Greek Boats Share Some Commonalities

Milton “Stan” Grier, a local yachtsman from Costa Mesa, shares a deep interest with me in the design and construction of the Greek fishing boats.

As voyagers aboard the ship Stella Maris II, exploring the Greek islands on a cruise sponsored by a group of Claremont colleges--chiefly Pomona and Scripps Colleges--we visited dozens of harbors. In each one there was a fleet of those distinctive wooden vessels of heavy scantlings and gaily painted in reds, blues, yellows, greens and whites.

Except for cruising yachts built of fiberglass, mostly hailing from Athens and some other European ports, the island fishing boats and other work boats are of wood. The local tenders that served as shoreboats when our ship was forced to anchor are also of wood. Most of the tenders are in the neighborhood of 30 feet in length. We guessed the fishing boats to be around 25 feet, generally. Although we did see some fishing boats as small as about 16 feet and a few as large as about 50 feet.

Basically, regardless of size, all of the wooden boats are of similar design. They are mostly double-ended and steered by a heavy tiller fitted upon the post of an outboard rudder. It is a common sight to see the skipper standing at the helm. Hulls, carvel-planked on sawed frames, are round-bottomed, with a flat straight keel that runs the length of the bottom, deepening as it reaches the stern.

The bilges are fairly sharp, making them stiff little vessels in a seaway. Their deep, swooping sheer is dramatic; their freeboard low, necessitating a high crown to the deck to make room for fish holds and below-deck living quarters in the larger boats.

In design, they resemble most closely our Block Island boats and the old Monterey fishing boats. Our assumption is that their ancestry is ancient. There is a family resemblance to the sailing and rowing galleys of yore.

On one of our shore excursions, Grier visited a small shipyard. He reports that pine, fir and cedar seem to be popular building materials. He observes that most of the boats are powered with old Lister and Perkins diesel engines.

Sailing Notes

The National Coalition for Marine Conservation, Pacific Region, is seeking support for two legislative measures that address California’s gill net issues.

The first measure, SB 1136 by Senator Marian Bergeson (R-Orange) already has been introduced. It would accomplish the following:

Close the drift gill net fishery during the months of May and June to protect the threatened thresher shark populations. Close these two areas: the areas inside a line running 25 miles from the coast between the Oregon border and Pt. Conception and the area inside a line running 19 miles from San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Barbara and San Clemente Islands and then south to the international boundary from Nov. 1 though Jan. 31 to protect migrating whales.

Close the area inside a line running 10 miles from San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Barbara and San Clemente Islands and then south the Mexican border from Aug. 1 through Oct. 31 to protect traditional marlin fishing grounds.

A second measure, not yet authored, will call for a complete moratorium on the take and sale of white sea bass and will call for a 26-inch limit on the commercial take of California halibut. Additional restrictions will likely be added to close the coastal strip to gill net use during a part of the spring to protect the northern migration of the gray whale. A program to regulate how many gill net fishermen will be allowed to fish in the state also is being considered.

The United States Yacht Racing Union will send its head boardsailing instructor, James Couts, to the Huntington Harbour Yacht Club. He will give two four-day seminars, from June 25 through June 28 and June 30 through July 3. For information, phone J. Greenway at 846-2179 or 963-5634. Also, call Greenway for information about a six-week seminar for the advanced and intermediate sabot sailor, which begins July 1.

The 12th annual Dana Belles Series for women sailors is underway. It began last week and continues through July 13. Sponsored by Dana Point Yacht Club, the four-race series is geared toward women of all levels of sailing experience. There is a spinnaker class for the experienced racers and a non-spinnaker class for the less experienced. Rating, yacht club affiliation and sail numbers are not required. The race course is around markers outside the Dana Point Harbor. Also, DPYC will begin its summer sailing program on June 24 for students, ages 9 to 18. For further information, phone DPYC at 496-2900.