The Tortuga and the Sakonnet, minus sails and crew 



art of fishing under sail 



last year. 



Both boats are designed to use small 

 auxiliary engines during fishing opera- 

 tions. 



"There are times when I'd like a lit- 

 tle more power," Kenworthy says. 

 "You couldn't make a living, I don't 

 think, using these boats for commer- 

 cial fishing — not unless the cost of fuel 

 just goes out of sight." 



"You can use them mostly with 

 passive fishing methods," Mark adds, 

 "gill netting, oystering, channel- 

 netting, that kid of thing." 



Susan sees the boat as insurance 

 against hard times, since it would be 

 able to provide them with some food 

 and income, without the expense of a 

 lot of fuel. Building the boat, she says, 

 was an exercise in compromise. 



"But it works out. We have a pact. I 

 won't yacht-up his fishing boat, and 

 he'll keep the fish guts out of the 

 cabin." 



Almost lost — the 



According to Mike Alford, the 

 state's fishermen and boatbuilders can 

 learn a lot about wind-powered 

 workboats right in their own 

 backyards. There are hundreds of fine 

 old sailing workboats discarded and 

 moldering in creeks, sheds and yards. 



Alford has begun a study of the 

 state's historic boats for the Hampton 

 Mariners Museum in Beaufort. When 

 he finds a boat with historic impor- 



Courtesy of Hampton Mariners Museum 



tance, he measures it, photographs it, 

 and transforms the lines and contours 

 into detailed blueprints. Eventually, 

 he hopes to compile a book of these 

 studies, a work of reference for boat- 

 builders and historians alike. 



(If you have an old boat, or have 

 records, drawings or photographs of 

 one, Alford would like to hear from 

 you. Write: Mike Alford, Hampton 

 Mariners' Museum, Turner Street, 



Beaufort, N.C. 28516.) 



Alford believes that without the in- 

 troduction of cheap gasoline in this 

 century, the old classics of the state's 

 fleet would have continued to evolve. 



"I believe that what we've seen is a 

 sudden interruption in the natural 

 development of the boat," he says. 

 "We almost, but not quite, lost the art 

 of fishing under sail. We need to go 

 back to the extremely efficient boats of 

 a couple of generations ago, and pick 

 up where we left off." 



Alford points to three mainstays in 

 the old North Carolina sailing fleet of 

 workboats: 



— The sharpie, used mainly for 

 oyster fishing along the shallows of the 

 central coast, beginning in the late 

 1800s. 



— The spritsail skiff, a late- 19th cen- 

 tury craft used up and down the coast. 



— The Albemarle shad boat, which 

 may have been indigenous to North 

 Carolina. 



Each of these types evolved to suit 

 the locations, fisheries and economic 

 conditions of the times, Alford says. 



"Some of these boats are crumbling 

 away in the marsh somewhere," Alford 

 says. "But if we study them, we can 

 learn — not only about where we've 

 been, but also something about where 

 we might go from here." 



An Albemarle shad boat at work with spritsail rigging 



