Tag: Peter A. Janssen

Portland, ME

The Maine Event

Dock and dine your way through this picturesque New England haven.

It’s easy to pass by Portland if you’re cruising Down East on a rhumb line from the Cape Cod Canal to the popular Boothbay or Penobscot Bay areas. After all, the coastline curves west at Portland, so you might think it’s a bit out of the way. But think again, because Portland—once an industrial town with a hard-working commercial waterfront—has transformed itself into a vibrant city with a thriving art and restaurant scene and some of the best full-service marinas in the Northeast. And Casco Bay, with its handful of small islands, historic forts and iconic lighthouses—not to mention rocky ledges and finger-like peninsulas—offers some of the best cruising in a state already famous for its spectacular cruising grounds.

Portland is charming because it’s the gateway to the real Down East but still has a feel of a small town, even though it’s the largest city in the state with a population of 66,194. With cobblestoned streets rising up a small hill from the Old Port waterfront (the downtown section), almost everything in Portland is accessible and within walking distance, even in a pair of boat shoes. The I.M. Pei-designed Art Museum is easy to find; so are restaurants of almost every description. Indeed, with 230 restaurants in town, Portland has the highest proportion of restaurants per capita of any city in the U.S.—and they’re good. In 2009, Bon Appétit called Portland “America’s foodiest small town.” The harbor, meanwhile, is full of recreational boats, power and sail; old schooners carrying tourists out in the bay; fast ferries; commercial fishing boats; a fleet of working lobster boats—and tons of lobster pots. There are countless reasons why 3.6 million tourists visit Portland every year.

But history has not always been kind to Portland. The first European to land there was Christopher Levett, an English sea captain, who arrived in 1623 with 10 men and a grant of 6,000 acres from King Charles I to start a settlement. He built a stone house for his men then sailed back to England, where he wrote about the wonder of the New World; his men were never heard from again. A subsequent trading village was destroyed by the Wampanoag Indians in 1676, but it was rebuilt and destroyed again by the French and Indians in 1690. During the Revolution, Portland was shelled by the British, and in 1866, a fire during Fourth of July celebrations burned down most of the city leaving 10,000 people homeless.

Today, Portland is easy to find. Coming from the south, pick up the sea buoy 12 miles southeast of Portland and 5 miles off Cape Elizabeth. Round Cape Elizabeth and turn north toward the Portland Head Light, 101 feet above the water. First lit in 1791 with 16 whale oil lamps, it’s the oldest continuous lighthouse in the U.S., now maintained by the Coast Guard. The Portland Head Light marks the south side of the entrance channel; across the way, the 77-foot-high Ram Island Ledge Light marks the north side. Go down the main channel—leave Cushing Island to starboard—1.8 miles to the black-and-white 54-foot-high Spring Point Lighthouse at the end of a long breakwater. Follow the channel in a wide left turn into the main harbor.

Before you enter the harbor, though, you have to make a choice. Tie up at the marinas on your left in South Portland to enjoy the peace and quiet with the Greenbelt Walkway that runs along the shoreline and a swimming beach, plus easy access to stores and restaurants? Or head right to Portland proper, the traditional Old Port marinas, with the trendy restaurants and art district?

If you choose Portland itself, it’s hard to miss DiMillo’s Marina, since it’s pretty much in the heart of Old Port. It’s also a large, first-rate, full-service marina with high-speed fuel pumps, 125 slips and room for yachts up to 250 feet. The marina itself is secure and gated and is in front of DiMillo’s floating restaurant, which was a car ferry in its previous life. The restaurant is big and touristy, but it’s a Portland institution and it’s fun.

About half a mile up the harbor, Portland Yacht Services is another large, welcoming marina with 250 slips. The bad news is that it does not have fuel; the good news is that it’s a short walk from Hamilton Marine, the largest marine supply store above Boston. About two miles up from Old Port, the Maine Yacht Center has 80 slips for boats up to 60 feet. It is a full-service marina with gas and diesel and an 80-ton Travelift.

If you opt for the quieter South Portland side of the harbor, Spring Point Marina has 275 slips and claims to be the largest full-service marina in Maine. It can hold yachts up to 200 feet and is within walking distance of the beach and grocery stores. Joe’s Boathouse there serves lunch and dinner.

