01 I was working for Alloy Computer in 1987, and Control Data Corporation treated its customers to a day sail aboard the Shenandoah, out of New Bedford, MA.  

 Captain Robert S. Douglas was a jet fighter pilot for the Air Force from 1956 to 58, retiring with the rank of Captain. He first became involved with boats summering and sailing on Martha's Vineyard as a youth. In the early 1960s, he found himself working on the 83' Harvey Gamage Shipyard-built windjammer Mary Day, and there hatched a plan to move to the Vineyard, build a big windjammer boat, and take passengers back to the past days of tall ships and the life of sailing them. His dream came to fruition in the design and commissioning of the construction of Shenandoah in 1964. Based on an original 1850 design of the fast revenue cutter Joe Lane, with the change of line, balance, and sail he created a fast and efficient schooner. The addition of square topsails to the foremast (and Captain Douglas' dogged intention to get the US Coast Guard to approve the method) made Shenandoah a truly unique vessel of power and a beauty to behold at sea or mooring. 02 The Shenandoah gets so much wind power into her sails (as a Coast Guard revenue cutter she needed to outspeed her quarry) that the masts are raked backwards; when underway under full sail they become vertical under the power that pushed the bow down.  Our day sail was under reefed (partial) sail, and I was able to climb out onto the bowsprit (as here) and up into the rigging to take photos. 03 04 05 -06 07 08 09 11-crew The crew were young, in shape, and (unlike us passengers) knew what to do.  However, they used us to help haul sails up. 12-crew 10 13 14-crew 15 16-passengers 17 18 19 20-straight_down Was I ever surprised while taking this shot, I learned that the spar I was standing on pivoted! 21 22



Valid XHTML 1.0! valid CSS! Get Firefox!