Years ago there was a madman sailor/innovator in Sausalito. His mid-twenty foot sloop deck and cabin top was riddled with various holes where he's moved the mast around, he tried a mizzen mast and even a Felucca- style rig. He must have had a warehouse full of "booms" and even had a version of Wylie's wishbone boom at one time. For a long time he had the boat rigged as a "staysail" sloop. The shortened mast was at the transom with a "forestay" down to the stem. The sail was a jib hoisted horizontally and sheeted to the cabin-top mainsheet track. He adjusted the sail by moving the mainsheet car. It actually worked fairly well when reaching up and down the Sausalito waterfront where it was pretty much "self-tending."
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New Boat 4 Sled
- Thread starter sleddog
- Start date
"Everything that's old is new again." Not a Hobie 16. Thanks to William Letts Oliver, we have photos of catamaran DUSTER racing in 1894 on SF Bay. Can anyone identify the waterfront? I think DUSTER was a bit undercanvased in this photo, as her singlehanded skipper had flipped (and righted) his boat shortly before. That's the RC and spectators in the far right background on the Club deck.
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BobJ
Alerion 38 "Surprise!"
Hi Steve, Happy New Year to you and DIANNE! Sorry, catamaran DUSTER is not finishing near Belvedere Cove or CYC, but you can guess again.
By the way, no one has identified Sally Green as being the original head turning color of the 10 meter SALLY. So I am withdrawing chicken dinner prize at CBC for that piece of sailing trivia. The story is the original owner of SALLY asked his wife what color she wanted the new boat. She didn't really care much for sailing, looked down at her Ponds Cold Cream Jar lid, and said, "there, that color.."
Z-Spar paints made Sally Green paint for many years, and it's still available by special order...it was a most beautiful color on a beautiful boat. I got to see her a lot, as SALLY was moored next door to my grandparent's house in Balboa before being donated to UCSantaCruz...
A beautiful photo of restored SALLY, now painted white, is on SSS Forum page 236, post 2358, date 12/06/2017.
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Sad news: ANNALISE, a Wylie 34, lovingly owned by Paul and Anne for 33 years, sunk at her slip in Gig Harbor, and is being scrapped...from the photo, it appears a below waterline hose detached. Reportedly the thru-hull was open... With the vibration of small diesel engines, checking hose clamps (I only see one) and hose tightness on fittings regularly is wise. The sad end of a well loved boat.
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When I was a kid, one of my "jobs" whenever we went sailing [once the family boat had scaled up to having an inboard] was to open the raw water seacock when we got to the boat and close it before we left.
Without fail; Every. Single. Freakin'. Time.
Even when we went to the grocery store in Friday Harbor on the summer cruise... I remember that one because by that point I was a snotty teenager and argued that it seemed a bit over the top (or choicer words to that effect).
Dad could be really old school.
But I still won't leave the boat without closing all the seacocks.
Thanks Dad.
DH
Without fail; Every. Single. Freakin'. Time.
Even when we went to the grocery store in Friday Harbor on the summer cruise... I remember that one because by that point I was a snotty teenager and argued that it seemed a bit over the top (or choicer words to that effect).
Dad could be really old school.
But I still won't leave the boat without closing all the seacocks.
Thanks Dad.
DH
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Thanks, Bob! And Happy New Year to you.
As an unapologetic romantic, seeing the Herreshoff "Fighting Forty" MARILEE sailing again after her second recent restoration is a magical treat. You see, my sister is also "Marilee" and she has a 8.5x11 sailing photo of her namesake hanging over her office desk.
In an scene of pure serendipity, one recent night at the Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, my sister Marilee and I ran into long time sailing friend Bill Barton from the iMP days. Bill was wearing a MARILEE crew shirt and when introduced to my sister, shed his shirt and presented it to her.
