Limber Holes and Love

Sunday, September 28, 2014

This is the second of the memories about sailing on the Eleanor from R.S.B. of Rutland, Vermont.

Climbing into the far reaches of the hull to clean out the limber holes when I was 14 taught me a lesson that I wrote about in my high school English class. In the spring there was always much work to do to prepare the Eleanor for the launch. The mast had to be put in place, the bottom of the boat needed to be painted, anything loose needed to be tightened down, and every piece of equipment and sail needed to be inspected. So, up into the belly of the boat with a wire hanger to clean out the limber holes I crawled. That was a dirty job. It was carefully explained to me that without the care of the details of maintenance of the Eleanor, the integrity of the hull could weaken and she might not sail.

Sailboats are like love – each requires thoughtful and careful attention to the little things.

*

This memory reminds me of one of my husband’s sailing stories. Friends at work invited him to sail
the Bahamas with them. They were all big guys. Only when he was aboard did he realize that
they needed someone to go up the mast and squeeze into dirty places none of them could.
They sailed together for many years after that — JAH

The Great Water Race and Barbecue to help build Eleanor’s Spars

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

HRHBrass invites all to the Great Water Race and Barbecue at the Roe-Jan Creek Boat Club in Germantown on September 6, from 2 to 5pm.  Proceeds will go to support Eleanor’s restoration – specifically to restore her mast, boom, and gaff.

The Water Race will begin at approximately 3:30 pm.  Ten ducks and ten flamingos, who have gathered from various points on the map are staying at members’ homes.  They have been studying and swimming the waters of the creek for the past month or so.  The race promises to be an exciting one.

Racers, at $50 each, can be sponsored before September 6^th by calling 618-568-8832, or at the barbecue if still available.  Five hundred dollars will go to benefit Eleanor, $250 will be awarded to the sponsor of the first place winner, 50 to the second place sponsor, and $100 to the third.  The racers will have the option of remaining with their sponsors as honorary drink floats or returning home.  Guests can bet on their favorite racer.

Music will be provided by The Livingston-Blackiston twins, Sky and Sandy, and by Mike Pagnani and Friends.  A menu of hot dogs, chicken, local potatoes contributed by Staron Farm and fresh corn contributed by Holmquest Farm, salads, and home baked desserts will be served.  Call 518-567-8832 or email elearnorrestorationproject@gmail.com for tickets — only $15!  You may also purchase them at Anglers Marine at 12 County Route 31 or atbBruno’s in Hudson.  Tickets must be purchased before August 29.

See you there.

And oh — if you can help let us know!

The Hudson-Athens Lighthouse

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Louise Bliss of Hudson, a founding member of HRHBrass, writes her childhood memories of,
and her adult dreams for, the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse.

The Hudson-Athens Lighthouse evokes memories of Sunday family outings and sailing adventures. Seeing the lighthouse as a child from the Hudson-Athens ferry as it glided around the southern side of the boarded up lighthouse was almost picture book perfect. We were close enough to wonder in awe at the house on the water, and far enough away to long for a look inside.  Later, sailing out of the Catskill Creek on a Sunday family sail, the required destination question was: “shall we make our way north to the lighthouse and come back on the tide?” During those years the windows were boarded up and unattractive graffiti marked the exterior walls.

In the late 1980s the lighthouse began to look alive and take its place as a substantial and upstanding member as one of the Hudson River historic lighthouses. A ticket purchased by me on a Saturday in 1999 gave me the official O.K. to motor out to the lighthouse on the assigned boat, enter through the north facing kitchen door, and at last stand in awe of the magical history of my childhood house on the water.

The picture on the front page of the Saturday Evening Post that I had studied sitting on my grandmother’s lap on a Tuesday afternoon was no longer just a picture: it was the ending of childhood stories created by my imagination and the beginning of my education about the importance of the lighthouse to many boats and ships and sailors, including my family.  It was home to the family that smiled and waved from the cover of the Saturday Evening Post that Tuesday afternoon.   It is my sincere desire and wish that the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse will still be visited in the last years of this century and beyond by the once young children who wondered and imagined about the lighthouse and its picture perfect existence. Childhood dreams end.

How many wonderers, as I have been, have been woken from their dreams at last and have been invited inside to have their wondering minds quenched with real facts about the lighthouse, and to hear the stories of the lighthouse keeper and his family?   Lighthouses are not just for children.  Lighthouses are for the parents and grandparents who continue generation to generation to tell the historical stories of the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse and the stories of other historical buildings that have at one time evoked childhood memories. These stories belong to everyone who was once young with a wondering and curious mind. Let us satiate young minds with stories of real picture book perfect that have reality in existence – not memories.

Please keep the lighthouse a reality – not a memory

Pushing the Limits of the Hudson

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

I am writing in hopes of providing you with a personal relationship with the
Racing Sloop Eleanor.  It is sad that nowadays stories and history can be lost as the speed of information
technology and the internet allow time to race by us at a rate never imagined when
the Eleanor was built in 1903.   I thank you for the time you’ll invest in reading my stories
of the boat my grandfather, “Pop” to me, sailed, cared for and loved for 48 years.

                                                                              More memories from R.S.B., Rutland, Vermont to come.

I

As a youngster my first memories of sailing on the Eleanor were nightmarish.  I have to admit that my grandfather’s skill at the helm allowed the family and the rest of the crew to push the limits of the Hudson River between Catskill Creek and the Hudson River Boat Club to the maximum.  Going sailing on the Eleanor when the wind was gusting and the river had whitecaps was not one of my favorite things to do.  I would seek refuge below and listen to the hull pounding against the river.  That seemed safer to me than being in the cockpit seeing the boat heel up as the water rushed on deck and along side the crew.  I was sure we’d capsize.  Time taught me to trust Pop’s hand and the Eleanor.  I learned to embrace the adventure, but as my grandfather sailed into his 90’s he lost his stomach for the extreme sailing experiences.  He sought a calmer, more spiriitual relationship with the boat, the river and the family.

(more…)

The Year of the Mast

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

The following is an excerpt from a letter to the friends and members of HRHBRSS
from Harold Ellis Bush. His reflections on his days as a boy on the Eleanor
beautifully remind us why we are scraping paint and removing screws
and declaring 2014 The Year of the Mast.

We are restoring a wooden boat, most likely the last of its class and design that spent most of her life on our Hudson River. Clinton H. Crane, a naval architect, designed it at the turn of the century. More than its historical significance, it represents a time when craftsmanship was highly regarded, when the human capacity to work with and understand the laws of nature, that is, to work in partnership not domination was important. When we see pictures of the Eleanor on the water under sail, we are looking at the past and we hope, through our Restoration and Preservation efforts, the future for those of us inhabiting the shores of the Hudson River, especially our youth.

We do this not out of nostalgia, although that is a part for all who sailed on her but, rather out of a commitment to a moment in time where the handiwork of man meets nature, water and wind without any intermediary force.

Sailing on the Eleanor was for me as a young man a way to connect to the mystery, challenge and joy of sailing. At the age of twelve I could in innocence be called by the captain to stand at the mast, to scratch and whistle when we were becalmed. To experience the wonder when it worked; the sail caught wind and we were once again underway. Was the captain’s call at a propitious time, true sailor he was, or did my actions call forth the wind? These are the experiences we forfeit for future generations when we abandon the craft.

So I am scratching the mast yet to be built and whistling in the belief that the wind will direct your beneficence to this project.

January 10, 2014