There is a mysterious attraction associated with sailing old wooden boats and log canoes epitomize the romance. Long, slender, with little freeboard, sporting an abundance of sail, they resemble a scaled-down version of Clipper Ships of which two of the boats are named after, Magic and FlyingCloud. The rakish look of the masts is gone but the longhead, a carryover from antiquity as a beak head and finding a graceful lineage as the clipper bow provides a poised setting for the trail boards and figurehead. The canoes echo one of the most ancient building techniques, a hollowed out log, combined with the elegance of the great wind machines of the nineteenth century and the use of modern technology.
One of the most unique features of the log canoes is the use of springboards. The Mystery has an eight foot beam which supports three to four wooden spring boards, ten inches wide, sixteen feet long and tapering from the middle to each end. One end is placed under the lee deck and the crew scrambles out the other side to windward to hold the boat down. When looking from the end of the board while it is blowing fifteen knots the boat is heeled over at about a forty degree angle, fifteen to twenty feet below you can see the base of the centerboard and the green waves and foam gush out from beneath the hull. The forefoot, the angle where the stem meets the boat’s bottom, rises and falls through the waves and all around you can hear the water hissing and the boat heels incadence with the increase and lulls of the wind’s velocity.
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Photos by Mike Auth
It is not necessary for the board man to be an accomplished sailor, but it helps to have a highly-developed sense of survival. It is also handy to have a good store of patience, because you are the guy that the rest of the boat is depending on to stay dry, so invariably any shift in the wind’s speed is automatically accompanied by “Get in!,” or “Get out!” the language often enhanced by miscellaneous adjectives. The trick is to be able to anticipate velocity shifts which require you to be able to‘read’ the water and ‘feel’ the air and thus get a jump on maintaining the proper heel. The‘Catch 22’ is that if you are the guy on the end of the board there can be one or two board man riding with you and the hope is that they are paying attention. A sense of humor can also come in handy. Not that there is just one board man. When the wind gets up, everyone hikes.
At one time when Franny Schauber was skippering, he made up a short board that he could steer from behind the main mast so that all the moveable ballast (the crew), sail handlers included, were up on the boards, leaving the entire boat empty when sailing along in a stiff breeze.
Hiking boards used to be fairly simple. A 1×10 quarter sawn Sitka spruce scaffold board by whatever length you were comfortable carrying sufficed, and there was no doubt where the‘spring’ in spring board came from. It is amazing what loads this species of wood can endure but when she goes, look out! These boards were usually left unfinished, which provided good grip wet or dry. The downside was that with wear there were always splinters. New boards are laminated and Franny prides himself by using all local woods such as Cypress,Sassafras, and White Oak coating it all with epoxy which is durable but slippery when wet. Usually there are two to three stringers inside, but Fran, an invertebrate experimenter, also uses a latticework honeycombing on the inside of the board; the end result gets the board stiff and the weight down to about thirty pounds.
And a sturdy complement of boards was needed at Rock Hall. The Saturday morning race had light and variable winds from the South West at about six knots. The course was from the mouth of Langford Bay to Riggold Pt. at the cut between Eastern Neck and EasternNeck Island,to the mouth of Reed Creek to Cliff City then finish to windward at the start. As the rest of the boats did, we put up our kite – a triangular sail hoisted on the foremast,sheeted to the top of the main and trimmed by a board man on the aft most board. The kite adds about 10 feet to the above the top of the fore which brings the overall height of the mast to over seventy feet.
As we tacked over to starboard, Persistence and SilverHeel were to weather, Patricia and Jay Dee below usas we closed in on the starting line. Jay Dee wasted no time and shot out in the lead with Mystery close behind. The Island Bird, Persistence, and Patricia split off to the Queen Anne shore. We got forced to tack by the Heel, but we head off into clear air and bit by bit we pull ahead and are first to the windward mark. Mystery reached off on Port tack as the wind dropped to about four knots and we put up Franny’s brand new staysail.
Until this summer I had not sailed on a canoe for quite some time and this staysail is a reminder to me that just when you think the bag of tricks is empty someone comes up with a bright idea – a go faster widget, and as long as you can write the check, you can stay competitive. Staysails are generally cut like a jib, but are tacked between the masts and raised by a halyard on the main and sheeted aft. However, this new sail is cut more like a spinnaker without a pole, and is held by a crew member at the tack where it can be moved fore and aft according to the wind conditions. The new sail worked like a charm, but it was not enough to hold off the Jay Dee and she pulled ahead by the reaching mark. The rest of the fleet fell steadily behind,splitting between the middle of the river and the Queen Anne’s shore.
The race became a contest between the Mystery and the Jay Dee, and our only hope was for her to bungle her lead somehow – very unlikely, or we could still beat her on corrected time, but the race was quickly reaching its time limit upon which the race committee would have to call the race.
On rounding the leeward mark the crew worked hard to keep Mystery on her feet and Mitchell was able to exploit her better pointing qualities and with less than five minutes to go Jay Dee got the gun, but could not save her time on us and we got our first ‘first’ of the season.
After finishing we dropped anchor at the mouth of Grays Inn Creek and Polite headed for Comegy’s Bight for lunch and Sue Schauber’s birthday celebration. But the festivities were abandoned in mid ice cream scoop when sails were spotted on the horizon, and, realizing that we had lost track of time, made a dash for Polite and the start. We rigged in record time but it was not enough to catch any of the boats except the Bird who had also tarried.
There was no question that although it was apparent that we could not catch the fleet we would still race. You never know what will happen to the other boats and you accumulate points for overall winner for the weekend and High Point Trophy at the end of the season.
The course was the same the afternoon race but the wind increased to about fifteen knots and we sped around the course in racing mode but without the tension and without capsizing.
Arriving home Saturday evening I found our church service sheet on the living room table and realized I was Lay Reader at the seven-thirty service. I made arrangements with Franny to pick me up at Cliffs at 9:15 but it would be tight. Arriving at Shrewsbury Parish in my sandals, shorts and Mystery tee shirt, I donned my robes, read from ‘Romans,’ downed the libation of which there was half a goblet left at the end of the service, and dashed off to Cliffs praying not to get pulled over. There I was met by ‘Fin Chaser’ which took me out to Mystery, thoughI had to swim the final twenty five yards.
Wind conditions were identical to that of Saturday afternoon. It was fifteen out of the South West,whitecaps and the same course except for an extended down wind leg to Cliffs. Again Mitchell got us to the line at the gun and by the windward mark the boat for boat contest was again between Mystery and Jay Dee, though the fleet was much closer than on Saturday morning’s race. We rounded behind JayDee and put up our new staysail but for all we could do, catching Jay Dee again proved elusive. Persistence skippered by Tyler Johnson was able to save her time on us and we ended third for the race and third over all.
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