A couple of years earlier I was making a pilgrimage to the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, R.I., where MARILEE was built in 1926. I happened to have learned the password (you don't pronounce Herreshoff with the "H", but rather HerrSoff,") and was told where I might find Halsey Herreshoff, Capt.Nat's grandson. I had some questions about the traditional green bottom paint and found Halsey's office across Burnside St., the door open but no Halsey..I peered inside and there were blue sail bags stacked ceiling high, all labeled "RUGOSA."
RUGOSA is Halsey's NY 40, sistership to MARILEE. And RUGOSA, 65 feet overall, was swinging at her mooring just offshore where Halsey was probably tinkering down below. Here's RUGOSA and Halsey in a short video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RviVY7FCUPQ
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As kids we spent significant time body surfing between the Wedge and Newport Pier. During those years, we never had an encounter with something live and dangerous.
The recent capture of a 25 inch, rare, venomous yellow-bellied sea snake at Newport Beach is eye opening and possibly belies the new normal. Likely drawn north in search of food by warming ocean temps, this marine serpent was found in the surfline at 18th St.. It's short sharp fangs are capable of delivering extremely potent venom, although local herpetologists say it is usually a pretty mellow animal unless picked up.
This is only the fifth Yellow-Belly (Pelamis platura,) found in S.Cal since 1972, when one washed up on a San Clemente Beach. Monday's snake was captured by marine biologists from the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, deemed sick, and euthanized to be studied. Poor snake.
Water temperature in the vicinity of Monday's snake sighting was about 60 degrees F, a non-El Nino year. Maybe too cold for the Yellow-Belly, who got caught out of it's range, which is tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Yellow-Bellys are strictly pelagic, don't have scales, give birth at sea, have a flattened tail paddle, and never come ashore.
Curiously, Yellow Bellys cannot exist in fresh water, but require fresh water to survive, drinking precipitation that collects on the surface of sea water.
The recent capture of a 25 inch, rare, venomous yellow-bellied sea snake at Newport Beach is eye opening and possibly belies the new normal. Likely drawn north in search of food by warming ocean temps, this marine serpent was found in the surfline at 18th St.. It's short sharp fangs are capable of delivering extremely potent venom, although local herpetologists say it is usually a pretty mellow animal unless picked up.
This is only the fifth Yellow-Belly (Pelamis platura,) found in S.Cal since 1972, when one washed up on a San Clemente Beach. Monday's snake was captured by marine biologists from the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, deemed sick, and euthanized to be studied. Poor snake.
Water temperature in the vicinity of Monday's snake sighting was about 60 degrees F, a non-El Nino year. Maybe too cold for the Yellow-Belly, who got caught out of it's range, which is tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Yellow-Bellys are strictly pelagic, don't have scales, give birth at sea, have a flattened tail paddle, and never come ashore.
Curiously, Yellow Bellys cannot exist in fresh water, but require fresh water to survive, drinking precipitation that collects on the surface of sea water.
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Not sure why it took 11 months, but the National Center for Environmental Information, a division of NOAA, just this past week certified a 199 mph (173 knot) wind gust as the strongest wind ever recorded in California. The record was set at Alpine Meadows ski resort last February, at a private weather station atop the 8,637' local peak. Alpine is near the north west shore of Lake Tahoe.
It is difficult to imagine wind of this strength, especially cold wind. I don't know what the wind chill factor would have been, because it is off the chart. Doesn't matter, because any human present not strapped to the ground would likely have been blown off the peak.
Just for reference, here is the resident meteorologist atop New Hampshire's Mt. Washington Observatory attempting to stand in a mere 109 mph wind. Mt. Washington holds the record for the highest wind speed ever recorded in the Lower 48 at 231 mph, recorded on April 12, 1934.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wWrdwZpzvk
Which begs the question: just how is wind speed of this velocity recorded, and how is the instrument positioned, maintained, and calibrated? Unless the instrument was tested in a wind tunnel with sophisticated instrumentation, it would seem accuracy would be a question, as it is for most off-the-shelf masthead cup type anemometers on boats.
