New Boat 4 Sled

[Philpott]

Hi Jackie, Is it my imagination, or has your font size become miniaturized?

I think it is your browser. Maybe you use Internet Explorer? In Chrome my responses are a robust and beautiful Book Antiqua Size 2. In IE they are tiny and difficult to read. I will post even bigger here, and use size 4. But the important thing is that you will buy me a coffee. Maybe even go up top for a latte?

 

[AZ Sailor]

View attachment 4259

So what is the horizontal black strap on the corner by the transom?

. . . sheet to tiller self steering

. . . GANNET's "Great Cabin."

. . . colony of goose barnacles on GANNET's forward waterline

To these questions, in order:

There is, of course, an identical strap on the port side. These are the stainless steel plates installed to take the bridle for the Jordan Series Drogue he carried. He had the load calcs done, and that's what you're going to need on a 2,000 pound boat. Don't try hooking the bridle to the slotted toe rail on your croozer. He had no occasion to deploy the JSD on this circuit.

I don't know the particulars of his sheet-to-tiller system, but he used it about as much as the tiller pilots for self steering all the way around the world.

The "Great Cabin," so named with evident irony, is the salon. It provides sitting headroom for him when he is seated on the floorboards facing aft. He says he is probably the only person who, on going below on a Moore 24 for the first time thought "this is roomier than I thought it would be."

The goose neck barnacles were a small cluster on either side of the bow area, just above the waterline. There might be a picture that shows them.

 

[sleddog]

OK, we have a geography question with a chicken dinner prize at CBC for the first to answer correctly by noon, Wed. 5/15/19.

Currently there are a dozen little ships and their single and doublehanded crews sail camping at this location. It is located in Northern or Central California. It can be tidal, or not tidal, you never know until you arrive. It is not near any population centers and distant from big cities. When not sailing their small craft, many crews can be seen bending over, or on their knees, on the gravel beach searching for gemstones. What is the location, and what is the gemstone, once used for ship's ballast, but now more often coveted for rebalancing and harmonizing body, mind and spirit, cleansing and stabilizing the aura, eliminating and transforming negativity.


pic courtesy of Magicians

 

[BobJ]

Bolinas Lagoon, agate?

 

[Jonathan Gutoff]

Christine and I say Smith River and Geodes. I've rafted the Smith from the forks in the little Avon and the estuary looks very similar.

 

[WBChristie]

Big Lagoon, just north of Trinidad CA....Laguna agate

 

[sleddog]

Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Just when I was going to suggest no one had yet answered correctly, WBChristie edited his post and has answered correctly.... Hard to stump this crowd. Mr. Christie, what is your homeport?

I am no gem specialist. I believe agates and geodes are related and agates can be found in geodes as small, solid, round nodules. Thus a geode agate is one type of agate.

I've never been to Big Lagoon, south of Crescent City and north of Arcata/Eureka. Perhaps we'll have a trip report from them that has. Meanwhile, here are some agates found on the beach at Big Lagoon. Apparently they are becoming more rare, like seaglass at Fort Bragg.

 

[WBChristie]

Homeport is Brookings Oregon, just up the road from Big Lagoon... I travel the road to Eureka fairly often and feel blessed to live in this area. Stop by if you're in the vicinity.

 

[AntsUiga]

There are 4 lagoons in the area, but one may be mostly dry. It seems to be a paddlers or small boat paradise. Some campsites are float in only. My next trip north or south through there with a boat under 200 pounds will find me spending some time floating on the lagoons.

Ants

 

[sleddog]

For those interested, Webb Chiles will be speaking about his 6th and most recent circumnavigation on his Moore-24 GANNET at the RYC. Webb will be at the Richmond YC, 7:30-9 pm, Thursday, May 30. The presentation will be free, but reservations are requested before May 30th http://www.richmondyc.org/Calendar/Event/13823~1445788~1

 

[sleddog]

Lee's photos of GANNET beg some questions. Maybe Webb Chiles will stop by the Forum and give us some first person explanations...
[How was the sheet to tiller self steering arranged and in what windspeed and sail angle did it work best/worst? From reading Webb's blog, it sounded like there was shock cord pulling to leeward from the tiller. And somehow the jibsheet crossed the cockpit to the weather side, and then to the tiller. I only see one cam cleat on the tiller...

