Just about everyone dreams about the future when they are in high school and sometimes those dreams even come true.<\/p>\n
One of my dreams, early on, at least related to sailing, was to retire at 55 and to be able to go sailing and not have to return to work after a brief two week vacation.\u00a0 In the interest of total honesty, I missed my deadline by one year and retired at 56, six years ago.\u00a0 Better late than never.<\/p>\n
It seems that Brian D’Isernia, when he was in high school back in the 60s, had a dream to build a replica of a Grand Banks schooner, and a few years ago, he realized that dream.<\/p>\n
In 2014 he launched Columbia, a replica of the famous Essex MA built schooner by the same name, believed to be the fastest of the US Grand Banks schooners at the time, perhaps fast enough to beat the reigning champion, the Lunenberg schooner Blue Nose.\u00a0 Unfortunately, she foundered in a storm so was never able to test her speed against the Blue Nose.<\/p>\n
This is a photo of the launching of the original Blue Nose.\u00a0 The Bluenose II, a replica, now sails out of Lunenburg as a goodwill ambassador for Nova Scotia.\u00a0\u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/B-history.jpg\")
As a point of interest, when Brenda and I were newly weds back in the 70s, we took a car trip to Nova Scotia and went for a day sail on Blue Nose II.\u00a0 I still remember that day and oddly, the sweater that Brenda knitted and wore aboard.\u00a0 She’s been knitting nearly every day since then but that’s another story.<\/p>\n
This short video is of old film footage of the original Bluenose racing her Gloucester rival, Gertrude L. Thibault.\u00a0 It’s old footage and I expect, colorized.