Blue-Bilge Mascareta

Along a fondamenta in south San Marco, a few strokes from the Canalazzo, I came upon this varnished beauty.

My guess is that she's a privately owned vessel, and not part of a rowing club fleet. There weren't many areas of the boat that hadn't been varnished, except of course that sky-blue bilge floor.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed a nameplate indicating that she'd been built by Vittorio Amadi in Burano.

Taking a closer look at the stern deck, I'm not sure if that's actually varnish or a polyurethane product. Whatever it is, the boat has someone who takes good care of her.

The mascareta here has trasti and other stabilizing elements which occupy the interior, indicating that even though she's presentable enough to be a passenger vessel, she's meant for recreational rowing.

Venice had just received a bit of rain, so I wan't surprised to see rainwater sitting in some of those blue bilge areas.

Standing on the fondamenta, I noticed an interesting piece of hardware. A stainless steel pipe was mounted into the side of the fondamenta, rose up a few feet, then extended down into the water - giving the owner of a boat the ability to lock their vessel without having to contend with the shifting tide.

And I got to thinking, "if I had a beautiful boat like this, I'd keep a lock on her too.