Taro 800 at Jamestown Boat Yard

15 February 2010 Taro 800

BOAT: Taro 800
OWNER: Reagan Construction Corp, Newport
DESIGNER & BUILDER: Nashville Bridge Co., Ashland TN http://www.nabrico-marine.com/pages/aboutus.html
HULL: Steel
LENGTH: 130 feet [39.6 meters]
YEAR: 1986
 HISTORY:
 Founded in the late 1800s by the Dyer family as a bridge building company, the Nashville Bridge Company slowly morphed into a barge building company. By the 1960s, it had become the world’s largest builder of inland barges. The company has since been sold, but still builds barges today.
 Taro 800 began her career moving sand and stone between New Bedford and Martha’s Vineyard. In 1990, The Reagan Construction Corp. bought the barge and installed SPUDS- long tubes capable of keeping the barge stationary in water as deep as 40 feet. A Manitowoc 100 ton crane was installed on deck, and Taro 800 became a powerful implement for a growing marine construction company.
 After nearly two decades of servicing ships, working on docks, and marinas, as well as countless other marine related jobs, Taro 800 is now working on improvements at Perrotti Park in Newport.
 Taro 800 is the second of two Reagan Construction Corp barges to work on the Perrotti Park project. The first barge came in to dredge the area during January, and now Taro 800 is helping with the construction of a new pavilion and docks.
By summer, everything will be done, and Taro 800 will be busy working somewhere else.

Spartina- Jamestown, R.I.

29 June 09 Spartina
BOAT: Spartina
OWNER: Mike Power, Jamestown
DESIGNER & BUILDER: Palmer Scott, New Bedford, MA http://www.woodtoglass.org/builders/palmer-scott.html
LENGTH: 26 feet [7.9 meters]
YEAR: 1953
HULL: Fiberglass
HISTORY:
 As the Block Island Race Week http://www.blockislandraceweek.com/takes place in the rain off our shores, the folks at Clark Boat Yard in Jamestown  http://www.clarkboatyardandmarineworks.com/are hard at work inside their shed. They are restoring an erstwhile navy launch that is arguably one of the first fiberglass boats ever built.
Established in 1935, the Palmer Scott yard burned to the ground in 1936. Undaunted, the owners relocated and began building extraordinary wooden yachts noted for such things as spiral staircases and hand carved mahogany tillers. This went on until WWII when all production switched over to military needs. After the war, demand for gorgeous wooden yachts was slow. Approached by a chemist with a radical new idea- fiberglass hull construction- the company took off in a new direction. They built a “male” mold for Spartina and pioneered what has become standard practice today- vacuum bagging. The result, is a hull that is smoother on the inside than outside, and it is very thick and strong.
At 56 years old, this early attempt at molded construction is alive and well, receiving full attention as the rain continues to prevent outside work.