Commodore’s Message Ahoy all Sloopers! Just a shout out from your Commodore to thank you all for your camaraderie and support over the past three years that I have had the honor and privilege to be at the helm of this institution. I am humbled to be in line with the many other fine captains who have held this post before me, including my father, as well as several other fathers of previous Commodores. I for one am very much looking forward to the upcom- ing gatherings of sloops at Southwest Harbor on July 12, as well as celebrating with the City of Rockland as we help with their second annual Maritime Heritage Days, while we meet for our 64th Annual Homecoming and Regatta from July 17 through 19. As for the Southwest Race, I hope to regain my first place stand- ing after last year’s not-so-good finish. Perhaps I may have been distracted by my daughter’s engagement! In addition, I am cordially inviting all skippers who bring their sloops to Rockland, to join me for a ‘Commodore’s Welcome’ at High Tide (the restaurant at the corner up from the dock) at 6 PM on Wednesday for drinks and sea tales. Heritage Days is looking to be twice as large as last year, and very maritime focused, with granite carvers, live music, sail makers and local aquaculture on display, as well as the usual painters and artisans. Local restaurants will be offering discounts of varying degrees to FSS Regatta participants, so please come and join in the fun! And last of all, an after-Regatta dance under the tent with a contracted live band, and beer and wine is officially booked for after the Awards Ceremony on Saturday, July19. I hope to see many and all of you there, both old and new Members, and urge you to BRING YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS! It has been an honor to serve as your Commodore. I hope you think fondly of my service, and I wish you all fair winds as you make your way to hopefully both Southwest Harbor and Rockland for a fantabulous Friendship sloop gathering! Sincerely, Andy Zuber Gladiator #71 Looking Back (and in this instance, also slightly ahead…) By Dave Graham, FSS Historian The first known organized race in which a Friendship sloop happened to be involved, was sponsored by the Boston Power Squadron and participated in by our Founding Father, Bernie MacKenzie. The race was set up as a “Bang & Go Back” race of 1960 in Boston Outer Harbor. It involved sailing vessels of all descriptions and makes, in which Bernie was declared the winner in his first sloop, named Voyager #1. As a result, the Society was formed and the first Friendship Sloop Regatta was held at Friendship in 1961, raced along a 16-mile course out onto Muscongus Bay. That was then, and here we are, some 65 years later, still at it! Let’s fast forward that amount of time to July 2025, when the Friendship Sloop Society Race Committee has plans for doing it again – a “Bang & Go Back”, only this time, out onto West Penobscot Bay, conditions permitting, that is. Details will be forthcoming at Rockland this July 17-19 when our RC Chairman, Rich Langton, plans to provide us with his pre-race briefing as to possibly which day and to where it may all occur, again, weather permitting. Returning for a moment, this time to our Society’s second year of racing, a three day Regatta of 1962 which provided us with some familiar names of skippers and sloops that were entered into that year’s race program at Friendship. A few of these were: Amity – James Wiggins Blackjack – Bill Pendelton Chrissy – Ernie Wiegleb Eastward – Roger and Mary Duncan Golden Eagle – Bill Haskell Tannis (II) – Douglas Randall Tern – Charles Snow, Jr. Vida Mia – Teddy Brown Voyager – Bernie MacKenzie These happened to have been but a few of the 37 sloops that were registered to participate in the 1962 Friendship Sloop Society’s races held at Friendship on August 9 through 11 of that year. It would prove to be the first three day Regatta for the Society; a format that has continued ever since, and may it go on forever! (Continued to Page 6) Volume 37 Summer 2025 FSS.ORG Issue 2 Friendships Newsletter of the Friendship Sloop Society – 1 –

Membership Report By Carole Wojcik, Membership Secretary There has been very little activity in the Membership and Registrar departments since the beginning of the year. Membership renewals are down slightly compared to the same time in 2024. If you haven’t done so already, we urge you to renew your membership with the Friendship Sloop Society and stay involved. We also love your comments and updates about your boats, families and sailing adventures, so keep them coming! New Members / Owners:  Leslie Smoot of Beverly, MA recently joined the Society. Leslie is a friend of Anne-Marie Chouinard and helped Anne- Marie when she sailed #106 Hold Tight to the Rockland Homecoming in 2023.  