Biscayne Bay 14 - Small Boats Magazine

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Biscayne Bay 14 - Small Boats Magazine

Biscayne Bay 14

Genius on a small scale

Written by  JIM AUSTIN

During the last quarter of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Nathanael Greene Herreshoff designed some of the most complex, graceful, and ultimately successful racing and pleasure yachts in existence. Part of his genius was to also apply these same design skills to smaller and simpler craft such as the Fish class, the ubiquitous Buzzards Bay 121⁄2, and the object of my affection (and this discussion), the Biscayne Bay 14. Apparently, only about a dozen of these sailing skiffs (model 908) were ever produced by the Herreshoff Mfg. Co., all in the 1920s.

After retiring (for the first time) in 1998, I built a pair of Biscayne Bay 14s (BB14s): mine, named MR.BILL, and one for a friend. My habit of building two at a time came from my own apprenticeship in the 1970s with master craftsman Gary Kincaid. This approach spreads the costs, shares skills and space, and can offer you a willing companion for adventures after launching day. I recommend the concept of “building buddies.”

My decision to build a BB14 was based on its heritage, performance, low cost, and ease of transport. Another plus is the optional use of modern materials to create a strong hull that can be day-sailed directly from the back- yard to the water. The choice has proven to be a good one for me. During the past decade, MR. BILL has sailed waters ranging from the Gulf of Maine to Buzzards Bay.

Photo by Darin Carlucci

The Biscayne Bay 14, designed by N.G. Herreshoff, is a delightful, low-cost daysailer that transports easily and is a good performer. Jim Austin built his for exploring Muscongus Bay, Maine, with his wife, Darcy.

The plans for the BB14 as sold by WoodenBoat are complete and are backed up by an optional handbook taken from step-by-step construction articles, including lots of helpful photos. There is the choice to build the boat with a fixed keel, which would probably improve windward performance over the shallow keel/centerboard option that we chose. With the centerboard, MR. BILL nests snugly onto a small trailer for easy transport.

Although perfect as a singlehander, the BB14 often carries my wife as well as me over the waters of Maine’s Muscongus Bay, allowing us to explore the mouth of a small creek, run up on the beach for a picnic, or slide gracefully down the faces of ocean swells coming in past Monhegan. But don’t be fooled: this idyll comes at a price. The BB14s were designed for the warm, shallow waters of Florida, and there they will perform wonderfully. However, up in New England, you must pick your weather carefully and be prepared for a refreshing splash or two when beating to windward. I’ve added a V-shaped coaming forward of the mast to aid in deflecting the icy water before it reaches me or the cockpit. Since we chose the centerboard option, the next time I retire we could easily tow MR. BILL south to a place where the temperature more closely approximates our age.

Photo by Darin Carlucci

The Biscayne Bay 14 is a great design to build as plans indicate or to modify according to individual use.

Construction of the shallow keel with centerboard slot is challenging. The shape is well defined in the plans and a mold is not too difficult to build, but if you’ve never melted lead before, it could be a daunt- ing prospect and best left to a professional. For the rest of you pirates, there’s treasure in old chimney flashing, used tire weights, bits of plumbing—or an old, abandoned iron bathtub in which to melt all this material. The process of casting is well detailed in easily accessed articles and books (see WB No. 89).

The hollow mast is fun to build as described in the plans. I used carefully chosen and dried lumberyard spruce 2×4s, 2×6s, and 2×8s, as they make a strong, light-weight stick, which has never failed me in years of hard use. There are other spar-building techniques such as “bird’s mouth” (see WB No. 149) that can be used if you love more complex geometry.

The BB14 design calls for a watertight compartment forward of the mast. As a longtime builder, I dislike parts of a boat that are inaccessible. As a long-time sailor, though, I love the idea of flotation in small boats. My solution was to create a space under the foredeck with an opening and an air bag. The bag can be inflated during use, and deflated and removed for inspection and maintenance. I keep a small picnic anchor and rode in the same space, which helps add a little weight forward to keep her nose in the water when going to windward.

To build my BB14, I used marine-grade Okoume plywood, local oak and spruce, bronze fastenings, and epoxy. My favorite tool for cutting plywood is a 31⁄2″ 9V-battery-powered circular saw outfitted with a plywood blade (for a thin kerf). The saw’s lightweight makes it quite handy, although you may want a backup battery for extended cutting. Finish was mostly marine paint with some show-off varnish on spars and coamings. All these materials have held up well with proper annual maintenance.

Sunday afternoon at The Cloisters

Prompted by a scene in the new West Side Story (see it!) Nancy and I headed to Fort Tryon Park, home of The Met's museum of medieval art.

From deep-sea fishing to art, Billy Anderson gives of his time – Knox County VillageSoup

"I'll have what he's having - sauteed scallops and salad" I said to the waitress at the Home Kitchen Cafe.  "I was scalloping twelve years" said the old fisherman next to me.  Pretty soon the sea stories flowed.  A real man of the sea - not a coastal day sailor like me.

Bill Anderson - now 80 - spent 44 years at sea in just about every capacity: skipper, youngest crew, engineer on a Penobscot Bay ferry boat. But my favorite was this: forty years ago he brought Belfast photographer  Neal Parent aboard a 120 foot trawler for a couple of queasy weeks on the Georges Banks. That yielded two of my favorite images - the one below and another in color.  Prints from the negative and color slide are above my desks at home in NYC and in Friendship, Maine.

Bill has given up he sea but not the stories - some of which he seeks to capture in his painting. - GWC

From deep-sea fishing to art, Billy Anderson gives of his time – Knox County VillageSoup

 

Billy Anderson of Rockland made the transition from deep-sea fisherman to artist with composure when he retired. He made it seem easy in his new career, because inside, it was something he had wanted since he was a boy growing up in his native Port Clyde.

“I was a lobsterman when I was 12, with my own boat. I had 30 traps,” he said in a recent interview at the home on Grace Street, Rockland, where he lives with his wife, Cynthia, a retired registered nurse, and Fozzick, a mixed breed of Highland terrier and poodle.

At 77, Anderson combines a life of retirement with his new career as a painter, mostly of the nautical life he knew as a fisherman.

“I went fishing on an offshore trawler from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland to New Jersey and New York for 47 years,” Anderson said. “We would go out with a nine-man crew and fish 260 days a year.

“I was the youngest mate on vessels for a lot of years,” he said.

He also served in the Navy from 1959 to 1961 and worked for the Maine State Ferry Service near the end of his time at sea, in 2000.

Anderson’s paintings of boats, old wharves, the rocks along the Maine coast and work on boats of what he calls “the old culture” of fishing adorn his walls and the walls of many of his friends and family. He says he wants to capture a way of life before it disappears, owing to new technology in the fishing industry.

“This town was a fishing community,” he said of Port Clyde.

“We used to bring in 350,000 pounds of fish, and the seas would break over the rails,” he said. “That way of life is all gone,” he added, attributing the changes to technology and greed.

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Above - Peter Ralston; Below: GWC via Google Pixel Pro S

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