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New Boat 4 Sled

sleddog said:
In a significant win for the hometown, the Coast Guard announced last night they would not proceed with the removal of Santa Cruz's iconic and historical Mile Buoy (124 years).

Recently at Inverness YC we tried a variation: Sally S. was getting in her licks with Laser boathandling in S to SE 4-10 knots when the breeze faded to 0-3 and the ebb increased to 2 knots, risking flushing Sally's Laser out Tomales Bay.

With Sally aboard, sleddog tied her Laser bow and stern to the IYC floats, And with a masthead line led ashore through a turning block, sleddog could heel Sally's Laser to any angle so she could practice hiking and sail trim.
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Excellent news about the Mile Buoy off Santa Cruz, Skip. And I am so glad someone was available to photograph Sally on her laser. It looks like Inverness is ready to go in this new season. Great place and lotsa kids willing to learn. How lucky they are that you are one of the grownups.
 
yosemite-falls-620x350.jpg

One of CBC's most innovative improvisations was also its most infamous and dangerous and had yachting and social media arguing for weeks over whether BULL GOOSE LOONEY, Howard's older, wood, El Toro, legally demolished Paul Larson's VESTAS SAILROCKET's World Speed Sailing Record for 500 meters of 65.45 knots

Unfortunately, BULL GOOSE LOONEY's average speed of 78.72 knots was never ratified by WSSRC as CBC learned revealing evidentiary names or photos of participants would have subjected our club to potentially heavy fines from the feds at the NPS for illegal BASE jumping and possibly littering in Yosemite National Park.

Here's how it went down.

Packed discretely in parts, on a full moon night, up the two mile Yosemite Falls Trail by an enthusiastic support crew wearing red “Downward Bound” tie-dyed-shirts, BULL GOOSE LOONEY and skipper were launched shortly after sunrise, 50 meters upstream from the brink of 739 meter, Yosemite Falls in Yosemite Valley, California.

By the time BGL went over the brink, she was already at 15 knots in the snow melt runoff. Check the WSSRC rules: Favorable current is disregarded in official Speed Record attempts, making this improbable venture possible for the free thinking team from CBC

At approximately 420 meters, BULL GOOSE LOONEY reached terminal velocity of 104 knots. The GPS attached to the skipper’s harness showed an average speed of 78.72 knots over 500 meters before our lady skipper bailed out with her Apex FLik canopy wing parachute 100 meters above Yosemite Falls base, where she landed in front of a surprised, but appreciative throng of early rising Japanese tourists.

The only part of BULL GOOSE LOONEY to survive the record attempt’s vertical ride down the iconic waterfall was the rudder, recovered a few hours later near Cathedral Beach, on the Merced River. This piece of sailing memorabilia now proudly hangs at the Harbor Cafe on 7th Ave.

If you weren't there, it didn't happen.
 
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sleddog said:
View attachment 9001

In a significant win for the hometown, the Coast Guard announced last night they would not proceed with the removal of Santa Cruz's iconic and historical Mile Buoy (124 years). The plan was to replace the buoy with a dot on an electronic chart, not a great idea for the many who use Mile Buoy, it's light and moaning sound, for local bearings, navigation, and recreational paddling, rowing, and sailing.

In a county divided on a lot of issues, I've never seen such prolific lobbying to keep our red and white buoy, including by O'Neill Sea Odyssey, the cities of Santa Cruz and Capitola, the Santa Cruz Yacht Club, Port District, and hundreds, if not thousands of boat owners, ocean recreators, beach walkers, and residents.

As the bumpersticker on Milly's truck says, "PLAN ON IMPROVISING.' With this in mind, sleddog over the years has taken many different tacks to coach, practice, and improve boat and sailhandling. Readers of this blog will recall to practice downwind spinnaker drill, gybing, twin jibs, mainsail reefing on a run in breeze, etc. sleddog would stern tie WILDFLOWER to a buoy off the Santa Cruz Wharf to practice his footwork for the SHTP and Pac Cups. No worries about traffic or running out of runway!

