A BRIEF (UNOFFICIAL) RETROSPECTIVE ON TED HOOD'S IOD #47 - PRINCESS - SEPTEMBER 27, 2008

Howdy from Bob Duff,

This memorable view of an International One Design wooden bottom brings back a swarm of fond memories for those of us who started our sailing lives in the "good old days" when men were men and racing yachts were just wood - beautiful wood!  We can tell a lot of tales.  Here I am trying to tell some of them on my fancy MacBook Pro computer which never was made of wood.  

These recent pictures may be the last glimps of what things were like in the beginning for many of us who started in those primitive days - this is Ted Hood's once dominant 1939 Marblehead International One Design - IOD - #47 - PRINCESS.   She waits patiently for miraculous restoration magic to be performed by Marblehead's Bruce Dyson.  She will look "just like she came off of the freighter from Norway years ago".  That was the oft heard comment late this summer when Sara and Ken Drewry's #33 SMALL HOTEL came back racing after new owner Lori Bate had her restored  by Bruce's genius!

Below is PRINCESS  again from her port side.  Click on this picture (or any of them) for an enlarged view.  Notice especially the horizontal length of the 10 hole chain plate showing above the covering board.  I will present other pictures and comparisons to the stainless steel chain plates we salvaged from 1936 TANGO #16 when she sank and we converted her on a new glass hull.  I will some "fascinating" details of IOD chain plates in  future issues of this blog.  Come back again to DUFFSTUFF!  Meanwhile, I have asked past World Commodore Thornton Clark for more  remembrances to share with you about this whole era .

NOTE AS OF OCTOBER 8, 2008---My good friend  Jim Ayer just called to correct my original text saying "starboard" where the pictures are of PRINCESS's "port" side.  I just fixed it.  It is always pleasant to find that anybody reads my DUFFSTUFF.  This little bloop reminds me of my ex-wife  when I was rowing her in a dinghy some years ago.  She faced forward and I faced aft rowing.  She said "Row to Port!".  I did!  Then she said typically, "NO STUPID! ---MY PORT!".   Believe me despite that little story, she is an excellent sailboat racer!

 Long before I got here, oft told tales  say that Ted & PRINCESS dominated races even without the use of HOOD's narrow panel sails.  Brad Marvin (Commodore of PLEON YACHT CLUB in the late thirties) reports that Ted was so feared by the other IOD skippers that they refused to allow the customary annual purchase of sails to ever be granted to Hood's Sail Loft.  Brad says they went to a  place he calls "OMAR THE TENT MAKER" for mainsails to prevent Ted from "cheating" if he made sails for the whole fleet. 

 Historically since 1936/1939 one sail each year is bought for each boat in the entire fleet from the same sailmaker in an attempt to maintain near perfect one-design racing conditions.  It has worked rather well, but many aggressive sail makers have avoided IODs since they must usually sail  with a competitor's product.  There have been some exceptions - not very many.   IOD is an interesting sail   market!  Hood's loft did make a lot of sails for us some years back.  I just retrieved a HOOD JIB from my attic and gave it to a friend for a storm sail on his Bristol 35.5.  The sail felt like new despite its age.

Going on with the tales, rumors are that Ted was pressured to sell PRINCESS away from Marblehead because she was thought to be "a super boat".  She went away to the Great Lakes. Years later, she has ended up back here in the condition shown by these pictures.  Ted's nephew Chris Hood owns her now and is behind the restoration move.  No stranger to the IOD, Chris owned and raced IOD MISTRESS(?) #3 which was later sold into the racing fleet in Northeast Harbor Maine.  I also have heard that Chris built all 13 of the identical glass IODs which seeded the new racing fleet on Nantucket  Island Massachusetts.  As to the "super boat" label for  PRINCESS,  most of us think we know that it was something other than the boat!  It will be most interesting to see how she performs on the racing circuit in the twenty-first century. 

