New Boat 4 Sled

[sleddog]

Some images from Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival below. Last year James McMullen towed a beer dinghy behind his Arctic Tern, ROWAN. This year, the beer dinghy had a tender.

The Edensaw $1,000 challenge gave you 48 hours to build a boat. The two entries were pretty cool. I'd say a tie, and split the prize.

The Wooden Boat Festival concluded with the traditonal "Sail By." WILDFLOWER's crew was Coca and Dana from PT, pretty ladies on a sweet boat.

 

[sleddog]

I hung around this morning until 10:20 a.m., then cast off for Friday Harbor, 30 miles across Straits of Juan de Fuca.

Viz was about 100 yards in fog. So I stuck along the PT shore, passing Fort Worden wharf close aboard.

At Point Wilson I stopped briefly to call Seattle Vessel Traffic Control on VHF Channel 5. They confirmed "all clear" on traffic ahead.

Off we went into the fog, making 7.5 knots. on course 315 degrees magnetic. We were getting a two knot push from the ebbing tide.

After an hour it began to clear, and viz went to 1/4 mile. I felt more relaxed, when 30 minutes later the fog burned off and the sun came out. Nice sailing.
Soon I could see Smith Island to starboard, and San Juan Island ahead.

At 2:15 p.m. we entered Cattle Pass, between San Juan and Lopez Island. The pretty 40' schooner MAGIC was nearby.

MAGIC was at one timed owned by good friends Craig and Vicki, and was home to the beautiful Bengal kitty "Archie."

At 3:45 we tied up to the marina at Friday Harbor. Tomorrow, Tuesday, I will meet my good friend Gary, who is coming over on the ferry from Anacortes. We'll go out at noon to welcome home the CATALYST from SE Alaska.
http://www.pacificcatalyst.com/

 

[Santana20Vixen]

Pretty awesome pics Skip! The mini-me Beer Tender is a must have. The old school look of the smaller boat in the building competition has my vote... 48hrs... do these people sleep? Oh give me a touch of that mania, I'd like to get the house and garage cleaned.

Great reporting... keep the pics coming!!!!!!

And is the Western Flyer going to get any restoration? Or, is she looking bound for the saws?

 

[sleddog]

Gary and I sailed WILDFLOWER out from Friday Harbor to greet our friends on M/V CATALYST, returning from SE Alaska. A nice morning, we set the spinny. Thanks for the pics, Capt. Bob!

 

[Mermaid Kay]

WOW Captain Skip, love that spinnaker! Betcha that was some good wind....Capitola is having their Art and Wine Festival this weekend. The town should back to normal when you get back, and looks forward to the return of WILDFLOWER and Captain Skip.

 

[sleddog]

WILDFLOWER and I are home in Capitola. The hardest part of the drive may have been backing the boat through a narrow slot into the driveway. With it being Art and Wine Festival weekend in Capitola Village, parking spots are tight.

The drive south from Anacortes, 954 miles, took 17 hours, 40 minutes, with two rest stops. Average speed was 54 mph, fuel mileage was 12.9 mpg, average cost of gas about $3.70/gal., with it being $3.51 in WA, $3.80 in Oregon, and $3.90 in CA.

 

[sleddog]

On the final day of the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Fest is the traditional "Sail By." Everyone, from big schooners to kayaks, goes out and parades by the PT Waterfront on a two mile triangular course.

I sympathize with the ferry captain who has to run this gauntlet. His technique that afternoon was full speed ahead. As we on WILDFLOWER sharply altered 90 degrees to pass astern, he gave us five blasts on the ferry whistle. A first.

Not so lucky was a Fisher 25. Four days later this singlehander was runover by the Friday Harbor to Anacortes ferry HYAK and sunk. Luckily, he and his dog survived. Coincidentally, SSS friends Dan and Linda Newland were aboard HYAK when the collision occurred.

Facts are sketchy: there was fog/viz was good. The ferry rescue RIB's engine wouldn't start. The singlehander was not on deck (where do you want to be when you are about to be crushed?) Everyone agrees no horn blasts were given.

http://www.sanjuanislander.com/isla...163-boater-shares-details-of-ferry-collision-

Whatever, the Fisher 25 sank, and its skipper was taken to the hospital.

The pics below, taken by Dan, are of a sister ship in happier days. And the Fisher moments before it sank.

 

[sleddog]

9/19/13

Monterey Bay is flush with bait fish, mainly anchovies. Humpback whales, more than in anyone's memory, abound just offshore. Judging by the ginormus splashes , some may be bubble netting. Spouts everywhere. One medium sized puppy, about 30', cruised yesterday for an hour not 50 yards from my cliff lookout. Was he waiting for his Pizza My Heart slice?

Flotillas of kayakers and stand up paddlers are in the middle of the action. The attraction of being upon a giant docile creature is irresistible.

The Santa Cruz Harbor docks and shoreline are lined with fishermen pulling out big salmon. No fishing licenses needed. Every other day kids 16 and under only. Police keeping control. One sea lion, catching a 20 pound salmon, beat it to death against Rainer's Cal 30. Rainer, a liveaboard, was awoken to splashes of water and pieces of fish coming in his open port.

