As a native Texan (my grandfather is from Galveston and got the first driver's license in Houston), if not for my friends in Larchmont, I too would be naive regarding its beauty.

Since you hail from Austin I fear you have leanings for those 'ol T-Sips, but as an Aggie, I hope that your Texan heritage would overcome the burnt orange leaning, and I hoist a beer (Longneck, of course - or ShinerBock) in your honor.

TL

[Randy Leo]

TL,
Dad was born in Larchmont and lived there until he was in his early teens. His family moved to Texas shortly after WWII when his Father started a paper products company here in Austin.

After he retired, Dad lived on the island at Jamaica Beach for almost 12 years; they moved inland just last fall after dodging a decade's worth of hurricanes and only getting water in their garage twice.

BTW-I am a T-sip only by default...it was the shortest, cheapest and quickest path to an undergraduate degree.

Ironically enough, my daughter attends a school in San Antonio who's colors are, dig this, maroon and white and, I drive a maroon car. Nothing planned, just turned out that way.

Weird.

Regards,
Randy

[ 02-28-2003, 11:50 AM: Message edited by: Randy Leo ]

[Figment]

Three years on the bottom?!

I wanna know what bottom paint he used!!! look at that hull in the haulout pic!!

http://www.shieldsfleetone.org/shortsalvageslideshow_files/slide0068.html

I swear, once upon a time I knew how to post an image.

[ 02-28-2003, 04:22 PM: Message edited by: Figment ]

[rbgarr]

On further reflection, I wonder whether organic matter made it's way into the spaces between the hull and cockpit liner, and if so, whether this salvaged boat will give off a rank odor.