Meanwhile, Bruce Dyson ( former sailmaker as is his winning IOD crew Norm Cressy) reports that Ted Hood is baffled as to why anyone would want to restore his old boat!  See you next week.     

ADDITIONAL MARBLEHEAD MUSINGS OF THE MOMENT - SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Howdy from Bob Duff,



My computers (three of them right now) are playing tricks on me. My Internet access and e-mail have been down for a few days. Comcast just got me back up on only this DELL. I am putting out this blog issue using what resources are here.





I bought my own camera this week and have pictures of an old special place for IOD TANGO in Ted Hood's Marblehead Little Harbor Boat Yard. However, the Dell computer does not yet accept my little photo transfers. My MacBook Pro took them graciously for review and you may enjoy them later on. They must wait for more technical breakthroughs before I can show them to you.




Meanwhile, I am stealing three shots from Ulrika Welsch's wonderful book "MARBLEHEAD" which you may purchase via her web site identified below. Above here is a shot of the old boat yard from Gerry Island in the middle of our Little Harbor. Those multi-million dollar town houses in the background have been built where some really great racing yachts were once built and where TANGO spent several winters and springs along with quite a few other smaller racing yachts. I will get into more of those stories in the weeks ahead. The church tower in the background above is just below my old house on High Street. Its G.D. bell rings into my bedroom window as a call to church on Sunday mornings. I am usually already at Episcopal church/choir a few blocks away. However, I do sputter and curse a little when I try to sleep on a Sunday past 10 AM.




Before leaving Little Harbor tonight, I must point out that the "town father's" refused Ted permission to dredge the harbor for more of the big yachts which wanted to come here and spend lots of money in our little town. Consequently Ted took his several yachting businesses to Newport, Rhode Island where the new Little Harbor Boat Yard has generated a lot of money, jobs and employment for hundreds of people. What price quaint beauty?





Next below, Ule captured a fleet of International One Design yachts reaching out on a triangular course with the wind over the starboard (right) side. As you might expect, I suggest that my TANGO #16 is way out in front of these laggards. The triangle course is used infrequently these days with starts going directly into the wind on a windward/leeward/windward/leeward course to finish with legs one nautical mile or so each.




The other picture below is ole Duff lighting the candles on the antique chandelier at St. Michael's Episcopal Church. It was built in 1714. I sang Russian Bass here and lit candles for years to get away from that G.D. loud bell at Old North Church Sunday mornings. Incidentally, our Old North is not the one in Boston where Paul Revere saw the lanterns. Paul did make OUR bell which the Yankees broke celebrating on July 4th 1776.





Sorry for the blog bugs! They will not let me type below the pictures, but I can paste the info on Ulrika's book inviting you to see more of her wonderful work.

Photographs by Ulrike Welsch

Published by Commonwealth Editions, 2000

ISBN 1-889833-16-9

© 2000 Ulrike Welsch

" . . . Marblehead is infinitely more than a historic town by the ocean. It has always been defined as much by its nonconformity and independence as by its natural beauty and preoccupation with the sea . . . "

Hardcover, 10x10", 128 pages, 127 Color Photos

authographed for $29.95

free shipping within the continental U.S.A.

(MA residents add 5% sales tax)

As to popular demand the book has been re-printed and is again available!

Tel/Fax in U.S.A.: 781-631-1641

E-mail:ulrikefotos@comcast.net

MORE MARBLEHEAD MUSINGS OF THE MOMENT -SEPTEMBER 13, 2008

Howdy from Bob Duff Saturday September 13, 2008,

As I write this just now some IODs are coming in from racing the Corinthian Yacht Club Fall Series. I neglected to mention it last Saturday since Brad Marvin and I and the rest of EYC-RC are now on the beach for this year. The series continues for two more Saturdays with very small participation.  IOD results along with those for the Etchells are available via the link provided above for MRA-FALL Series Racing Scores-2008  under FAVORITE YACHTING LINKS (MORE). 