Mark Clayton of Camden, ME has just purchased #211 Ansa from Doug & Michelle Carmichel of East Syracuse, NY. Ansa is a 22’ sloop built in 1982 by James Hamilton of Andover, MA. The vessel’s new homeport will be Camden. Sam Dow & Crow of Brunswick, ME have acquired #114 Eleanor Hawkes from Ian Glass who chartered the sloop for a few years out of Portland, ME. The new owners have renamed the sloop Kestrel and will also be chartering the sloop out of Portland under their Nautilus Sailing Company. They had previ- ously served as deck hands aboard the vessel when Ian was chartering the sloop. Recently Deceased: I recently spoke with Anne-Marie who called to say that her father Al Chouinard passed away earlier this year. Al owned #106 Hold Tight and had been a member since 2006. Boating Safety Requirements By Laurie Raymond Massachusetts has recently joined a long list of other states in the US that require a boating education safety certifica- tion for operators of motorized vessels, which of course includes many of our Friendship sloops with auxiliary power. Only five states in the country have no boating safety requirements at all, and surprisingly the state of Maine is one, and the only coastal state in that category. Most states have mandatory requirements for skippers aged 12-15, and many states that do have mandatory certification rules for adults exempt operators born prior to a certain year. This varies considerably on a state-by-state basis. The new Massachusetts law, born of several boating fatalities attributed to a lack of safety knowledge, is mandatory for all adult operators. People born after January 1989 have until April 1, 2026 to become certified and those born before that date have until April 1, 2028 to take a class. Classes are offered either on-line or in person and typically cover basic Navigation rules, safety equipment, emergency procedures for boat and crew and environmental protection topics. The US Coast Guard Auxiliary website www.cgaux.org is a good place to start looking for in-person course offerings in your location. – 2 – Lady M #193 seen in her full sailing regalia. Not only was she the overall FSS Regatta winner in 2024 but she and owner Martin Thomas were featured in the WoodenBoat Calendar’s March 2025 photo absolutely screaming along on a wild day with Martin single-handing. (Bill Finch photo) Rights of Man #52, Jabberwocky #189 and #214 Gaivota have just enough wind to squeeze by the mark. All of these Division 2 sloops have been regular participants in the Rockland Homecoming events. (Bill Finch photo)

Marlinspike Seamanship By Ted Walsh Spar Maintenance Whether the rig of your boat is un-stepped and the spars stored at the end of each season or it’s left rigged and standing in a boatyard for the winter, one piece of maintenance that can be easily overlooked is a close examination of mast and yards for problems. It is easy to assume that the most solid parts of the rig are solid, when in fact, those critical parts are just as susceptible to damage from the elements as any other part of your vessel. Problems with the mast and spars tend to fall into three basic categories; sun damage, crush damage, and rot caused by fresh water seeping regularly into the spar and causing internal rot. The first two of these are relatively easy to detect and remedy, provided they are detected early. The third is much more difficult to assess because it typically happens within the core of the spar with few symptoms to indicate a problem until it is too late. This is why regular inspection and preventive maintenance is so important. In all three cases, the goal is basically the same: to seek out any area where fresh water can gain entry to either the grain of the spar or, in the case of a laminated or glued hollow spar, glue joints. Sun damage tends to be more common in mast and gaff than the boom. For most of the sailing season, the mainsail acts as a cover for the boom providing some protection from the elements. Even so it is worth looking closely at the trailing end of that spar for damage since it has greater exposure. The obvious symptom of sun damage is a breaking down of the finish on the spars. When the damage becomes obvious, such as areas where the finish has worn away and exposed wood has gone gray, it is worth stripping the spar down to bare wood and refinishing. This process will allow you to look for any areas of the spar where more extensive damage may be lurking. Regular attention to the finish on your spars is the best preventative measure for sun damage. Crush damage is almost always the result of shrouds or stays that are looped around the masthead. A minor indentation is perfectly accept- able and regular painting or varnishing will keep water out but indications where the grain has been crushed and the grain actually broken should be repaired, otherwise water can creep into those cracks. Unthickened epoxy painted onto the surfaces of the cracks and crushed area and then gently heated with a heat gun will drive the epoxy into any cracks. Once dry and lightly sanded, following up with thickened epoxy. This will usually seal minor crush damage and make a stronger contact point for the shroud in the process. Rot caused by freshwater creeping into the spar is harder to detect and even more difficult to repair. The most common culprits here are checks in the wood in the case of a solid spar, and failed glue seams in the case of a laminated or hollow glued spar. In either case prevention is the best treatment. Glued or laminated spars should be examined for problems regularly and if you are keeping ahead of sun damage that may be half the battle. It is common with hollow spars to run electrical wires inside the spar itself for things like navigation lights and weather instru- ments, so be particularly critical of areas where wires pass through the surface of the mast, at either the truck or the base of the spar. In the case of a solid spar, filling the checks with a pliable-waterproof filler will keep freshwater at bay. Since the checks will slightly open or close depending on the weather, the filler needs to be elastic enough to move with the spar. Bees wax, sometimes mixed with a little pine tar and poured hot into the checks is the traditional preventive measure for keeping water out of checks. It will squeeze out from time to time and needs to be examined and renewed every few years. – 3 –