The most wind I've experienced was at the Mono Lake Ranger Station, where the westerly, downslope breeze was gusting solidly over 70 mph, with lulls in the 60's, and several big rig trucks along nearby Hwy 395 lay on their sides. Mono Lake, usually greenish/brown, was solid white with spume.
I was also at sea in the "toughest Bermuda Race in history," the 1972 race to the Onion Patch, when the fleet crossed tracks with the tail end of Hurricane Agnes. Aboard the 68 foot ultra-light schooner NEW WORLD we had a close encounter with a water spout, and were down to storm canvas: storm jib and triple reefed main and still leaping off waves at 6-7 knots.
This was the last "traditional" Bermuda Race, as no instrumentation was allowed. A sextant was useless in the wind and rain as we closed on Bermuda's fringing reef.... Here's a brief story by good friend Andy Mac of that Bermuda Race, when even mighty WINDWARD PASSAGE blew out sails and had rig damage. http://bermudarace.com/looking-back-navigating-the-wildest-thrash/
It is difficult to imagine wind of this strength, especially cold wind. I don't know what the wind chill factor would have been, because it is off the chart. Doesn't matter, because any human present not strapped to the ground would likely have been blown off the peak.
Just for reference, here is the resident meteorologist atop New Hampshire's Mt. Washington Observatory attempting to stand in a mere 109 mph wind. Mt. Washington holds the record for the highest wind speed ever recorded in the Lower 48 at 231 mph, recorded on April 12, 1934.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wWrdwZpzvk
Which begs the question: just how is wind speed of this velocity recorded, and how is the instrument positioned, maintained, and calibrated? Unless the instrument was tested in a wind tunnel with sophisticated instrumentation, it would seem accuracy would be a question, as it is for most off-the-shelf masthead cup type anemometers on boats.
The most wind I've experienced was at the Mono Lake Ranger Station, where the westerly, downslope breeze was gusting solidly over 70 mph, with lulls in the 60's, and several big rig trucks along nearby Hwy 395 lay on their sides. Mono Lake, usually greenish/brown, was solid white with spume.
I was also at sea in the "toughest Bermuda Race in history," the 1972 race to the Onion Patch, when the fleet crossed tracks with the tail end of Hurricane Agnes. Aboard the 68 foot ultra-light schooner NEW WORLD we had a close encounter with a water spout, and were down to storm canvas: storm jib and triple reefed main and still leaping off waves at 6-7 knots.
This was the last "traditional" Bermuda Race, as no instrumentation was allowed. A sextant was useless in the wind and rain as we closed on Bermuda's fringing reef.... Here's a brief story by good friend Andy Mac of that Bermuda Race, when even mighty WINDWARD PASSAGE blew out sails and had rig damage. http://bermudarace.com/looking-back-navigating-the-wildest-thrash/
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Your post reminds me of the stories my older brother would tell me about Mount Washington in New Hampshire where he lives. He would take me there when I would visit in the summer and tell me how it is the windiest place in the world. A good story of that record-taking measurement is here:
https://www.mountwashington.org/about-us/history/world-record-wind.aspx in which they say, "It is incredibly difficult and dangerous to climb atop a building in winds greater than 180 miles per hour to free an anemometer of ice." Umm, yeah? I have always been a little freaked by wind (a funny thing for a sailor to admit to) but when I was about 8 years old in Florida, there was a hurricane brewing and I ran outside to get the wash off the line. My mother, a single parent, was still at work and we kids were home alone. I distinctly recall my feet leaving the ground as I ran out to "rescue" the clothes. It's a surreal memory that's clear to me even today, but thinking back, it was probably only 50 or 60 knots since I was a light kid. Years later, the biggest wind I experienced was around 100 MPH from another hurricane in Florida. The noise was more scary than the wind. When I first started sailing, I swore I'd never want to go out in anything more than 20 knots. Sailing SF Bay disabused me of that, but 36 knots is about the biggest I've seen so far. Baby steps....
