Today I found myself in Long Beach with my camera.The weather was darn near perfect.
I decided to see if I could get a few decent shots of the gondola operation there in Alamitos Bay.
A sandolo waits at dock for her passengers.
A double-rower or "two oared American gondola" as they are called at the operation there, navigates between brightly colored kayaks.
Another two-oared gondola crosses Alamitos Bay.
A varnished pupparin glides through a Naples Neighborhood.
This is one of only two pupparini in the Americas. The other one is in Sunset Gondola's fleet.
A traditionally rowed, locally-built gondola cruises by.
A similar gondola makes an appearance, this one without a ferro. These boats were built at the legendary Hill's Marine (now closed) by Jim Oberst, often with the assistance of gondoliers.
One more double-rower loaded with six passengers, moves on sparkling water.
4 comments:
Is that the renowned five-fingered ferro we see? Or is it 4 and a half?
that was my sandolo that night, just freshly painted and varnished by our boat guy. btw... where do you get your paint from, greg?
Hey, thanks for commenting.
Y'know, I noticed that she looked freshly painted.
As to the question about paint:
most of the time I just pay-through-the-nose like everyone else at West Marine.
I bounce around between a few different kinds of paint and varnish, depending on the situation.
I used to go for much more expensive "luxury brands", but I got tired of seeing the paint and varnish age and degrade just as quickly as the generic stuff.
Plus, a scratch is a scratch, whether it's in Epiphanes or plain-wrap varnish.
I HAVE found that Interlux's "Schooner" varnish (which I believe is a synthetic) likes to peel a bit more than I'd like.
Petit's "Easypoxy", while being nearly idiot-proof paint, doesn't always give me the shine level I prefer.
The bottom line with paint, varnish, or any other coating material, is that you're putting it on a working boat, and as such, you'll be putting MORE on, sooner than you'd like.
Whatever you do, once you've painted or varnished a boat, WALK AWAY, and don't look back, 'cause someone is rushing as fast as they can to ruin your work.
And if they aren't quick enough to do so, a seagull will beat them to it.
Thanks for the thorough response. Nice to see you in our neck of the woods, btw. W
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