Up the harbor a bit, Sunset Marina’s full-service yard with 150 slips accommodates yachts up to 250 feet and offers terrific views across the water of Portland and the skyline. Closer to the Casco Bay Bridge leading back to Portland, South Port Marine is well protected; its full-service yard has 170 slips for boats up to 150 feet.

No matter where you tie up, you’ll want to spend some time wandering around Old Port. For the art scene, walk up the hill from the waterfront to Congress Street and turn left. You’ll find more than two-dozen galleries, plus The Portland Museum of Art. The museum is a treasure with 17,000 works, including an impressive permanent Impressionist exhibit with works by Degas, Matisse, Renoir, and Picasso. If you get tired of the Impressionists, take in Maine favorites Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth. If you want a first-hand view of the city, head for the Portland Observatory at the top of Munjoy Hill. Built as a signal tower in 1807, the 86-foot-high wooden tower today affords an unbeatable view of Old Port, the harbor and Casco Bay.

If you’re hungry you won’t go wrong at Street & Company on Wharf Street in Old Port for fresh seafood—if it’s crowded you can eat at the bar. For a different atmosphere try Grace, a new restaurant in a 150-year-old Gothic Revival Church with soaring stained glass windows—the menu is American, the experience is unique. Fore Street Restaurant is only a block up from the water; with its wood-burning oven and a menu filled with Maine-centric seafood, meat and game, it has been praised by Gourmet. For a total change of pace, head for Becky’s Diner on the Commercial Street waterfront. A true diner, Becky’s opens at 4AM every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas, so working lobstermen can have an early breakfast, and stays open until 9PM. Try the homemade chowder or, needless-to-say, the Fisherman’s Platter.

If this is your first trip to Portland, go 20 minutes up the road to the L.L. Bean Flagship Store in Freeport, an iconic Maine institution. You don’t need to hurry as Bean’s is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

CRUISER RESOURCES
DOCKAGE

DiMillo’s Marina
1 Long Wharf
Portland, ME 04101
(207) 773-7632 • dimillos.com/marina

Maine Yacht Center
100 Kensington St.
Portland, ME 04103
(207) 842-9000 • maineyacht.com

Portland Yacht Services
58 Fore St., Portland, ME 04101
(207) 774-1067 • portlandyacht.com

Spring Point Marina
1 Spring Point Dr., South Portland, ME 04106
(207) 767-3254 • portharbormarine.com

South Port Marine
14 Ocean St. • South Portland, ME 04106
(207) 799-8191 • southportmarine.com

Sunset Marina
231 Front St., South Portland, ME 04106
(207) 767-4729 • sunset-marina.com

 

RESTAURANTS

Becky’s Diner
390 Commercial Wharf, Portland, ME 04101
(207) 773-7070 • beckys.com

Fore Street Restaurant
288 Fore St., Portland, ME 04101
(207) 775-2717 • forestreet.biz

Grace
15 Chestnut St., Portland, ME 04101
(207) 828-4422 • restaurantgrace.com

Joe’s Boathouse
1 Spring Point Dr.
South Portland, ME 04106

Street & Company
33 Wharf St.
Portland, ME 04101
(207) 775-0887 • Streetandcompany.net

ATTRACTIONS

L.L. Bean Flagship Store
95 Main St.
Freeport, ME 04032
(877) 755-2326 • llbean.com

Portland Museum of Art
7 Congress Square
Portland, ME 04101
(207) 775-6148 • portlandmuseum.org

Portland Observatory
138 Congress St.
Portland, ME 04101
(207) 774-5561• portlandlandmarks.org/observatory

 

By Peter A. Janssen, Southern Boating Magazine August, 2014

Essex, Connecticut

Cruise one of America’s Best Small Towns and feel your blood pressure fall.

A quintessential New England small town on the banks of the tree-lined Connecticut River, Essex is a mix of white-picket-fence charm and colonial history, all with a heavy nautical overlay. Six miles up the river from Long Island Sound, Essex offers some protected and picturesque coves, an inviting Main Street, and a boating-centric culture that makes visiting cruisers feel more than welcome. Indeed, Essex today has more transient moorings for boats than it does parking spaces for cars. And if Essex itself isn’t enough of an attraction—even though it’s on almost everybody’s list of Best American Small Towns—then head up the river another mile and drop the hook in Hamburg Cove, one of the most protected and alluring gunkholes on the East Coast, if not the entire U.S.

