Some like this yacht
QUESTION is the yacht that was used in the film Some Like It Hot?
2009.Where SADLY for your reader, they will need a wetsuit and an air tank to see it — it’s at the bottom of the Miami River in Florida, where it sank in
Tragically, it had just undergone a thorough overhaul. A sad ending for a beautiful yacht.
The 121ft Nevins yacht was built in New York’s famous Nevins Yard and completed in 1928. It started life as the Portola, but was renamed Tara and finally Lovely Lady in 1958.
Unusually for the time, it was mostly built of wood and highly varnished.
During World War II, the boat’s owner, from the New York Yacht Club, donated it to the U.S. Navy, as wooden boats made ideal minesweepers. After the war, it had many owners, including actor Errol Flynn.
In 1958, it was bought by entrepreneurs, who rented it to film and TV firms. Their first clients were the producers of the film Some Like It Hot (1959), starring Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis. It has also been seen on TV’s Batman and in Mel Gibson’s film Tequila Sunrise (1988).
The yacht was lifted into dry dock for the refurbishment and sank shortly after it was re-launched. Many attempts have been made to re-float it, but it is proving nearly impossible, partly due to its size. A screenplay of its history is being written.
Danny D’Arcy, Reading, Berks.
QUESTION Is gaffer tape carried aboard the International Space Station for any running repairs?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, duct tape (as used on the ISS) and gaffer tape Sad end: The yacht Lovely Lady — which starred in the film Some Like It Hot, with Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe (right) — sank in 2009 are different things. Duct tape is indeed usually grey and very sticky, originally used for sealing ventilation ducts and made of a plastic backing.
Gaffer tape is cloth-backed and, though sticky, is designed to hold things together or mark locations on film sets.
Unlike duct tape, gaffer tape can be easily removed without damaging paint or finishes and does not leave behind a sticky residue.
Any crew member who used duct tape instead of gaffer tape on a film set and damaged a wall, furniture or the carpet when they peeled it off would soon find themselves looking for another career. Lynwood Shiva Sawyer,
Selsey, W. Sussex.
QUESTION Is Guinness red, not black?
I’VE won many free pints in Irish pubs with a good flashlight proving that Guinness is not black.
Guinness is one of the only brewers in the world to roast its own barley.
A portion of malted barley is roasted in a similar way to coffee beans. This is an exact process: the barley is roasted to precisely 232c. It’s the roasted barley that adds complex flavour to the brew and gives Guinness its distinctive colour.
This is a hard thing for a home brewer to duplicate.
It’s easy to make a dark brown or a black stout, but very difficult to replicate the dark ruby red of Guinness.
Max Davies, Beaumaris, Anglesey.
IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB. You can also fax them to 0141 331 4739 or you can email them to charles. legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.