Race Committee Report By Rich Langton, RC Chairman It’s about time to uncover your sloop and start painting the bottom in preparation for the upcoming sailing season. While the Friendship sloops have been in hibernation the FSS Race Committee has been meeting to discuss plans for the Rockland Homecoming on July 17-19, which is now part of Rockland’s Maritime Heritage Days festivities. As you may recall from the last Newsletter, we asked you to think of ways that we might change our racing to add a little more excitement to our three-day event. It was 21 years ago that we first came to Rockland and we have been doing the same race circuit ever since. Wind and weather always add some unknowns to the races, but is it time for a change? The Race Committee is proposing that we try a bang-and-go-back on the second day of our races, weather permitting of course, for a change of pace. We will discuss this at our skippers meeting and put it to a vote. Another change that is now on the books is the intro- duction of the “Bon Voyage Parade” on Sunday morning, start- ing at 9 AM. The Maritime Heritage Days organizers have been contacting Maine’s Windjammer fleet, and some of these boats will join us as we all leave Rockland Harbor for our homeports. We will still have our Parade of Sloops on Saturday, starting off the town docks at 11 AM then passing along the breakwater, but the Bon Voyage Parade will give the public a second chance to see classic boats underway. Please put these events on your calendar and plan to join in. We once again expect Peter Clapp and his handsome vessel Aestamare to serve as the Race Committee boat, and the Cronin family, headed by patriarch Jack Cronin, to make the trip all the way from Salem, MA in the Effie M to set the race marks and serve as race support and safety monitors. Miss Linda, owned by Rob and Linda Armstrong will also be on hand for race support. We are greatly indebted to these folks for their time, expertise on the water and the use of their boats for this three day event. See you in Rockland!! Southwest Harbor Rendezvous By Caroline Cronin Phillips Hello Friendship sloopers! Hope you are getting your boats ready for another fantastic summer of sailing!! Please come join us in Southwest Harbor for our annual race on July 12. There are moorings available through the Hinckley yard. It’s a very casual but maybe slightly competitive race, which starts around 1:00 PM. We race marks in and around Greenings Island, Bear Island and the entrance to Somes Sound, with the course determined by wind and currents. This is an incredibly scenic area with the mountains and wilderness of Mount Desert Island’s Acadia National Park providing a dramatic background, with ample opportunities for camping, hiking and sightseeing. The region is also a mecca for classic boats, both power and sail. We finish the day with a gathering and dinner at Beal’s Lobster Pound. There is sure to be lots of laughter and fun throughout the day! If you are interested in joining us and/or have questions please email me at cphillips0503@charter.net. From there, you can cruise for 2-3 days down to Rockland to join our fleet for our annual three day Homecoming and Regatta. Looking forward to seeing you all this summer. Safe sailing! Trophy Update By Beth Langton, FSS Trophy Chairperson A brief reminder that if you received either a racing or non-racing trophy during the Rockland Homecoming last year, now is the time to make sure you have had it engraved to document your success before returning it. Trophies should also be dusted and polished and then handed in to the Race Commit- tee at this year’s Rockland Homecoming on July 17-19 so they can be awarded to the next winner during our awards ceremony. Thank you! – 4 – Crew aboard Sazerac #44 work to utilize every breath of wind during a light air start in Rockland. Sazerac is owned by Adrienne (seated on the bow) and Steve Major and sails out of Friendship, ME. (Bill Finch photo) Salatia #90 was the big winner in the Southwest Harbor race last year, her homeport. She’s always a tough sloop to beat with owners Miff Lauriat and Marge Russakoff in charge. (Bill Finch photo)

