Craighill Rear Range, Md. and Alpena, Michigan are shipping from the dealers to the collectors, per my dealer phone call today!

Picked up the #309 Craighill Rear Range light & #312 Alpena light during lunch today. Both are skeletal towers and as is the norm these days they are both well done with lots of details from fishing poles & back pack to nice boats on each.

The Craighill light is relatively simple in appearance and is sitting on 9 small stone piers. It has a motor launch with a flag flying from the stern sitting in front of the entry ladder. It is nice to see the light up close since all I had was a long range view on the last reunion cruise.

The Alpena light is a small & very simple light sitting on 4 pipe with a few small items and plants underneath. It also has a very nice sailboat in front of it with a person at the rudder. The problem with this piece is that one of the sails has broken loose from the mast, and my dealer said that all three of the pieces he received are in the same condition. He call HL and they are aware of the problem and may be looking at redesigning the sails. This piece has several other details that require one to be very careful in handling, or other details could easily break off. I will be very interested in how HL addresses the sail issue since it looks very nice, but it won't stand up to much mishandling.

Now you’ve got me apprehensively curious. My dealer called this afternoon and said that Craighill Rear Range, MD and Alpena, MI were just delivered to her store. She’ll be shipping them to me sometime tomorrow. Now I can hardly wait.

I hope that they both arrive safely. My body is quivering with avid anticipation. I just hate having to return such beautiful creations to the sender.

Many thanks, Dick, for the information about the sail. I will be extremely careful.

Bob

This kind of thing always worries me. If it breaks in shipment to the dealer or the consumer they'll replace it, but what happens if the consumer accidently handles it wrong and something breaks? I'll tell you what happens, you're stuck with a damaged HL worth next to nothing.

It's wonderful to see all the delicate little things HL manages to put on their work, but it isn't very heart warming to see something break off because it is so delicate.

Often times HL's travel from one end of the country to the other. Pieces are resold and sometimes shipping can damage them. Sure you can insure them and recover your loss, but the piece is also lost forever.

It's nice to hear there are a couple more new releases out. I sincerely hope that they make it to our homes without being damaged. It's nice to receive a piece on time and not have to wait six months for a replacement.

:rolleyes: Bob :rolleyes:

Dick's dealer called me yesterday too and I'm visiting this morning. He also mentioned he has the Okracoke GLOW in too. Let's see what affect this has on the LE value, I suspect less than imagined.

Picked up the Craighill yesterday (tall, isn't it). Dick is right, the Alpena is going to have real problems with the very small sail attachment. That rear spar looks kinda vulnerable too. We looked at the Okracoke GLOW just to see. Our dealer's had problems with the lights not functioning on other GLOWs but this worked well, even when the battery pack fell out of the bottom of the light. Small, short screws in resin may be a problem. Has anybody else seen this happen?

I received my Craighill Range and Alpena today. The Craighill made it okay but the Alpena is damaged. I will address that piece in its own thread to see how many people have similar damage.

Bob