Friday, July 11, 2014

Lord Nelson Owners' Association

An old name, a new meaning.                                                         by Sally Seymour

Back home, among the LNVT documents, there are three newsletters from the LNOA (Lord Nelson Owners' Association) formed in the early nineties. These letters talk about tugs and sailboats. But apparently, the idea didn't take hold and the publication died. Coincidentally, I think this was around the time that Tom Blackwood started assembling a list of owners of LNVTs. It's interesting to see how the lists grew.  Imagine how the efforts and enthusiasm grew as more and more people joined the search to locate boats and collect names.

Some of us have talked about the idea of expanding our group of tuggers to include Lord Nelson sailboat owners. We seem to have a lot in common. We are an active cohesive group of enthusiasts. They would benefit from the organization. I think we should make it happen. The first step might be to compile a list of sailboat owners. Put out the call to our group and those known sailboat owners. We need someone to take this on. I'm not sure I should add it to my projects, but I'd love to see it happen.

This idea surfaced today as we saw a Lord Nelson 41 in Rockland, Me. They waved madly; we waved back and headed over. We knew we had hit the jackpot when were were close enough to read the name of their boat: Lady Nelson.

Lady Nelson was built in 1987 for Loren and Lani Hart. It is hull #54 of the 41s.
We went aboard and talked for an hour and agreed it would be great to create a Lord Nelson family. They were eager to learn about Lord Nelson boats. I showed them the meaning of the HIN. They know of another 41, "Le Garage", for sale by the owner, an 80 year old man who keeps it in Pemaquid. It's a start. 

Owners Betty Minson and husband Bob Catlow are live-aboards. They are the third owners.

Bob and Betty want to join our association. How could I refuse? Possible? I'll pay their first dues. 

4 comments:

  1. Tommy Chen owns LN41#55 and says that the last 41' he built was LN41#56. He's not sure, but thinks, 27 or 28 of the LN35 sailboats were built. Lani Hart in her history letter says 51 LN41's and 26 LN35's were built.

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  2. Hi, all. My name is Greg Koski, the new owner/skipper of LN 41 hull number 49, one of the boats mentioned above. I recently acquired the boat from Bob Hutchinson of Pemaquid Maine who has owned and lovingly cared for her for the past 30 years. Bob, now 82, had just outfitted her for a trip to Cuba when some health issues forced him to change plans. He sold me his beloved "Le Garage" and is looking for a trawler.

    I have renamed her "Veneeni" in keeping with my Finnish ancestry. She hails from South Bristol, Maine and is currently wintering-over on the hard at the Gamage Shipyard. I plan to do some coastal sailing over the next 18 months while I get to know her well before undertaking a more ambitious Atlantic circuit.

    Bob took care of the boat well...her brightwork is in great shape, and she needs some cosmetic work on her topsides, some new bottom paint, and some work on the teak in the cockpit. The rest of the deck teak was replaced and set in epoxy and it looks terrific.

    I am thrilled to have Veneeni andook forward to sharing our various adventures. Greg

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  4. I am a friend of, a Lord Nelson enthusiast, and an aspiring crew aboard my friend Greg Koski's (see above) newly aquired Lord Nelson named Veneeni ! By my name you may think the wind's done a real job with my hair, but it's actually a "trail name" acquired from hiking sections of the Appalachian Trail, and well the name stuck! But my given name is Anne Fogarty, I've been sailing out of South Bristol, Maine for half a dozen years as well, and am very much looking forward to spending time on this lovely ship ! For now, I've a lot of Liquid Gold that needs applying and some floor boards to polish - but she's been kept in just wonderful shape from an original owner ! Looking forward to reading all your comments ... Write on !

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