GANNET's sheet to tiller steering can be seen in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx4f36BoYfk
Basic, but apparently effective in certain conditions: shock cord pulling the tiller to leeward, balanced by the leeward jibsheet crossing the cockpit to the windward rail, then attached to the tiller. If it worked for him, it might work for you, although bigger jibs would be hard to handle without a winch between.

 

[Philpott]

GANNET's sheet to tiller steering can be seen in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx4f36BoYfk
Basic, but apparently effective in certain conditions: shock cord pulling the tiller to leeward, balanced by the leeward jibsheet crossing the cockpit to the windward rail, then attached to the tiller. If it worked for him, it might work for you, although bigger jibs would be hard to handle without a winch between.

Well, it used to work on Dura Mater the Cal 20.

 

[sleddog]

With the breeze registering SSE, 27, gusting 35 knots at Monterey Bay Buoy much of the afternoon, and gale warnings for the vicinity, Soquel Cove off Capitola is a lee shore. Nevertheless, 5 boats were still moored to buoys at the Capitola "Marina." What were they thinking?

About 6pm Capt. Bob called from his home at Haleiwa, Hawaii, with not unexpected news. "Hey Skip, I'm looking at the Capitola Surf webcam. There's a boat ashore."

I suited up and walked downhill two blocks. Sure enough, there was a Cal-27 just feet from the Esplanade seawall. With the keel in the sand, it was heeled over 40 degrees and making heavy weather of its seemingly hopeless position.



The owner was walking around in a daze, apparently having been told by Vessel Assist there was no chance they could or would help. More interesting was a wetsuit clad guy in the surf, pulling on a halyard, shouting "I can salvage this, I can salvage this." Even more bizarre were a dozen spectators recruited by the erstwhile salvager tugging on a long nylon line run through the bow pulpit and attached to a cabin top winch of the Cal.



I walked further out the Esplanade and could see a telltale frayed and broken mooring line hanging from the opposite side bow cleat. I observed the pulling party on the beach were attempting to pull the boat towards the groin rocks, an even more precarious position.



The tide was rising, and the boat had only inches to go before its outboard, rudder, or transom contacted the seawall and plastic started splintering. A cop with a roll of yellow ribbon in hand shooed me away. It was getting dark and raining. I felt sorry for the boat. Cal 27's are tough little ships. Any modern ocean racer would have likely lost its keel or rudder by now.. What will be left after tonight's "winter storm" and frontal passage impact the Coast?

 

[Philpott]

Aaauuuuggghhhh!!! Poor boat! She and Dura Mater (hull 616) may have shared the same production fellas back in the day! Those are terrible photos. WHAT was that sailor thinking, to put his vessel in harm’s way?

 

[sleddog]

Aaauuuuggghhhh!!! Poor boat! She and Dura Mater (hull 616) may have shared the same production fellas back in the day! Those are terrible photos. WHAT was that sailor thinking, to put his vessel in harm’s way?

He wasn't thinking when you double a line through a mooring buoy eye and the winds and seas rise, there's gonna be chafe where the rope turns sharply around the metal of the eye....

 

[sleddog]

Andre' the Anna's hummingbird, Port Captain of the Capitola Boat Club (CBC), had a bird's eye view from his cliff side perch last night to what was happening 80 feet below. Wearing his special ordered, mini-sized hummingbird night vision goggles, Andre' watched as the beached Cal-27 was pulverised by surf, until by sunrise little identifiable remained. The remains of the keel was disappearing under the sand. A halyard led to part of the broken mast. There was a small piece of hull. The remaining bits and pieces of the brave but desperate little ship had disappeared, or become part of a debris field down the cliff base.



