The View from the Helm

This was the first day the sailmaker got to tweak his creations.  He’s adjusting the leech line as New Morning shows off for her designer.

Here’s New Morning sailing down the St. George River on May 23rd.  There were dramatic clouds and the occasional rain shower and I had my tired old Aquasport up on a plane to keep up with her.

The Lyman- Morse 54 New Morning was ready for sea trials exactly as scheduled on May 16th.  The wind chose this day to give her a good test, with a cold souwester blowing 25 knots.  But that’s what sea trials are for- trying to break whatever will break while still within reach of the boatyard.  She’s a good strong ship, though, and the worst damage we could do was to explode a sheave in a deck organizer.  Much of the time was spent at a speed of  nine knots, proving the mettle of the hull shape, though we never once that first day had the “right” sail combination up for the wind strength.  Altogether an exciting and successful day.  The boat is stiff, fast, beautiful, and can handle 11 bodies in and around her “inside” and “outside” cockpits with room to spare.

Russ and Chuck celebrating an exciting day in both of their lives.

New Morning’s owners spared no effort to achieve a ground breaking new interior.  This included hiring Jane Plachter of Fort Lauderdale to provide the fresh approach that only an interior design specialist can envision, and making a full sized mockup of the interior which was tweaked until the ideal compromise was reached. Here she’s coming alongside the docks at Lyman Morse to debut the finished work to hundreds of curious onlookers who attended her launching party.

New Morning leaving her mother’s womb.  She looks wonderful and we all- builder, designer and owners, are proud of our new creation.

Here’s New Morning all shined up and ready to sit in her new element.

This is the deck mold for the York 45.  I think it represents a form of artwork.  All of the female mold stations are computer designed and perfectly faired- none of the shimming and “fairing by eye” is required that we boatyard hangers- on are used to from days past.  Put this on a street corner in New York City outside one of those Lexington Avenue galleries- or better yet Chelsea- and some Yalie with an erudite accent could surely sell it as sculpture.

It happens.  The owner behind the French and Webb 75 did some soul searching and realized his aspirations of cruising the world’s oceans were misplaced.  Better to pare away 30% of the weight in cruising luxuries and offshore features such as deep bulwarks and massive tankage, and concentrate on performance and week long cruises.  The slightly shorter F&W 72 is lower, narrower, sleeker, and will be a stimulating and satisfying racer on New England’s Spirit of Tradition courses.

Here’s a closeup of the French & Webb 72 profile. The wood is select teak.  Yeah I know the production builders like that word “select” because it sounds upmarket.  But in this case Todd French actually flew out to the lumber supplier in Ohio and hand selected a particularly beautiful huge teak log to be custom sawn so that every piece will match in grain and color just as in my rendering.