https://www.mountwashington.org/about-us/history/world-record-wind.aspx in which they say, "It is incredibly difficult and dangerous to climb atop a building in winds greater than 180 miles per hour to free an anemometer of ice." Umm, yeah? I have always been a little freaked by wind (a funny thing for a sailor to admit to) but when I was about 8 years old in Florida, there was a hurricane brewing and I ran outside to get the wash off the line. My mother, a single parent, was still at work and we kids were home alone. I distinctly recall my feet leaving the ground as I ran out to "rescue" the clothes. It's a surreal memory that's clear to me even today, but thinking back, it was probably only 50 or 60 knots since I was a light kid. Years later, the biggest wind I experienced was around 100 MPH from another hurricane in Florida. The noise was more scary than the wind. When I first started sailing, I swore I'd never want to go out in anything more than 20 knots. Sailing SF Bay disabused me of that, but 36 knots is about the biggest I've seen so far. Baby steps....
BobJ
Alerion 38 "Surprise!"
This was near the Siberia Chair (Squaw-Alpine) the previous month. It's a clip of a screen shot from NOAA. I don't remember if it was knots or MPH:
"Puff ON!"
I recall a summer backpacking trip when a front came in and wow....was it ever windy. It was a lot windier than anything I'd ever experienced on the water, but it only lasted for about 15 minutes. 60? Maybe 70?
The only time I've seen 40 knots on the water was a squall just out past the first entrance buoys on a Farallones race in around 2000 or 2001. That lasted bout 15 minutes as well, but took a toll of the fleets sails. I have a hard time conceiving of 180 knots.
The only time I've seen 40 knots on the water was a squall just out past the first entrance buoys on a Farallones race in around 2000 or 2001. That lasted bout 15 minutes as well, but took a toll of the fleets sails. I have a hard time conceiving of 180 knots.
With Santa Cruz Harbor entrance closed because of shoaling and giant surf, nothing for it but to go in search of the trail of one of California's most famous banditos, Joaquin Murrieta (1829-1853). Murrieta was a Mexican from Hermosillo who came to California to take part in the 1849 Gold Rush only to experience discrimination, his wife raped, his brother lynched, and he himself horsewhipped.
Depending on who you believe, Murrieta became a horse rustler, or bandito, hiding out in the Panoche Valley in the caves of the Diablo Range, above and beyond the New Idria mine. Again, depending on who you believe, Murrieta's exploits earned him a name as the "Mexican Robin Hood" and a $6,000 bounty was issued for his head by the California Legislature.
A posse of 20 California Rangers, led by Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff Harry Love, went after Murrieta in 1853 and with a lucky break caught Murrieta's band of desperadoes, bringing in the severed head of Murrieta preserved in whisky to claim the reward.
Sheriff Love further profited by exhibiting Murrieta's head throughout the state, charging $1 for a view. Eventually the head ended up in a San Francisco museum, where it went missing in the Great Earthquake of 1906.
But was it really Joaquin Murrieta's head preserved in whisky? Some say it was not, and that he lived to be an old man. Murrieta's story became the stuff of legend when he was modeled as Zorro (Spanish for "fox"), a fictional character created in 1919 by pulp writer Johnston McCulley.
With RUBY in tow, as we bounced along the pot holed and deserted country road 30 miles south of Hollister, I could easily imagine Joaquin Murrieta and his gang riding nearby, silhouetted along the ridges of the Diablo Range.
Depending on who you believe, Murrieta became a horse rustler, or bandito, hiding out in the Panoche Valley in the caves of the Diablo Range, above and beyond the New Idria mine. Again, depending on who you believe, Murrieta's exploits earned him a name as the "Mexican Robin Hood" and a $6,000 bounty was issued for his head by the California Legislature.
A posse of 20 California Rangers, led by Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff Harry Love, went after Murrieta in 1853 and with a lucky break caught Murrieta's band of desperadoes, bringing in the severed head of Murrieta preserved in whisky to claim the reward.
Sheriff Love further profited by exhibiting Murrieta's head throughout the state, charging $1 for a view. Eventually the head ended up in a San Francisco museum, where it went missing in the Great Earthquake of 1906.
