Page 6. MAINE COASTAL NEWS March 2017 '70 M - H B S By Lee S. Wilbur Three things I could always be sure of
come fall. Number one, high on the agen- da, was Eider duck hunting. Loved it. Get up an hour before daybreak, grab a thermos of hot tea, the old Montgomery Ward Field Grade 12 gauge, launch the boat and head out to Flynn’s ledge. Second, I had to do at least one, sometimes more boat shows. Norwalk Ct., Newport, Rhode Island, An- napolis, Md. Lot of work. Leave the shop for at least a week, get a boat ready to show. Eat at some of my favorite spots...a plus... pick up and/or return boat to owner. Race back to the Island in time to talk to more prospective. Finally by October back in the groove and watching what I enjoyed im- mensely. Boats being built. Third on the list, however, was the ever
present concern. Fall was also HURRI- CANE SEASON!! And, hurricanes some- how knew that hurricanes with boat shows in their paths were a great way to prove who was “boss”. Boat shows were proverbially “sitting ducks”. Boats tied up to fl oating docks just waiting for the abnormally high tides and high winds. Not a pleasant combi- nation. Two come readily to mind. First in memory was Norwalk. Of any shows, Norwalk was one I probably
enjoyed the most. Show-goers were New England folks with a healthy dose of New Yorkers and Jerseyites as well. Most had a good sense of humor, used their boats and Maine boats were built to be used. Brings to mind an old timer, (probably my age now/then) who bought one of the 34’s so he could go out and “play in the Gulfstream.” That year, 1985, Jack Schneider,
ex-president of CBS and truly great guy, was loaning us “Christiana”, a Wilbur 34, for the show. Lived just up the sound (Long Island) so was an easy pickup. First caught reports of hurricane building up be- fore leaving Maine. Heidi went along for this show as we’d gotten to be friends with Jack, his wife and friend Ted Wellworth. Plus, Jack had held out the promise of some fi ne dining both at the Schneider household and downtown. We got there early, snuck in to our old
location, just at the bottom of the entry gang- plank before the rest of the show closed in around us. If memory serves, we got open- ing day in with no problems, just promis- es that tomorrow the storm would strike. Jack had come out with a stack of coiled lines and we commenced tying Christiana off to anything that wouldn’t move. There were lines into and around available trees,
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rings, onshore anchors poles up to the dock header, and across the canal to other boats. Spiders couldn’t have spun a more accurate web. Storm blew through that night and into the next day. Late day we went over to the marina. She’d come through fi ne. We left her still tied, Jack made reservations for dinner and with great relief, fueled by a couple of dry martinis, we dined. Will un- doubtedly carry the memory of Pheasant in Lobster sauce to that great restaurant in the sky. It was quite memorable. Phil Bruch, then owner of Bahia Mar
Marine Store in Ft. Lauderdale, had pur- chased a W-38, “Sagitarius” second year on the market. Wanted a boat he could single hand which he did shortly after construc- tion from Boston, where Stan Ward, our head mechanic, and a friend of Stan’s had accompanied him. Phil was not an untypi- cal owner of a Downeast boat. Real “stand- up” guy. Flew a stunt plane, enjoyed sin- gle-handing, great to build for. Neatest of all, he had us install a fi replace in the salon where he could sit with A/C on, light the fi replace, and enjoy a quiet moment with memories of Ohio, his home state. Phil had suggested early in the pur- chase/construction phase, he would be honored to let us use Sagittarius at the Ft. Lauderdale boat show. I’d always been a bit leery of adding Ft. Lauderdale, with its date close to Miami’s. However, with Phil’s becoming more of a friend than the normal builder/owner relationship, thought we’d give it a try and Phil could use Sagi- tarius for some marine store promotion as well. Show had always been held at Ba- hia Mar, but demand for space was edging over space available with new boatbuilding companies coming online seemingly every month. So with zero aforethought, some- one(s) came up with the brilliant idea of uti- lizing the commercial shipping area in Ft. Lauderdale... Port Everglades. That there was somewhat-limited- usable land space available and no fi xed docks to moor up never really screened on show management radar. Greed can be a powerful motivator and problem gloss-over.
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I fl ew down a few days early to get
Sagittarius prettied up, fi nding I could take a few beach days instead as Phil had her sparkling and ready to be a “showoff ”. I must add, that Phil had some misgivings about the new venue as did I on fi rst intro- duction. Now I’m just a Maine Coast kid. Back then we had few fl oating marinas. And, those few were generally speaking, well stored by hurricane season. Florida on the other hand, is year-round boating and only “break is hurricane season or Christ- mas winds roiling up from the Caribbean late December sometimes into February. Ft. Lauderdale’s location, quite obvious to me, beckons with open arms. First glance over Port Everglades of-
fered another niggle. Tankers and Freight- ers, at idle as they entered or cleared port left a sizable water disturbance. An 8’ fl oating dock just doesn’t come with that stability in its operating description. And..... somewhere down in the Gulf of Mexico that day, there was a storm playing around that noon really wanted to talk about other than setting out a few more anchors. Sure enough, although it was a beauti-
ful start and sun shone with all its Florida brilliance, docks did the fi fties “rock and roll” each time a ship passed, by late after- noon darkening sky began a quarrel with the sun who quickly passed from the scene. Docks were soon empty and we’d used all lines available tying Sagittarius not only to the fl oating dock, but run one down to the dock’s mooring as well. Phil was much the calmer than I would have ever been under similar circumstances. And as with other shows, there was no way to leave without taking the entire show apart. I couldn’t tell you, my readers, where
we ate that evening and that’s a rarity. Only know that it was one “Hellacious” night. Storm proof windows in Phil’s condo felt like they’d buckle on next howl. Morning, early, we headed over. Fig-
ured best scenario, Sagittarius would have blown alongside a ship and been saved by
Continued on Page 10.
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