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New Boat 4 Sled

A pleasant visit last evening with CBC Librarian "PJ" and dauighter Lu. PJ brought me up to speed on his current RTW attempt which is ongoing at the moment as he sails a virtual CHANGABANG East to West Around the World in an attempt at breaking the Class 40 RTW record.

CHANGABANG's log can be followed on PJ's website here:https://pjsails.com/virtual-attempt/

Though not personally up to speed on this attempt, I can reveal that virtual CHANGABANG is approaching Madagascar, that Predict Wind is doing the routing with PJ using a combo of weather models but primarily the ECMWF (European), that PJ has his boat polars "detuned" to 70%, and that he has dodged at least one hurricane and cyclone by heaving to.
 
Happy Christmas Sled and Howard. I’m looking forward to seeing the skeeter come together. Question. Are there any beaches in California where you are allowed to dirt boat?
 
Merry Christmas Skip....and since most of my SSS friends read this thread...

Merry Christmas to all of you, too!
 
MERRY CHRISTMAS, Alan, Stephen, Jackie, Howard, and everyone else who sails these pages. I was just out for a walk with the dogs here in Santa Cruz and saw some real weather to the northwest, the kind of ragged, black clouds that anything, including a tornado, could have come out of. Fortunately, the front, or cell, passed a few miles north. On radar, it was one of those bright orange and red areas. A quick phone call to sailing friends in Ben Lomond revealed that 10 miles inland as the crow flies, they were having heavy rain, storm force katabatic winds, and heavy hail. Be aware if you go for a drive today that there are flood advisories for the entire area. And power lines may be down.

PS Olina, a 6 year old CBC guest, shed light this morning on how Santa has his reindeer traveling so fast (650 miles/sec.) around the world: 'They're riding the Christmas Comet!" (Leonard).

Leonard.jpg
 
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Tchoupitoulas said:
Happy Christmas Sled and Howard. I’m looking forward to seeing the skeeter come together. Question. Are there any beaches in California where you are allowed to dirt boat?
Click to expand...

I am not aware of the beach vehicle rules any more since I gave up off road Motorcycles, 40 years ago.
Most of the Land sailer racing in the world, IS, done on beaches, However in the US the racing is done on the dry lakes between Mexico and Canada.
Where boats like the Mini Skeeters can go well over 60 mph. The larger cars see 80 and 90 MPH on a regular basis.

The current build report is; I am currently building the wood parts for the "fuselage" (HULL?). there are 56 wood parts to fabricate and Install.
I have completed the strong back and installed TWO of those 52 parts. I have ordered and paid for ALL the materials to complete the project, and received most of them, including the sail. As soon as I have something photo worthy, I will post it
 
Howard Spruit said:
I am not aware of the beach vehicle rules any more since I gave up off road Motorcycles, 40 years ago.
Most of the Land sailer racing in the world, IS, done on beaches, However in the US the racing is done on the dry lakes between Mexico and Canada.
Where boats like the Mini Skeeters can go well over 60 mph. The larger cars see 80 and 90 MPH on a regular basis.

The current build report is; I am currently building the wood parts for the "fuselage" (HULL?). there are 56 wood parts to fabricate and Install.
I have completed the strong back and installed TWO of those 52 parts. I have ordered and paid for ALL the materials to complete the project, and received most of them, including the sail. As soon as I have something photo worthy, I will post it
Click to expand...

No mention of the fuselage Okume plywood in shipment was holed by a forklift?

I was briefly involved in an attempt on a 24 hour land speed record to break the current 2,000 statue mile mark. Out and back in 10 mile loops around a lit pylon in the middle of Black Rock desert. Unfortunately, the wind died back at night, and the required 83 mph pace could not be maintained...
During the day, the boat in the distance seemed to be sailing upside down due to a mirage.
 
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I was the only small craft moving this morning at Santa Cruz Harbor when a black cell appeared overhead, moving west to east, and it began to dump. Providentially, there just ahead was the 60 foot O'Neill cat, and I paddled underneath between the hulls to wait out the downpour.

Came a hail from above, "get out from under the boat!
"I'm waiting out the rain for 5 minutes, OK?" I replied.
"No, get out from under the boat!"

I paddled out into the deluge only to find long time friend Timmy O'Neill standing on the end tie dock, doing battle with a very large sea lion. Tim looked at me. "Skip? What are you doing under there?"
"Waiting out the rain," I replied
"Go back under, " Tim said, "we just don't like paddlers under the boat cause they sometimes leave graffiti."

I paddled backwards 10 feet under the cover of the O'Neill cat deck and watched Tim and the sea lion do battle. Timmy is a big boy, and the sea lion probably outweighed him by 200-300 pounds. In one hand, Tim had a hose and in the other he was pushing a dock cart as an offensive weapon.

There were some loud "arfs" and the sea lion did a flip into the Harbor, creating quite a wave. The rain stopped, I thanked Tim, and resumed my paddle, under the Harbor Bridge, and into the Upper Harbor.