Tech Tips: The Right Stuff by Bill Whitney I enjoy messing about in boats! Not only my boat but other peoples’ boats as well. You can learn all sorts of things while simply looking around. On more than a few occasions I’ve been asked to help fix a problem and discovered conditions that made me uncomfortable, even horrified. I’m no expert but I’ve been around boats long enough to know when something just isn’t right. By trade I’m a retired electrician/electronics technician so my usual focus is on items in that realm. One of my pet peeves is the use of household wire nuts being used to hold wires together. They have no place on a boat! Vibration, strain on the wire, thermal expansion and contraction and poor installation can cause them to fail, leaving a potentially “hot” wire loose on the boat. Please, please always use an insulated butt splice or a terminal strip and properly sized lugs to join wires together. Another problem that I see routinely is wiring that is the wrong size for the application. American Wire Gauge (AWG) is used to define the size of electrical wire. Size 28 AWG wire is the really little stuff used where the electric current going through it is very low, in the range of milliamps (.100 Amps). Size 1 AWG is the big stuff, like the battery cables in your car. Then there is the really big stuff; O, 1/O, 2/O, 3/O and 4/O (called AUT, 1 AUT, 2 AUT, etc.) that can handle high currents in the 1,000 Amp and higher range. Blue Seas Systems has a good app for calculating the size wire that you may need for almost any application in their catalog downloadable from their website. All you need to know is the amount of current that the wire has to conduct and the total length of the wire, in both directions to and from the source to the item(s) being provided with the current. The app also allows you to apply some of the derating factors that may come into play. For instance does the wire pass through the engine enclosure (a heat source) or is it in a large bundle of wires (another potential heat source)? Once you know the size wire that you need you can set up the circuit with the proper size circuit breaker that will trip within +15% of the maximum current needed. It’s important to point out that the circuit breaker is sized to protect the wire, NOT items connected to it. The downstream items should have their own fuses or over current protection circuits. A somewhat simplified block diagram of a proper electrical circuit is shown in figure 1 below. In most cases if the boat is reasonably new it has not been “modified” yet. As a boat passes from owner to owner however, the probability of changes to the electrical system increases rapidly. Add a radio here, a light there, maybe a new winch on the foredeck? Now repeat this over several ownerships and you see my point. It all adds up to changes that the boat’s wiring may not safely support. Many of our boats pre-date the development of boat wire. This is tin coated, multi-strand copper wire that resists corrosion much better than regular copper wire. It also meets all of the USCG requirements for use in a marine environment. If you are going to wire or rewire something on your boat please use boat wire, which is available at most marine chandleries. If, like some of our boats, your electrical system uses simple on/off switches as opposed to circuit breakers, there is a slight difference between the placement of the switches and those of the circuit breakers. If that’s your boat see figure 2 on the following page. – 5 – Figure 1

Friendship Memorial Scholarship Fund Always Improving By Phil Pratt, Chairman The Friendship Memorial Scholarship Fund Executive Committee Members (ECMs) are very pleased to announce a record year in 2024 for contributions, and that 2025 has had a strong start!! The superior support from Fund contributors in previ- ous years has allowed the Fund to restructure its planning process. The new structure will allow detailed planning for awards presented to today’s recipients, and build capacity for awards to be presented to the recipients of tomorrow. The ECMs strongly recommend you review page four of the annual appeal (mailed earlier this year) to see the remarkable growth of the dollar awards per student. The Fund’s Executive Committee Members serve as the “Think Tank” and Steering Committee for the Fund going forward. The Executive Committee will increase in size with the Fund Chairman, Vice Chairman, and five Trustee Committee Members, each having expertise in key categories represented in the plans for growth and stability of the Fund. The Executive Committee wants to thank the Friendship Sloop Society, as always, for the original creation of the Fund, and the strong financial support by the FSS and its members over the past 58 years! Please feel free to contact Phil Pratt – Chairman, with questions and comments. Email is davisloop100@gmail.com and phone is (207) 832-4335. Looking Back (Continued from Front Page) Winning skippers in 1962, our second year, were Teddy Brown (Vida Mia), James Wiggins (Amity), Roger Duncan (Eastward), Bill Pendelton (Blackjack), Gerald Kinney (Mar Gin) and Ernie Wiegleb (Chrissy). We shall look forward to seeing you at this year’s Homecoming in Rockland on July 17-19! – 6 – Figure 2 This historic Roger Duncan photo of Blackjack #19, was taken in Friendship in the 1960s. She was rescued from certain destruction by a volunteer crew of FSS members, trussed and transported to Rockland’s Museum of Sail, Power and Steam where she was fully restored and now resides.

