New Boat 4 Sled

[BobJ]

I'm offering another cruise on WILDFLOWER to the most creative shorthanded piece of gear or technique posted below.

I installed a masthead VHF antenna while hanging from the masthead. The challenge was pulling the coax down through 40' of mast conduit.

Before going aloft I lashed a small block down at the mast base (in the cabin). I disconnected the bottom end of the wind transducer cable and tied/taped a messenger line to it, then ran the messenger line through the block and out the forward hatch, finally tying the tail to my TopClimber and taking it aloft. Up there, I pulled the transducer cable out from the top of the mast and tied/taped the coax to it then pulled the two cables back down through the conduit using the messenger line.

When you see a single-hander sitting in the cockpit staring off into space, he's probably cooking up something like that. (Or he might just have gas from eating all that squid.)

In the Vendee, BP and MACIF are a mile apart after 31 days and thousands of miles. BP is ahead but MACIF is sailing faster. An amazing performance! Sled, how's SLEDCAT doing?

 

[sleddog]

I was up at 11 pm last night to jibe my Vendee Virtual Race boat SLEDCAT. Unfortunately, the website was down for 45 minutes and SLEDCAT was sailing the wrong jibe at 15 knots during that time. The neighbors, seeing my lights flicking on and off, have suggested I "get a life."

BobJ: as of this moment, SLEDCAT is 27,333 out of 411,334. And we are back pickin' off the Frogs one by one.

Your description of pulling the coax wire downward while hanging from the masthead certainly has the attention of the Judges. However, one of them, a lady whose name I will forgo mentioning, described the feat as akin to Nixon trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube after WaterGate. Wha????

I can't remember who, but it was definitely a single-hander returning from Hawaii, ran his batteries flat at night ...He re-led his mainsheet single part down the hatch, through a snatch block, and around his diesel engine flywheel. He put the boat on a reach, released the compression levers, then released the mainsheet. The flywheel spun, the engine started, and the batteries were again charged.

 

[BobJ]

I thought everybody put the excess toothpaste back in the tube. I am, after all, a Scottish accountant . . .

Regarding starting the diesel, I've heard that tale but I can't remember from whom. Were you ever able to start your 1GM with the hand crank? I've tried several times without success. The compression release lever is spring-loaded so you have to hold it up with the left hand while trying to crank with the right from a bad angle. Maybe I need to prop up the lever with something.

Housekeeping on one of my earlier posts (due to poor memory) - I was trundling around on a J/105 last weekend and noticed the two waterfront restaurants at Jack London Square are Scott's and Kinkaid's. Scott's was the Seawolf and Kinkaid's must have been the Bow and Bell. The Waterfront Hotel was the Boatel back in the day.

 

[Critter]

I've heard the jibe-starter story also. I thought it happened in one of the solo round-the-world races. Probably been done more than once.

 

[AlanH]

The Stuff of Legend.

Truth.....Mike Jefferson re-wound an alternator, using extra wire he had on board, on the way back from a SHTP. This must have been in the early 90's, he was on FoxxFyre at the time. ..... or so the story goes, but Mike DID confirm it.

 

[AlanH]

One of my childhood heroes and pioneering British solo sailor Bill King has died at age 102. King was a much decorated British submarine captain, and the only man to command a sub from the first to the last day of WW II.

While restoring the roofless 12th century Oranmore Castle overlooking Galway Bay, the idea of sailing alone around the world took seed for King. He developed his own junk-rigged 42' schooner GALWAY BLAZER II to compete in the Sunday Times Golden Globe solo round-the-world race, which was eventually won by Robin Knox-Johnston.

King left Plymouth in August, 1968, but lost his rig two months later in what he described as the "worst storm I have ever witnessed" and was towed to Cape Town. A second attempt ended in Perth, Western Australia when ill health forced him ashore. He resumed his voyage the following year and finally completed his circumnavigation in 1973.

During his time in subs, Bill King survived on a "soap-like meat substitute" and became so haunted by the smell of Spam that he lived on raisins, wholemeal biscuits and almond paste for protein. For vitamin C he, like Chichester, grew watercress aboard, and collected the odd flying fish.

In 1975 The Cruising Club of America (CCA) awarded Commander Bill King the Blue Water Medal. I recommend his books, including "The Stick and the Stars" about his war experiences and "Adventure in Depth" about sailing.

When I was getting involved in Singlehanded stuff, I read a book...."Blue Water, Green Skipper" by Stuart Woods. Stuart lived in the UK in the early 70's and prepped a Ron Holland half tonner, a Golden Shamrock to do the 1972 OSTAR. The book is about the process of getting ready to do that, and training, then doing the race. Bill King featured prominently in the book, as an advisor to Stuart.

About 5 years ago I discovered a Golden Shamrock...a quintessentially British boat, for sale on SailingTexas. I contacted the guy...sure enough, it was Golden Harp, Stuart Woods boat. He'd have sold it to me for a song, but it needed ()*&^$(% - loads of work and it was on the East Coast. If' I'd had a spare $20K, though.....

