New Boat 4 Sled

[BobJ]

When my mother graduated from Oakland High my grandparents gave her a cruise to Honolulu. It was aboard the Lurline. Mom kept one of the menus, which I have stored away somewhere.

If I haven't mentioned it before, the Matthew Turner shipyard was here in Benicia. Some evidence is still visible.

 

[sleddog]

When my mother graduated from Oakland High my grandparents gave her a cruise to Honolulu. It was aboard the Lurline. Mom kept one of the menus, which I have stored away somewhere.
If I haven't mentioned it before, the Matthew Turner shipyard was here in Benicia. Some evidence is still visible.

Matthew Turner designed and built the 83' (LOD) schooner LURLINE. Whether she was built and launched at Turner's yard at Hunters Point, SF., or at foot of W 12th St off of W K St, in Benicia is uncertain. Turner moved his boat building operation to Benecia in 1883, the same year LURLINE, owned by the Spreckels Bros., was launched.

Thanks to CHAUTAUQUA, Capitola Boat Club is blessed to have a fine print of LURLINE racing her first race in June of 1883 from Fort Point, San Francisco, to Santa Cruz. Here she is just west of the Cliff House in classic wind against tide conditions, which had several members of her professional crew seasick.



This particular LURLINE was never owned by Matson. In 1906, her owner was H.H. Sinclair of the South Coast Yacht Club in San Pedro. SCYC was to become the LAYC.

LURLINE raced 3 Transpacs, 1906, 1908, and 1912. In 1906, as Diamond Head began to take on its familiar rose and purple colors from the setting sun, LURLINE boomed across the finish line with everything drawing at 7:30 p.m. in the remarkable performance of 12 days, 10 hours, with a second day's 24 hour run of 265 miles.
Her course record stood until 1923 when the Burgess designed, 107 foot Gloucester schooner MARINER knocked 19 hours off LURLINE's time.

As LURLINE finished that first "Transpac," the entire sleepy town of Honolulu had been alerted to LURLINE's impending finish as the Diamond Head finish line committee had blown the Diamond Head Lighthouse horn 4 times, then 4 times more, followed by 2 long blasts, the signal that LURLINE had been sighted on her approach down the Molokai Channel. The cliffs were lined with spectators and well wishers, a tradition that lasted until the 1970's when Honolulu transitioned from town to city, to metropolis.

Interesting for us modern day racers to Hawaii, the revolutionary idea of a handicap rule in an ocean race was used for the first time in that very same 1906 Transpac. The rating formula was simple: 30 minutes allotted handicap for each foot of length difference from the scratch boat, length being determined by LWL (Length on the Waterline) plus one-half the total overhang.

 

[sleddog]

Sad news last evening from Nance and Commodore Tompkins. WANDER BIRD, aka ELBE No.5, a 136 year old, historical National Treasure to Germany and to the World, was rammed abeam the foremast and sunk by Cypriot flagged containership ASTROSPRINTER in narrow confines of the Elbe River, 18 miles downstream from Hamburg.
The 'BIRD would not have been “nimble”, but it appears a prudent master would have maneuvered to keep WANDER BIRD out of the way of the overtaking and oncoming ship.WANDER BIRD is the brown track on the below AIS chart, and ASTROSPRINTER the green.

View attachment 4436

Disregard the AIS chart above. And my speculation that based on the (erroneous) AIS, WANDER BIRD was being overtaken.

A short video clip taken aboard WANDER BIRD beginning 45 seconds before the collision shows WANDER BIRD on starboard tack, sailing upriver at about 5 knots, when 5 quick toots of WANDER BIRD's electric horn are given twice. Too late, there is a command to "bear off," then another "hard-to-port." It appears "hard to port" is misunderstood, and the steering assistants push the tiller to port, beginning to turn WANDER BIRD laboriously to starboard and into the path of the ship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXrTvVh4NOs

This is an unofficial transcription of the video clip. Who is talking and where they are located onboard is not clear:

Male voice : What is he up to (Was hat der denn da vor).
- Most probably this person goes midships and presses the electric whistle two times 5.

Male voice: Why is he doing that (Was das nun soll?) - referring to the cargo vessel

Male voice: Bear off ( Abfallen!)

