Tag Archives: Centennial II
The Closeteer: Launch in Newbury honors a worthy craft
Six-year-old Coral Withe leaning against Centennial II on the Fourth of July said, “This is beautiful.” Assembled family and friends, gathered for the launching of builder Dan Noyes’ copy of a famous sailing dory, agreed. Last year, Dan and the old Closeteer visited the first Centennial at Cape Ann’s lovely museum near City Hall in Gloucester. In 1776, patriotic fisherman Alfred Johnson built and then sailed her across the Atlantic to the country we had broken away from a century before. Dan carefully took the measurements off Johnson’s still intact 20-foot dory while the Closeteer roamed the museum, admiring other boats and fishing schooner models of note, and especially Fitz Henry Lane’s well-known paintings of Gloucester harbor in the days of sail. A year passed as Dan’s new Centennial II, still not yet named, took shape in his small boat shop. Finally, almost finished, she was launched at high tide the morning of July 4, 2017, 241 years after our nation’s independence had been so bravely declared. click here to read the story 09:13