So many birds it is like an out of control rock concert. Hundreds of thousands of sooty shearwaters, pelicans, terns, gulls, cormorants. All with no air traffic control.

The sooty shearwaters are so thick in their quarter mile diameter flock that the inner ones can't take flight until the perimeter birds take off. Sooty shearwaters migrate here from south of Chile and New Zealand, longest migration of any bird, up to 40,000 miles in a season for these pieces of fluff that weigh less than two pounds. http://currents.ucsc.edu/06-07/08-14/shearwaters.asp

Blue Footed Boobys are here. They are tropical birds, from the Galapagos and Hawaii. Local birders are going crazy. One rare blue footed booby was sighted here 42 years ago. Now there are dozens. What's with that?

Some years ago Alfred Hitchcock had a home here. On August 18, 1961, the shearwaters got disoriented and by the thousands crashed into the buildings and homes of Capitola. This rain of birds apparently inspired Hitchcock's movie, "The Birds."

There's a cool video here: http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/articles/183/

 

[BobJ]

We were just there for the Windjammers Race.

What's with all the SUP's? That's a pastime I don't understand - a canoe or kayak looks far more interesting and capable. The things were clogging the narrow entrance channel and oblivious to our draft concerns. Are there any harbor regulations about that?

 

[H Spruit]

Hello BobJ
The SUPs have been reported.
The SUPs, kayaks, and rowboats are asked to keep to the right, but they need constant reminding! The harbor charges $10.00 per launch, and has accepted, and is marketing the harbor as a tourist destination. Ironically it is free to launch off the beach but many choose to enter at the harbor and paddle to a surf spot. Go figure!

 

[H Spruit]

correction, & confusion!
In conversation this morning I was told that the SUPs are being told to stay on the East side, in the jetty area, when entering and leaving the harbor mouth.
But, as a kayaker, rower & sailer, I have also been told that they should be on the right side when negotiating the slip area.
So some where the exiting paddlers must cross the harbor. So I am also confused!
This is a symptom of too many rats in the box!

 

[sleddog]

For those of you who are not familiar with Santa Cruz Harbor, it is long, narrow, heavily trafficked. In addition, it's breakwater entrance has a blind spot on the west side, and can be shoaled and breaking in that area. http://www.santacruzharbor.org/

SUP stands for "Stand Up Paddleboards." This recreation, using big, stable, and lightweight boards, is about the cheapest way to get afloat for exercise for both genders, and becoming hugely popular, from Hanalei to Santa Cruz, Cape Horn to the Northwest Passage. More so than even kayaking.

Santa Cruz, like many venues, has ongoing SUP confrontations with surfers on our crowded local breaks. And in the Harbor with bigger, less manuverable, watercraft.

Many SUPers have little idea of right-of-way rules. The Harbor staff is pulling their hair. Harbor regulations say, "Stay to the Right, Entering and Leaving." However, the SUP rental shack is on the East Side of the Harbor ...... Confusion reigns.

Just for good measure, our breakwater is lined with fishermen reeling in salmon. Fishermen, accidentally and intentionally, are casting weighted hook, line, and sinkers into SUPers, hooking flesh. Police and ambulances have been called. Hospitalizations required.

This being Santa Cruz, just when you thought you have seen it all, along comes a class of 20 ladies in Spandex, doing Yoga poses on their SUPs.

RAGTIME, you got to experience a small slice of Santa Cruz ambiance. We try to be accommodating.

 

[sleddog]

I had lunch the other day with Helaine Crittenden, and Bud Cassidy, my Starboat crew from the old days. Bud recounted an early Farallones Race in 1946, the first held after WW II when the submarine nets across the Golden Gate had been removed.

Bud was a teenager and crew aboard Chester "Crit" Crittenden's 45' sloop HELAINE, built in 1937 by Lester Stone's yard in Alameda.

Skippers and crew gathered at the St.Francis Yacht Club on Saturday evening. A few drinks were poured. The start was at midnight. Bud said, "it was still blowing like stink." "But when we got up by Pt Bonita, it went light.

Bud continued, "of course, by now most of the older crew were passed out below." "My school buddy and I had to do the jib change out at the end of the 3' bow sprit."

"Life jackets? I doubt we had any aboard." "Hell, we didn't even have foul weather gear. None available in those days."

They got around the Rockpile about 10 a.m. Sunday morning. On the reach in they set the spinnaker. To jibe for the finish, the spinnaker had to be lowered. They did not reset.

After finishing, the engine wouldn't start and they couldn't get back to the St.FYC. They had to sail to Berkeley......

Times have changed?

That's Bud and me in the photo below, I believe 1960 or '61. That's called Starboat hiking. Hiking straps for your feet weren't legal then in the Star class. Just to get under the boom on a tack was a challenge.

 

[sleddog]

There can't be many anchovies left in Monterey Bay. The local humpback whales are seeing to that. This morning, seconds after I caught the Green Flash at sunrise, 7:03:23, a humpback surfaced below the cliff, lunge feeding, anchovies dribbling from his prodigious mouth.