Other male voice: we are going to hit him (Den Treffen wir).

Male voice: Hard to Port (Hart Backbord).

- tiller is pushed to the port side, making the vessel turn to starboard: "Hard to Port" IMO means turn the ship to port. But that could be misinterpreted during the panic to mean push the tiller to port.

 

[BobJ]

Today during race 4 for the Sir Thomas Lipton Challenge Trophy, Sequoia Yacht Club stuck their J/22's mast into the bottom of the Berkeley Circle. Instead of getting Lipton tea, they got Sanka...

 

[Gamayun]

Ruh-roh. Yesterday, while watching the dinghy sailors from Santa Rosa Sailing Club set up for our Estuary sail, one of them had a small plastic bottle attached to the top of his mast to prevent a sticking when things go sideways. I guess that's not a very race worthy accoutrement but certainly sounds like a great idea for small boats and shallow waters!

 

[sleddog]

Today during race 4 for the Sir Thomas Lipton Challenge Trophy, Sequoia Yacht Club stuck their J/22's mast into the bottom of the Berkeley Circle. Instead of getting Lipton tea, they got Sanka...

Sorry to see mud on the masthead of the J-22! That's a good reminder a 700 lb. lead keel may not keep a boat from turtle-ing. I'm curious if the water-tight bulkheads floated the boat, or if airbags were needed. Is a re-evaluation of the J-22's buoyancy in order?

Does anyone know if that blue 50 footer in the J-22 photo background is the globe-girdling and historical Hal Roth AMERICAN FLAG, aka SEBAGO? If so, the customized Santa Cruz 50 AMERICAN FLAG was also F2F the 2000 SHTP as SUNDOWNER, a little singlehanded history right there at Richmond Brickyard Cove.

 

[Tom P.]

The RC wisely chose to move the race course to the more protected area off Keller Beach. The sinking incident happened on the way back inside Ferry Point. Parker Diving used two lift bags to raise the boat to the attitude in Bob’s photo. One of the bags was connected to the single point lifting eye on top of the keel. The RYC hoist was then used to raise the boat just enough that a high capacity pump could be used for dewatering. There are lots of pictures of the entire incident.

The SC50 in the background is ADRENALINE, built to the SC50 design in South Africa. Not the same boat as questioned.

 

[solosailor]

Does anyone know if that blue 50 footer in the J-22 photo background is the globe-girdling and historical Hal Roth AMERICAN FLAG, aka SEBAGO?

It is not:

She was built in South Africa by Eric Bongers under the name Nina. In 2001, she made her way to Southern California and, for years, raced the SoCal/Mexico/Hawaii circuits. Her new owners (Del Olsen, Gail Yando, Greg Mitchell & Byung Choung, Gerry Lampert, Kirk and Lisa Twardowski, and Andy & Maureen Bates) for the most part, are International-14/Canoe junkies, who decided to join forces and buy this ocean racing machine.

According to legend, the idea was hatched by “the Godfather” Del Olson. He was lurking on YachtWorld.com for some local big ocean racing boats and threw out the idea to his brus (mates) to trade in their trapezes for something a little bigger. Shortly thereafter, they found Adrenaline and brought her from Long Beach to her new home at Richmond Yacht Club.

Their plan is to race Adrenaline in the local winter racing scene, spring OYRA, 2015 Transpac, 2016 Pacific Cup, and beyond. Their Hawaiian campaign will be a success if they hoist the second round of mai tais to “the next time.”

buzzen.jpg

As a transpacific racer on both the first and last SC50s ever built, I have to say that Adrenaline looks like one sweet ride. The topsides are designed for full-on wave surfing while below deck provides quite a luxurious set up. Some modifications include an open transom, new rudder, taller rig, and a bulbed keel.

Other deets:

40 hp Volvo Penta
8’ draft
B&G 20/20 instruments
hydraulic backstay and vang
removable dodger
carbon spinnaker and jockey (whisker) poles
suit of sails including a 3DL main, an impressive assortment of headsails, asym kites
down below: oven, reefer, freezer, forward head (with a door!), nav station, dining table to starboard, ample storage, flush cabin sole, opening port lights, posh v-berth and aft quarter berths (oooh, mattresses!) with no spider hole berths as exhibited in early SC50 models, and forward sail locker.

