Over the years I have had the extraordinary privilege of photographing many great projects in the region. Constructions that have been built, repaired or restored by highly skilled craftspeople which, for the most part, once completed, have headed south to warmer places for much of the year.

In the earlier days I worked with Goudy and Stevens as draggers and longliners slipped down the ways. Then at the Washburn & Doughty yard while producing generations of tugboats often designed for LNG transport, equipped with extensive firefighting water systems. I believe that the Moran company was the recipient of many builds.

My first project with Hodgdon Yachts was S/Y YOREL, a lovely motor yacht built at the Murray Hill facility with my most challenging mentor Sonny Hodgdon. After YOREL there was LIBERTY, then Antonisa and Scheherazade, incredible magnificent designs. S/Y Sumurun also hauled out at the Sample yard for Hodgdon work to replace the stem. Add in work on the Victory Chimes, and Bounty. More recently, at Bristol Marine, many repairs, refits and new builds included the great Ernestina-Morrissey project, and repairs for the Bowdoin, extravagant yacht EROS, and the just departed Hermitage, pictured above.

SummerWind arrived at Bristol Marine about a year ago for fairly extensive work. The new owner, in addition to some major work, changed the vessel name to Hermitage. She was designed by John G. Alden and built in Thomaston by C. A. Morse, now the Lyman- Morse shipyard, in 1929. Hermitage is a 100-foot schooner previously owned by the U. S. Naval Academy, used by the Varsity Offshore Sailing Team as a training vessel.

In a previous life Hermitage underwent a massive rebuild in 2006 at a Palm Beach, Florida, facility. Almost entirely re planked, Hermitage (then SummerWind) required major complete evaluation, ultimately restoring or replacing engineering systems. At Bristol Marine, Hermitage had planks replaced, a rebuilt stern, new paint and bright work refinishing. There was also some rather complicated service done on the hydraulic and drive equipment. Hermitage left the dock at 1 o’clock of Saturday afternoon, motoring for Newport, Rhode Island, via the Cape Cod canal which, I’m guessing would have taken approximately 12 hours depending upon seas and hull speeds.

Today’s included image looking toward Cuckolds Light, reminded me of a photograph I made years ago as the Sherman Zwicker was being towed to her new home in New York City.