Autobiographical Update From Captain Clyde

[bob mitchell]

Since you told me enough about you to give me confidence in your abilities to see your way through this project let me tell you enough about myself to make you wonder why you ask me questions. I was raised with a deck under my feet, to quote myself, and have always felt safer at sea than ashore. I spent maybe ten years or so in shipyards, mostly on the rough carpentry gang doing the scarphing work on plywood, assembling the keelsons, building the masts and booms, helping to put the houses together and as a part of the “bull gang” lugging the planking for the plankers. My favorite job on these great boats was as the rigger, making up all the standing and running rigging, rigging the masts and stepping them, bending on the sails, and then to my favorite of favorites, which I would have done without pay: sailing the boat to check things out. I also made a lot of the deliveries up and down the coast from Essex, CT to Annapolis, MD. Though I helped in many of the jobs in the building process, and even “rose” to become the “Master Builder,” my experiences left me as just a jack at many of the “trades” and not all that knowledgeable of some. I am more of a wood butcher than a carpenter. While in the shipyard I also worked as an electrician and a machinist. I love machineshop work. It has fascinated me since I was a small boy and Dad would take me to the machine shop while he visited to talk to an old friend of his. During my early years in the shipyard that same man was working in the machineshop there and I was able to watch him at work on some of the things I needed—what an artist! The rest of my time on boats I was an oysterboat captain (Dad was an oysterman), a tugboat captain (for the shipyard) and my last 13+ years of paid “boating” I served as the last research vessel captain for Rutgers University’s Oyster Research Lab in Bivalve, NJ, retiring at the old age of 57 (forced into retirement by an illustrious governor who deleted 20 million dollars from Rutgers income (which limited their outgo). But my love for the Newporter is something that defines me also. It’s not the only boat I love, but the ones I do are very similar or they are Chesapeake Bay boats of the late 19th to early 20th centuries, the Bugeye being my favorite of all. My favorite reading is by Howard I. Chapelle, who was a friend of Dad’s, but though I met him a couple or three times while quite young and once in my very late teens, I wasn’t old enough or smart enough to realize who he was—just an other friend of Dad’s (and he had some beauts). My library includes every book he has written, but that’s not equal to the opportunity I had but missed. So, based on all that, I continue to offer my willingness to give you “answers” that amount to “my best guess” based on a memory of my past. I do not consider myself “old” but I’m many years beyond young, so help yourself to what I may be able to give.

[jim sherk]

as a 6 month old owner of a west coast/costa mesa boat, #47, i am interested in the fact that the keels were shortened on the east coast version, by 13 inches. can you tell me why this modification was made.

i am wondering if the sail and mast dimensions were changed as well.

thanks

jim sherk

[Clyde A. Phillips]

Jim,

The difference in the draft between east and west boat is (old nit-picker Clyde) 12 inches, 5'11" west and 4'11" east. I've heard each of them rounded up to the even foot, the 13" may come from a reading that the western boats are 6" and the eastern boats are 4'11". So, it's about a foot different. Reason is that there is a lot of deep water out west, a lot of shallow water here on the east coast. Our Delaware Bay, home of the Newporter, East, averages 8 feet deep, so we drag bottoms a lot. There was a change near the end of the run in the lead ballast also, but that didn't change draft much. The sails were changed later than the move east, but total area, as I remember, was increased. Other details of rig changed from time to time, usually as a result of changes by suppliers. Masts and booms had changes but basically remained much the same. All of this was the gradual evolution of total design.

By the way, I'm not much of a forum person (trying to follow a thought through a tangled web is, well, trying), so I don't check it on a regular basis, semiannually possibly. If you want to make sure I get anything (like questions) to me, use my email address, [e-mail] . Any one who reads this can use it, too.

Peace,

Clyde



jim sherk said:

as a 6 month old owner of a west coast/costa mesa boat, #47, i am interested in the fact that the keels were shortened on the east coast version, by 13 inches. can you tell me why this modification was made.

i am wondering if the sail and mast dimensions were changed as well.

thanks

jim sherk