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I debated about posting these since it is a wooden boat and the pictures aren't that great. I didn't want to clutter the board with just a bunch of pictures of an old boat. Well, I decided to anyway, so just shoot me. All my good pictures of the boat were lost several years ago. But in any case she's a very pretty 25 footer and was my first "bigger" boat. I lived on her for a summer when I first moved East in 1971. She was hull number 3 and was varnished to the waterline. She was constructed of mahogany and batten planked. Originally, she had a Kermath "Sea Pup" engine that was frozen when I bought her, so I replaced that with a Westerbeke Vire' when they first came out. The manufacturer also made a 30 foot model called the "Dutch Maid". Both models were imported by Van Breems. Her name was "Hollandaise" and the marking on her sail was a wooden shoe. The handsome guy standing by the mast is my father.
I once called on a 25 foot wooden boat named "Dutch Treat" that was for sale. I didn't realize that was also the name of the model of boat. I'm a sucker for Dutch-built boats.
I knew a yard guy that was dating a women who lived on a boat that looked very similar to yours. Hers was batten seamed - was Hollandaise?
One of the many great things about boat ownership and use is the way they help you accumulate memories. I find that reading thru my old logs or looking at old photos brings up sailing memories in a more vivid fashion than shoreside memories ever return.
Yes, she was batten seamed. I have three main memories of that summer liveaboard: 1) I remember that there was condensation on my shaving mirror that never went away all summer. 2) I remember that I was shocked at how human hair falls out at a rate that actually blocked the limber holes in the bilge on more than one accasion. 3) I had no lee cloths and learned to sleep with my knee braced against the mast so that rolling didn't knock me out of the bunk. In the late fall, I had some buddies help me winch her up the beach on a cradle with planks and rollers. I promised them a lobster dinner for that and finally "paid up" about 20 years later.
I thought she looked familiar. I sail with a friend who owns a 38 ton gaff ketch built in 1915. For a variety of reasons, I always claim the top bunk in the crew's quarters as it allows me, by wedging my knee under the deck, to spend less time airborne.