Fair Winds and God Speed

It is with great sadness that we remember Thomas Gillmer, renowned naval architect, professor, and long-time friend of Pride of Baltimore, Inc. who has passed away.  The designer of both Pride of Baltimore ships, as well as many other vessels, Thomas Gillmer leaves in his wake the legacy of all his great works.

Thomas C. Gillmer, Naval architect and designer of both Pride of Baltimore ships

Pride of Baltimore, a Thomas Gillmer design

Pride of Baltimore II, a Thomas Gillmer design

2009 Fall Crew wrap up the season!

Last Wednesday (November 18th), around mid-day PRIDE’s crew for the end of the 2009 sailing season said goodbye and everyone headed away to pursue their personal lives. PRIDE remains floating and secure inside a lagoon of docks. She rests under a white plastic winter cover, spread over a wooden frame mounted on her bulwark rail cap, protecting her from precipitation and sunlight. She has been completely cleaned out of all items save for tools and mechanical spare parts. All of her upper spars and gaffs plus the jib-boom are stored on saw horses placed on deck under the winter cover.  All the rigging associated with the spars are stored in a container ashore along with her sails. She will remain thus until winter maintenance is supposed to start in January.

PRIDE II under her protective winter cover.

 It took PRIDE’s crew fifteen and a half back to back working days to convert PRIDE from a fully equipped long distance sailing voyager to her winterized status. They all did a tremendous job. Not only did they disassemble the ship and carefully store her equipment ashore and assemble the winter cover, they also put a full coat of hull paint on the outside hull planking, as well as oiled the surfaces of the large lower masts. These coatings are critical to her protection during an extended period without her crew living aboard and continually available to maintain her on a daily basis. The white plastic of the winter cover will block the sun’s ultraviolet rays, as well as prevent daytime heating under plastic as it also keeps moisture off. Blocking ultraviolet will help with preventing aging of the varnish and other coatings while also reducing wintertime heating that can cause shrinking of drying out wood. Keeping rain off of everything should also help prevent moisture based rot.

PRIDE will sit this way until a selected group of experienced personnel are hired to repair the wear and tear that has accumulated in the spars and rigging from this year’s voyaging, as well as areas down below that have a full sailing season’s wear and tear from the live aboard crew and overnight Guest Crew.

During this waiting period between now and when the winter maintenance crew can be selected I will monitor PRIDE’s status while I assist Pride, Inc.’s office staff with voyaging plans for 2010 and also begin to form the 2010 sailing season crew.

Cheers and Happy Holidays,
Jan C. Miles, Captain
Pride of Baltimore II

PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II winterizing efforts continue steadily in spite of the continued rain.

Winterizing PRIDE involves more than just being sure plumbing does not freeze. All of PRIDE’s extra spars and rigging come down before a wooden winter cover frame is assembled to support a plastic shield protecting PRIDE from rain, snow, ice and sun. The process of assembling that wooden frame is tedious and detailed…and can be assembled in the rain…so the crew have been doing so for three days now. Weather forecasters are advertising they think weather will begin to dry up tomorrow (Saturday)…if true…this will permit the actual spread of plastic come Sunday.

The protection of a wooden boat like PRIDE whenever a significant length of time is going to be spent tied up without a live-aboard crew is a somewhat daunting affair. This is due to the need to prevent water and sun from having continued opportunity to work on the wood of the ship. Any haphazard execution of such a protective effort will completely defeat the intended goal. Water is an agent for ruining painted, varnished or oiled surfaces and eventually the wood. The sun is an agent for damage as well. So the winter frame and cover must succeed in preventing any leaks and any direct sunlight while also providing a lot of ventilation…because wood without ventilation is a curie dish experiment in the making. This is where the conscientious crew member is so vital for succeeding in assembling the wooden frame and spreading and securing plastic.

We have a deadline as well. End of next Tuesday. I think we are on schedule…but there is no real slack time available left. So I hope we can spread plastic Sunday…if not sooner. I hope we can complete the final cleanup of all crew personal belongings and ship equipment stored ashore and the ship herself cleaned up completely by end of Tuesday. I would also like the crew to spread more oil on the lower masts and black hull paint on the lower part of the hull…maybe Monday…but only if we are finished with the plastic.

The rain has not exactly delayed us…especially if it does indeed dry up Saturday. But the rain has made the crews work quite tedious. But they are a wonderful bunch of professionals. I believe they will get everything done well and on time.

