12/12/12, According to the Mayan Calendar this date is the end of the world. It is also the beginning of my adventure with Dragon Lady, a 40 year old Jarvis Newman 36 lobster boat. She is being readied for shipment today in Southport, Maine and will be trucked to Holiday Point Marina in Edgewater, MD for a winter puff and fluff...well, maybe a bit more than that, but I will enlist Joe Reid at Mast&Mallet to help me get her ready for the 2013 season. The plan is to get her operational for daytime cruising and the occasional spartan overnight adventures.

I have done a lot of research on these boats and this one seemed to be the best fit for me, a bit of a project but something that I can attack a little bit at a time in my dotage. The original builder is still building on Great Cranberry Island, Maine under the business name of Newman and Gray. Check out their website http://www.newmanandgrayboatyard.com/ to see more about them and their current reconstructions of these well regarded boats. I spoke at length with Ed Gray and his son about building one of these using a similar vintage used hull as they have one available. The boats that they have redone are stunning, in a spartan kind of way. It is real easy to spend $200k+ for what they are showing pictures of in their website. A recent rebuild that is seven years old, simple and looks like new sold for $135k. As long as I don't overdo it with the Dragon Lady she may work out to be a reasonable bang for the buck when the time comes to sell her.

Once she is here (Wednesday or Thursday next week) and Joe has a chance to see her and then ask me "what came over me and why I am doing this?" we will come up with a plan of attack. We will certainly need to pull the 210 HP 1972 Caterpillar 3160 V8 diesel engine and see if she still runs. The boat has been sitting under cover on the hard for 3 years so she may or may not work. Everyone says she was working when they pulled her 3 years ago, yea, right. Cosmetically the engine has a lot to be desired. The fuel in the tanks and the tanks themselves may or may not be any good. The fuel lines and connected components certainly appear ready for replacement. Access to the tanks is pretty much non-existent, the deck over them (called the platform) is 1-1/2" T&G douglas fir and was built without access hatches or ports to allow for inspection, that's just the way they liked to build them; the concept was no hatches, no leaks. The platform is generally good but will need some work, it may or may not make the cut depending on what Joe thinks is better to do based on the engine/tanks/exhaust/etc systems that are underneath and need work.

See below...view under the platform looking forward at the back of the engine. exhaust tubes on either side block any chance to see the engine. the white corrugated bilge hose snaking its way aft is due for replacement to allow proper drainage.

The good news is that the hull is a thick and solid hand laid fiberglass beast with a recent coat of white Awlgrip, the pilothouse and decks are sound and recently painted.

There are a lot of nice bronze fittings: ports, mooring bitts, cleats, running light fixtures and those sweet bronze Kahlenburg dual trumpet air horns.

The interior is in fair shape, needs some paint and cleaning.

The head/holding tank system needs to be upgraded. Freshwater plumbing and galley fixtures will need some updating, maybe next year. There is a recent electric windlass and electrical panel so that is a bonus. Electronics, hmmmm...we will have to wait and see, anything that works is a bonus.

Oh, and then there is the name, Dragon Lady. Apparently the owners are friends with Milton Caniff the comic strip artist who developed Terry and the Pirates in the 30's and 40's and Steve Canyon shortly thereafter. The Dragon Lady was a very popular character that has been used ever since to express the fascination with the mythical, mysterious and exotic oriental woman with unusual powers of persuasion. In Terry and the Pirates she was a pirate that turned to her skills to fight the Japanese invaders and so she graced many WWII warplanes and the lockers of the soldiers fighting that war and later in Korea and Vietnam. Also of note, the U2 spy plane is nicknamed Dragon Lady.
This is a copy of the signed artwork that is posted on the forward face of the cabin. Like the lady says, I don't think that they were doing all the sacrificing for her "hand."

Here is an explanation of her mystique that I found on the web

So, in any case, it seemed to be the right thing to keep her name as it is in remembrance of those that sacrificed so much for all of us...and she'll be nice to think about when I am driving her through that nasty 4-6 foot Chesapeake chop.

That's all for now, wish me luck.