 Last Saturday Jennifer and Greg Mancusi-Ungaro with (I think) Margaret (age 6) and Eleanor(8) in #2 ELECTRA beat SMALL HOTEL, TANGO and RHYTHM.   Looking backward, the Mancusi-Ungaros took this picture of TANGO to make their point with me about my beloved IOD at that moment.  Come on Rachel & Ian Morrison, get her going!  Click on the photo for a larger view of Tinker's Island and the hazy view of the Boston Skyline as Tropical Storm Hanna was giving us a little scare.

As reported last week, most all IODs should defer to TANGO since she and Thornton Clark set the stage for many of the new boats that followed. TANGO (the first conversion) was hull #108 on the "new" glass numbering system starting at #101 (Jim Bishop-Long Island).  ELECTRA is hull #109 despite keeping her original Long Island Fleet sail numbers.  The whole history of conversion from old wood to new glass would be fun to research and document. 

 I am fairly certain that Bermuda's wooden boats have all been converted with the probable exception of Stanhope Joel's #1.  She was maintained immaculately since 1939  like many of the "gold platers" in Northeast Harbor, Maine.  That #1 was raced most successfully in my day by Archie Hooper.  Archie had more than one of the "keeper" cups which went with the King(?) Bermuda Gold Cup raced each year.  I hope that my stumbling words evoke comments, corrections and extensions for our common knowledge.

Speaking of that, Thornton Clark corrected some of my comments last week as follows:

"There are very few corrections.  Peter Mimno had ridden down to the American Yacht Club with me in the new Jaguar to examine the boat before I bought it, so were well aware of the color.   We went through radar at 135mph because we were late for the meeting with the owner, but managed to get away with out a ticket (that, however, is another long story)."

" It took us all night and part of the morning to get through Long Island Sound.  When we exited Long Island Sound, I think it was Tom Brennan who kept looking at a mark just off to starboard that did not show on our chart.  Only when it began to rise did we discover that we had a submarine alongside."

"We sailed into Newport, making a stop before heading on into Buzzards Bay."

  "It is illegal, and I don't know if the control officers on the west as you enter the Cape Cod Canal just didn't see us in the dark, but we did not have a working engine and had to sail through the canal.  Stopped early the next morning at that small harbor on the starboard side just before you enter Massachusetts Bay to fix the jammed main halyard."

"Had a beautiful beam reach from there to Marblehead.  Dick Kirk, now deceased, was on board and I think Dick Fleming was also.  I believe there was one more, so will ask and let you know."

I have to leave at 5:30 tomorrow morning for an Alabama Scenic River Trail meeting in the Delta near Mobile, so will have to get back to you later."

"Thornton"

editor's note - - contact in Montgomery, AL -

 thorntonclark@aol.com - 334-396-4656

That beautiful black Jaguar brings up memories of its own.  TANGO, in her wooden glory, had a black bottom which got a lot of attention.  Debbie, Thornton, Phil Somerby and I spent many hours smoothing her with black wet sandpaper.  Our son Rob (Robin) Duff (probably 4 years)  was with us and his baby sister Allison at Hood's boat yard where they spent the early years of youth.  Robin, always helpful, volunteered to help us wet sand the black bottom paint.  You probably see where this is going.  Yes, his efforts were soundly rejected by us all.  Being a DUFF,  he gathered up sufficient rejected black sand paper and did a beautiful job on the gleaming black hood of Thornton's Jaguar.

I am gaining enthusiasm for keeping with this TANGO story a bit longer.  I do have some nice pictures of our building the new converted glass TANGO.  Also some other little stories which may amuse you. 

The new link to BLUEJACKET SHIP/BOAT/HALF MODELS caught my eye.  I offer it here for your perusal.  See you next week.

