Nina, lost at sea...

“As the Sea becomes your home. Your heart beats to to the rhythm of the waves, you feel the rise and fail of the tides with out the sight of land, the stars accompany you though out the night wondering across the sky.The sounds of waves and ocasional sound of a strange bird is all that is heard. The sails stand before you, not a ripple or movement as if they where cast of stone, so placid is the moment….”

-Captain David A. Dyche III, Schooner Nina
February 2010, somewhere off the Coast of Ecuador

Gaffers still ruled the waves when the Starling Burgess schooner Nina hit the scene in the 1920s, and long before Dorade began her dominant ways, Nina spent her time kicking schooner ass up and down the Atlantic Ocean. With innovations like a staysail rig, hollow masts, and ultra (for then) light weight, Nina won races from a few weeks after her launch near the turn of the century right through recent times. Called a ‘cheater’ and ‘rule beater’ (nothing changes, does it?), the schooner’s wee foremast and Bermuda rig made her more sloop than schooner, and she won nearly everything she touched.

And now, she’s gone; lost somewhere in the Tasman sea during a nasty gale last week – not the best place for a 90 year-old wooden boat to be. There was EPIRB, no wreckage found – nothing. Our thoughts go out to her American and British crew of 7.