But was it really Joaquin Murrieta's head preserved in whisky? Some say it was not, and that he lived to be an old man. Murrieta's story became the stuff of legend when he was modeled as Zorro (Spanish for "fox"), a fictional character created in 1919 by pulp writer Johnston McCulley.
With RUBY in tow, as we bounced along the pot holed and deserted country road 30 miles south of Hollister, I could easily imagine Joaquin Murrieta and his gang riding nearby, silhouetted along the ridges of the Diablo Range.
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Never a dull moment in the middle of the night:
A bulletin has been issued by the National Tsunami Warning Center. A Tsunami Watch is in effect for the California coast due to an 8.2 earthquake in Kodiak, Alaska. .
A Tsunami Watch is an alert issued to areas outside the warned area. The area included in the watch is based on the magnitude of the earthquake. For earthquakes over magnitude 7.0, the watch area is 1-hour tsunami travel time outside the warning zone.
We anticipate that if a tsunami occurs in Santa Cruz Harbor, it will be dangerous dockside and aboard your vessel. We are not recommending people come to the harbor, but monitor the situation and notify 911 if you know of someone in the immediate harbor area who may be in danger.
The harbor patrol is actively watching docks, monitoring activity, securing lines, contacting known liveaboards.
If you are aboard your vessel, it is recommended you vacate your vessel and seek higher ground.
Fortunately the tsunami alert was canceled...the last tsunami to hit Santa Cruz Harbor destroyed much of the harbor, sunk dozens of boats, and caused $25 million in damages, still being repaired seven years later...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgt8qBSZEn0
A bulletin has been issued by the National Tsunami Warning Center. A Tsunami Watch is in effect for the California coast due to an 8.2 earthquake in Kodiak, Alaska. .
A Tsunami Watch is an alert issued to areas outside the warned area. The area included in the watch is based on the magnitude of the earthquake. For earthquakes over magnitude 7.0, the watch area is 1-hour tsunami travel time outside the warning zone.
We anticipate that if a tsunami occurs in Santa Cruz Harbor, it will be dangerous dockside and aboard your vessel. We are not recommending people come to the harbor, but monitor the situation and notify 911 if you know of someone in the immediate harbor area who may be in danger.
The harbor patrol is actively watching docks, monitoring activity, securing lines, contacting known liveaboards.
If you are aboard your vessel, it is recommended you vacate your vessel and seek higher ground.
Fortunately the tsunami alert was canceled...the last tsunami to hit Santa Cruz Harbor destroyed much of the harbor, sunk dozens of boats, and caused $25 million in damages, still being repaired seven years later...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgt8qBSZEn0
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So we did run into Joaquin Murrieta (aka Zorro) and his merry band of Robin Hood banditos last week. Here's the story:
Murrieta had his hideouts in the rocky cliffs of the Diablo Range, at the southern end of the Panoche. The Panoche (pa-no-che) is a wide open and empty valley, 20 miles wide and 50 miles long, 35 miles west of Los Banos and the same distance south of Hollister. It is a beautiful and serene location with nothing for many miles but wildflower laden hills, coyotes, kit foxes, bob cats, and dark night skies. There's only one way in and out, Little Panoche Rd.
Driving east along Little Panoche Rd. we came to our destination, the oasis of Mercey Hot Springs, and pulled into our campsite. Nearby are the tubs, a pool, some cabins, two rental Airstreams, and not much else except for the shade of some very old trees.
Mercey's warm and medicinal waters were discovered bv Native Americans, later by sheep rancher John Merci. Even Hollywood had its day, as actors would discretely bring their mistresses for a vacation. But the hotel burned down in the 1930's, and things remain rustic.
I'm sure Joaquin Murrieta frequented Mercey Hot Springs, as the trail through the Panoche passed nearby.
There are many rabbits, ground squirrels, and frogs on Mercey's 160 acres. Good hunting for local residents. We had a bobcat walk through camp, and coyote paw prints followed the muddy creek bank.
