Fall 2008 - Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
Fall 2008 - Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
Fall 2008 - Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
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Shipwright Dan Sutherland works on the new Lawley<br />
tender for the restored yacht Elf.<br />
New life for the Elf<br />
While work on much of CBMM’s floating fleet of historic<br />
vessels has settled into the “routine” maintenance associated<br />
with old wooden boats, inside the Boat Shop, things are anything<br />
but routine. Boat Yard Program Manager Dan Sutherland<br />
and the weekend Apprentice for a Day participants have<br />
been constructing a replica of a Lawley-built (Boston) tender<br />
for the newly restored yacht, Elf.<br />
Elf is a boat with a rich history and direct ties to the <strong>Museum</strong>.<br />
Launched in 1888 by George Lawley & Sons in Boston,<br />
Elf was built for $3,500 as a state-of-the-art racing yacht<br />
for Mr. William H. Wilkinson. Elf’s unique and impressive<br />
sailing rig has long since disappeared from North American<br />
waters. She had an active career as a gaff topsail rigged racing<br />
yacht, before pioneering off-shore yacht cruising in 1893,<br />
by becoming the first small craft to cruise successfully roundtrip<br />
from Marblehead, Mass., to Halifax, Nova Scotia.<br />
After her racing career ended, Elf regularly cruised up<br />
and down the northeast coast and later between New England<br />
the Bahamas. During the first World War, her externally fitted<br />
lead ballast was given up to support the war effort, and<br />
eventually a steel keel was added. In addition, her sail area<br />
was reduced and her rigging was modified to make her easier<br />
(and safer) to handle.<br />
In 1932, Elf was purchased by CBMM founders Gus and<br />
Vida Van Lennep. Vida fondly recalls Elf and her tender, and<br />
the Van Lenneps have been staunch supporters of the boat’s<br />
restoration. In 1971, the boat was acquired by Rick Carrion,<br />
founder of the Classic Yacht Restoration Guild, who has<br />
championed her restoration under the expertise of master<br />
boat builder Graham Ero, in Still Pond, Maryland. Thanks to<br />
the work of these individuals, Elf is on the National Register<br />
of Historic Places, fully restored and sailing today. She was<br />
docked at CBMM for much of August and has taken sails on<br />
the Miles River.<br />
Carrion, equipped with photos and recollections of Mrs.<br />
Van Lennep, commissioned CBMM to build a replica of Elf’s<br />
Lawley-built tender. The rowing lapstrake skiff is 9’ 3” and is<br />
planked and ribbed out of sassafras. Mrs. Van Lennep, now<br />
98, recently visited CBMM to see Elf again, the newly built<br />
tender and her beloved CBMM. Once completed and dedicated,<br />
the tender will be named, Vida.<br />
CBMM founder Vida Van Lennep (seated) was on hand<br />
to see her former boat Elf and its new tender.<br />
Around the Boat Yard<br />
Elf, shown at left, will<br />
return to CBMM’s docks<br />
for the Mid-Atlantic Small<br />
Craft Festival on Saturday,<br />
October 4. To follow her<br />
progress and see more photos<br />
of Elf, visit the Classic<br />
Yacht Restoration Guild’s<br />
website at www.cyrg.org.<br />
Vessel Maintenance Manager Marc Barto reports that late<br />
summer and fall work will include building a new rudder for<br />
CBMM’s dory boat as well as cycling through various seasonal<br />
vessel haul-outs. Barto and Floating Fleet Assistant Don<br />
MacLeod will be gearing up for a significant fall and winter<br />
restoration project: finishing work they began last winter on<br />
the <strong>Museum</strong>’s log bugeye Edna Lockwood, a National Historic<br />
Landmark. <br />
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