I guess there is at least one humpback on San Francisco Bay, threatening to shut down America's Cup Racing until it clears the course.

I'm guessing SK and VIXEN don't have high desert whales to contend with on the playa when they are going 40 knots on their dirt boats. It's a salt water thing.

 

[sleddog]

Some years back (15?), local SF Bay yacht designer Jim Antrim designed a 100 foot catamaran for Ugo Conti. Conti had a taste for the unusual and Jim took on the challenge. This cat, possibly intended for future military, patrol, and shallow water purposes, was flexible, had titanium, aluminum, and inflatable hulls, twin diesel engines, and would motor at 30 knots. Even more unusual, the boat, nicknamed the "Spider Boat," was built and launched.

One day, good friend Dave Wahle and I were sitting around, trying to figure out oceanic environmental issues. Dave mentioned Jim Antrim's 100' cat. Whimsically, we came up with a plan which was pure fantasy.

Dave, who likes to move big and heavy things, suggested we get Jim Antrim's spider boat catamaran, and set up a service to clean southbound migrating grey whales. We'd observed the slow moving grey whales, without bottom paint, get big barnacles and other marine growth. And the greys seemed to enjoy scratching against rocks. One even came into Santa Cruz Harbor to scratch against the breakwater.

Dave and I thought it would be a good environmental service to clean the endangered grey whales. Their resulting increased speed would get them to the Baja lagoons several weeks earlier, giving them more time for love making. Presto, more baby grey whales.

Our proposed grey whale cleaning ship, using Antrim's cat, was sort of like a mobile car wash with a TraveLift. We'd cruise along offshore, find a pod of southbound greys, pick one up, scrub and polish, and have the critter back in the water in 10-15 minutes. We figured we could do half a dozen whales in an afternoon.

In 2011, Jim Antrim concluded his lecture on his yacht design innovations to the Richmond Yacht Club with the attached photo. Jim's design and our fantasy whale cleaning ship created quite a stir. People chuckled, and didn't quite know what to think. Was this really true?

 

[Mewes]

Hah! I worked for the Contis when the boat was launched, and left as the unmanned-WAM-V was on the drawing boards. It is finding uses as a survey vessel. A lot of fun!


http://www.wam-v.com/manned.html

 

[Philpott]

OMG!!! What a great story! I laughed so hard I knocked over my coffee cup.

 

[H Spruit]

A clean whale is a good whale!

 

[sleddog]

Good news for you sailors who have installed the West Marine poorly designed, 12V, flush mount, female single receptacle, part #6867923. These $12 receptacles are meant to accept your male plugs for things like inverters, GPS,VHF, and laptop chargers, dust busters, anchor lights, etc.

They were crap, really, and the appliance would invariably not make firm contact, then jiggle out and fall on the floor. In addition, these female sockets don't have 360 degree/top-to-bottom contact for the ground of the male plug.

After much complaining, WM has gone to the Taiwan manufacturers and done a redesign. The new receptacles have a locking position, and stamped notation on the plastic where this locking position is.

Still not perfect, still without 360 degree contact. WM is trying to pawn off their older models left over in the warehouse. But if you take your older ones back to a WM store, they will likely replace them for free with the new model.

Just look closely. The new model is stamped "Lock Point ->Turn to Unlock" under the cap.

I have no association with the good people at WM.

 

[sleddog]

Santa Cruz is surrounded by towns, now cities, that like to bill themselves as the world capital. Gilroy reinvented themselves as the "Garlic Capital," Castroville has been the "Artichoke Capital" with its giant artichoke welcoming you to town. Pacific Grove is the "Monarch Capital." Watsonville recently latched onto the "Strawberry Capital." Capitola is the "Begonia Capitol" with its water festival.

Poor Santa Cruz felt left out. They have been locked in a long time copyright lawsuit with Huntington Beach for the name "Surf City."

What to do? Some genius at Chamber of Commerce came up with "Brussel Sprout Capital of the World." Have you ever smelled rotting Brussel Sprouts in the fields west of town? The Festival flopped.

So they turned seawards, and became the "Calamari Capital." The squid took the summer off. Calamari chili cookoffs were less than advertised.

What now?

Hah. Santa Cruz hopes to reinvent itself as the "Mole and Mariachi Capital." If you don't know what Mole is, it's a yummy Mexican sauce based on chili peppers and chocolate. The Festival starts Saturday, Oct. 5th. Free. Don't miss it if you like mole and mariachi music. http://events.santacruzsentinel.com/santa_cruz_ca/events/show/345741523-mole-mariachi-festival

As a side attraction I invite you to visit WILDFLOWER, currently in the driveway and flying higher than Orackle Team USA. We are working on fantasy plans for conversion of a small catamaran to a roulotte gypsy wagon, and you can get in on the fun.

https://www.google.com/search?q=rou...igLwmoHIAg&ved=0CCkQsAQ&biw=935&bih=598&dpr=1

Below is our preliminary engineering drawing for the requisite oxen yoke.