All in a day at CBC.
kayak11.jpg
 
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Here's CBC's Honorary tug, SLO POKE in Anacortes, WA, this morning, temp 13 degrees.

Slo Poke1.JPG

Slo Poke2.JPG

(photos compliments of SP's owner, Capt. Gary)
 
San Juan Island 2.jpg
View of Friday Harbor Marina, 12/27/21

San Juan Island.jpg
View from atop Mt. Dallas, highest mountain on San Juan Island 12/27/21 (photos courtesy Jim Guard.)
 
Howard with the beginnings of his mini-Skeeter dirt boat. He became suspicious with his fairing, found an error in the plan dimensions, and is taking that into account. The original designer and builders glossed over their error in the YouTube construction video and corrected it with a belt sander, giving no explanation. ???

mini-skeeter.jpg
 
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16th century sailing ships were bedeviled by Teredo Navalis, warm water and hungry mollusks (not a worm) that bored into and devoured the celluose in ships' underwater planks. What did the English and Spanish navies do to combat teredos that promptly caused steering failure on almost all their ships? First with the answer, your eggnog and rum in front of the fire awaits at CBC. Extra points and another log on the fire if you can answer why teredos were not a problem until the late 15th century, causing the loss of at least one of Columbus ships that had crossed the ocean blue.
 
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??Sheath bottom in copper leads to galvanic corrosion of iron??
Teredo is new world species previously w/o access to old world ships.
 
sleddog said:
16th century sailing ships were bedeviled by Teredo Navalis, warm water and hungry mollusks (not a worm) that devoured the celluose in ships' underwater planks. What did the English and Spanish navies do to combat teredos that promptly caused steering failure on almost all their ships? First with the answer, your eggnog and rum in front of the fire awaits at CBC. Extra points and another log on the fire if you can answer why teredos were not a problem until the late 15th century, causing the loss of at least one of Columbus ships that had crossed the ocean blue.
Click to expand...

The English Naval folks used copper bottoms (sheathing) to stop the mollusks.

The teredos took a while to spread around the world, with early concentrations in North Atlantic and the Baltic.

Ants
 
sleddog; said:
First with the answer, your eggnog and rum in front of the fire awaits at CBC. Extra points and another log on the fire if you can answer why teredos were not a problem until the late 15th century, causing the loss of at least one of Columbus ships that had crossed the ocean blue.
Click to expand...

Um I don't recall seeing a fireplace at the CBC.
 
todd22123 said:
??Sheath bottom in copper leads to galvanic corrosion of iron??
Teredo is new world species previously w/o access to old world ships.
Click to expand...


Todd wins the eggnog and rum, even though his answer is not quite correct. In order to stop Teredos, the 16th century Spanish and British navies sheathed their bottoms with lead strips. The lead strips also gave them anti-fouling against barnacles and other marine growth, increasing speed, as well as protection against leaks.

Red lead paint was used as bottom paint until the 1960's and I remember it well on the bottom of our Lapworth 36.

The problem is lead is higher (#8) on the galvanic scale than iron (#4) causing iron in proximity to disintegrate underwater. The iron pintles and gudgeons on the 16th century ships "rusted" off, causing rudders to fail and loss of steering between 3-6 months after the lead sheathing was mounted. When this result was figured out, lead sheathing for bottom protection went rapidly out of favor until 1760 when copper sheathing began to be used. Copper bottoms and copper based bottom paint continues in use to this day.

Teredos were not found in the cooler waters of the Old World or Med, and it wasn't until ships began exploring the warmer Caribbean and Pacific in the 16th century that Teredos became a problem. They even hitchhiked their way as an invasive species east across the Atlantic.

As for those with fading memories of the CBC fireplace, here we go: The painting of the boat under spinnaker in the right background is WINDWARD PASSAGE finishing first and setting a new elapsed record in the 1971 Transpac.

CBC2.jpg
 
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Oh, gosh! I stand corrected. And those stoves work very well, I know. You must be toasty warm. This drafty old house in Oakland is not toasty warm.

Last month PG&E sent me a smiley face with my bill

smiley face.png

and a note: “Great! You used 31% less than efficient homes!”

Encouragement that reminds me of grade school, back in the day, when kids still had their test scores posted publicly and received approbation like gold, silver and red stars. Oh, those days are gone, gone.

I wonder how long it will be before Jibeset is discouraged from posting race results and season’s standings? Come to think of it, I’m already feeling stigmatized. All those faster boats, more expensive sails, better sailors. And so many men …

Freya looking pitiful.jpg

This month’s heating bill is on track to be higher. Much higher. Had to stay inside because of the weather and the Little Monster, er, Freya the Wonder Puppy. But the puppy, she is gone back to Colorado where someone else pays the heating bills.

Maybe I’ll go work on Dura Mater, use up one of the butane cartridges, stay warm there.
 
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