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Screaming Mimi |
| Rarely does a nickname just emerge and stick. Such was the case, however, with 'Screaming Mimi.' |
| We had been working for months, developing this new boat. Finally the day had come to put her in the water and see what she could do. Steve would sail the boat, Justin and Ian would assist in the launch, David would take pictures. Probably within two minutes of being launched, as David watched the boat fly across Kingsland Bay on Lake Champlain, the name 'Screaming Mimi' came to mind. |
| He mentioned it to the others and for evermore, she was and is 'Screaming Mimi." (Sometimes in the shop shortened to Mimi.....people not knowing might think they were referring to a person in the building, as in, "Where's Mimi?" |
| Mimi's very first show was the prestigious (and vast) Newport Boat Show. Dennis Caprio, a senior editor at Yachting Magazine is an old friend of the company. Years ago he did a piece on our boats for Yachting. He and a photographer came to Vermont to try our boats. When stepping ashore he said, "Well, that boat pretty much ruins you for any other rowing boat." After touring the offerings at Newport, Dennis pointed at Mimi and said, "I've just toured the entire show.....and that's the most interesting boat here." (The check is in the mail, Dennis.) |
| There is a long heritage of canoe sailing in America and in England. Much of the early popularity of this activity can be traced to John MacGregor's articles and his book, "A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe on Rivers and Lakes of Europe" published in the 1860's. MacGregor's writings and adventures had a huge following and thus a new sport was born. His boat was a decked sailing canoe. Many of the details and spirit of his adventures are captured in our new boat. However, new materials and designs allow for wider exploration of the concept. |
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As we write these words Mimi is still being developed. Her hull, dagger board and rudder are pretty much set. We still need to install floatation beneath her decks....and her sail and rigging are being revised. |
| This next photo was taken the first time she was sailed. (It was about at this moment that the phase 'Screaming Mimi' came to mind.) |
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| It was a gusty, difficult sailing day. And.....Steve had an agenda to push Mimi, discover what her limits were. The next photo indicates that he found those limits. (And, yes, it would have been nice had the floatation already been installed.) |
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| Below is a close-up detail of the wooden deck. |
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| John Beal is a friend of the company.....and an accomplished sailor in his own right. (A sailing friend recently wrote, "If John is involved with Mimi, that boat is going to FLY.") Here are a few photos of John's first date with Mimi. |
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| It is our initial intention to price Mimi at $4500 for the wooden decked version, $3500 for the composite deck. These prices would include everything you see in the photos. Kevlar/glass hull, sail, rigging, dagger board, rudder and oars. When we produce our first composite deck for Mimi we will post photos and details here. Stay tuned. |
| This is our first video footage of Mimi being sailed. We apologize in advance for our crappy video-taping skills....we'll get and post better footage in the future. If you listen closely you can just barely hear, at 48 seconds in, a certifiable yahoo coming from Steve. We are quite sure he had no thought that anyone could hear him....but it is a true measure of how much we like this boat....perhaps you will too . http://youtu.be/j0zEEGdlEbY |
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