Recently at Inverness YC we tried a variation: Sally S. was getting in her licks with Laser boathandling in S to SE 4-10 knots when the breeze faded to 0-3 and the ebb increased to 2 knots, risking flushing Sally's Laser out Tomales Bay.

With Sally aboard, sleddog tied her Laser bow and stern to the IYC floats, And with a masthead line led ashore through a turning block, sleddog could heel Sally's Laser to any angle so she could practice hiking and sail trim.

View attachment 9002

I'm sure there are dozens, if not hundreds of improvisations practiced by resourceful readers...
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There are a lot of lines and details in this training setup. I would imagine the laser sailor is doomed to endless sailing (like the Flying Dutchman) until someone releases a few lines.

As for getting the chute up on Roxanne, I am currently flummoxed and looking for an inspiring thought.

Ants
 
sleddog said:
More Improvisation:
When Double-Handing the Wylie-60 ROXANNE we experimented with an interesting spinnaker hoist method for the 1998 PacCup. It involved no effort on our part, no electric winch or motor, no block and tackle, no bungee or giant wheel. In fact, the method didn't cost anything and would two block the spinnaker halyard in seconds..

Anyone wanna guess our hands free technique?
[/QUOT]

Halyard tail overboard. Requires a long tail and/or adding something for added drag.
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Dazzler said:
sleddog said:
More Improvisation:
When Double-Handing the Wylie-60 ROXANNE we experimented with an interesting spinnaker hoist method for the 1998 PacCup. It involved no effort on our part, no electric winch or motor, no block and tackle, no bungee or giant wheel. In fact, the method didn't cost anything and would two block the spinnaker halyard in seconds..

Anyone wanna guess our hands free technique?
[/QUOT]

Halyard tail overboard. Requires a long tail and/or adding something for added drag.
Click to expand...

DAZZLER wins the improvisation Quiz.

After the spinnaker halyard was attached to the head of ROXANNE's spinnaker inside its snuffer, the tail of the halyard (20' added as an extension) was chucked overboard. At the bitter end of the spinnaker halyard was rigged a 5 gallon mayonnaise bucket. Once overboard, the bucket, like a small sea anchor, would fill with water as the boat sailed forward, hoisting the spinny lickety split.

When the halyard and head of the spinny two blocked at the masthead, a velcro zip tie on the bucket handle would release the halyard tail, inverting the bucket, making it easy to pull back aboard. At 10 knots of boat speed, an average speed for ROXANNE in the Pac Cup, it took the bucket 4 seconds to hoist the spinnaker, and Bob's your uncle. And no, nothing was left in the wake.
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sleddog said:
More Improvisation:

As kids, we loved to practice flying and trimming the spinnaker on the family Cal-30 COCHISE. A flat calm never stopped us. In fact, it made us even more sensitive. Often, we'd fly free-fly the spinnaker without a pole, something I practice to this day in the 110 Class. How'd we do that, practice spinnaker technique in no wind?
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I've heard of people motoring in reverse in a calm to set the spinnaker, is that what you did?
 
breezetrees said:
I've heard of people motoring in reverse in a calm to set the spinnaker, is that what you did?
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Yes! We would motor COCHISE in reverse in no wind, making 3 knots of apparent wind (AWS), enough to nicely fly a.75 oz. spinnaker. It also improved our steering abilities in reverse which came in handy over the years, especially getting out of tight spots.

Speaking of tight spots, the fastest I ever went in reverse was 8 knots on the famous Bill Lee 67' ULDB sled, MERLIN. The 1977 Transpac Race had an engine rule that you had to be able to motor at 5 knots for 50 nautical miles. Hayes McClellan, the inspector, flew up from LA specifically to make sure MERLIN fit the Transpac entry requirements which had never seen a big, custom, ultralight like MERLIN. (Except for RAGTIME)

MERLIN, with Dave Wahle as ship's bosun, had been warned and had everything exactly ready and laid out for Hayes, who could find nothing wrong in the USYRU Category 1 Equipment List requirements. In his stentorian voice, Hayes then said, "I want to see this boat motor at 5 knots!"

