News and Views of the
Ice Yacht
Rocket Restoration
Project
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On the New Jersey waterfront,
at the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat & Yacht Club in Red Bank, the 50 foot
long historic ice yacht
Rocket is
being reconstructed. With little more than the original cockpit and runner
plank having survived the previous century, most of the boat is being
reproduced from a few old pictures using traditional wooden boatbuilding
and rigging techniques appropriate to the period of its original
construction.
The two 40 foot wooden backbone halves have been fabricated and the original cockpit is intact and ready to go. Work still to do includes fabricating the spars and rigging, finishing the runner plank, and working out the hundreds of details of fitting it all together so it will survive the enormous power that a new suit of sails will bring to such a large craft. |
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Your support is welcomed in
this endeavor. A contribution in the amount of $100 will go a long way
towards helping us complete this project. Send your tax deductible
contribution to: Rocket Ice Yacht Foundation 65 Washington Street Red Bank NJ 07701 |
click to enlarge Thanks to JeffSmithImages.com
for digital image of the old photo.
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September 19, 2009 The frame of the boat was assembled over the last two weeks and the new Henry Bossett / North Sails were bent on today.
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We would love to have a
friendly big boat regatta with the HRIYC's
Jack Frost, J.
A. Roosevelt's Icicle,
and the NSIBYC's
Rocket at some date in the not too distant future.
For more information, see
http://www.nsibyc.com/rocket.asp or contact John Holian at 732-842-9078     November 2006
Both halves of the backbone have been fabricated and joined
together . The cockpit was also made ready for final attachment, and
then moved upstairs to its traditional home in the NSIBYC clubhouse
kitchen for the winter. Next on the list is the fabrication of the
hollow spars, making the blocks, and hand splicing the wire rigging
for the big yacht.
November 18, 2006 -- The original trussed runner plank was set up on horses in the yard this morning so we could fit the backbone. Note that the lower half of the backbone slips through the center of the truss -- this required quite a bit of adjusting to get the proper fit.          |