Overhead, on tree limbs, resided the spirits of Joaquin Murrieta's gang...We counted at least 3 great horned owls, several long earred owls, and a heart shaped barn owl. At 5:12 pm each evening, the owls would take flight, and their dinner hunting began. Murrieta's right hand man was "Tres Dedos," aka "3 Fingered Jack." It was not hard to imagine the barn owl being the ghost of 3 Fingered Jack.
One evening as I was walking near the creek to check out the vocal frog population, I shone my flashlite downward. There, nearby on the water's edge, was a large juvenile great horned owl we'd named "Wheezer" for his plaintive "feed me" squawks to nearby mom. It was obvious what Wheezer was doing: fishing for frogs.
If you want to meet Joaquin Murrieta, 3 Fingered Jack, Wheezer and the rest of the merry band of owls, they hang out at 36-42-36 N x 120-51-36 W.
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Congrats to Matt and John on finishing first in last Saturday's 3 Bridge Fiasco! A combination of good planning, execution, and perseverance swung luck their way, and IMMORAL, their Moore-24, was the only boat to successfully round Treasure Island counter-clockwise, the winning move.
A significant factor in their negotiation of TI's southern and eastern sides was an active and bold use of anchoring in the shoal water and eddys just feet from the cliffs...Their near shore proximity allowed them to quickly pull up the anchor when a stray puff visited, and they would advance several lengths before re-anchoring while waiting for the next puff.
Many boats anchored during the 3BF to prevent losing ground. For Matt and John, converting anchoring into an activity that helped advance forward progress, not something that can be readily practiced, was key to their well earned win. Kudos, Gentlemen.
A significant factor in their negotiation of TI's southern and eastern sides was an active and bold use of anchoring in the shoal water and eddys just feet from the cliffs...Their near shore proximity allowed them to quickly pull up the anchor when a stray puff visited, and they would advance several lengths before re-anchoring while waiting for the next puff.
Many boats anchored during the 3BF to prevent losing ground. For Matt and John, converting anchoring into an activity that helped advance forward progress, not something that can be readily practiced, was key to their well earned win. Kudos, Gentlemen.
Impressive beyond description, watching Leo size, locate, and move 35 feet of massive purple heart timber for TALLY HO's new keelson. The timbers, which he has to scarf together, weigh more than 3,000 pounds and cost upwards of $6,000.
http://sampsonboat.co.uk/14-buying-a-new-keel-timber/
http://sampsonboat.co.uk/14-part-2-cutting-and-fitting-the-keel-scarph/
Just watching Leo cut and shape the scarf with a modified chainsaw and power planers is worth a few minutes of attention. You'll not see this skill and craftsmanship anyplace else. I love it, the chickens walking in and out of the scene, the parrot participating in encouragement. TALLY HO is in good hands.
Here on the homefront, I've been asked to help locate a slightly smaller version of TALLY HO: Peter Tangvald's 43 foot, E.P.Hart designed, double-ended yawl WINDFLOWER. Tangvald sailed WINDFLOWER from England to San Pedro in 1958 before selling WINDFLOWER, and shortly after losing his life on a reef.
http://sampsonboat.co.uk/14-buying-a-new-keel-timber/
http://sampsonboat.co.uk/14-part-2-cutting-and-fitting-the-keel-scarph/
Just watching Leo cut and shape the scarf with a modified chainsaw and power planers is worth a few minutes of attention. You'll not see this skill and craftsmanship anyplace else. I love it, the chickens walking in and out of the scene, the parrot participating in encouragement. TALLY HO is in good hands.
Here on the homefront, I've been asked to help locate a slightly smaller version of TALLY HO: Peter Tangvald's 43 foot, E.P.Hart designed, double-ended yawl WINDFLOWER. Tangvald sailed WINDFLOWER from England to San Pedro in 1958 before selling WINDFLOWER, and shortly after losing his life on a reef.
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