Ships of Other Fools - September, 2021

There’s always someone with a bigger boat. (You just hope you don’t meet them on a blind corner.) Here’s a sample of some of the cool and unusual boats we’ve seen this summer.

The Perseverance is just about the largest ship in Esky Harbor. There are a few that are longer but probably none that outweigh her so it was a weird feeling when the Canim tied up right behind us on the wall. Hailing from Harbor Springs and measuring nearly 100’ in length she made the Perseverance look like a dwarf. The Canim was only there for a couple days, reportedly getting some work done at North Shore Marine. Sadly, we were not invited aboard.

Look at that gleaming brass railing!

Another customer at North Shore Marine, USS Minneapolis-St. Paul is a Navy littoral combat ship. (Littoral means near shore…I had to look that up.) She’s supposed to go real fast but there’s some kind of problem with the drive train. She was built in Marinette, WI and brought up to Escanaba for rework. Your tax dollars at work.

A great example of Yooper ingenuity, this little boat is truly Yoop-tastic. Start with a pontoon platform, add one kit shed from Menard’s and a little comfy seating and you‘re ready for fun. Drive it from the easy chair just behind the window. The back door opens right up so you can grab your floaty toys and jump right off the stern. Pontoons don’t handle choppy water too well so its use on Little Bay De Noc is limited to calm days.

OK, not exactly boats but these guys must’ve been ready for an off-road expedition in their vintage Land Rovers. I’m honestly not sure if these British-built vehicles are a match for the UP backwoods. I wish I could’ve talked to them to learn more of what they were up to. It would‘ve been fun to take an ‘after‘ picture at the end of the weekend but I never saw them again and I don’t know if anyone else did but there was nothing in the papers so I assume they got home OK.

Not all the cool boats are big. There’s a group that meets at least weekly to race RC sailboats in the marina. There’s plenty of strategy and friendly rivalry. Best of all you can heel way over and never get wet.