May 2003 Meeting Photos:
We had a night sail, a regular club meeting, and a rained-out Chattanooga Invitational. Details below:
Click to enlarge
May 29 Night Sail:
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| The Lady Love sailed, briefly on Thursday night. Winds were somewhat high early, but with calm spots between gusts. | So the christening went on. | The mini champagne bottle was opened and the bow got wet. |
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| Followed by a nervous approach to the lake. | She floated just fine, and wanted to go. After a tense moment, I had to let her go. | She sailed close to shore. |
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| Then, flags exchanged, the American Flag lowered and the Jolly Roger went up. The cannons fired taking out a bystander on shore taking movies. | With the calm wind, the sails filled. I did some circles and cheered. Got a little braver and took her out farther. | Then, the wind kicked up. (Doh...) |
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| She had a full tailwind and started moving fast, I decided to bring her in and steered her to starboard towards shore. I noticed the spanker sail got full as well as the fore jibs. I let the sheets out to stop the lean. | But it was too late. A small gust and poof she was on her side taking on lots of water. Matt's son saved the day and took a swim to recover her. (All recovery tugs were in port at the time.) | She did look real pretty in the water before the crew laid her over. Them damn old pirates wouldn't give up their treasure. "Arg, we'll sink our own damn boat", was heard. |
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| Then the rest of the evening.... | We set sail by the lights on our vessels | Doing our best to cheer the night. |
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| One thing we learned about taking photos of boats in the dark.... | A digital camera doesn't do justice to capture the charm of night sailing. | Ok.... I needed one more photo to even out the row. Thought we would take another look at Chris and his launch. |
May Chattanooga Invitational Photos:
Oops. There aren't any. Very bad last-minute rain storm. Sorry guys. Here are some alternate photos taken by David W. near the Tennessee Aquarium. Remember, all framed photos will enlarge when clicked.
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| David's alternate plan went into effect when we got rained out at Shipp's RV in Chattanooga. | While at the Tennessee Aquarium, they looked out the window and saw this large cabin cruiser tied to the dock along the Tennessee River. | The owners invited his family aboard! They were standing on the deck of a 48 foot long 1958 Chris-Craft Constellation. They were even given a tour of the boat! |
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| It has two 454 Chevy Engines. One of the present owners is the grandson of the original owner. | The boat appeared to be in good condition. The craftsmanship and attention to detail was remarkable. | The owners plan to restore the boat back to its original 1958 glamour and use it for their own personal pleasure. |
Thanks to Cameron (David's Grand Baby) who needed some crawl-time at the window. Paul & David had an unforgettable experience.
May 10 Meeting:
The tragedy of the John Morgan is chronicled below:
As the tow vessel turned hard to port a gust of wind blew up and
swung the towed vessel at right angles to the tug. The tow rope now exerted its
load from the rear port quarter of the tug whilst the load from the tow rope on
the mine sweeper changed from the straight ahead over the bow to broadside over
the forward port quarter thus causing the vessel to list and take on the heavy
seas. The list increased due to the volume of water taken on until she commenced
to go down by the bow. The tug at this time was also listing badly and taking on
green water from the rear port quarter this together with the load from the
sinking vessel to its rear hastened the end of the tug. No effort by the tugs
crew was made to disconnect the tow rope, this was indeed was very unfortunate.
She went down from the stern, the last view the tug owner saw of her was her bow
pointing to the sky. She held there a few seconds struggling to maintain
buoyancy but then in a few seconds she slipped from view beneath the cruel waves
of Lake Briscoe.
This was a disaster of an unprecedented magnitude for the ship owner.
He was seen to be going around in circles muttering I will never do that again.
The sinking of the two vessels was witnessed by several old salts who were able
to provide very important reference points in case the owner decided on a
salvage effort.
A salvage crew was hired and they commenced salvage operations the following
day. Three divers set up a grid search following the reference points provided
and recovery of both vessels was successfully accomplished some 45 minutes into
this search.
The cost of this operation was extremely reasonable.
I can report that considering the two ships were under 12.5 feet of water for
approx. 24 hours they are in pretty fair shape, not good but repairable.
Remarkable the electronics on both ships are operational, including electronic
speed controllers, receivers motors and servo's.
The tug is missing its smoke stack (funnel) which gives me a great opportunity
to introduce a totally different design funnel and there by change the whole
ships appearance. The masts and rigging are obviously in bad shape as is some of
the paint work. I believe the builder erred in his choice of paint when
building the model.
The mine sweeper is not nearly as in good shape.
The electronics are all operable.
The superstructure is in sad shape. The forward gun and its mounting is
missing.
The forward cabin is also missing.
But the White Ensign (Battle Flag) is still flying proudly from the mast head.
I am not at all sure at this time whether the tug will be sea worthy for
Chattanooga this coming Saturday.
I must thank both Andrew and Doug for their valuable assistance during the
recovery effort on Sunday they were great and the morale booster they provided
was superb and much appreciated, thanks guys, I hope it will never happen again.
Regards to all, Ken (The Limey) He should know better.