Not wanting to miss out on the action, a Grand Banks 32 knockoff, DELFIN, also broke it's mooring line sometime during the stormy night and came ashore about 50 yards west of the rapidly disappearing Cal. The motor yacht beached broadside to the surf, and rapidly filled with a mixture of water and sand.



Where is the FOUNDATION JOSEPHINE and her indomitable crew when needed? "No cure, no pay," was their motto as readers tracked their intrepid exploits through the pages of Farley Mowat's classic The Serpent's Coil.



Instead, Towboat U.S. is charging somebody's insurance $10K to attempt to pull the wayward powerboat off the Capitola beach at high tide. Andre' is just shaking his ruby iridescent head feathers in wonder....

 

[Intermission]

He wasn't thinking when you double a line through a mooring buoy eye and the winds and seas rise, there's gonna be chafe where the rope turns sharply around the metal of the eye....

This seems like a teachable moment...

If there were five boats on moorings, and two came ashore, what was the difference with the three that didn't come ashore?
Many boaters in the San Juans, tie a second painter slightly looser than the first as a "second chance", on single moorings.
Thirty plus years ago, when there was more surge at SF Marina, the hot setup was a short chain through the cleat, attached to a thimble, with a heavy rubber snubber next.
I've yet to experience any chafe when doubled bow and stern at Ayala Cove; but then again, I've never sat out a storm there either.
Skip, if a bow painter had a whole round turn on the mooring eye, would it take twice as long to chafe through?

 

[sleddog]

This seems like a teachable moment...
If there were five boats on moorings, and two came ashore, what was the difference with the three that didn't come ashore?Many boaters in the San Juans, tie a second painter slightly looser than the first as a "second chance", on single moorings.Thirty plus years ago, when there was more surge at SF Marina, the hot setup was a short chain through the cleat, attached to a thimble, with a heavy rubber snubber next.
I've yet to experience any chafe when doubled bow and stern at Ayala Cove; but then again, I've never sat out a storm there either.
Skip, if a bow painter had a whole round turn on the mooring eye, would it take twice as long to chafe through?

My understanding is the Capitola Wharf will rent you a mooring (ball, chain, and cement anchor block.) Unlike at Catalina, it is up to you to secure your boat to the mooring ball. How this is done varies. Unless you are just there for an afternoon, and remain aboard, a secondary (backup) mooring line would be in order.

Yes, a whole round turn on the mooring eye would postpone chafe. One thing that accelerates chafe is bringing both ends of the mooring line back to the bow of the boat. This sets up a sawing motion. What is the best way to secure a mooring line to an eye on a mooring buoy? I'm open to suggestions. Until something better is proposed, I myself would use two round turns on the mooring eye, then a long bowline, reachable from the deck.

If the mooring were going to be long term, I would have two separate heavy duty mooring lines, one slightly longer. Each would be eye-spliced around a thimble, and the thimble/eye splice would be both attached to the mooring eye with a moused heavy duty shackle and screw pin.

At the deck, there would be chafing gear where the mooring lines passed through the bow chocks or over a bow roller.
The bow roller would also have a security pin to keep the mooring line from jumping off the roller.

 

[Wylieguy]

Growing up on a farm in Oregon, the "Salvage Chief" (after "Little Toot" became too childish) fascinated me. Front page stories of heroic deeds. Too bad she's now a museum ship in Astoria. The "Chief" would have had those small boats off the rocks post haste.

 

[sleddog]

At the deck, there would be chafing gear where the mooring lines passed through the bow chocks or over a bow roller. The bow roller would also have a security pin to keep the mooring line from jumping off the roller.

The salvage team came armed this morning with their tool of choice: a chainsaw. The beached powerboat filled with sand overnight, and its starboard side was buried 3'. The option of towing off the beach was quickly dismissed. RRRrrrip. Out came the fuel tank. RRRRRRrrr. Off came the flying bridge and flag pole. Everything that was being removed was carried across the sand to a waiting truck.

I asked the salvage master what broke on the mooring? His reply was short: "The mooring line aboard the boat jumped off the bow roller and quickly cut itself on the roller cheek."

Negligence. It seems in ample supply.