Dave Wahle knew this was coming. As well, it was early spring and Santa Cruz Harbor entrance was heavily shoaled, leaving MERLIN only a short runway to fulfill the engine speed requirement. Dave had the engine running in a blink, cast off one stern line, gunned MERLIN out of her slip, hit the throttle to max RPM, and had MERLIN racing down Santa Cruz Harbor at 8 knots. IN REVERSE!

Hayes McClellan's eyes got real big seeing this wildman, bearded hippie, garbage man at the helm of MERLIN going 8 knots backwards, especially as the shoaled entrance was coming up real fast. Dave Wahle said politely to Hayes, "better hold on tight," and spun the wheel. Hayes, a big, ex-collegiate rowing champion, about flew overboard off the stern as MERLIN pivoted 180, and ascended the Harbor once again at 8 knots, entering her slip stern first as pretty as you please.

The last anyone saw of MERLIN's inspector was Hayes McClellan running for his rent-a-car to get to the airport and out of the crazy land Santa Cruz once was.
 
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At just under 12', Howard's Scamp PUFF would be a maxi yacht in the annual Bullship Race across the Golden Gate. Note: CBC's Port Captain Howard Spruit has seamlessly transferred his boatbuilding and sailing skills from a 60 knot dirtboat to his new and beloved 4 knot Scamp.

Scamplaunch.jpg

Here's Howard sailing PUFF yesterday on an idyllic spring day in the Pacific off Santa Cruz.

Scampocean.jpg
photo compliments of Rainer.
 
Philpott said:
That gybe? Probably why Shake and Bake lost its mast. Not a good day for multihulls, that's for sure.
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Hi Jackie (and Cliff), Did RAINBOW round the Farallones? If so, did you finish?. If not, what was the bailout and where?

As an aside, viewed from a warm, dry office, Sail Drone-1073, replacing Half Moon Bay weather buoy, was recording SSE winds 25 knots, gusting 34 with 8-12' seas during late morning/afternoon of the DH Farallones Race. Presumably, conditions were similar in the fleet's vicinity, 20 miles north of SD1073.
 
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sleddog said:
Hi Jackie (and Cliff), Did RAINBOW round the Farallones? If so, did you finish?. If not, what was the bailout and where?

As an aside, viewed from a warm, dry office, Sail Drone-1073, replacing Half Moon Bay weather buoy, was recording SSE winds 25 knots, gusting 34 with 8-12' seas during late morning/afternoon of the DH Farallones Race. Presumably, conditions were similar in the fleet's vicinity, 20 miles north of SD1073.
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Hi Skip: Rainbow bailed about 8 miles from the Island, without rounding. It was just plain rough and was hitting near 30 and seemed like it was just going to get worse so we figured why? Tried various sail configs -- reefed main, 85% jib, then full jib and no main for awhile coming back in, none of which made the seas calmer. Very light wind at Pt Bonita area, then a nice full main/full jib sail from the GGB to Emeryville. No boat/rig issues, fortunately, just got tired of being beat up. Cliff
 
Rainbow said:
Hi Skip: Rainbow bailed about 8 miles from the Island, without rounding. It was just plain rough and was hitting near 30 and seemed like it was just going to get worse so we figured why? Tried various sail configs -- reefed main, 85% jib, then full jib and no main for awhile coming back in, none of which made the seas calmer. Very light wind at Pt Bonita area, then a nice full main/full jib sail from the GGB to Emeryville. No boat/rig issues, fortunately, just got tired of being beat up. Cliff
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Thanks, Cliff! Sounds like a sound decision. I'm guessing you know the answer to the below trivia, but other readers may not. First with the right answers, both have 3 words, gets a good sea story:

A well known SF Bay schooner man and author starred in the greatest movie satire ever filmed. In the final scene, an iconic British songstress sings her most famous and evocative song, later immortalized by Pink Floyd on their album "The Wall." Who was she, and what was the song? 3 words each please.

PS For those Wordlers, sleddog found himself with the correct answer, "raise," on his first guess last Friday, April 19th, Wordle#1,035. The odds of this are calculated at 0.04% No Macapuno prize for this rarity.
 
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Miss Vera Lynn (3 words?)
We'll Meet Again

Congratulations on acing Wordle! I've had plenty of 2s, never got it in 1.
 
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