Hello All, I am the new owner of the Fiddlers Green, a 1978 BCC built and finished by Sam Morse, all teak outside with rosewood/cherry wood interior, full head starboard-forward and galley starboard-aft, dinette/berth port-forward/nav station port-aft. She has a sleeping V-berth and has the shop bench under the doghouse as well.
When I first saw her photos I could see that she was not sitting on her intended waterline, she had been in the same boat slip for many years without moving and terribly neglected but when she was given some love it was by a completely incompetent owner (god rest his soul). As an example of his idea of maintenance was to paint all the exterior teak with Bear’s (Home Depot’s Brand) exterior latex flat house paint mixed to the color of marine Cetol, needles to say, it was peeling off in sheets when I obtained the boat…Ironically the color of cetol is almost universally hated but is endured due to the protective quality of the product, someone should have told him that it is not the color that is the key to the products limited success! Also it wold have been nice if he ahd not also painted the stanchion bases and even the end of the whisker pole was not spared paint to the height of the bulwark.
Anyway, after removing hundreds of pounds of zebra mussels and shifting gear to its rightful places she was still sitting down by the bow with only one 35# CQR on the sprit rollers and half a tank of fuel so my buddy and I pulled the chain from the chain locker and flaked it along the side deck to see what difference it would make and wow! she was sitting level the interior cabinets were now level and the lower bobstay tang was finally out of the water, I cleaned it up best I could from the dingy and could detect some minor pitting where I assume it has been submerged for the past forty years, what is bothering me is that when I measured the chain rhode, it was 275ft of 5/16"bbb @ 1.10 lbs per ft., that seems like it should not have caused the boat to sit like that, the chain was led aft to a spot just behind the rope locker and I say was because the chain is now on the bottom of the bay (yes there is a retrieval line to get it back but I think it will hurt the boats downwind performance so it’s coming home by truck while the Fiddlers Green makes her way by sea along the east coast from Maryland to Maine.
How much chain do you carry? where is it stowed? do you need crew to flake it as it goes below pulling while it aft?
Attached is a picture of her back in April sitting low in the water, her bilges were also full to the top of the tanks, pumped her out just in time.
ps; could not upload pics due to file size, maybe later.
How much chain do you carry? where is it stowed?
do you need crew to flake it as it goes below
pulling while it aft?
It sounds like Fiddlers Green has a very different layout than the standard SLM boat. I wonder if it was a kit boat, with the interior done by someone other than SLM? If there is a full head forward, that would probably add considerable of weight to the bow. You’ve probably read the current thread on “BCC Balance”?
Shaula carries 235’ of 5/16" BBB. In BC, we often anchor on rocky bottoms in up to 50’ of depth, often with a line ashore, so our ground tackle has worked for us. It was fine in the tropical Pacific. We could replace about half the chain with line if we stayed away from those marginal anchorages. Our bobstay fitting is about 2" above the water.
We’ve seen a lot of boats that require that the chain be pushed around in the locker, either with a stick from on-deck or by someone below decks. I think that is a serious design flaw, and shouldn’t be tolerated.
No, she’s not a kit boat, she was custom built to the specs of one of Morses shiprights at the Morse yard for his own use. I have all the documentation but I wish her previouse owners were active on this site so there would be a bit more history known.
Hi, I will try to photocopy the sellers description from when Rouge Wave Yachts sold the boat to Mr. Walter Kastner, the owner of the last 8 years or so, there is a pretty comprehensive history there. The cruising couple who owned the boat before that were also writers for some sailing magazine whose name escapes me at the moment but to the best of my knowledge the name Fiddlers Green has remained constant for the life of the boat. The workmanship inside is superb with solid rosewood and cherry cabinetry and heavy teak/holly cabin sole. The teak work outside is true to all the plan drawing I have seen and the boat featured in ‘Best Boats" by Mate’.
It has the original installed Taylors heater and I happened to have a Taylors kerosene two burner, gimballed stove so I pulled the horrible three burner gas range and fitted the aforementioned Taylors stove. Now if I can just get them working I will be warm and well fed!
I have a lot of pictures of the boat but the file sizes are too big to upload here so I will have to figure out how to compress them first.
The hull number is SFJBC0210377 according to my paperwork but according to my paperwork it’s also a 1978 when it looks by the hull number to be a 1977?
