NORTH
AMERICAN
NEWSTELL TALES
Sailors and even non-sailors inspired by the classic lines of the
Cheoy Lee Off shore 40 Siskiwit have their pens held ready in
the hopes of winning, yes winning, the 46-year-old sloop, one
of 156 built from 1964 to 1976 to a Philip Rhodes design.
Henry Young has owned the boat since 1989 and when he
decided to sell her, he wanted to assure a more meaningful
transaction and make the fi ne yacht more accessible to people.
He saw how some bed-and-breakfast inns were sold in Maine
with entry fees and a writing contest, and decided to go for it.
“It’s a classic problem of people who own a classic yacht
and fi ghting the valuation of
$1,000 per foot,” says Young,
who opened the competition
online through a website and
Facebook on 21 September.
“And there’s the complication
in American society of income
inequality. I want to make this
aff ordable for the next generation
of classic yacht owners.”
His solution for fi nding a
proper home for his full-keeled,
GRP cruiser is a contest whereentrants answer “Why I would love to own and maintain
Siskiwit”. Entries close on 21 December, so hurry if you want to
be in with a chance of winning. As we went to press there were
15 completed entries. The entry cost is $150 (c£100). The
winner will be chosen by 29 January 2016 at the latest.
With several hundred hits per day online and a steady fl ow
of creative essays rolling in, Young says that any fees received
after the fi rst 450 will be given to the winner as maintenance
or transport money. The limit is 900 entries.
Since he is a private individual, according to the Internal
Revenue Service, Young, and
two other judges unrelated to
him, must be judging a
legitimate skill. He said the
reason why he wanted to own
Siskiwit was to go cruising on
his fi rst “gentleman’s boat”. The
next owner may have an even
more compelling answer. He will
let us know who that creative,
and lucky, writer is later in the
winter. The boat is lying in
Wilmington, North Carolina.Katie Belle Cameron’s family ran
the Cameron Shipyard in Nova
Scotia for a generation writes Chris
Museler. At 100, she held her great
grandson Evan in her arms and
more than 20 years later, an 80ft
(24.4m) schooner was launched
last year in her name to carry on
the family’s shipbuilding legacy.
“This is a dream that turned into
a full-time job,” said Evan Densmore
who built Katie Belle with his cousin
Nick Densmore over three years in
their hometown of Stewiacke, NovaNORTH CAROLINA
Win this classic in a writing contest
NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA
Keeping it in the family
C/O CAMERON SHIPYARDC/O THE OWNERScotia. “I built a model with my
grandfather when I was 13. We did
some informal apprenticeships and
now we are stepping the masts.”
Densmore said his father and
grandfather conceived of the idea
to fi nally build the boat and re-start
the Cameron Shipyard tradition.
Densmore and his cousin learned
Auto CAD over the three-year build
and adopted his father’s “glue-lam”
homebuilding techniques to make a
cold-moulded hull and structural
members from local spruce.Launched on 28 October on a
20ft (6.1m) spring tide, the boat’s
curved bow resembles Canada’s
famous Bluenose schooner. She also
has traits from Bay of Fundy designs
with a narrow, plank-on-edge look.
The masts were being stepped as
CB went to press and the boat will
be sea trialled in 2016, for use in
Nova Scotia’s sail tourism trade.
Densmore is looking forward to the
trials: “Shipbuilding is special. Most
people who build boats don’t sail
them. We’ll see how it goes.”Above: Katie
Belle’s launch was
timed to coincide
with a 20ft tide