Cedar Key Small Boat Meet 2K25 Part 1 of 3 . . . . .

[Charles Brennan]

Went to Cedar Key, Saturday, to meet my son on his first-ever Cedar Key Small Boat Meet with his Sea Pearl, and got there before him.
So I did what you do at the Small Boat Meet and hung around anyone, prepping or launching a boat.
This is Ken, rigging a Proa he designed 42 years ago under the dual influences of Phil Bolger and Wild Turkey, and started building about 10 years ago.  Started out as a Catamaran and he had the hulls stored in his carport, but kept hitting his forehead on the one hull.
After one hit too many,    he dragged down the offending hull and cut 7 inches off the freeboard, thus converting it into a Proa.
He has paddled it several times around various lakes, but had never sailed it or put it in salt water, before.
He has some kind of a patent on the birds wing mast (since expired) but never pursued it.
His intention was to paddle it over to Atsena Otie Key and then attempt to sail it; I looked at the winds (on his nose, clear across)    and wished him well.
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Not sure of the reasoning behind the paint scheme, but suspect it might be some kind of razzle-dazzle. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage

Checked out the ramp before my son got there and saw it was going to be another tough launch on the Gulf of Something, ramp.
Son wasn't keen on using the protected ramp and then motoring under the bridge and stepping the two masts on the water, as he is still getting familiar with the boat.
But it sure would have been my choice. 
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It's not all that tough if you have more than one guy, though, and we had three.

Hard maneuver with the tiller, to avoid a dolt. 
He didn't actually SAY it,     but you can read his face pretty clearly, huh??
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Once away from the ramp and the dolts, everybody relaxed and enjoyed the day. 
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We sailed completely around Atsena Otie Key (easy to do when you can make 5 knots!) and then came up on the preferred beach for the Cedar Key Small Boat Meet.
Not many there yet, as it was still early.
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A Sea Bright 18 New Jersey Beach Skiff.
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Looks like Ken managed to paddle over to Atsena Otie, after all. 
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Bending on the sail on his bent mast and getting ready for his first-ever attempt at sailing it.

Don't know what the guy has, against a straight piece of wood. 
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Coupla Tri's bracketing an early Bolger dinghy design made in Crystal River by Crystal River Boat Builders, an organization that works with kids, to build boats.
(More, later.)
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Closer view of the one tri-maran; sail wraps around the mast, just like a Sea Pearl.
Never found out what type of design.
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This started life as an ordinary (but badly beat up) canoe, before the owner modified it with decks, hatches, and whatnot.
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A Sea Pearl Tri-maran (background) and a blue canoe (foreground).
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Notice the white lee board, against the hull.
(Literary foreshadowing.)
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A Norseboat; might be the first one I ever saw, in the wild.
Those things move with alacrity, when they want to.
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Hobie Adventure Island.
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The Bolger dinghy built by the kids at the Crystal River Boat Building club.
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The builders, from last October.
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Fore:
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Aft:
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Another tri-maran of unknown vintage/design; guy picked it up in Texas, doesn't know much about it.
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Who can resist a Lateen-Rigged Puddle Duck Racer, with a roller-furling jib?!? 
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Guy needed some hardwood, when the bowsprit broke off, so  . . . .
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Did not know they have number plates for the hulls; apparently there are Rules.
I thought to myself: "Rules?!?    Why spoil it with rules?" 
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Son Chris and his new-to-him Sea Pearl 21; only his 4th trip out on it.
That boat in the background, is the Texas Mystery Tri.  Guy figured out a Hobie 14 sail worked pretty good on it.
He wants to get a different sail though, just so people will quit asking him    if it's a Hobie 14.
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Charles Brennan

[Norm L.]

Thank you for the photos from that recent gathering. Admittedly, I do enjoy the boats at these small gatherings far from 10 of a single type. This group was also fascinating that there were hulls of every shape, and of one, two, or three hulls.

The camouflage paint on the one boat I liked. Last week I just finished reading an article on the ship colorings of 1917-1918 of WWI. The magazine from a ship museum I belong to have a description less than Wikipedia but some better photos. The book's article went more detailed into the woman's WWI military group that did the painting on many U.S. ships.

[Captain Kidd]

Quite a variety. Luff on the puddle duck sure seems loose. Love the Norseboats.