July 19, Mallets Bay, VT

Scattered thunderstorms all over the Lake Champlain today. We stayed in Essex for most of the morning.

Barry Hamilton, who owns this marina, showed us a 38 foot wooden boat under restoration in his indoor repair facility at the boat yard. The boat is a 1927 Dawn boat, possibly manufactured in Maine. It has been under restoration for the last several years and the owner is giving it up to Barry for the storage charges ($3,000). Barry is looking for a solution to save the boat and get it out of his shop ($3,000 and you take it away ?). Anybody interested?

Thirty-eight foot 1927 Dawn

PARADER is partially restored.

New keel is in place. Some planking missing.
357 Chevy gas engine installed but not hooked up.

Here is PARADER in better times. Sept 10, 2004 she won 'Best of Class' at the Basin Harbor, VT, Antique Boat Show. At that time she had a 80 hp Kermath engine.

There are two smaller wooden inboard runabouts also in the shop. A Chris Craft Sea Skiff and a Century. Probably available.

Chris Craft Sea Skiff

Century

We left Essex at mid morning and moved 25 miles north to Mallets Bay which is just a few miles north of Burlington by car. This is the boating center of the area and we see lots and lots of boats here. We are staying at the Moorings Marina and arrive in the rain.

As we enter Mallets Bay

Moorings Marina

Lynn Zinke, a friend of Owen's from high school, lives south of Burlington and comes to the marina to welcome us to the area. We are treated to a grand tour of Burlington. Seems to be a very nice medium sized city with a walking area (Church Street) downtown, a large and attractive university area (U. Vermont) and attractive residential areas.

Lynn takes us to the Shelburne Farms, a 1400 acre working farm established in 1886 by William Seward Webb and Lila Vanderbilt Webb. Shelburn Farms is an historic showplace available for tours and is operating as a farm and has a very fine restaurant and 24 room inn operating out of the main home. This is a spectacular property, like the Biltmore home in Ashville, NC (another Vanderbilt undertaking), and is very popular with guests and tourists in the summer and fall. The grounds were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted who also designed Central Park in NYC and the Biltmore grounds in NC. The buildings were designed by Robert Henderson Robertson.

Shelburne Farms Carriage House

English Style Flower Garden.

Shelburne Farms Inn.
Former main house of Shelburne Farms.

Owen and Lynn Zinke

Lynn Zinke works at Sherburne Farms and we got to hear all about the history and the current operations. We were very glad to see this large and historic property. Very special to see Lynn here in Vermont.