 

[sleddog]

In the 1981 Transpac aboard the Santa Cruz 50 OAXACA we had a MOB incident. In an early evening, post-squall environment, with a crew of 7, we were changing up to a lighter spinnaker in 15-17 knots of wind. It was a bald headed change, and the foredeck hand stood on the rain wetted bow pulpit to trip away the old spinnaker and slipped off. By the time he surfaced to leeward and abeam the helm, Capt. Bob had spun OAXACA into the wind and the spinnaker halyard was run, dropping the spinnaker back and down against the headstay. The MOB was not more than a length away, was quickly retrieved, and a spinnaker reset. Time of MOB: 1 minute.

Two weeks ago, another MOB incident happened onboard OAXACA in the Coastal Race from Monterey to Santa Barbara. This one at night, in 30 knots of wind, with the boat broaching temporarily out of control. This was a very different scenario from our 1981 MOB.



There are two dispassionate and well written descriptions of the recent MOB on OAXACA. One written by the owner/skipper, and one by the MOB, a professional sailor with 2x singlehanded RTW experience. If you haven't read both, they are here: https://cruisingclub.org/news/man-overboard.

ULDB's, when they do a dipsey doodle, have a very quick motion. Vertical to horizontal can happen in a second. A Santa Cruz 50 and a Cal-40 weigh the same. Both are the sweetest rides to Hawaii one could hope for. MOB's happen when least expecting. I could name 25 reasons for real event MOB's, and I'm sure others could too. Harness and tethers are not always a panacea unless they have been shortened enough to prevent going over the lifelines in the first place. Clipping a 6' tether onto stretchy wet jacklines is one example of wishful thinking you're acting safely. But you're not. SSS has lost at least 2 members clipped onto jacklines, with several other close calls.

 

[sleddog]

Growing up around S.Cal harbors' at an impressionable age left a memorable imprint of sights, sounds, and smells, some long gone. It seems like yesterday sailing my 10 foot dinghy, smelling pine tar, creosote, paint and varnish, especially along "schooner row, just off the Coast Highway.



Red lead was the choice for bottom and bilge paint. You could smell the boatyard a mile away.

The Balboa Ferry would give its first long toot of the day at first light. I couldn't wait to get on the dock to watch the sea horses ascending and descending, the sight of porpoise jumping in twists and turns. And to sail my hand carved balsa wood schooner with 15 miniature sails cut from old rags of a bed sheet, using thread and string for sheets and a lead fishing sinker pounded flat for a keel.

http://www.talesofbalboa.com/

Thursdays and Fridays were big money earning days. I'd learned to climb at an early age, and would get paid a quarter to hand-over-hand aloft on client's race boats, wiping the port shrouds on the way up, and starboard side on the way down, so new white dacron sails by Watts or Baxter and Cicero wouldn't have brown rigging stains from a week's worth of air pollution.

20 miles west, past the Navy town of Long Beach, was Fish Harbor. On the west side of Fish Harbor was the Terminal Island Federal Prison where you could hear the loud speaker and cheering from weekend baseball games. Star-Kist Tuna had the world's largest cannery next door to the yacht mooring field, and the putrid stench of floating fish offal belied the fact that "Chicken of the Sea" revolutionized seafood consumption through introduction of canned tuna.

We couldn't get to sea fast enough, out past Angel's Gate Lighthouse, with its Fresnel lens and deep throated "Moaning Maggie" horn, and past lighthouse tender and family's laundry flapping on clothes lines in the fresh westerly afternoon seabreeze of Hurricane Gulch, as shipping belched black smoke from rusty funnels just to leeward as they passed through the fleet of grey navy warships.

 

[sleddog]

Just when the saga of local shipwrecks was reaching denoument, who should appear but two lovely women I recognized from their SSS exploits. I asked what they were doing, and the story, varying at times, seemed to be there was a book and possible movie in the works about women pirates. And they were here to practice plundering to see how it feels.

I agreed this was fertile ground, and we spent the next 45 minutes digging through a pile and several barrels of Cal 27 debris at our feet, about to be hauled to the dump. There were all sorts of treasures. Harken and Schaefer blocks, cams, shackles, bronze winches, a 12' spinnaker pole, Whale pumps...

