Mike Wick

Mike Wick’s Melonseed, aptly named Pepita, scandalising sail at the basin of the ISM, during the 2009 Wooden Boat Festival in Philly

Mike is building another Melonseed, this one with some design modifications he wanted to implement after his experieince with Pepita.

above photos thomas armstrong

Mike is introducing camber to the deck, visible here in the model, hoping to achieve a drier sail.

The new boat is a Cortez Melonseed, I think drawn by Roger Allen of the Florida Maritime Museum at Cortez, FL, with the hull built from a kit by the FMM by Ted Cook.

Mike is finishing the boat himself.

these photos courtesy John Guidera via Mike Wick

Barry Long

scribing the skeg

one of the completed hulls

both boats half stripped

Set up, keelson, stem and transom in place, twelve strips on each boat

Two at once.

Steam bent stems cooling.

And set up.

Two full sets of molds laid out.

Setting up the strongbacks for the work to proceed upon.

Barry first saw a Melonseed in an historic photo, and the boat grabbed his imagination, but it wasn’t until years later that he saw this boat in MD and began his research in earnest. A year later he’d finally identified the Melonseed.

Melonseeds evolved in the Mid Atlantic region and there’s been a revival of interest in these boats in recent years. Howard Chapelle wrote about and surveyed these boats and they are included in American Small Sailing Craft, the bible for those interested in traditional American small craft. Although this revival is mainly centered in the home waters of this boat type, the popularity of the Melonseed has spread to other areas, the Midwest, the Deep South and the Northeast, at least.
Two friends of mine are currently building or finishing Melonseeds and I wanted to write about these elegant small sailboats. There’s a Melonseed Yahoo group and I wrote to them inviting members to submit their build photos and text, more of that later.
Mike Wick is a fellow member of the Delaware River TSCA group and is a Melonseed devotee. Mike is a prolific boatbuilder and collecter, and has a livery of around 13 boats. He recently sold his lovely Oughtred McGregor sailing canoe to a friend up in the Thousand Island area, in an attempt to lighten his load. He’s currently finishing out his second Melonseed. This one is to a design by Roger Allen, head of the Florida Maritime Museum in Cortez, Florida. Dubbed the Cortez Melonseed, an original strip planked hull was built by Mike Lucas, which he gave to Mike, who used it as a male mold for a cold molded hull, seen in the photos.That done, Mike pooped off his hull and passed it on to Roland Anderson who took over the original hull to build another melonseed. The model Mike is using to work out his deck modifications is a lazer-cut kit made by Ted Cook and are available from the Florida Maritime Museum. As seen in the photos of the model, above, Mike is making some modifications, mainly building in a camber to the deck to make his boat a drier sail. Mike’s other seed Pepita was designed by John Brady and built by Carl Weissenger, and is a gem of a small boat.

Barry Long set himself an ambitious project. The Virginia based graphic designer and photographer decided, after falling in love with the Melonseed, to build a brace of seeds, one for himself and one for his better half. He’s basically done that, but is still adding the finishing touches. He’s also chronicled his build on a weblog, which has to be the most detailed, erudite, well written and photographed build blog I have ever encountered. Build blogs can get a little dry, but not so with Barry’s, which is interspersed with amusing and enlightening asides, a host of informative comments from his followers and witty, introspective, informative and insightful commentary on the building process. Not to be missed! Barry seems to be completing the dual project and I’ve pushed him to get the pair done for the October MASCF in St, Michaels this year, owing to my completely selfish desire to sail one, or both of his sprouts this Autumn. I anyone reading this can make this annual celebration, I highly recommend you do so! Also, Barry’s photos here will be best read from he bottom up. There are tons more photos at Barry’s website.

Sailor Rory McDougall sailed his owner-built, 21-foot Wharram-designed catamaran from Plymouth UK to Newport, RI in 34 days. More details here at the Wharram site.

Have always admired the Tiki 21 as possibly the most capable boat one could build for the money and weight. Small-boat adventurer David Omick made a convincing case for this design in our interview years ago. —Eds

Here’s a great video from the Melonseed Skiff event by contributor Roger Rodibaugh.

The Jester fleet assembled in Plymouth

A Russian contender,Igor Zaretsky, sailed his Peterson 25 The Grand into Newport on the 26 th. of June, being the first to arrive, therefore the ‘winner’ of the 2010 Jester Challenge, though in my estimation, all entrants, those who got to Newport and those forced to retire, are winners. Read, for instance, about Guy Waites experience, one who had to retire .

Roger Taylor had another idea for his summer cruise, to start with his fellow entrants in the JC, but make for a more distant and exotic goal, the Arctic circle by way of Davis Strait between Greenland and Newfoundland. Here he’s checking coordinates mid Atlantic.

Mingming‘s daily log with Roger’s drawing of shearwaters.

Roger celebrated his birthday during the cruise, with cards and newly opened gifts.

Lots of heavy weather experienced on this cruise, here mid Atlantic.

More of the same,

And even more.

Here Roger is hand sewing a Greenland welcome flag in case he needs to make an unplanned landfall. Despite the ensuing events , he didn’t need to.

These ingredients make…

A dinner! Typical fare aboard Mingming

The highlight of the cruise, according to Roger, was a visit from this Black Browed Albatross. 8′ wingspan.

Davis Strait

courtesy wikipedia

Heavy weather in the Davis Strait.

Mingming was knocked onto her beam ends by a rouge wave in this heavy weather in the
Davis Straits, which flew Roger across the cabin and resulted in his injury

Mingming back in Plymouth Harbour

all photos courtesy Roger Taylor unless otherwise noted

Intrepid voyager Roger Taylor set off this year with the other entrants in the Jester Challenge, but offered a piquant twist. Instead of taking a heading for Newport, RI, like the other participants, Roger decided to make the event his own by stamping off for the Davis Strait, the body of water between Newfoundland and Greenland. He nearly made his proposed goal of entering the Arctic Circle via the Davis Strait, but encountered some very heavy weather in the strait and suffered an injury which caused him to decide to return to Plymouth post haste. A broken rib. Roger:

“A south-easterly gale which started on June 24th built for a day and a half. We were running before it quite comfortably under bare poles. At 0015H on the morning of June 26th, at which point we were about 130 miles west of Cape Desolation on the west Greenland coast, a rogue wave caught us on the wrong quarter, gybing us round and then putting Mingming on her beam ends. I had been dozing on the safe, downhill side of the boat. The gybe moved me to the uphill side, and as we went over I was flipped over onto my back and thrown across the cabin, catching my right side against the corner of the chart table. I did not realize immediately that I had injured myself. My first concern was for my back, which had been wrenched during this short haul flight and awkward landing. It was only a few minutes later, when I was getting us back on the correct heading, and had to reach for a steering line with my right hand, that I heard, as much as felt, a loud ‘click’ from my right rib cage – the click of two pieces of displaced bone slotting themselves back together again.”

At this juncture Roger decided, wisely I believe, to abort further progress and run for home. He returned to Plymouth on July 29th after 67 rather eventful days at sea. Roger reports that he’s healing nicely and glad to be home. He counts this voyage as very successful, despite not quite reaching his the circle. I’d agree. Please read the full account at Roger’s website.

Also, Roger’s second book ,
MINGMING & THE ART OF MINIMAL OCEAN SAILING is actually available now, as opposed to the original date in September. I recommend it.