The hull number is SFJBC0210377 according to my
paperwork but according to my paperwork it’s also
a 1978 when it looks by the hull number to be a
1977?
Seems consistent for hull number 021: hull laid in March 1977, finished boat launched in 1978, no?
We just recently purchased (adopted?) BCC #77 (still yet to be re-named…negotiations with the Admiral are ongoing) and are currently in Deale, MD. Where is the boat now?
Sounds like a real beaut! Admire also your "upgrade to a Taylors cooker, non better. I regularly use the oven on my Taylors and it easily reaches 500 F. You’re probably aware of the replacement Hanse burners and parts. Again, congratulations on your prize. Cheers,
If you need images resized, e-mail them individually to me and I will get them in the gallery.
If you remove the bowsprit before hauling, you will only be charged the 28’. (Use the jib halyard and tie off to a cleat or the samson post to prevent the mast falling backwards.)
Ahoy Mike, Fiddlers green is currently located in the Middle River Marina but I will be putting her up on the hard at the Chesapeake Marina also located in Middle River some time in the next two months. She hasn’t been out of the water for six years from what I am told.
The marina guys wrote 38ft in their little book when the previous owner checked in so that is what she will remain even though the bowsprit is unshipped and she is actually a bit less than 30ft. They were visibly irritated when I questioned The fee structure…oh well, cant please everyone
38 ft and up is their most premium price for all services so hauling, pressure washing the bottom and setting on a cradle for the winter was going to be about $900 above the annual slip fee of $3000. I would have still stayed but to add insult to injury the yard manager was going to place her with a bunch of derelict boats sharing needles on the treeline of the far back yard. The other place is happy to have me for $820 till April 15, all inclusive and they are close walking distance to my favorite take out joints!
I plan to sail the Chesapeake for a while to get a feel for the boat before I go offshore, I’m thinking Chesapeake-Bermuda, Bermuda-Maine in mid June…
If you can make it to Havre de Grace (at the top of the bay, 4.5 hours North), Tidewater Marina will only charge for 28 feet as long as the bowsprit is not in use when the boat is hauled. I spoke with the General Manager this morning; I am sure he will provide a space for you to unship the sprit.
Jeff Andrews
Tidewater Marina http://www.tidewatermarina.com/
100 Bourbon Street
Havre de Grace, MD 21078
410-939-0950
1-800-960-TIDE
We just spent a lot of time looking around at good deals to put ours up for the winter and get some work done. We were also focused on a place that was do-it-yourself friendly…we quickly found out that not all yards in the area are.
Best deal we found was Casa Rio marina in Edgewater (http://www.casariomarina.com/). They were NOT going to charge for the bowsprit (he was going to put the bowsprit between two other boats, which was fine by us.
However, we just signed with Shipwright Harbor in Deale (https://www.hartgeyard.com/). They gave us a good winter price if we signed on for a slip with them next season. However, the customer service and responsiveness (so far) has been over the top impressive.
However, if you need to get a lot of work done, then Hartge Yacht Yard (NOT Yacht Harbor) may be a better fit (https://www.hartgeyard.com/). They have lots of services available right there at the yard.
Hartge Yacht Yard has a great reputation. In fact, I was on a friend’s boat some tears ago when the water pump/alternator belt died. As we were both male, we couldn’t do a fix with silk stockings.
It was a holiday weekend, and we sailed into Hartges, and there was someone working in the parts store. All we had was a very frayed broken belt, but he said he could identify it, and would have one in about two hours. We discovered later that he had actually driven into town to the auto parts store to get a belt for us.
Within about 30 minutes after our return to the store, we were up and running again.
On the Chesapeake Bay there are four marinas that I consider are exceptional:
Hi and thanks for all the info regarding marinas, thing is I barely trust the engine at this time and given the cold weather, foul bottom and lack of support out there this time of the season I feel uneasy about going outside the safety of the river where I am based. It looks as though Tidewater is about 300 more than Chesapeake Yachting center in Middle River, they quoted me under 850 to haul stand and relaunch before April 15 and they are only about 5 miles from where she is now docked. I already pulled the sprit last week so I want to take it easy running her around too much. The bowsprit fought for every 1/4" coming out, what a summer of rain and humidity will do to wood! I have it safe in my shop in Maine and will rebuild or rescue it as will be determined when stripped for inspection.