 

MARBLEHEAD RACING IS OVER FOR THIS YEAR - WHAT NOW?- September 06, 2008

Howdy from Bob Duff early Saturday evening Sept. 6, 2008,



Like an old fire station horse being roused by the sound of a fire alarm, it is Saturday evening without the pleasure of yacht races to report. The season is over, but the compulsion is there to blog. So......here we go. The picture above is Thornton Clark and crew on IOD TANGO sometime thirty plus years ago. Phil Somerby, long gone and truly missed, is leaning on the gooseneck next to Debbie Collins Duff now Papps as I blast the air with my faithful Highland Bagpipes who are now gone like many old friends.




TANGO was built by Bjarne Aas in Frederikstad, Norway in 1936. She joined Corny Sheilds as Number 16 in the original Long Island fleet of International One Design Class yachts. They still bring pleasure to thousand of sailors all over the western world each yachting season.




Most recently Tom Brennan told a small luncheon group about TANGO's journey to Marblehead in the mid-1960s. I cannot do it justice here, but some highlights are that Thornton bought her sight unseen. I recall that the price was $1,900 versus current prices in the forty thousand range. Thornton, Tom and some other adventurous souls flew to New York after work on a Friday. They boarded TANGO (not yet her new name) after dark and did not know her color until sunup under full sail. First light did not cause gasps at her beauty but groans of anguish about the amount of work needed to bring her to the condition Thornton would demand.



They had a tiny outboard but I recall that they never used it. They sailed nonstop except for a brief pause in the Cape Cod Canal to repair a halyard problem. Some time later, Debbie and I had arrived here in Marblehead from San Franciso via Chicago with some good experiences with IC's (SF's version of the IOD name), 22 Square Meters and Scow boat racing in Wisconsis. We were right at home. I was racing with Carlie Needham and Ed Carol on SAGA #51 from my first weekend in town. That first day Jon Wales fouled us (in his IOD #9?) and yelled over that he "owed us one". I decided right then that this was the place I wanted to be. Meanwhile, Thornton had painted TANGO red and was being observed as an upstart Alabama Harvard boy worthy of some attention.



Carlie was somewhat ill in the spring of '69 and my sailing prospects with him were not bright. He never really recovered his health. In wandering around Hood's boat yard I recognized the bright red IOD as Thornton and introduced myself to him and TANGO. He had everything ripped down almost beyond recognition. I asked if I could help put her back together. The rest is history!




Debbie got very much into the act and took over all the varnish work on new teak comings, doghouse, seats, bulkheads, covering boards, etc. Fortunately, Debbie condemned the green paint Thornton had chosen as being "MAID'S ROOM GREEN" and shamed him into a glistening white with 14 karat gold cove lines. TANGO looked like new and began gaining a little respect from the graduates of Pleon and MIT who are not especially receptive to "outsiders" in case you have not noticed.




The seasons went by with some great times. We were up with TANGO and we were down. We got into several World's, North American's and a few Bermuda Race Weeks and into team racing against Long Island and Bermuda. Along the way, the first world IOD President, Bill John from the Long Island Fleet had died and Thornton succeeded him. The foundations were there by Bill John and Bjarne Aas for the new IOD glass boat design to convert wooden IOD boats to "new glass", but no one had ever done it. The opportunity to lead the way presented itself to President Thornton Clark in 1976 when wooden TANGO went down to a hard bottom at a spring mooring and could not be restored. Thornton took the initiative for the first complete conversion. This was an example of very bold leadership for which he deserves much praise and thanks. Steve Wales and John Benning followed suite right away converting #2 and #22 which they had campaigned for years after "stealing" them away from Long Island.




I started this evening with some additional scanned pictures of our converting TANGO to glass, but the "blog goddess" (she must be a woman) has banished them to cyberspace or somewhere. I will continue next week with more of the story. Maybe Thornton and Debbie will send their normal critique of my work before next Saturday.




An editor's note: the list of yachting links and the request for e-mail comments have been moved to the top of this blog. This was a frequent suggestion from my friend Jim Ayer. It just took me a long time to learn how to do it. His photos have enhanced my publications from the start. I have several more from him with ideas for future issues before the sailing season starts again in the spring.