 

[BobJ]

The Stuff of Legend.

Truth.....Mike Jefferson re-wound an alternator, using extra wire he had on board, on the way back from a SHTP. This must have been in the early 90's, he was on FoxxFyre at the time. ..... or so the story goes, but Mike DID confirm it.

Righto - in fact he re-wound it twice. This resulted in the creation of the "FoxxFyre" perpetual trophy, awarded to the SHTP skipper who demonstrates the most ingenuity in solving problems encountered during the race.

 

[sleddog]

BobJ:
I never was able to get my 1GM10 to handstart. I had Buzz lengthen the handle 2". Then rigged a small block directly over the engine. I led a light line from the compression lever up through the block, then aft to between my teeth.

I'd crank and crank, ready to open my clenched jaw and release the compression lever. But it was futile. Handcranking a Yanmar was a something I heard about, but never achieved. If anyone has handstarted their Yanmar, we'd like to hear about it!

 

[pogen]

I've heard the jibe-starter story also. I thought it happened in one of the solo round-the-world races. Probably been done more than once.

Mich Des did it in 2000

In 2008 Michel Desjoyeaux suffered mechanical difficulty at the start and ended up leaving almost two days after the others. His march through the fleet to an eventual victory marked him as one of the greats to play this game. He also won in 2000, the race where he had to pull start his engine using his mainsheet and a well timed gybe for most of the race. He will not be racing this time, but there are a number of seasoned veterans for whom this might be their best chance, and a new young group ready to challenge them. One woman, Sam Davies will challenge the men. She finished fourth last time.

from here: http://www.oceannavigator.com/Web-Exclusives-2012/Vendee-Globe-starts-November-10/

 

[sleddog]

The honor roll would be incomplete without mentioning Tom Dreyfus of New Orleans. The builder of ACADIA, Tom was late for the start of a 1980 SORC race off Miami because his plane got high-jacked to Cuba.

Back at Miami, Tom conned a helicopter guy to fly to the start line on the pretense of needing to take some photos. When they got over ACADIA, Tom threw his duffle bag out the helo door, thanked the startled pilot, and, from 75', jumped into the sea. He landed just ahead of ACADIA, whose crew was a bit startled to see Tom fall from the sky. They picked him up, started the race, and legend was born.

 

[sleddog]

Thanks to AlanH for giving us the link to a most wonderful short film on Commander Bill King. As King says in the film, "there is no chance to sin when you go to sea...." http://vimeo.com/31019844

 

[sleddog]

The lowest tide of the year this afternoon, and cause for walking west along the beach as far as Pleasure Point. It seemed about half the County, their kids and dogs were out enjoying the event. Only thing missing was a clothes pin for my nose, as there was a strong smell from hundreds of carcasses of Humboldt Squid decaying in the sand from their stranding event a few days ago.

 

[BobJ]

USS Brick

Continuing the sub-theme of growing up on the Estuary . . .

During the Summer while I was 13, I had a submarine.

Our family wasn't rich but we had some cool friends who were. One of these was a United pilot and engineer-type, Ernie Barter. The Barters got our family into boating with a ride on their powerboat, but that's another story. One Summer, Ernie needed a project so he built a submarine and surprised me with it. I instantly became the coolest kid at the Alameda Marina.

The hull was a 12' long surplus aircraft "drop tank," oriented with the fill cap on the bottom. Ernie attached a chunk of railway rail as a keel to keep it upright and installed a rudder controlled with two steering lines led forward to the sides of the "cockpit." Propulsion was by bicycle pedals that turned a morse-type cable led aft and through the hull to a propeller. This would prove to be the weak spot.

The "sail" was hinged on the port side so you could open it and climb in, and one of the coolest things was that with the sail closed you looked out through a screen - you could see them but they couldn't see you! The tail cone had proper-looking fins. The whole works was painted flat black and had the name "USS BRICK" painted on each side. (Brick was my childhood nickname.)

Maximum speed was maybe a half a knot until you over-wound the morse cable and it broke. It only submerged once (and permanently), on a dark night at the end of the Summer when my parents decided it had become too much of a hazard. More on that later.

 

[sleddog]

Just returned from "The Life of PI," a movie with stunning visual effects about a young man drifting in a lifeboat for 212 days with no companionship but a very wild Bengal tiger. The book and story took me back to a time in 2002, featuring the "The Life of PI" book and another, very different cat.

WILDFLOWER and I shared the Hanalei anchorage two different summers with EL TIBURON, Michael and Rory's Passport 42 from Pt. Richmond. Both times, 2000 and 2002, we were returning from the Pacific Cup. El TIBURON had a special interior, primarily designed as a home for their Maine Coon cat Snowball, the only cat I know to race across the Pacific twice.

In 2002, ELTIBURON departed Hanalei Bay for the mainland two days before WILDFLOWER. We'd organized a 2x/day radio gam between the two boats. On August 13 I weighed anchor and departed Hanalei for Santa Cruz

After nine days, about halfway home, I had caught up to ELTIBURON. On the radio, Rory said if we could rendezvous, they would pass over some warm sticky buns, fresh from EL TIBURON's oven. I replied that I just finished reading "Life of PI," and would pass them that book in return.