View attachment 4320

We stuffed our pockets with all the usable booty we could carry, and made our own rat's nest for later collection.

Then I hosted my pirate friends to coffee at Mr. Toots and we traded yarns about present and future expotitions under sail. Much is in the works. However, except for a new rudder for one of the women's ship, I am sworn to secrecy and can only reveal that between the two piratesses, 4 Pacific offshore voyages are in the offing, two of medium length and two longish.

Philpott and Gamayun's Cal-27 treasure hunt was concluded yesterday with Synthia, Rreveur, and cousin Marilou from Essex, on the beach. The last evidence of the shipwreck was convincingly removed as we by-stood.



Capitola City and the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary demanded the Cal-27's 2,800 pound lead keel be removed from the beach, where it was covered by sand except for some sharp, ragged fiberglas edges of the fractured keel root.

The salvage master hired a front hoe and crew, and in about 2 hours they had dug the keel out of its sand hole, picked it up, and loaded on a 4WD Ford 2500 truck. The fiberglas shell will be ground off, and likely the lead sold. All in an early morning walk on the Capitola Beach, home of the Capitola Boat Club.

CBC garbage bosun Dave Wahle said, "I coulda done it in 30 minutes."

photo by Marilou Griswold

 

[Philpott]

Very sad. No picture of Rreveur?

 

[sleddog]

Very sad. No picture of Rreveur?

 

[Philpott]

That's a nice photo of Synthia and Rreveur. Now tell us the story of the 1979 Fastnet race. Please?

 

[sleddog]

Local denizen, schoonerman and musician Ramblin' Jack Elliot at WANDER BIRD's wheel, 1992, sailing engineless out of Sausalito after Harold Sommer and friends' restoration.

WANDER BIRD, refloated after her recent sinking, being towed to Peters shipyard in Wewelsfleth, Germany, near Hamburg. Her incredible strength helped survive the T-bone from the containership ASTROSPRINTER on the Elbe two weeks earlier.



In the background is the P-Lines steel square rigger PEKING about to be relaunched. WANDER BIRD will likely be hauled for inspection and repairs after PEKING vacates the ways tomorrow.

 

[AntsUiga]

Whoo! A prize story, and I feel well-rewarded. Thanks for the suggestion, sleddog.

If you care to continue, Ants, I'd be curious how you liked the boat overall, or how it compares with other boats you've loved or loathed.

Thanks,

David

I guess I am privileged since I have enjoyed every boat I owned for different reasons.

When I got the Mair 28 it had basic day sail equipment, not for any serious racing. Basic sails included three jibs, one main, and the spinnaker, as well as depth sounder speedo, and two deck mounted compass that looked more like snow cones due to a lack of covers.

Even with the minimal gear, the boat was always fun to sail. The build details were top notch (thanks to C & B Marine), so visually the boat always pleased. Performance wise it was hard to evaluate since the only races were SSS races, and the biggest limitation was the skipper (me).

However, I remember having fun with the daggerboard in SF Bay races. On reaches, I would slowly raise the daggerboard and usually gain speed until the boat started falling off. Running with the spinnaker with the board up was a real treat. It seems the boat was suspended between the chute and the rudder - the sense of control was amazing. Of course, serious consideration would have been given to taking out retaining bolts during ocean racing.

Over time, an Autohelm 800 was added as well as a Loran. I entered the 1989 Longpac, started, but decided I was not ready when I was in the vicinity of Drakes Bay, so I headed back.

I would be happy to have the boat back and it reappeared in the local area a few years ago, but that is another story.

Ants

 

[Howard Spruit]

It is GOOD, that Wander Bird lives!

 

[sleddog]

It is GOOD, that Wander Bird lives!

"Man Proposes, God Disposes." Apologies if recent theme has been shipwrecks: Cal-27, MY SONG, WANDER BIRD...WANDER BIRD has been part of my DNA since first grade at Washington Elementary when we were marched single file into a darkened auditorium to see Warwick Tompkins Sr.'s documentary 50 South to 50 South. "Who's that 4 year kid and his 6 year old sister swinging in the rigging enroute to Cape Horn?" I thought.

Little did I imagine WMT, Jr. and I would sail many ocean miles together over the next 50 years. We liked to call Commodore "Coach." You learned his way of seamanship, or didn't sail with him.