2025 Calendar of FSS Events (some dates are weather dependent) Red Brook Harbor Rendezvous (Buzzards Bay, MA) Thursday, June 26 Scituate Harbor Rendezvous Friday, June 27 Cape Ann Rendezvous Saturday, June 28 Boothbay/Linekin Bay Rendezvous Thursday, July 3 Southwest Harbor Rendezvous, Race and Potluck Supper Saturday, July 12 Pulpit Harbor (North Haven) Rendezvous Tuesday, July 15 64th Annual Rockland Homecoming: Rendezvous and Races Rockland Public Landing, in conjunction with the NEW Maine Maritime Heritage Festival Races on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, July 17-19 Sloops arrive Wednesday, July 16, depart Sunday, July 20 Thursday & Friday races, start time 1 PM, Saturday at noon Skippers meetings & crew call daily, 11 AM under the tent, 10 AM Saturday • Welcome: Informal BYO drinks and snacks under the tent, on the floats, on the sloops, Wednes- day afternoon/evening • Parade of Sails: Saturday morning, Rockland waterfront, prior to the race • Awards Ceremony: Saturday night, 5 PM, Rockland Public Landing, under the tent (Note: there will be NO Banquet this year!) • Bon Voyage Parade: Sunday, 9 AM in the harbor FSS Annual Meeting Saturday, November 22 Best Western Merry Manor Hotel, South Portland, ME Events of Interest – Summer 2025 New England Waters (please check websites for confirmation) **Casco Bay Gaffers Race, Portland, ME June 22, free, 9th year, 11 AM start After-race pot luck at Orrs Bailey Yacht Club www.seaescapecottages.com or (207) 841-9125 Wooden Boat Show, Mystic, CT June 27-29, annual show at Mystic Seaport Presented and produced by WoodenBoat Magazine www.thewoodenboatshow.com Windjammer Days, Boothbay Harbor, ME June 22-28, 63rd annual festival, events for the whole family www.boothbayharborwindjammerdays.org **Camden Classics Cup, Camden, ME July 24-26, 9th annual event www.camdenclassicscup.com **Eggemoggin Reach Regatta, Brooklin, ME Saturday, August 2, all wooden boats 24 ft. or longer welcome www.eggemogginreachregatta.com **Chowder Cup Race, Friendship Harbor, ME Saturday, August 2, one day race, free, 46th year! Contact: friendshipchowdercup@gmail.com Corinthian Classic Yacht Regatta, Marblehead, MA August 9-10, Corinthian Yacht Club, Marblehead, MA www.corinthianclassic.org **41st Annual Gloucester, MA Schooner Festival August 27-31, Gloucester Harbor Waterfront www.maritimegloucester.org (** indicates Friendship sloops welcome with registration) – 7 –

Address Correction Service Requested Proposed Removal of USCG Navigational Aids Along the U.S. Northeast Coast The Issue The US Coast Guard has proposed a wide-reaching plan to remove or alter hundreds of navigational markers along the North- east US coast, including buoys, daybeacons, and lights that have long helped mariners safely navigate coastal and inland waters. These changes were recently published in the Local Notice to Mariners (LNM) 01-16-2025: https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/lnms/LNM01162025.pdf and are part of an effort to streamline the Aids to Naviga- tion (ATON) system — but many in the maritime community have raised concerns about how these removals could impact safety, access, and local knowledge. This site (https://uscg-marker-removals.webflow.io/) is an attempt to visualize and track all proposed marker removals in District 1 (New England waters) using public data, mapping tools like Leaflet.js, OpenStreetMap, Marine Traffic and feedback from local mariners. This data is based on the document linked above, published on April 15, 2025. If you don’t sail in New England waters, it is well worth looking up your regional data to see what navigational aids may be at risk of disappearing. How You Can Help If you’re concerned about the proposed removal of navigational markers in your area, you can make your voice heard. The US Coast Guard is accepting public comments, and feedback from mariners and local communities is critical in shaping final decisions. To share your perspective, email DPWPublicComments@uscg.mil with your observations, concerns, or support regarding specific markers. Even a short message can make a difference. To make your comments as impactful as possible, please include the type and size of your vessel (recreational or commercial), how the aid supports your navigation, and the distance at which you typically begin to rely on it. – 8 – Friendship Sloop Society 347 Lincoln Street Norwell, MA 02061

– 9 – Meeting quite by accident on the slopes of Bretton Woods, from left is Ted Walsh, John Wojcik, Carole Wojcik and Judy Heininger. Ted and Judy sail Black Star #247 out of Boothbay Harbor, ME and the Wojcik’s Banshee #180 cruises out of Mattapoisett, MA. (Judy Heininger photo) All photos courtesy of Bill Finch unless otherwise noted Race Committee member and long time FSS leader Jack Cronin is seen at the helm of the beautifully maintained Effie M while supervising the race course, with daughter Shelley advising. What a sight! Tannis #7 on the left is followed closely by Noel #272 with all the canvas set in a perfect topsail breeze. A full house gathered under the tent in the 2024 in celebration of the Rockland Homecoming. Freedom #167 on the left, and #52 Rights of Man, both wooden sloops, share nearly identical rigs as they enjoy the waters of West Penobscot Bay. A picture perfect, tightly packed Division II start features from the left: Gaivota, Lady M, Sazerac, Morning Star, Jabberwocky and Rights of Man.