Like many other great cruising destinations in the Northeast, Essex is easy to get to. On Long Island Sound, about six miles east of Duck Island Roads off Westbrook you’ll see the Saybrook Breakwater Light. It’s 58 feet high and on the end of a 1,000-foot-long breakwater. The wide channel between it and the matching breakwater to the east leads north up the Connecticut River to Essex, and then another 40 miles or so to Hartford, the state capital.

After the breakwater you’ll pass two large, full-service marinas off to port—Saybrook Point Marina and Harbor One Marina—and in two miles you’ll reach the Amtrak train tracks on the Old Lyme Drawbridge, with a vertical clearance of 19 feet. Contact the tender on Channel 13. Just north of the drawbridge is the I-95 car bridge, but it has an 81-foot vertical clearance.

This part of the river is rich in history. The Algonquin Indians fished and farmed here until 1590, when the more warlike Pequots from the north drove them out. The first

European recorded to have landed here was Adriaen Block in 1614 after he had explored Block Island farther east. Over the years, the small village of Essex grew and prospered because of its protected location with access to both Long Island Sound and to the increasingly productive Connecticut heartland. Essex also became a major shipbuilding center; by the time the Revolution ended Essex had launched some 600 vessels for the patriots.

But it was the War of 1812 that put Essex in the history books, largely as a result of one of the British Navy’s most successful raids of all time. During the war, Essex shipbuilders were busy producing privateers that attacked British ships in the Caribbean and western Atlantic. The British sent some warships to attack the town, but they couldn’t get past the sandbar off Old Saybrook. So on the night of April 7, 1814, 137 British marines rowed the 6 miles up the river on 6 well-armed boats, arriving off Essex at 3AM. The British captain in charge told the villagers that if they did not fire on his men he would not harm them, but he did intend to destroy all the privateers. Within a few hours, the British had burned 27 ships before rowing back down the river. For the past 46 years, Essex has honored this event with an annual Burning of the Ships Parade, complete with period uniforms and a fife and drum corps.

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Today, Essex (population 6,600) is a bastion of peace and tranquility. As you approach up the river, you’ll first pass the Essex Yacht Club and the Brewer Dauntless Marina on your port side, just north of marker R-26 in the middle of the Essex mooring field. Brewer has two first-class, full-service marinas in Essex. The first—Brewer Dauntless Marina—has 42 slips, a 150-foot fixed dock and 55 moorings with launch service. On your boat you’ll next pass the large Essex Island Marina—also a full-service facility—with 125 slips, a swimming pool and grills in a picnic area. Marley’s is a seasonal casual restaurant with carryout, plus breakfast and lunch all week and dinner on weekends. I’ve stayed at Essex Island Marina many times over the years, and when my children were younger they particularly enjoyed the 30-second ferry ride over the 20-yard passage to the mainland. Still heading north, the final marina is Brewer’s second facility in Essex—the Brewer Dauntless Shipyard—with 108 slips for boats from 20 to 100 feet, plus a swimming pool and all the usual first-class amenities. The Shipyard, as the name implies, is a major repair and maintenance operation.

Main Street is less than a five-minute walk from any of the marinas. You can’t go to Essex without at least stopping at the iconic Griswold Inn, which has been there since 1776. “The Gris” not only has a great taproom—rated as one of the best bars in America by Esquire—and restaurant, but it also has a major collection of marine art, with prints by Currier & Ives and Endicott & Co., and illustrations by Norman Rockwell.

For more casual dining, head up Main Street to the Black Seal Seafood Grille, one of my favorites, with a great bar (probably never mentioned by Esquire) and order a Dark and Stormy, a house specialty. The Black Seal also has memorable burgers, chili, and fish & chips, surrounded by fun nautical décor. If you want to pick up some delicious sandwiches or box lunches for the boat, go back down Main Street to Olive Oyl’s Carry Out Cuisine, a perfect spot for fast provisioning. In a white house almost next door, the Essex Coffee and Tea Company is the Essex version of a coffeehouse, with monthly displays by local artists. And if you want a casual breakfast, lunch or dinner with a waterfront view head back to Abbey’s Place just behind the Brewer Dauntless Shipyard.

When you’re through eating, walk down to the foot of Main Street to the Connecticut River Museum. You’ll find one of the best views of the river, great exhibits on shipbuilding and local geology, plus a full-size replica of the Turtle, the first American submarine, built by David Bushnell of nearby Westbrook in 1776.

