1.6.2015 yahoo-group Erik Abranson tallships

The Baltic ketch HAABET arrived on Saturday 30 May from Svendborg to Blyth, Northumberland, England. HAABET is now owned by the British charity Blyth Tall Ship that has obtained a £777,200 lottery funding for a refit that is to be done by a team of 50 young people and volunteers.
Blyth was the birth-town of William Smith (1790-1847) and the home port of his merchant brig, THE WILLIAMS, with which William Smith was first to discover Antarctica, whilst having been blown south during a rounding of the Horn in 1819.

The HAABET … is of a similar size and design to the … WILLIAMS.
It is hoped the renovated ship will be able to mark the 200th anniversary of the discovery by recreating the original voyage.

My Ship Data File for the HAABET states she was built in 1898. Gulp! Off to Antarctica at age 121?

Is she to be refitted as the galeas she always was or, being of a similar size and design to the WILLIAMS, is she to be rigged as a brig, somewhat like PHOENIX?

While updating the HAABET SDF, I wanted to check some detail by looking at Volker’s database. She is listed there under the name HAVGASSEN, ex-NANORSSUAK, ex-HAABET. Vlker’s Ship Profile was last updated on 2011-01-08 but concludes with:

– 1965-1975 general restore, rebulding of the fish holding capacities to
a saloon and pantry, 1975 awarded as one of the best maintained Danish
timber vessels.
– since 1980 used in the charter business with sailing guests in Danish
waters.

I also have a SDF for HAVGASSEN. Same galeas! That SDF was initiated on 2000-10-16. HAVGASSEN was listed by Ole Vistrup’s agency Danish Schooner Charter. 15-20 pax day cruises, 6-7 overnight cruises. That listing is the only log entry in that SDF.

My HAABET SDF was initiated on *2000-10-15* and, until now, only had one log entry, for that date – Listed by charter agency Danish Schooner Charter! 42 day, 42 sit-down dinner; 12 overnight – !?!?

At the time, I was obviously processing the Danish Schooner Charter listings and I apparently failed to notice that HAABET and HAVGASSEN were the same vessel. What was her name at the time? And when did she become HAABET again, as she appears to have been HAVGASSEN in 2011? Was it the Blyth people who renamed her? If so, why? Renaming her THE WILLIAMS would have seemed more logical if any renaming was to be done.

Ole Vistrup used to be a TOPSAILS member. Anyone have any news of him?

I do not have the time at present to tidy up this mess, to search for any discussions relevant on the matter in past Topsails conversations, or to search the Web for the Blyth Project site, which surely exists.

HAABET and HAVGASSEN are two more dirty plates to insert under the pile of dirty SDF plates, that is SDFs waiting to be updated or tidied up. I try to wash and dry the top plate before proceeding to the next one down. Even so, I end up with too many open files under edit, too many browser windows and tabs open, all gunking up my computer memory until bloody Microsoft comes along with ist monthly Windows patches and takes over my PC before I have time to stow away the work in progress and make notes as to where I was at, swipes my desktop, hogs my PC for an outrageous amount of time before it allows me to reboot, and I have usually lost some data even when the updating processes have not created some mayhem…

Other pending matters: HMS ROSE/SURPRISE and USS CONSTITUTION are both undergoing major refits. ROSE, which originally was a maple syrup factory (having been planked in maple wood, about as suitable as chipboard), is now a Swiss cheese factory despite her copper sheathing. Teredos love San Diego… I need to look up the status of OLIVER HAZARD PERRY; she is on the boil, about to be commissioned. HERMIONE has arrived in the US, waiting for clearance at my last news. I am currently processing a new brigantine I do not think we have had before, the Romanian SPERANTA (SPERANȚA with correct diacritic) – no great shakes, this is a stillborn discovery: she was broken up un 1980 but was used in many movies / TV productions in the 1970s. I hate it when I discover tall ships unknown to me that died during my watch, that is since 1968… Another dirty plate under the tap is not a TSV but the aluminium Bermudan centreboard schooner oceanographic schooner TARA. Some ambiguous info I saw suggests she has twin centreboards; I am trying to find out if this is true or not. I have not found any line drawings or GA plan for her; her architects appear protective and have had had another schooner, built in Brazil, seized on the grounds of pla n copyright infrigements. I have discovered two extra ex-names for TARA that tend to be (conveniently?) omitted from the usual TARA, ex-SEAMASTER, ex-ANTARCTICA – original name was UAP ANTARCTICA (UAP was a sponsor; the name appears to have been only born on the vessel'(s first antarctic voyage) , and she was briefly renamed ANTARCTIC EXPLORER when bought by the (US) Cousteau Society whose director of expeditions and ANTARCTIC EXPLORER skipper was Peter Blake, who soon then appears as owner-skipper of SEAMASTER (ex ANTARCTIC EXPLORER) and unconnected to the Cousteau Society. Something fishy there…

My fun programme for the day is filling in my yearly income tax form, calling my unjoinable health insurance provider (who hides behind cascading automated menus, voice recordings and queues) about a denture and new glasses and other paperwork and unpaid bills I have neglected for over a month. There is also anwsome pile of non-matophorical dirty plate, pots and pans… And Woolves needing to be taken out for a walk before they do it in the Den.

Another matter – for the past couple of weeks, every time I call up https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?&.src=ym , the bookmark I have used for years to log in to my Yahoo accounts, the log-in page that appears, with request for my Yahoo ID and PW, is hosted on a server in … Iran. Firefox tells me this is a secure https page, Whois tells me the owner is Yahoo but really? Yahoo has a server in Iran? In the past, that URL would lead me to a log-in page hosted in the UK, France, US, Switzerland, all rather variable, and handing me over to a US, UK or French server once logged in. The Iranian server hands me over to a Yahoo mail site in the UK. I have noticed no untoward behaviour in my Yahoo accounts and mail boxes but I am nonetheless uncomfortable with sending my Ids and PWs to a server in Ayatollahstan. Anyone with a similar problem?
In haste,

Erik

Rebuilding Haabet
The summer of 2011, me and my wife bought an old motor sailer (have no idea what the English term for the boat type Skøyte is). The boat was built i Risør, Norway in 1917 as a coastal freighter. It served as freighter and fishing boat until 1976, when the current owner retired, and wanted to keep using her as a holiday vessel. He had her rebuilt between 1976-78 and not much had been done since then.

She is constructed with an oak hull on fir ribs. Deck is fir and wheelhouse is mahogany. Originally she had one mast and a 12hp engine.

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?156395-Rebuilding-quot-Haabet-quot