WANDER BIRD, heavily damaged, will live. I can't imagine replacing those centuries old pickled planks. The copper sheathing was the bottom covering of choice back when WANDER BIRD was a North Sea pilot schooner. You don't see copper sheathing much these days of poisonous bottom paint.

 

[Wylieguy]

The picture of Jack Elliot steering Wander Bird with a wheel connects with my memories of her in Sausalito. Notice the "very nice varnish job" on the steering box! But the pre-collision video cleary shows the crew wrestling with a giant tiller. My guess is during one of its later restorations the "original" steering system was restored? A wheel would have been much simpler for an avoidance maneuver and any confusion about "port" might have been eliminated. I frequently sail my boat with non-sailors and getting notion of moving the tiller to starboard to come to port is probably the most difficult concept of the day.
About the copper plating. Harold scrounged copper from a salvage yard as part of his "restoration" in Sausalito. The copper in this photo, however, looks brand new so must have been part of the most recent Danish restoration. I wonder of the white hull paint under the felt is from the Sausalito days?

 

[sleddog]

The picture of Jack Elliot steering Wander Bird with a wheel connects with my memories of her in Sausalito. Notice the "very nice varnish job" on the steering box! But the pre-collision video cleary shows the crew wrestling with a giant tiller. My guess is during one of its later restorations the "original" steering system was restored? A wheel would have been much simpler for an avoidance maneuver and any confusion about "port" might have been eliminated. I frequently sail my boat with non-sailors and getting notion of moving the tiller to starboard to come to port is probably the most difficult concept of the day.
About the copper plating. Harold scrounged copper from a salvage yard as part of his "restoration" in Sausalito. The copper in this photo, however, looks brand new so must have been part of the most recent Danish restoration. I wonder of the white hull paint under the felt is from the Sausalito days?

Ann Tompkins, the 6 year in WANDER BIRD's rigging off Cape Horn recently passed, age 88. Her story, I AM ANN TOMPKINS, is fascinating. FBI file? https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4a6fwn/i_am_ann_tompkins_an_85_year_old_woman_who_was/

WMT, Jr. "Commodore," wrote a last week:

Hi Skip,

I believe the schooner VANDER VOGEL was fitted with a wheel when WMT Sr. purchased her in 1929, hence toward the end of her pilot service, or sometime during the proprietorship of the Vander Vogel organisation.

The Vander Vogel operation was described to me as similar to Outward Bound and/or the Sea scouts. Apparently an attempt to deal with German youth after WW I.

Presuming ELBE 5 would bear away to her port, all she needed to escape was about eighteen feet of water; her beam. Because the drawing foresail is close to the vessel’s center of lateral plane, I am of the opinion that she WOULD have borne off. She only needed about forty-five degrees of bearing off. Utilizing the video revelations showing the relative attitudes of the two vessels when the five blasts are heard and the actual collision photograph, it appears to me that the schooner turned at least that number of degrees to starboard: she was nearly at right angles to the bigger ship’s center line. As you note the schooner was going slowly, thus would be sliggish in any turn, but presuming that someone would (eventually) trim the head sail, bearing off would have been easier as well as faster. At worst, after bearing off would be a starboard to starboard scraping pass.

You may be correct in that the two sets of five blasts emanated from ELBE 5. My interpretation was/is that what one hears is the distant horn of the ASTROSPRINTER: the video equipment is not likely equipped with faithful sound-reproduction capability.

When XXXXXXX carried away her XXXXXXXX -carbon mast, I discovered internal construction flaws at the point of failure. Insurance/surveyor types advised that I keep this information to myself, as the insurance companies would not pay off on a failed part, they would pay off on human error. Perhaps the same principles apply in Germany. For sure there is human error in this case. I would not sleep well had I been master of ELBE 5 on that day.

I attended a memorial service for my sister on Saturday. I spoke a few words and asked if there were any questions, thinking the throng, (about one hundred), might wish for some insight regarding the deceased. Instead, the only question was: “Would you tell us what happened to WANDER BIRD?” The incident has stirred a great deal of interest worldwide, apparently even among non-sailors.

Onward and upward!
wmt/FLASHGIRL