10.29- Foreign Yacht

Yacht cruising down ICW between Garbacon Shoals and Whittaker Creek on the Neuse River
(click on picture or here for full size)

I'm guessing this is about a 100 foot (or more) yacht, cruising at full throttle down the ICW as it passes by Oriental in the Neuse River... probably headed for Beaufort, where these big guys like to tie up.

The yacht is flying a foreign flag off the stern (with a "courtesy" small U.S. flag flying amidships)...

I have looked through some on-line flag directories, and all I can guess is that it is the flag of the Marshall Islands.

If you can identify the flag, please drop me an comment/ahoy at the end of this post... You can click on the picture above for a full size view.

Whittaker Creek marker No. 2 is on the right side of the picture, while a sailboat just visible on the left heads towards Whittaker Creek.

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9.26- "C-Brats" Meet

A 25' Cruiser by "C-Dory" tied up at the Wildlife Ramp, waiting to get
underway to the "C-Brats" gathering at Whittaker Pointe Marina.
(Click on picture or here for full size)

About 40 "C-Dory" boats are gathering this weekend at Whittaker Pointe Marina here in Oriental... Many were putting in at the Wildlife Ramp, but others came to Oriental by river and/or ICW.

These smallish boats have a lot of cruising amenities; two berths in the bow, galley with sink and alcohol or diesel stove, available enclosed head / shower or dinette convertible to two berths plus a third pilothouse seat, 6'5" of headroom.

Last week I featured a "Ranger Tug R21," a similar small pilothouse cruiser, at anchor in the harbor...

One or two Ranger Tugs may be coming in for the meet, as Ranger owners are welcome in the "C-Brats" club.

See the C-Dory manufacturer's site from Fluid Marine.

See the "C-Brats" online forum site.

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9.21- "Kandy Bar"

A cruiser relaxes and reads aboard his vessel, "Kandy Bar," while at anchor in Oriental Harbor.
(Click here for full size)

This handsome boat (for a stink-pot, that is) is a "Ranger R21"... it was built by a company called "Fluid Motion," but is sold by "Ranger Tugs"... The R21 has a sleeping berth, but the newer "R21 EC" ("extended cabin") adds 18 inches to the pilothouse, and includes amenities such as a galley, pressurized water and sink, and built-in head.

"Fluid Motion" and "Ranger Tugs" are owned by the same guy, John Livingston, out of Kent, Washington... Another company, "Martini Marine" also claims to be the manufacturer, though they do so on the Ranger Tugs internet domain. I can't really find out why there are three different company names associated with the boat.

To add to the confusion, these boats were also manufactured and sold as "C-Rangers" in some sort of marketing agreement with the folks who make the very similar "C-Dory," but that was apparently a short-lived arrangement.

There were also two "C-Dory"s (I don't know what the plural is... "C-Dories"?) tied up in Raccoon Creek today... probably some sort of meet-up, or maybe they were cruising in convoy.

According to the "C-Brats Online Forum," there will be a NC gathering of these types of boats here in Oriental, at Whittaker Pointy Marina, next weekend...

I will try to drop by and get some pics of a bunch of these Ranger and C-Dory boats gathered together, and maybe learn a bit more about them to share with everyone (like what's the deal with the three different "Ranger" companies?)

According to Ranger Tugs, the Ranger 21 is based on Bristol Bay fishing trollers...

Bristol Bay is home to an apparently very competitive Salmon gill-netting fishery, and is the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world.

By regulation, the Salmon trollers are limited to 32 feet in length, and do have a distinctive style... According to Wikipedia, the 32 foot limit is prompted in part by the extreme 30 foot tides, dangerous and uncharted shoals and other navigational limitations, but I wonder if it has more to do with fishery management... will have to research)... See some examples of the Bristol Bay trollers (with 20 inch drafts!) from one manufacturer, Rozema Boat Works.

Also, as I did in my discussion of much-closer menhaden fishing industry (no sockeye around these parts), I recommend the following video of the Bristol Bay commercial fishermen's extremely dangerous and hard work... at the end of the video, related videos of Bristol Bay trollers at work will appear:



All in all, I'd say that life on a 21 foot Ranger is much more relaxing than on a 32 foot Bristol Bay troller! I'm sure the captain in today's picture would agree.

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