The View from the Helm

65YRs. 3HRs.

65YRs. 3HRs. is one of this year’s new paintings that I will be showing at my annual show on July 12^th at Martinsville Grange in Port Clyde. It is the result of three hours’ intense concentration with the lovely Carrie as my sitter. Of course as all my friends know, I have spent most of my waking hours for the last 65 years with a pencil, paintbrush or drafting pen in my hand.

     The title refers to the famous conundrum in the field of fine art, of how to price a painting? The issue was first brought to public awareness in the famous London libel suit between James McNiell Whistler and art critic John Ruskin. Ruskin had published a scathing comment that at 200 Guineas for two days’ work, Whistler was gouging his portrait clients. The defense asked if two days of work was worth the 200-guinea price of the piece. Whistler replied, “No. I ask it for the knowledge I have gained in the work of a lifetime.”

THE PAINE 14 PAINTED AND READY TO FLIP

Finally, the months of laminating, fairing, puttying, sanding, highbuild priming, sanding, finish priming, sanding, sanding and more sanding, are over! In two short days last week I sprayed the linear polyurethane finish coats and Amelia is ready for the “turnover party.” This will enable more months of constructing the decks, floorboards, seat supports and coamings. Then finally a few more weeks of varnishing, sanding, varnishing, sanding, sanding, sanding…

PETUNIA AND CHUCK Jim Cleary photo

Here I am this past weekend sailing the world’s best boat… my 74-year-old Herreshoff 12 1/2. Nothing better in the world.

PETUNIA AND FRIEND Jim Cleary Photo

It’s summer in Maine, and when I’m not painting I’m sailing. Somebody once said, “if two sailboats are headed in the same direction, they are by definition racing”. So when Steve Bailey took Jamie and Phyllis Wyeth’s H12 out for some exercise, well….

PETUNIA IS WAITING TO TAKE YOU SAILING

Here’s PETUNIA at 74. I really believe I can say her restoration is now complete. Over the winter I took the mast down to wood and removed all those years’ worth of blemishes. Then there was an ugly stain at the aft end of the boom that I thought I’d sand out. The more I sanded, the worse it looked, until finally I WENT THROUGH! It had rotted on the inside from moisture seeping in the sail track fastener holes. So that was repaired, and here she is shining like a new dime in Tenants Harbor. If you read this blog regularly, you’re a special person and entitled to invite yourself sailing!

The happily married couple

Mark Fitzgerald finally found the right woman!  Here are Mark and Ann Fitzgerald, married on June 11th at Lucia Beach overlooking Mussel Ridge Channel. It took a while, but I’ve never seen Mark so happy.

For those of you who don’t know, Mark was my right hand man at C.W. Paine Yacht Design for 22 wonderful years, and is the best boat designer on the planet. Send him a congratulatory note at mark@markfitzmarine.com