LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
A SALTY CHANTEYMAN TALE
I received my copy of the April
issue yesterday and was interested
to read Bob Lane’s article about the
Chanteyman (“Chanteyman: Grand
Banks’ Salty Cousin”). Bob’s facts are
entirely accurate. I joined American
Marine in 1961, and I was there when
those boats were built. I remember
them well.
I do not specifically recall why no
more were built, although 36 was a
pretty good number for a production
run in those days. However, I do
have some ideas on the subject. Prior
to that time, we had been building
exclusively custom boats and, due
to inexperience, lost money on
all of them. After building the
Chanteymans—and also some Bill
Garden-designed Wanderers—it had
become clear to [Robert, John, and
Wit] Newton that the only way
American Marine could survive was
to build production boats.
The problem with the Chanteyman
was that it had a round bilge, and the
frames had to be bent. These frames
were put into a homemade steam
box, fed by steam from a homemade
boiler that was fired by scrap wood.
I clearly recall carpenters running
through the yard with steaming
frames and chucking them up to
others waiting inside the hull that
was under construction to clamp the
frames in place before they cooled off.
This was clearly not a very efficient
way to build production boats.
The Grand Banks, on the other
hand, were hard chined, and it was
possible to make up the frames on
the loft floor. From there, they could
be set up on a jig and assembled,
together with precut planks, chines,
and keels, into a hull built upside
down. Using this method, it was
possible to build a GB 36 hull in six
working days off a single jig. If my
memory serves me correctly, in those
days, a GB 32 was marketed for
$16,000, a GB 42 for $34,000, and a
GB 36—the first size to be built—for
around $23,000!
The Chanteyman hulls were very
limber. I remember carefully lining
up a shaft coupling on one boat
to within three thousandths of an
inch while it was in the water. The
coupling bolts were left disconnected,
and I took another look at it after we
had hauled the same boat up the
primitive railway a few minutes later.
To my astonishment, the two halves
of the coupling were a clear 2 inches
apart. I was very inexperienced in
those days and didn’t know what to
make of it. Not knowing what to do,
I did nothing and hoped they might
go back together when the boat went
back into the water, which, to my
great relief, they did.
I also noted in the April issue
the letters from a couple of readers
who were asking where all the little
boats have gone. Hopefully, the
ad for the 32-foot Corvette on page
29 of that issue will help address
the question.
Tony Fleming
Founder and Ambassador-At-Large
Fleming Yachts
HANDLING TSUNAMIS AT SEA
We’ve got a question about
tsunamis. Here’s the background:
We were on board during the
tsunami scare after the earthquake
that struck Chile in late February. We
were in San Carlos, Mexico, securely
tied to a slip in the marina. We were
under a tsunami watch that covered
the entire Pacific Coast of Mexico and
into the Sea of Cortez.
There was some conversation on
the VHF about tactics: should we
leave the slip and head out to sea,
or seek high ground that was only
a few feet away? During the debate,
one cruiser announced over the radio
that a 4-meter-high (over 13 feet)
tsunami had just struck Acapulco—a
few hundred miles south of our
location—and was headed our way.
This nearly triggered a panic among
those listening, and several folks
began warming up their engines for
a quick escape. Many of us doubted
the veracity of the report, and
it turned out to be completely
incorrect. When the “tsunami”
struck, it was about 6 inches
high—hardly noticeable.
First, let’s discuss what a tsunami
is. Often, tsunamis are incorrectly
referred to as tidal waves. They are
actually a series of waves produced by
earthquakes or underwater landslides
and can travel at speeds averaging
450mph (and up to 600mph) in the
open ocean.
If you are on your boat in the open
ocean, you will not feel a tsunami,
because the wavelength is hundreds
of miles long and the amplitude only
a few feet. This also makes tsunamis
unnoticeable from the air. As the