For evening entertainment check out the Ivoryton Playhouse, a ten-minute cab ride away. Katharine Hepburn started there in 1931; it has also starred Eva Gabor and Marlon Brando. If you have more time, try the Essex Steam Train and Riverboat, which starts at the 1892 Essex train station and heads along the shoreline to Deep River Landing, where you climb aboard the Becky Thatcher, a three-deck Mississippi River-style riverboat for a ride farther up the river.

Before you leave the Essex area, cruise just a mile upriver to Hamburg Cove, with a narrow entrance east of Brockway Island. Drop the hook and feel your blood pressure fall; this is one of the prettiest and best-protected boating spots around. If you want to explore, you can follow the green markers to the end of the cove and find Reynolds Garage & Marine, a small freshwater marina. Mind the channel. I’ve bounced off the bottom there in my Grand Banks 36 several times, but I wouldn’t miss Hamburg Cove for the world.

CRUISER RESOURCES

DOCKAGE
Essex Island Marina
(860) 767-1267 • essexislandmarina.com 

 Brewer Dauntless Marina
(860) 767-8267 • byy.com/CTmarinas/Essex

  Brewer Dauntless Shipyard
(860) 767-0001 • byy.com/CTmarinas/Essex

  Reynolds’ Garage & Marine
Lyme, CT
(800) 899-0028 • reynoldsboats.com 

RESTAURANTS
Griswold Inn
(860) 767-1776 • griswoldinn.com

 The Black Seal Seafood Grille
(860) 767-0233 • theblackseal.net

 Olive Oyl’s Carry Out Cuisine
(860) 767-4909 • oliveoylscarryout.com

 Essex Coffee & Tea Company
(860) 767-7804 • essexcoffee.com

 Abby’s Place
(860) 767-0560  • abbysplacect.com

ATTRACTIONS
 Connecticut River Museum
(860) 767-8269 • ctrivermuseum.org

 Essex Steam Train & Riverboat
(860) 767-0103  • essexsteamtrain.com

 Ivoryton Playhouse
(860) 767-7318  • ivorytonplayhouse.org

Peter A. Janssen, Southern Boating July 2014

Ribcraft 9.0

Ribcraft 9.0 is Not Just for Black Ops

Whether island hopping, as a yacht tender or on a secret mission… This boat turns heads.

The first time I saw the new RIBCRAFT 9.0 tied up at the Eastern Yacht Club dock in Marblehead, Massachusetts, I thought to myself, “Now this is one wicked-looking boat.” With its entirely black and dark gray exterior and rows of military-type seats, it looked ready to carry the Navy Seals on their next commando raid. “This is definitely a head-turner,” said RIBCRAFT USA President Brian Gray as we climbed aboard. But this highly customized RIB was not ordered by the Pentagon for use in a war zone. Instead, it was built for a Colorado entrepreneur who will base it at his vacation home in the British Virgin Islands (B.V.I.). After only a few turns, I can attest that he’ll not only turn heads in the B.V.I., but he’ll also have a lot of fun driving it.

From my experience there’s no doubt that the new RIBCRAFT does attract attention. Indeed, as we shot out of Marblehead Harbor on a blustery pre-winter day, the few commercial fishermen who were out all paused to take a look—a fast look, as it turned out. Once we were in the Atlantic I nudged the throttles forward, and the twin 300-hp Yamaha four-stroke outboards powered the boat up to 59 mph, a particularly impressive performance considering we were in choppy two-to-three-foot seas and a biting wind. (Gray said he’s hit 61 mph on a calmer day.)
Even more impressive than the speed was the ride. In conditions where a traditional boat would be pounding and throwing spray, the ride on the RIBCRAFT was soft and calm. “The rougher the better to test this type of boat,” Gray said. The deep-V fiberglass hull—with a 20-degree deadrise at the transom—cut through the water, while the wide inflatable tubes softened the usual between-wave pounding and deflected the spray. At top speed, the ride was both quiet and dry and fun. Pulling back to only 45 or 50 mph I put the RIBCRAFT into a series of sharp turns, and the boat responded instantaneously and under total control. But the real fun is in the acceleration, and that’s nothing less than spectacular. Nudge the throttles and the boat takes off immediately and without any apparent effort. The full windshield on the custom helm console protects you from the wind, and the Yamahas are quiet, so you don’t fully realize how fast you’re going until you glance at the Garmin GPS on the panel—you can’t say that about a lot of boats. “This boat has the performance of a Ferrari and the strength of a Hummer,” Gray said proudly.