 Signed,
 Jan C. Miles, Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II

Pride of Baltimore II is tied up next to her winter berth 1910 S. Clinton St. in Baltimore…near Canton for those familiar with City. The crew have been unloading ship’s stores and spares and restoring them ashore in Pride’s storage containers. Sails are in the process of being cut from their lashings and taken ashore for detailed inspection before being folded and stored. Propaganda material, souvenirs and crew uniforms have been off loaded to the office.  Slowly but steadily the ship is being emptied out of most of what she carries during a sailing season. After the sails are ashore, the running rigging will come down, followed by yards, gaffs and topmasts. Once Pride II is moved into her winter berth and mooring lines run out in all directions, the running rigging also will go ashore to be stowed with moer than 150 blocks…all very carefully labeled. The spars will remain on deck. Eventually, Pride will be covered over by a wooden frame under plastic to keep rain and snow off of her, as well as provide a work place for lay-up work, which will be necessary before the next sailing season can begin. By November 17 all will be complete, Pride’s down below empty, clean and ventilating and all of us that have been living aboard her will be relocating.

This is a very normal process whenever Pride is not able to sail year round raising revenue, as she is able to do during the summer sailing season. Instead Winter Lay-Up is an opportunity to reduce operating costs AND catch up with wear and tear maintenance accumulated over the recent sailing season. It is a fact that some maintenance cannot be done while remaining underway…so the lack of winter time sailing (and revenue-generating) opportunities provides the chance to accomplish all the maintenance work needed to operate again for a whole summer season without having to schedule Summer Lay-Up time…and still reduce overall expenditures in the form of not having to feed the crew and provide fuel for the engines…not to mention all the other myriad expenses that go with a vessel in a constant state of operation.

The last couple of weeks of the 2009 sailing season, following the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race, was great. Pleasant sailing was had between the ports of Yorktown, Cambridge and Chestertown. We also had a chance to do a favor for the  Maritime Institute of Technology & Graduate Studies (MITAGS), a professional marine studies school located in Linthicum, MD. For over two decades, MITAGS has generously offered professional training opportunities for Pride of Baltimore II’s key officers – pro bono.  In fact, this fall, while I was aboard the ship, my partner Captain for Pride II, Jamie Trost, was busy taking a celestial navigation class at MITAGS. As part of the class, students are required to use their sextants and to locate stars and takes sights of them using a true water horizon in directions of view that are not interrupted by land.  MITAGS has discovered that is difficult to locate a dock to use that is at the side of the bay and has no land in the way blocking the true water horizon. Renting a boat for this exercise is not financially feasible. After some discussions, it was determined that the timing of Pride II coming up the Bay from Cambridge to go to Chestertown was such that Pridewould be nearby and could easily be available in Annapolis to take the class out for this exercise.  What a great opportunity!  So, we pulled into Annapolis, tied up among the many Melges 24 racing sloops in town for a Nationals competition, and picked up 12 students - all marine professionals taking celestial navigation training to upgrade their licenses for ocean sailing endorsements. A quick ride out to the mouth of the Severn River for a comfortable drift near red buoy #2 was made so the students could use their sextants for evening star sights.  The weather was cooperative and the students accomplished the task at hand.

The end of this sailing season has brought about an end to a phenomenon that has never happened during all my time with Pride of Baltimore II. Several of Pride‘s crew this year are accomplished string instrument musicians. Coincidentally, Schooner Virginia had at least two other string instrument musicians. On several occasions this season, whenever both vessels found themselves together in port, a band was formed and great music made. Music so good that on at least three occasions Pride of Baltimore II‘s portion of the “band” was tasked with providing music to a number of parties. One time was for the ship’s officers party held by the American Sail Training Association during the Boston Tall Ships Festival. Another occasion was for Pride of Baltimore, Inc.’s own 21^st Birthday and Victory Party honoring Pride of Baltimore II. At the end of the sailing season, the band was formed again for a couple of nights when both Pride and Virginia were moored side by side at the Sultana Rig-Down Party in Chestertown. With the last of the schooner-band music played, Pride’s crew is converting her over to winter-lay-up; Virginia’s crew is heading her off for voyages into the Caribbean Sea.

Cheers,
Jan C. Miles, Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II

For fast schooners, getting across the finish line first is the holy grail of the strongly competitive sailor. It is a clear and unequivocal statement of speed for all of the racing fleet to see. There is no rating rule and no handicap. Just pure, powerful boat speed and smart schooner handling.

