You don’t have to imagine the Glass Trinket. Here is a photo:
This is Rhe’s sailboat and it features prominently is Death in a Red Canvas Chair. The Glass Trinket is a 12 foot Beetle Cat, moored at the yacht club from where Rhe sails.This was Rhe’s boat when she was growing up, and like me, Rhe finds a freedom and release in sailing that makes life worth living.
Cat boats feature a gaff-rigged sail and cedar hull with an oak frame, which meant Rhe has to spend time every spring sanding, caulking, painting and varnishing. A Beetle Cat has two distinct features: a quadrilateral sail, or gaff rigging, raised by and suspended from a pole or spar attached to the top of the sail, and a centerboard, a retractable keel that pivots out of a slot in centerline of the hull.
Rhe uses the Glass trinket to sail up the coast from Pequod and moor near East Almorel, a mansion serving as a high class brothel, which sits on a cliff overlooking the ocean. She climbs up the steep stairs from the beach and snoops around the mansion to confirm her suspicions that young Pequod college students work there as ‘escorts,’ and she almost gets killed in the process.
The Glass Trinket will return in my fourth book, Death in a Mudflat.
I named the Glass Trinket for a boat owned by a friend of my parents.
Fascinating. Sailing is a mystery to me. I’ve learnt a few things from Rhe
I’ve got to bring her back in the fourth book – sailing is such an incredible experience, especially if you are at the helm!
Perhaps we’ll sail together one day😍
Wouldn’t that be ‘loverly’!
💗❤👏👏
Such an adorable name for a boat!
Named for a boat I was on when I was little – belonged to some friends of my parents and I just never forgot the name,
I envy that freedom and a facility with the waves that I will never have. 🙂
Never say never, Jo! Especially if you come here – I’ll take you out on my 17 footer and we’ll dance over the waves (she’s named The Dancer).
How incredible that would be. 🙂
Great picture, Noelle, because it takes me back to my sailing days on Barnegat Bay in NJ. We have cat boats there (B-Cats and A-Cats), but I mostly sailed a one-sail 12-foot wooden boat called a Penguin. I still dream about sailing!
I’ve never seen Penguin – will have to look that up. I actually grew up sailing a Turnabout – they’re called a Class 10 nowadays. The Turnabout name came from the fact they could come about on a dime – we used to have chicken races to the sides of yachts in the harbor to see who could get the closest before coming about – without hitting the side. The yacht owners were not pleased!
Utterly mystifying; surely the sea is there to be looked at only?
Oh no, no, no. It’s there to be swum in, sailed on, inhaled! The ultimate therapy!
We are all so very different. I’ll wave at you from the shore
Brave woman, Rhe, after my own heart. Sailing and solving crime. Great picture and description, Noelle. I love looking out at sail boats, but never been on one. Sharing post on Twitter.
Thanks, Sylvia. Put sailing on your bucket list! You can book a sail on one of the America’s Cup racing sloops in San Diego and San Francisco harbors!
That’s a cool looking sail boat. It looks like fun.
Bob will concur – sailing is amazing.
I’m glad she’s coming out for another outing!
Just trying to figure out how to do it!