Some who read and comment at many of the same sites and blogs I often visit, may have noticed that a couple years back, I changed my "signature" from "Sloop New Dawn", to "Sunk New Dawn".
You can thank Hurricane Ike for the demise of the New Dawn. What follows are some photos of her as she was found after the storm, about 300 yards inland from her former berth. My thanks to Captain Rhonda Cummins for taking these photos before the salvage crews hauled the New Dawn off to the boneyard.
Being beaten ashore by wind and wave, she is known to have rolled at least twice. Once certainly, between two large houses, which is where her mast and rigging was torn asunder. She suffered terminal hull-deck separations, forward of the chainplates on the port side.
In the above photo, she doesn't look too bad, does she? But, the mast is broken and twisted into a triangular pretzel. It was torn out of it's tabernacle, pretty much destroying the upper cabin roof. A testament to the strength of the design, the chainplates remained intact at the hull attachments.
More, below the fold............
You'll note the Scheel keel, three bladed (13"x13") bronze prop, and balanced, skeg-hung rudder. Not only did she handle well at the helm, she was highly controllable while backing down, and as long as the sails were well trimmed, had virtually no weather helm at all. A bit tender to heel due to her fairly narrow 8'6" beam, she'd stiffen up and point very high to wind, especially in light air. In heavy winds, one simply reefed the sails by furling, down to where she'd handle sweetly again.
The New Dawn was a 30' Sovereign, center-cockpit, aft-cabin sloop. She was equipped with roller furling on both the mainsail and jib, a 2 cylinder, 15 hp "Nanidiesel" engine, (essentially, a Kubota diesel marinized by a Swedish company), Anderson stainless self-tailing winches, with all lines leading aft to the cockpit. She was a true single-handed cruising sailboat, with much Caribbean water under her keel.
Sovereign was a Destin, Florida builder, and they'd bought the S-2 mold for their 25' center cockpit boat, and extended the hull 3'. aft by adding a generous lazarette, and just shy of 3' forward with a stout bow pulpit, supporting a dual anchor roller, the forestay and associated furler, and tensioned by a stout bobstay beneath. Sovereign only built fewer than 80 of these boats. This one was custom ordered by her original owner, and thus had four extra layers of fiberglass in the hull, from 2" above the waterline, all the way to the turn of the keel.
This extra length forward in the Sovereign design allowed for a 130% jib. Sailing wing and wing, I never missed not having a spinnaker aboard.
Sadly, it was her original owner from whom I bought her that had enjoyed the Caribbean sailing, and not me. I did manage to get her a hundred miles or so each way up and down the Texas Gulf Coast outside of the Houston Ship Channel.
Here, you can see the damage done to the upperdecks of the main saloon, where the mast tabernacle was fitted.
And a view of the cockpit, facing forward. The main companionway's weatherboards had not been torn away, as I had a heavy-weather latching system affixed belowdecks. However, the companionway's sliding plexiglass cover had been slammed open in the storm, greatly contributing to the destruction belowdecks.
Aft of the cockpit was the deckhouse for the boat's aft cabin. Both fore and aft deck hatches were also carried away by the force of Ike.
Unlike many sailboats, she'd truly sailed many of the waters she was built for.
Sadly, Cap'n Rhonda wasn't able to get any photos belowdecks. Her engine was torn loose from the mounts, and fifteen gallons of diesel had coated her from cabin sole to overheads, and everything in between.
In one of my very earliest posts here at Smoke on the Water, I'd answered the question of "Why, you ask?" Here's a bit from that essay;
Once, the saleslady who represented our office supplier related to me the tale of her Dad. He’d worked all his life and had hoped “one day” to buy an RV and see the country. Yes, he was a good man, a great provider. Raised two kids, did the home-thing and did it all quite well. But, he always spoke of his dream.
When he finally retired at 62, sadly, he died a month later from a massive coronary. His daughter told me that they’d all begged over the years for vacations, trips, and exploration; adventure. Being “Mr. Responsible”, he had checked off all of the “dutiful” boxes for his family. But listening to his daughter, I know that she’d have traded half of the stability for just a TASTE of that ride with her Dad.... in the RV that never was.
When I'm rockin' on the chair in my geezerly years, I damn sure won't have to look back, and wish I had. I did it, and I will never regret it.
Now then, my life has moved on. While I was still aboard, I met my lovely Iris, and I moved ashore with her shortly thereafter. My intention was to put the New Dawn through a full refit, and have her to sail on weekends, vacations and the like. Sadly, I'd only completed much of the wiring for the new electronics suite when Ike hit, and washed those dreams into the realm of memories.
I'm grateful for my seven years aboard the New Dawn, and shall always miss the feel of her deck under my feet.
But I'm more grateful for the Iris' love, the life we've been building together, and the home we've remade since Ike.
The Sloop New Dawn abides, always in my heart.
Cap'n, that account is so sad. When I watched dreams go under in the collapse of my ice-laden moorage in 2004, I instantly felt for those skippers and their families whose hearts had just had been torn open as the wood and steel sundered their yachts.
As long as I live, I shall never forget that terrible sound, like 5 million pencils snapping at once, and the screech of tearing metal signifying the agony of the crushed boats as well as the agony of their owners.
Sad, indeed.
Posted by: Rivrdog | February 24, 2011 at 01:41 PM
Thanks for sharing the story, Jim.
Posted by: Jay G. | February 25, 2011 at 10:20 AM
Even after a time, that couldn't have been easy to write. Thanks, Jim.
And it's good to see you post something - of course I've seen you out and about on Algore's innertubes, so we all knew you were alive and kicking. Not the same, though!
Posted by: Jeffro | February 25, 2011 at 03:43 PM
I always hate seeing things like this- when word reached me that my last ship was headed to scrap, I felt the same way. We survived Hurricane Ike, ourselves, though the ship and crew took some heavy damage- like your boat, we couldn't get out of the way in time.
Posted by: Paul B | February 26, 2011 at 05:58 AM
She was a beautiful ship that's for sure.
Posted by: DirtCrashr | February 27, 2011 at 01:05 PM
RIP New Dawn. Alas! I never get to take it out with you to sail the Gulf.
Posted by: Denny | February 27, 2011 at 07:00 PM
I have always wondered what became of her. Thank you for sharing with us. Good to hear from you.
Posted by: Tina | February 28, 2011 at 02:15 PM
I could have done without racy talk like this: "Not only did she handle well at the helm, she was highly controllable while backing down, and as long as the sails were well trimmed, had virtually no weather helm at all."
Posted by: Steve H. | March 02, 2011 at 06:04 PM
Welcome back, Cap'n.
Posted by: Michael | March 04, 2011 at 08:54 PM
The worst is done and gone now. The best still remains in your heart and memories.
Isn't that all we can ask of anyone or anything in our lives?
Posted by: Da Goddess | March 06, 2011 at 09:34 AM
Had always wondered what exactly had happened to her, Jim. Sorry to hear she was treated so ignominiously by the weather gods.
What is it about boats that inspires such loving respect for the inanimate? You'd almost never hear such things about a crashed car, for example, but it happens with boats all the time.
I suspect it has much to do with the skipper's need to connect so intimately with the capabilities and limitations of his craft to both enjoy and survive the medium over which he travels. Not to mention the level of adventure and discovery involved.
So pleased to hear things are well with Iris and the furballs (sounds like a '60s Motown group!). If I can be any assistance re-jigging SOTW, be sure to get in touch.
Fun to see so many of the usual suspects from the Gut Rumbles days represented in this comment thread.
Paul
Posted by: Light & Dark | March 07, 2011 at 03:34 PM