But handicaps and ratings are wonderful things as well. Complicated as they are, they do provide a leveling out of all the schooners, big and small, such that honest efforts to sail well can be recognized. While PRIDE may have reached the finish line first, within her class of larger schooners LADY MARYLAND bested her on handicap time and won 1^st place in Class AA. PRIDE managed 2^nd place and VIRGINIA managed 3^rdplace. The corrected time difference was only five and a half minutes between LADY MARYLAND and PRIDE (PRIDE actually finished almost two and a half hours before LADY MARYLAND…see what I mean about handicaps and ratings?). Reviewing how PRIDE sailed down the bay, it is very hard for me to identify how we could have sailed faster/better to make up that small five and a half minutes. Maybe we could have saved 2 minutes at the start…we were that late. Still we were the first big schooner across the starting line. I do not know how far behind LADY MARYLAND was at the start…I was too busy working with the crew to get PRIDE’s sails up, after starting with only half her sail area, to look around at the rest of the fleet. Whatever LADY MARYLAND’s starting position was, Captain Mike (Sinker) McCreery is a long standing professional mariner and an alumnus crew member of PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II from the late 1990′s. He and is crew of students did a magnificent job sailing down the bay and capturing PRIDE’s time allowance to LADY MARYLAND.

So, why did PRIDE start with only half her sail area up? Got a minute while I explain? It is not a simple answer. (It never is, some would say, whenever I am explaining:-)]

The key reason is the strength of the wind at the start. It was between 20 and 25 knots. The start line was arranged as a downwind start. Meaning it was oriented west to east across the bay because the wind was from the northeast, making for a downwind start. Normally a moderate wind of 10-15 knots permits all sail to be set aboard PRIDE and as she is maneuvered by her captain to try and get a good start the crew can easily handle all of PRIDE’s numerous sails and large sail area. But with more than 20 knots the job of tacking and jibing and trimming sail becomes exceedingly hard for the crew. Reefing is possible aboard PRIDE, but I knew we would not need any reefing once PRIDE was pointed down the bay with the wind from behind. It takes many long minutes to put in a reef and almost as many to shake a reef out. PRIDE handles pretty well with just the foresail and the staysail in winds of 20 to 25 knots, so we maneuvered near the start with only those two sails.

As it became less than ten minutes to the actual start we had managed to maneuver PRIDE into a running start position short of the start line and the crew turned-to and set the square topsail, followed as quickly as possible by the jib and the jib topsail. By then PRIDE was over the start line and accelerating down the bay. Quickly as possible the mainsail was set. With that sail up the real power machine of PRIDE’s rig came into play and we soon became the second vessel in the fleet, with only WOODWIND ahead of us. But there is still more sail to set! Quickly the topgallant sail was set and so too the main gaff topsail was set. A little more speed was gained. One more sail left to set…the studding sail. But it quickly became apparent that the wind was just a bit too strong for that sail…so we quickly struck it again and waited to set it if conditions ever reduced enough, which they did a couple of hours later.

Could we, had we enough additional crew, been able to save five and a half minutes at the start by having the mainsail and jib set before the start? I do not think so. So congratulations to Captain McCreery and the crew and students of LADY MARYLAND! They sailed the 2009 Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race very well indeed.

Cheers,
Jan C. Miles, Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II

Pride and her crew managed to get a pretty good start in the 2009 Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race, which enabled her to lead her southern Chesapeake Bay sister Virginia over the finish line. Pride crossed at 03:43:20 Friday morning, October 16, 2009.

Virginia was in hot pursuit of Pride for all but the last 8 nautical miles of the race. After the start Virginia drag raced between 0.5 and 2.5 miles behind PRIDE at speeds between 7 and 11 knots.  Eventually Pride was able to extend her lead and finished about 45 minutes ahead of Virginia.

The race down the bay was cold and wet with on again off again heavy mist. All hands were awakened for the finish line crossing to help get all sail in and stowed. After tidying the ship up this morning all hands will be standing down for the day.  Then we just wait for the rest of the fleet to come in and the final results to be tallied.

Cheers,
Jan C. Miles, Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II

Wx: Calm, Clear and glittering with shiny new boats

Today marks the official kick off of the 40^th Annual Annapolis Sailboat Show, and Pride II is definitely “in” the show. Tied up on the North Side of the Sailing Hall of Fame Dock, we’ve got Catalina’s to the left of us, dozens of dinghies to the right, and a veritable city of floating docks, daysailers, overnighters, multi-hulls, and schooners astern. This morning the Press and Trade Show starts the event, and Pride II is looking ready. Since weaving through the obstacle course of pilings and docks to secure on Monday evening, we’ve been working on freshening up the paint and varnish. Pride II’s transom, particularly, will be on center stage, as floating dock “A1″ will lead people within feet of it all weekend. So the rail has a fresh coat of varnish, the Maryland Shield and Homeport carving are newly painted, and the carved, gleaming gold-leaf letters of her name have been brought to full luster. I dare say she shines as bright at 21 years old as any of the flashy new launched boats around her.

