Why a Friendship Sloop?

I've owned the Sloop Lisa K. since 2000. Last summer I created a photo-gallery web site for her and now I've decided to add a few words speaking to the reasons for and details of owning and operating such a vessel.

So how does one come to have an interest in old-fashioned sailing vessels? In my case, I grew up around traditional vessels. It all started when I was introduced to volunteering at the South Street Seaport Museum in NYC as a teenager. I helped paint and scrape aboard the Schooner Pioneer and the Full Rigged Ship Wavertree. I also was introduced to a professor by the name of Carl Adams Beam at Brooklyn College who owned an authentic Chesapeake Bay Skipjack by the name of Mamie A. Mister. Carl became a mentor to me and several of my friends who went on to long sailing careers. I sailed aboard the Mamie in Long Island Sound, New York Harbor, and Jamaica Bay from about the age of 13 until my late-twenties (Carl passed when I was in my late 30's). I also learned to help scrape, paint, and maintain that very old vessel (1902).

One of my friends that grew up around traditional boats in NYC, including the Mamie Mister, was Capt. Neal Parker, now of Rockland Maine. We went to high school together and he introduced me to a lot of the boats I sailed on as a youngster. By the time I was in college, Neal was skippering big schooners and I would sail as deck hand or mate with him for several years aboard vessels including the Schooner Richard Robbins, Sr. and the Sloop Francy. I also worked aboard the Schooner Lewis R. French (as mate), then skippered by Captain John Foss (now owner/skipper of the Schooner American Eagle).

So by the time I was out of college, I was fully ensconced in big traditional boats. At the first chance I bought an old Atkin America Junior schooner (26-foot), renamed it the Schooner Henry Hudson and began restoration. I fixed that boat in a boat yard on the Hudson River for five or six years and sailed it for another four or five seasons after I finished. We sailed it throughout Long Island Sound, Narragansett Bay, Block Island Sound and as far as East as Vineyard Haven, MA.

I eventually gave that boat away (couldn't sell it!) and later (by now in my early 40's) bought the Friendship Sloop Lisa K. from a fellow who had been operating her as a commercial day-charter in Kennebunkport, Maine. I brought her down to New York by trailer and got right to work. Within the first two seasons I had replaced the engine, electrical system, mast, standing rigging, and lots of other things that weren't right. At this point, I've pretty much got the boat I want but it takes continuous attention to detail and at least one major project each year to keep it that way.

We've cruised the Lisa K. on the waters between New York Harbor and Marblehead, MA. In a typical summer we will attend the local Friendship Sloop Rendezvous, usually in New London, CT (but this past year was in Dutch Harbor on Narragansett Bay, near Newport, RI); make a trip or two to Block Island; visit the East End of Long Island and make a dozen or two day sails within a few hours of our mooring in Noank, CT.

Our crew, as can be seen on the crew page of our web site (friendshipsloop.googlepages.com), includes new and old friends, extended family, and of course my wife Lisa and children Hank, Ben, and Charlie (and now Chihuahua Lilli). At least two of my regular crew, Leonard Smith and James Eaton, date all the way back to my days aboard the Mamie Mister.

Well, that's the backgrounder. I hope you found it interesting. I plan to keep writing about seasonal maintenance projects, cruising, the people we meet along the way, etc., so stay tuned!