Getting Pushy-Schooner Yawl Boats

Good Morning Everyone! We have all the makings of a beautiful day here. I am hoping to get the maple taps out. A few locals say they have sap running but it is on the early side of the season yet. The kids are down with some kind of bug; long night up with the poor urchins. We have a potential crewmember coming to interview for the messmate’s position. And I am on call on the ambulance. Another slow day here in the woods.

I received an email the other day, curious about ARNO, the schooner’s yawl boat. Where did that name come from? Arno Day was Mary Day’s brother. He has passed on but he was a very well know and loved boat builder from Sedgewick, Maine on the Benjamin River. Arno also designed boats and shared his knowledge freely with any one interested. As I have it, and this may not be completely accurate, Arno built his own yawl boat namesake from a design drawing we have a copy of done by Havilah “Buds” Hawkins. Ronny Hawkins, one of Buds’s and Mary’s sons showed me the original carved model. I have also been told that Arno helped build the interior of the schooner after she was launched. The curious question that wasn’t asked was the derivation of the word “yawl”. Many of you know this as a sailing rig with a small riding sailing aft of the main mast. Originally a fishing vessel rig designed to keep the bow up in to the wind while tending gear and in modern times a sailing rig popularized by the racing rating rules of the late 50s, the term comes from several possible corruptions of the middle German word “jolle”, or the French word” yale”, or Dutch “jol”, all meaning “utility”. Today, 10 of the Maine windjammers carry yawl boats and no internal propulsion giving Maine the largest concentration of pure working sailing vessels in the country. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Photos by Fritz Shantz. I have to say the one of Jen in Arno makes my heart go pitter patter, two strong and beautiful women gently nudging me to explore new places.

Comments

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