The sailing scenes take place in Zip class sailboats. These were 16 foot wooden plank sailboats made in Long Island Sound during the late 1930s and early 1940s. In the early 1970s, there were still plenty of them around. I think there must have been at least ten of them at NBYC in 1974.  The only one I know of in the sound today is at the Madison Beach Club, and someone told me that it’s not completely original. At this point, it’s an 80 year-old ash plank boat. That’s pretty old for a boat.

 

My family had a couple of Zips. In the early 1970s, we owned Zip #64, Hurricane.  Someone had applied fiberglass resin over the wood at an earlier time. That’s not always a good thing; wooden boats swell after they go into the water.  In the case of Z64, the seams were damaged as the planks swelled around fiberglass that had been pressed into them. When the fiberglass was pulled back off, the result was widened seams and a leaky boat. We had to stuff the seams with a lot of oakum and cover them with underwater seam compound—like icing a cake. We even tacked firring strips over a few of them. Each year, for the first few weeks after the boat went into the water, my brother or I had to bail the boat from completely sunk to dry twice a day. My heart would sink when I’d turn the corner to the beach in the morning—oars over my shoulder—to find just a mast sticking up above the surface. We kept blocks of styrofoam under the deck to keep her from submerging completely. Eventually, she’d swell up enough that bailing became manageable.

 

Of course, people would make fun of us for having such a crappy boat.  The boat was slow too. When we raced, we were sure to lose. One summer, I entered Hurricane in a round-robin race—a race where everyone takes a turn in each other’s boat, meaning everyone would have a chance to lose.  Two of the other sailors, whom I shall call Dave Pelissier and Gerry Shea for simplicity, got into a collision with my boat and one other.  The collision sprang three planks on the starboard bow, and Hurricane sank in the race.  That was the end of her. This was the inspiration for the description of the accident in the book. I’ve seen it happen first-hand.

 

This is a tough photograph to get any glean details from, but I can clearly see the firring strip that we tacked over the larboard seam, close to the keel. You can see my mom’s 1964 Galaxy wagon in the background too.

 

The web site is up! I went for a ride with Kristin Santa Maria of Burnt Twig/Roundabout on Thursday to look over venues for promotional filming.  We went to the Niantic Bay Yacht Club and Port Niantic. I pointed out the house, Plum Island (which is where the story takes place), parts of the yacht club that are borrowed for the narrative. We had lunch at The Black Sheep, in town, including a pint of Guinness. It didn’t feel like summer, but it won’t be long.  We have two and a half months to get the book out.