We've been a sailing family since the early 1960's. My dads first sail boat was a single sail ‘SeaSnark’. Snarks were small, Styrofoam boats, similar to a Sunfish, but not nearly as sailable.
We bought the Snark used for $50 from a guy down the street from our house in East Islip, NY and carried it home. We were so happy... our 1st boat!
When I was a kid, I helped my dad fiber-glass the Snark to keep the Styrofoam from falling apart. We’d carry the Snark on top of our 1959 Studebaker Lark down to the Connetquot River for launching.
It was tough to sail in the river. I remember one day there was so little wind we actually went backwards with the tide. It was a pretty funny sight, sailing backwards!
My dad, along with My uncles Jim & Artie, flipped the Snark one windy day when they ventured into the open waters of Great South Bay. The mast fell off the boat and my dad, in frustration, gave the boat to some kids that rescued them & helped pull them out of the water
Our next boat was a 19 ft, wooden, Cape Cod Sailboat. She came with a monstrous iron Center Board. We had this big handled, heavy crank that would ratchet the centerboard. I swear, that was the hardest crank I ever turned but I would never tell my dad it was too hard for me. I would crank with all my might
My dad named this boat 'The Queen Mamie' after my mom and the Mamie proved to be a great sailing sloop. With her iron centerboard we could handle just about any wind the Great South Bay would throw at us. And the Mamie was well build. It was a very strong, old fashion, wooden boat
We'd sand, chip, grind and chemically treat the bottom to try and remove the years of Red-Lead paint on the boats underbelly. It's a wonder we're still alive after chipping all that lead paint and handling all those toxic chemicals.
My dad, always the scientist, put sheets of fiberglass on the Mamie to help make her watertight. How these chemicals didn’t kill us is a mystery.
The Mamie was a wet boat and my mom bought us all kinds of foul weather gear. We looked like real sailors. Some times I’d freeze being wet with the wind chill. My mom and older brother weren’t nearly as into the boat, but to me, it was the time of my life. I loved sailing with my dad.
We’d sail over to Fire Island and beach the boat on the shore and go exploring. My Aunt Mary bought a summer house at the beach and we’d sail over to visit with her and my uncle. They lived in Saltaire. We’d beach the boat in a cove called Clam Pond.
That boat earned its’ keep in clams and fish. We bring garbage pails and fill them with clams or with fish, then go home and eat. We’d always have a house full of people and being Italian, we knew how to eat.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
My dad outgrew the Mamie and traded her in for a 22ft Rhodes Continental: The Queen Mamie Too. We bought the 7th boat from this new boat line. Our sail # was R7. It was one of the prototypes. For us, it was a big beautiful boat, but in reality, Rhodes didn’t work out the kinks with the 7th boat. We were able to sleep 4 people comfortably in the cabin and 2 outside. We bring sleeping bags and a Coleman lantern and campout for the night. Life was great.
Once, when my mom came out (we’d call my mom the Chicken of the Sea because she was always afraid) we slept over at the beach. The night was really calm, but my mom was flipping out and refused to sleep in the cabin. She spent the night half asleep outside in the damp overnight air. My mom wasn’t into sailing.
My dad kept experimenting with new ways to improve the flimsy center board and rudder. He made many new designs. Some worked better than others.
Since the Mamie had a very light bottom, my dad built her a custom rudder and custom center board and filled it with about 600 lbs of lead. One day while sailing, I lost steerage and almost and lost control. It looked like we were being followed by a 6 foot shark, but it was really ½ of the centerboard. It was so heavy it split the seams and we were dragging the casing along side of the boat. Pretty funny.
The Mamie was fast in a light breeze, but if it started to blow, she was hard to control. She was big and wide but didn’t have enough bottom to stand up to the wind. We’d get thrown around a lot.
I used the Mamie as a clam boat and she helped me get through one year of collage. We dug a lot of clams and caught tons of fish in board. She earned her keep.
I flipped her in a thunderstorm, I think it was in the summer of 1980. That was one of the worst days of my life. My young son Richard, only 4 at the time, was trapped in the cabin and was standing on the ceiling. I swam under the boat and came up into the air pocket in the cabin to save him. We had to go under again just to come up outside. I don’t wish that on anyone.
I met my wife Denise in the summer of ’88. I fell in love with her; she fell in love with sailing.
Yes, the Queen Mamie Too was a great boat.
She was stolen in the fall of 2005. Some kids must have taken her out of the Marina during a Nor’easter. When we found her derelict hull, her sails were torn, guy wires snapped and rudder broken off. There was nothing left. I sold her on Ebay to a father and son from Kentucky. They were lake sailors. Best of luck Queen Mamie Too.
We spent the summer without a boat (my 1st boatless summer in nearly 40 years) and bought a little motor boat and trailer in the fall of 2006, The Only One.
We used the Only One for the fall, caught some fish and took her over to the beach. Not being motor boaters, we sold The Only One on Ebay in April the next spring.
In the spring of ’07 my buddy Jeff found the NA23 for us. I named her 'Paradise'. It was love at first sight and we’ve been sailing her since.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
