Peter Behrens's Blog, page 456

Spartan, a New York Fifty, on Eggemoggin Reach. And 'Off Center Harbor': the website. And Joshua Slocum

Spartan was first across the finish line at the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta, though with her handicap she didn't take first place. One of 9 New York Fifty's built by Herreshoff  in Bristol, R.I.,1912-13, I believe she is the only survivor of that pack. Light breezes at this year's ERR.If you're a sailor and want to improve your skills; or if you aim to be a sailor; or if you're interested in the beauty of boats, and the practical lore of boatbuilding and boat-sustaining, you ought to have a look at the Off Center Harbor site. OCH as a group probably have as much downeast sailing experience and boat knowledge as that Nova Scotian salty dog, Joshua Slocum. And their videos are a treat."In many ways a sailor is like an actor. If he's been in the business a long time, he can improvise anything"--J.S., Sailing Alone Around the World

Bonneville: '34 Ford Sedan & the '34 Fuel Coupe

All photos are Pete Linhares©2014. His brother Phil, owner of the '34 sedan, provides some context:
"...our recent Bonneville trip.  Speed week was cancelled due to rain, the track... had 3 feet of water so no one ever touched the salt.  Wendover was full of big trucks and trailers, race cars, etc. from everywhere, including Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the east coast, etc.  Everyone had to pack up and go back home. "We left Wendover early Sunday heading for Tonopah on hiway 6, camping in the high desert out of Goldfield, Nev.  We awoke to thunder at 1 AM, and watched the approaching storm from our tent.  At 3 AM we got in the car, with lightning strikes all around us for the next two hours and huge thunder claps directly overhead.  We later found a hot spring below Mammoth and camped in the rain near Lee Vining and headed home over Tioga Pass."The '34 Ford is a great magnet for social contact; at every stop we talked with bikers returning from Sturgis, truck drivers, people of all sorts.  You don't get this kind of action traveling in a Toyota Camry!"






 "One of the photos shows me with a couple of Aussie journalists with Peter Vincent's new acquisition in the b.g.: the legendary 15 oz. Fuel Coupe."During it's Southern California drag racing days it had a 4,500 hp blown Chrysler hemi and couldn't stay on the ground.  Peter brought the car to get some advice on preparing it for Bonneville, but I'm afraid the verdict is $$$$$$$$$$$$."--PL And from Peter Vincent, owner of that fuelie coupe:"The car has a lot of S. Cal. (L.A.) 60's drag history and still has the original paint. It was re-caged in the 2000's and ran a Donovan 4500 hp 90% nitro engine. Not sure it ever made a full pass, but the funny car cage gets us into Bonneville (with a few mods) which is our goal as long as it does nothing to destroy the original history. We had the car looked at while in Wendover by some very knowledgable people, so I think we are in. What you see in the image(s) is its' last drag race version"--PV

1970 Buick Riviera. For sale. In Brooklin, Maine.

The car looked like it might have spent most of the last 45 years in somebody's grandmother's garage. Seems an original, but I could be wrong. Interior looked original and in almost mint condition. Not the best year for Rivieras, maybe. Should you want to follow up, the area code is 207.







 

1946 Chevrolet pickup; 1952 Chevrolet 3600 3/4 ton

Caught them at the annual car show put on at Blue Hill Fairgrounds by the Sedgwick Volunteer F.D.

The Berlin Trabant

from Craig Manning: "You still see the occasional Trabant around here. Usually well cared for. But mostly you have to go into photo galleries. These are by Martin Roemers, Roger Meilis, and others unknown"--CEM



  

1963 Pontiac Parisienne. Ponteix, Saskatchewan

from Alex Emond: "...an old Poncho with a back seat full of ladies. Average age 100. I do like the girl who is driving ... great smile !" -AE

Parisienne was the top-of -the line Pontiac in Canada. The others were Strato Chief---the stripper--and the mid-range Laurentian. Canadian Pontiacs of the early and mid-Sixties were Chevrolets with a Pontiac body panels.  That's why the Canadian 1959 Pontiacs look so weird: they have the 'wide-track' bodies of that year bolted onto'59  Chevrolet frames and axles, which hadn't been wide-tracked--that was a Pontiac thing. And that's why my father somehow skipped the Canadian hermaphrodite and managed to buy a US Pontiac  in Montreal, our beloved '59 Catalina.

Beluga and the 1977 Ford Custom 500: White whales, black whales in Tadoussac, Quebec

Ever been to the North Shore (Côte Nord) of the St Lawrence?
Well you ought to go.
                                                                                                                             all photographs ©2014 JA O'NeillWhite whales,
Laurentian hills, salmon rivers,
and clean old Fords, like this one Aidan O'Neill found near the ferry dock at Tadoussac.  Maybe the last four-door hardtop made? I don't see a B-pillar, anyway. Custom 500s were the stripper version of the Galaxie and what became the Crown Victoria. Basic big sedans were very popular in Canada.

Summer Cars: 1959 Jaguar XK 150. Brooklin, Maine

 The last XK I caught--in California last March--was also British Racing Green. Maybe most of the survivors are in that color. Looks pretty good.

Charlotte: a speedboat at Brooklin Boat Yard

I caught Charlotte at the Brooklin Boatyard. I'd say she was built sometime in the Seventies as a replica of an earlier era of speedboat. An elegant thing.

1947 Ford F-1. Ellsworth, Maine.

 Ellsworth is our shire town. It's where the nearest big-box stores are. Some call it Hellsworth. Lots of traffic, especially in summer, when the beige RVs lumber through, towing their adjunct day-trip vehicles, and all headed to Acadia National Park. The problem with Ellsworth, like most Maine towns of any size, is traffic. Or rather, the terrible consequences of increased traffic with zero effective planning. That means miles of strip malls and traffic lights and a feeling of nowheresville. It's impossible to be a pedestrian anywhere near the big-box stores. Impossible to cross the big-box shopping street, which is combined Maine Hwy 3 and US Hwy 1A, on foot, without risking your life.
Strip-mall territory. It's the real American landscape: from sea to shining sea. Acadia, like any national park, is a performance; Ellsworth, Maine is us, as we are.
Ellsworth does have a downtown Main Street of some residual character. Yes, it is also US 1, so Main Street churns with through-traffic, but the really massive traffic shot comes into town on Highway 1A from I-95 at Bangor,  heading for Acadia NP and Bar Harbor, and misses Main Street. Do our towns have to be wreckage? Everyone seems to think so. Our towns are like talk radio given material form; they are what talk radio would look like if it were a landscape.
Are we really about nothing but buying and selling?
And who gave the real estate industry the power to decide how we actually live on the American land?
Anyway, the Ford.
Beauty, eh? Old Henry Ford certainly had a lot to do with the sprawling way we live now. But the truck has lasted 67 years and that's bucking the odds. Heck, machines this old--I think of them as part of the natural landscape. Organic, almost, not to mention beautiful.