Photo of the Day

Winter in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Its amazing how many boats are still in the water.

Mr. Launch Driver

Perhaps one of the best summer jobs out there is driving a launch (also known as a tender) for a private boat club. The launch driver's primary function is to take club members from their main dock to boats on moorings. Without the launch driver, boat owners would have to row a dinghy out to their boat (which could be an issue if you plan to bring six or seven guests).

In addition to driving people to their boats, the launch driver acts as the "knowledge command center" for a club: he (or she) will know weather conditions; facilitates visiting boats onto guest moorings; and most importantly keeps track of who's come and gone (this is important, if a boat has been gone for an unusually long time). The launch driver your editor is familiar with also can procure large bags of ice cheaply.

In Brooklyn, launch drivers must be licensed by the Coast Guard and pass a series of tests (the license is the same one needs to drive a NYC Water Taxi). The shot above shows Frank, who drives a launch for Sheepshead Bay YC and Miramar YC at work driving the SBYC tender. He's a college student and inherited this job from his brother, who drove a launch while he was in school.

We think the positives - working on the water, in the spring and summer, driving a boat, tips and regularly hourly pay - outweigh the negatives - outside, on the water, in the rain, sometimes dealing with difficult people.

From the Bahamas to Brooklyn in Search of a Laundromat

A large, blue visitor came stopped by over the weekend, her name is Pasha.

Pasha, we discovered, is a custom, 55.2-foot aluminum cutter-rigged boat. She was built in 1998 and was designed by Mr. William C. Frank. We went out to the boat to pick up the owner and also saw it had beautiful beautiful teak decks and a teak cabin house. In plain English, Pasha is a very large, expensive boat.

Typically, boats of her caliber would moor in the Upper New York Harbor, most likely in the North Cove Marina, by the World Trade Center. Thankfully, these smart sailors decided to spend some time in Brooklyn.

While the boat is registered in Nova Scotia, Canada (that's why the large Canadian Flag is flying off the stern), the owner is British and lives in the Bahamas. He, along with two crew members, is delivering Pasha to her summer home in Nova Scotia. When we went to meet him, he was heading onshore to find a local laundromat. Unfortunately we couldn't help him.

First Sail of the Season

The Pearson Ensign Wanderer, one of the boats from Ensign Class Fleet 21, out of Sheepshead Bay, takes a "shake out" sail using only the mainsail on a beautiful early May afternoon.

Boat in NYC or Hamptons Share: You do the Math

When Mrs. Salt and I tell people we are Brooklyn residents who keep our own sailboat in New York City, people often come to the conclusion that we are rich. While we're not starving, we are hardly rich. We don't have trust funds, and neither of us work in investment banking. In other words, we need to work for a living. However, we are thrifty, and perhaps we are even crafty. This enables us to enjoy our summers at a fraction at the regular NYC price of a beach house share. We also like the fact that we can enjoy a beautiful summer day, on the water, in the privacy of our own vessel with guests of our choosing. We can also get to the boat from our house in less than 30 minutes and sleep in our own bed during the evening. This seems ideal compared to sharing a house, hours away from your primary residence, that may not be that close to the water.

A two bedroom cottage in East Hampton will cost $7,000 for the month of July, or $8,000 for August. We've seen another house that gets someone "seven prime weekends" for $1,000. And a three bedroom rental in Fire Island during Father's Day weekend is being advertised for $1,100. Any way we look at it, perhaps with the exception of the "seven prime weekends" house, its seems rather expensive.

For $3,500, you can get a classic 28-foot Columbia Sloop. We know she needs a bit of work, so throw in another $1,000 and you could be in the water. If your budget is a bit larger, $6,900 will get you a very well maintained and well equipped 27-foot Catalina sailboat. Its a bit of a deposit, but its about the same price as a month in the Hamptons. But you now own a sailboat.

Now that you have your boat, you'll need to keep it somewhere. At Gateway Marina in Brooklyn, for as high as $84 per-foot (or slip size whichever is larger) for a private slip; $74 per-foot for a semi-private slip. For arguments sake, we'll take semi-private slip for our 28-foot Columbia, which will set us back $2,072 (plus NYC sales tax, of course). At Gateway, the seasonal contract runs from April 15 through October 14.

A few other considerations to think about: winter storage and maintenance. Winter storage for a boat that size can run in excess of $1,000, perhaps even as high as $1,500. This would include pulling the boat out of the water, a power was on the bottom and blocking it up to sit "on the hard" during the winter months. And while owning a boat is fun, they do need to be regularly maintained, particularly if it's in saltwater. Figure on another $1,500 annually for maintenance (which includes bottom paint, engine, and any other systems). And if something really breaks, it will cost you more money. One reason that Mrs. Salt and I downgraded from a 29-foot hand-me down we generously received from Papa Salt was the maintenance. The boat was decent, but it was over 20-years old (which isn't a big deal) and had been raced very hard in her lifetime. By the time we got her, a lot of her systems were starting to fail, and we were spending more time maintaining the boat instead of sailing her. Instead, we sold her for a song, and downgraded to a bulletproof daysailor, which doesn't have an engine or any internal systems like a head, thru-hulls or water systems.

We almost forgot, if you are dying to go to the Hamptons, you can always take your new boat and sail there.

Photo of the Day: Sheepshead Bay in April

Here's a shot of Sheepshead Bay in late April. From here, you can notice one of the new condo developments along Emmons Avenue. The building in the left of the picture, called La Mer Villas (very classy), is an example of what is now springing up along Emmons Ave replacing some old clubs, bungalows, and marinas.

La Mer Villas, consists of 15 townhouses and "four classic style apartments." Indoor parking and some boat slips are available. We've noticed that they are selling them in not only in US dollars but Russian Rubels as well.