Signed,
Jamie Trost, Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II

Wx: Wind West Force 1, Clear, Full Moon

Pride II just had the kind of sailing day that gets people hooked. The kind of sail that stands as a benchmark for measuring a whole seasons worth of sailing days. We boarded passengers at Broadway Pier in Baltimore and set sail just off Fells Point, the very place Pride II’s sister Baltimore Clippers were built. With the breeze West Northwest and fresh, we sailed out the Patapsco River under the Foretop’s, T’Gallant, a pair of heads’ls and the Stuns’l, eventually cracking on everything else before we reached the mouth of the Magothy River, and charging her up to 10.7 knots. A few tufts of fair weather cumulus speckled the glitter on the Bay. The day was warm, perfect Chesapeake Autumn, even as we hardened up on the wind sailing through the Bay Bridge and taking in the stuns’l.

Standing in toward the mouth of the Severn River the freshening breeze had us wetting the deck to leeward and shortening sail. Gaff tops’l in, T’gallant in. Still, with time to spare before our scheduled arrival in Annapolis at 1600, we threaded through the Sunday afternoon yacht races, and reached Pride II south to Thomas Point Light. In doing so we sailed the most recognizable mobile icon of the Bay past the most notable stationary one. Our total passage from Fells Point to Thomas Point was under three hours – an average speed of over 9 knots. Even the multi-hull sailboats were having trouble keeping up!

Eventually, reluctantly, we took in sail and prepared to come alongside in Annapolis. We had a short while to tie up and disembark our passengers, among them Tiffany Smith, a familiar face along the Baltimore waterfront who has volunteered and served as winter-maintenance crew for the past two and a half years. This was her first day of sailing aboard Pride II, ever. “I can see why you guys do this,” she said while she stuck around to help furl and stow before we went to anchor off the Naval Academy. And while she wouldn’t buy it when I tried to sell her the line that every day we were out of Baltimore was just like this one, she was right. One day in a hundred of charging Pride II along in all her power, all her incredible grace might just be enough keep us all going. But we’ll sure hope for more.

Signed,
Jamie Trost, Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II

Wind East Northeast Force 4, gusting 5, Occasional Rain.

Pride II is fresh back from a first for the vessel – an underway program with fourth grade age students from a Baltimore After-School Program. Sixteen extremely exuberant students, each with an accompanying adult, came sailing on this blustery and occasionally rainy evening.

We originally expected that the sail would just be a cruise out to the Key Bridge and back. But when the energy level of the students stayed pegged in the red even after setting Pride II’s 2,500 square foot mainsail, the crew were called to make a few adaptations to our dockside education program and present it underway. While we’ve had underway programming with students before, the focus has always been about the teamwork involved in sailing the boat, and not specific “stations” around the vessel where aspects of the history and nautical life are detailed. But with the strength of wind and the age of the students, we drew heavily on the rich educational background of Pride II’s 2009 crew and set up shop to teach them about Life as a Sailor, the War of 1812, and Navigating Baltimore Harbor.

Excellent work by the crew – simultaneously attending to the duties of handling sail as we raced through the harbor at 9 knots and bringing to life the history of Baltimore Clippers for an excitable group of young minds. All told, they set a terrific example of how to “Take care of your ship” in all aspects.

Signed,
Jamie Trost, Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II

Wind West North West Force 3, Light Rain

Maneuvers, Maneuvers! Twelve tacks and two wears/gybes in the course of two Day Sails. Pride IIwas a making victory laps off Fort McHenry to mark the 195th Anniversary of the Battle for Baltimore. As nemesis to British shipping during the War of 1812, the Baltimore Clippers that were Pride II’sancestors infuriated the Crown enough that an attack on Baltimore was ordered in 1814 to clear out that “Nest of Pirates.” Only Fort McHenry’s guns on the Patapsco River and the militia dug in at Hempstead Hill (now Patterson Park) stood between the two pronged English attack and the shipyards of Fells Point, where the Baltimore Clippers were built.

Through perseverance and grit, the Fort withstood 25 hours of artillery bombardment and kept the British ships at bay. When those ships finally sailed away, the sight of the American Flag above the Fort inspired Francis Scott Key to write what would become our National Anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” So today, in appreciation of the brave men and women who stood strong, we exchanged salutes with the 18-pounders of Fort McHenry’s newly rebuilt Water Battery. Long may that “most splendid and magnificent ensign” wave over the Fort and over Pride II.

Signed,
Jamie Trost, Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II