I could see El TIBURON about a mile up ahead, and was relaxing in WF's cockpit as we slowly overhauled them. Suddenly a most amazing thing happened: the blunt head of a large sperm whale arose from the sea alongside WILDFLOWER. The eye the size of a plate was staring at me from less than half a boat length away.

The whale slowly submerged and disappeared astern. I radioed my friends to tell them what I'd just seen. Michael, on the VHF, was out of breath told me THEIR story. A few minutes before, with Michael in the cockpit of EL TIBURON, a large whale had surfaced alongside. Michael was shocked, and called down the companionway to a sleeping Rory, "Whale!, bring the camera, quick!"

Rory woke up from her dream, thinking Michael had yelled "cat overboard!"

Only they know why, but EL TIBURON's cat overboard procedure was for Rory to jump in and rescue Snowball, while Michael turned the boat around.

Rory bounded up the companionway ladder to jump, which presumably would have landed her somewhere near the whale.

Luckily, she collided with Michael coming down the ladder to get the camera. They both landed in a heap on the cabin sole.

Rory woke up and said, "where's Snowball??!!" Michael replied Snowball was sleeping. Sure enough, Snowball was snoozing peacefully in her sock drawer, oblivious to the mayhem.

Michael and Rory got back up to the cockpit in time to shoot a short video of the whale swimming away (I have the clip). Presumably it was the same whale that came to visit WILDFLOWER a few minutes later.

Shortly thereafter I caught up to EL TIBURON. They tossed me warm sticky buns. My toss of the "Life of PI" bounced off the deck, and the book, wrapped in a Ziploc bag, fell into the sea.

Perhaps on some distant island, "Life of PI" drifted ashore, ready to be read, like a message in a bottle.

 

[BobJ]

Oops, simultaneous posts. Skip's tales are better than mine anyway.
_______________________

Ernie had suggested to my folks that once I'd had my fun with the little sub they should feel free to tow it out to deep water, open the fill cap on the bottom and let it sink.

After a few weeks the time came. Mom and Dad went over to the marina one night and towed it out to the center of the Estuary, removed the cap and it began to fill with water . . . very slowly. About that time a tour boat came along, with an on-deck party in full swing. My folks attempted to go the other way and ended up down near the Park St. Bridge before the tour boat finally turned around and headed back out. Eventually the little sub went to the bottom and that was that.

Hopefully the statute has run on non-toxic mid-Estuary submarine disposals.

 

[sleddog]

A lifeboat Tiger, an all black submarine on the Estuary, a curious bull sperm whale, a cat in a shipboard sock drawer racing to Hawaii, and our new SSS RC Chairperson at one time breaking into the Alameda Chief of Police's home. If you didn't know this group any better, you'd say we're crazy.

 

[sleddog]

The coast of Oregon is getting pummeled tonight. Winds already gusting 55 knots at Newport, and 63 knots at Cape Arago, at Coos Bay. That's serious breeze.

In the southern hemisphere, Cat.5 Hurricane Evan is over north and west Fiji.

 

[H Spruit]

A lifeboat Tiger, an all black submarine on the Estuary, a curious bull sperm whale, a cat in a shipboard sock drawer racing to Hawaii, and our new SSS RC Chairperson at one time breaking into the Alameda Chief of Police's home. If you didn't know this group any better, you'd say we're crazy.

Craziness is what gives this group socially redeeming value!
To quote Willy Nelson, "I've always been crazy but it has kept me from going INSANE!"

 

[Wylieguy]

Bill King Reference

The earlier references to Bill King sent me to the bookshelf. Stuart Woods is the detective author of the Stone Barrington and Holly Barker novels (among my favs), but long ago before that in 1976 he was living in Ireland and hatched the idea of sailing the "Observer" Singlehanded Tranatlantic Race - even though his total sailing experience was one season in a Mirror Dinghy and crewing with a few friends. He had Ron Holland build a boat, read some books, and talked Bill King into crewing with him on a race to the Azores. Eventually he did sail the "Observer" race, taking 45 days to do so. The story is a lesson in how "not" to prepare of a long ocean race - singlehanded or crewed, but King does make his appearance then disappears. It's a quick read. "Blue Water, Green Skipper" by Stuart Woods
Pat Broderick

 

[sleddog]

Pi, the fictional boy in "Life of Pi," is not the only one to cross an ocean with a tiger aboard. Our own Capt. Bob has done so in real life. But that's a sea story for him to tell......

Today at Santa Cruz Harbor they hauled in the remains of a giant squid, estimated to be 25 feet long. The tentacles were as big around as a human leg. You wouldn't want one of those coming aboard at night in the SHTP.

I read Alameda is getting a drone aircraft for police work. Do you think it could be rented for a few hours to patrol the restricted areas in the 3BF?