This 9.0 model is the largest RIBCRAFT made in the U.S.—the British factory makes a 42-footer, and the company says it’s for the serious offshore user. All told, RIBCRAFT makes eight models from 15’7″ to this one at 29’7″ in a small factory in rural New Hampshire and then assembles them in its headquarters in an industrial complex in Marblehead. The company makes fast rescue boats for the Navy as well as RIBs for other government and law enforcement agencies, tour operators and commercial users, plus yacht clubs and recreational buyers who use them as tenders, runabouts, dive boats, or their primary ocean-going vessels. “There’s a growing trend to use commercial-grade boats for recreational use,” Gray explained. For example, Secretary of State John Kerry bought a 25-foot RIBCRAFT to use at his summer home in Nantucket, and the company is more than happy to customize a boat for each owner’s wishes.

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This particular boat was built to order for Curt Richardson, an experienced boat owner whose website calls him “a serial entrepreneur.” Richardson formed his first firm when he was just 21-years-old—a plastic tubing company. Richardson built a prototype for OtterBox, a waterproof cell phone case, in his garage in 1998 and is now the chairman and founder of the company which claims to be “the #1 best-selling case for smartphones in the U.S. and Canada.” He is also an avid fisherman and owns a Buddy Davis 48 and a Buddy Davis 61, which are part of his charter sport fishing business Ocean Surfari, with bases in both St. Thomas in the U. S. Virgin Islands and Soper’s Hole on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. Richardson owns Little Thatch Island off Soper’s Hole and will keep his new RIBCRAFT there.

Actually, this is Richardson’s second RIBCRAFT. He bought a used 7.8 model (25’7″) three years ago for his wife and says she loves it. “This one is my boat,” he said in a phone interview from his home in Fort Carson, Colorado. Gray said Richardson was “very involved” in designing it and wanted the military look but also wanted a comfortable ride, even when the Caribbean wind kicks up and he takes out a lot of friends.

Richardson’s boat has four rows of two seats each, plus three more seats across the back. But the first two rows of seats plus the entire helm console, including the windshield and the hardtop, are built as one unit by Shockwave with a suspension system to reduce shock and vibration. This is Shockwave’s Integrated Control Environment (ICE); it starts with a welded stainless steel chassis that attaches to the deck and includes energy-absorbing foam and adjustable shock absorbers. In this system you sit rather than stand, even when you’re driving the boat. The seats have built-in armrests and foot supports and you strap yourself in with seat belts. The result is that you feel very secure, even at top speed or in tight turns, and you don’t have to suffer through any hard landings. “Your entire body moves together,” said Gray. “Nothing jars. You get off the boat even after many hours and you don’t feel tired.” RIBCRAFT uses the ICE system in boats it builds for the Navy with special compartments to store weapons. Richardson passed on this.

He didn’t skimp, however, on anything else. The 21-inch-diamater Hypalon tubes with seven chambers and pressure relief valves are standard. But then there are the twin counter-rotating Yamahas, the ICE suspension system and the extra rows of seats, twin Garmin screens on the black helm station with GPS, radar, AIS, depth sounder and autopilot, plus two VHFs, FLIR, a SatCom, underwater LED lights, a freshwater washdown for the windshield, even a rear view mirror. The base price for a RIBCRAFT 9.0 without engines is $111,656. This one cost $450,000.

Richardson is delighted with his new boat. “I like to travel around the B.V.I. with my friends, go to dinner up in North Sound,” he said. “You can get a short chop there but this is a dry boat. And with the night vision I don’t have to worry about visibility. The boat’s super safe, fast, and I can use it in any weather. I think it’s great.”

SPECIFICATIONS
LOA: 29′ 7″
Beam: 10′ 3″
Draft: without engines 22″
Weight: without engines 3,395 lbs.
Deadrise: 24º/23º V-bottom
Fuel: 135 U.S. gals.
Power: 2x 300-hp Yamaha four-stroke outboards
Cruise/Top Speed: 45/61 mph
Price Base: $111,656 without engines
MSRP: $450,000 for this boat as configured

CONTACT
RIBCRAFTUSA, LLC
88 Hoods Lane
Marblehead, MA 01945
(781) 639-9065
sales@ribcraftusa.com
ribcraftusa.com

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