I took the following pictures of Sea Dart between 1968 and
1973. I have
very few pictures of Dart, considering how long I owned her. I was
mostly
interested in documenting my travels, and not capturing Sea Dart. I
regret
that now, but I had no idea that Dart would ever become so
noteworthy.
I do have more images, and when time permits I will have the
slides
printed, scan them, and add them to this gallery.
If you wish to use these pictures, I would appreciate it very much if
you
would contact me for permission. Also, I would appreciate it if you
would
give me (Ronald Reil) credit for the pictures, and to reference this
site
with a hypertext link to it. Thank you.
The following are pictures of the inside of Sea Dart the way she was while I sailed her through the Caribbean.
This is taken looking forward. The emergency radio is
on the center left, with a storage locker above. Below the hatch with
the painting of the sailing ship is another hatch to the tool locker.
On the extreme right is my bunk. The bunk on the left was for my first
mate, Brooks FitzPatrick.
This is taken looking aft and to the right. It is the
galley space. The stove is a kerosene stove that required preheating
with "meths", alcohol.
This is an image looking aft showing both the galley
on the right, and the navigation space on the left.
The following images are of Dart at sea, or undergoing maintainence. I also have included one image of my sailing partner Brooks FitzPatrick, sitting in the cockpit.
Dart is at anchor shortly after she had come into my
possession. Notice the radar reflector in the aft stays.
This image was taken in Barbados shortly after I
became the owner of Sea Dart. She is sailing south along the western
shore. I was sailing my other small yacht "Vega", and a friend was at
the helm of Sea Dart.
Here Dart is being returned to the sea after her hull
was repainted. The painting is not complete, but I wanted to get her
back in the water so that I could sail her. I finished the painting
while she was in the water. The beach is directly behind my home on
Gibb's Beach in Barbados. Dart had been in my driveway for her hull
painting.
Brooks FitzPatrick was my good friend, and first
mate, for much of the sailing I did on Sea Dart. He finally left me,
and returned home, while we were anchored in Bequia, WI, and I sailed
on alone for a period of time. I later returned to Bequia where I sold
Sea Dart to Tristan Jones.
Fitz and I are sailing south along the western shore
of St. Vincint. There is almost no place to anchor as the floor of the
sea drops away very steeply next to shore. We did spend one night here,
but departed for Bequia the next day because of hostility shown by the
natives. Bequia was all together the opposite. Its native population
were very friendly to us.
The following images were taken in March, 1997, in Seattle
while I was
visiting with Rick Segal, the current owner of Sea Dart. Overall Dart
is
in excellent condition considering her history. Her hull has ben
glassed,
and it was done very well as not a blemish is to be seen. The interior
still
needs some work, but the quality of the work already done is evident in
the
images. The "doghouse cabin" is the only major part of Dart that
remains
to be rebuilt. The original doghouse had been removed to allow Dart
access
into a hotel in New York City for display, and the replacement,
although
similar in design, is no where near the original in quality. One other
thing
that I might add, it was a very dark day when I took these images. I
have
brightened them in editing, but they are very dark even so.
I will not include a separate description for each picture as I did
above.
I think that each picture is self explanatory. If you have any
questions
please feel free to e-mail me. The quality of these images is not the
best
due to the drastic editing I performed on them. Each image was 1.7 megs
originally, and is now a fraction of that. The colors in some of them
suffered
when I reduced the color depth. They do show what is intended, so I
will
not worry about the quality reduction. I should mention that the
gentleman
on the left in the image just below is Rick Segal, the current owner of
the
boat, and who is donating the boat to an organization for the use of
children,
in keeping with Tristan's last wishes.
I hope you have found these
images of Sea Dart of interest. I will add more to this
gallery as time permits. Dart will be moving to Idaho soon, and when
that takes place I will post images of her current location and
condition after final restoration.
The Full Site Map - Lists All Pages on This Site
Sea Dart Current Status & Image Page
Tristan Jones Page - The Good and The Bad
Contact me by phone: (208)
462-4028
Note: Due to spam problems I no longer post my e-mail address.
Edited With AOLpress
©Golden Age Forge
31 Jan 05