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New Boat 4 Sled
- Thread starter sleddog
- Start date
Watching sail racing has been compared to spectating paint drying, or is it grass growing?
But not boring at all with exceptional commentary, such as provided by this Irish announcer of a Women's Olympic Laser Radial race:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gPjMvTmE2g
But not boring at all with exceptional commentary, such as provided by this Irish announcer of a Women's Olympic Laser Radial race:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gPjMvTmE2g
When building my custom Wylie-27 WILDFLOWER I had gone to lengths to avoid any thru-hull fittings below the waterline. Finally, some years later, this good intention was breached when I installed an engine, and a saltwater intake was needed. Number of thru-hulls = 1
On WILDFLOWER's first passage to Hawaii 38 years ago I had used an historic Walker patent log to measure distance run. This was a rotating metal fin dragged astern and attached to a readout. Unfortunately, I was to discover that hungry fish seemed to attack the the black painted spinners, and by halfway I was out of spares.
Flash ahead to 1996, WILDFLOWER's first Pacific Cup Race. I knew Chuck Hawley, our safety inspector, would be a stickler for rules compliance. The safety rules asked, in a vague sort of way, for a knotmeter or distance measuring device.
I wasn't about to again carry the heavy and impractical fish lure spinners of the Walker Log. Nor was I going to drill a hole in the bottom of the hull for a plastic impeller that could be easily rendered useless, or worse, by floating detritus.
I remembered an old speed measuring and safety method my father had taught me in pre-electronic days: carry a phone book on the aft deck, so pages can be ripped out to follow back to the MOB. Alternatively, pages could be used to measure the boatspeed.
Rather than a wet phone book, when Chuck Hawley came aboard for the Pac Cup safety inspection and asked to see our knotmeter, I tossed him an orange labeled "KNOTMETER" with a black felt tip marker.
I have to hand it to Chuck. He took one look at the orange, shook his head, and smiled a wry grin. It turns out his father had taught him the same speed measuring trick.
"OK," Chuck said, "Let's see it work." I reached in the companionway, pulled out the Etch-A-Sketch with a couple of DB connectors glued on for good effect. And stuck the instrument onto the Velcro mount.
[Peel orange. Toss orange peel off bow and start stopwatch. Record time as orange peel passes stern. Speed in Knots = .6 x Boat Length in Feet/Time in Seconds." (S=.6 L/T)]
Chuck rolled his eyes.
Chuck Hawley admitted he had learned this trick as a kid. And so had I. The Rule requiring "a speed measuring device" was met. I peeled the knotmeter and shared the orange with Chuck.
Accuracy? At least as accurate as any ill-calibrated, low-on-battery, 50 cent plastic paddlewheel attached to an expensive "Thrill Meter" and likely to be fouled with weed or jelly fish.
"Or crushed by the Travelift sling" squeaks Flippy.
On WILDFLOWER's first passage to Hawaii 38 years ago I had used an historic Walker patent log to measure distance run. This was a rotating metal fin dragged astern and attached to a readout. Unfortunately, I was to discover that hungry fish seemed to attack the the black painted spinners, and by halfway I was out of spares.
Flash ahead to 1996, WILDFLOWER's first Pacific Cup Race. I knew Chuck Hawley, our safety inspector, would be a stickler for rules compliance. The safety rules asked, in a vague sort of way, for a knotmeter or distance measuring device.
I wasn't about to again carry the heavy and impractical fish lure spinners of the Walker Log. Nor was I going to drill a hole in the bottom of the hull for a plastic impeller that could be easily rendered useless, or worse, by floating detritus.
I remembered an old speed measuring and safety method my father had taught me in pre-electronic days: carry a phone book on the aft deck, so pages can be ripped out to follow back to the MOB. Alternatively, pages could be used to measure the boatspeed.
Rather than a wet phone book, when Chuck Hawley came aboard for the Pac Cup safety inspection and asked to see our knotmeter, I tossed him an orange labeled "KNOTMETER" with a black felt tip marker.
I have to hand it to Chuck. He took one look at the orange, shook his head, and smiled a wry grin. It turns out his father had taught him the same speed measuring trick.
"OK," Chuck said, "Let's see it work." I reached in the companionway, pulled out the Etch-A-Sketch with a couple of DB connectors glued on for good effect. And stuck the instrument onto the Velcro mount.
[Peel orange. Toss orange peel off bow and start stopwatch. Record time as orange peel passes stern. Speed in Knots = .6 x Boat Length in Feet/Time in Seconds." (S=.6 L/T)]
Chuck rolled his eyes.
Chuck Hawley admitted he had learned this trick as a kid. And so had I. The Rule requiring "a speed measuring device" was met. I peeled the knotmeter and shared the orange with Chuck.
Accuracy? At least as accurate as any ill-calibrated, low-on-battery, 50 cent plastic paddlewheel attached to an expensive "Thrill Meter" and likely to be fouled with weed or jelly fish.
"Or crushed by the Travelift sling" squeaks Flippy.
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Ian Rogers
New member
I remember walking the dock after the 2002 Pac Cup, I was on Spirit the Sparkman and Stephens 33 that year. If I recall correctly Wildflower had a knot meter drawn on the bulkhead in sharpie with the needle pinned at 12 knots. I don’t know if it was an Etch-A-Sketch or actual permit marker, it been a few years. When we had to turn off our instruments in this year’s Pac Cup during the day to save power, I told Mark about the Wildflower knot meter it inspired him so much that he included it in his write up about our race. Hope I got the facts right.
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Thanks, Ian, your memory is spot-on. In the 2002 Pacific Cup, WILDFLOWER did have a Thrill-Meter decal on the back of the cabin with the needle permanently pegged at 12 knots.
As for thrilling, the story of Mark and Ian's recent Pacific Cup win on the Moore 24 MAS! is inspirational and ranks up there with the best small boat voyages ever. Congrats, Team MAS! (Ian, if you should chose, we'd love to see your story on this Forum...)
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Steevee
New member
Just read Mark's version of their record breaking Pac Cup race. Unfortunately they're gonna have to sail larger boats from now on in order to accommodate their giant balls.
http://moore24.org/m...eapple-express/
http://moore24.org/m...eapple-express/
Ian Rogers
New member
Thanks for the invitation. I have been working on converting my log into a digital version. If I get this done, I will post it. Currently my 2 year old daughter and 5 month old son are consuming all of my free time.
BTW - I read your 2010 race guide about 10 times before the start, its a hidden gem with a lot of great information that some of the other great pacific race navigators tend to leave out.
"As for thrilling, the story of Mark and Ian's recent Pacific Cup win on the Moore 24 MAS! is inspirational and ranks up there with the best small boat voyages ever. Congrats, Team MAS! (Ian, if you should chose, we'd love to see your story on this Forum...)"
What a great reading and congratulation Team MAS! - you are my heroes
What a great reading and congratulation Team MAS! - you are my heroes
Funny you should ask. Flippy was seen today attending the annual Cotati Accordion Festival with his escort, Synthia.
Initially, they were declined entry, as the policy of "No Pets" was being enforced, which meant Synthia would have to stay outside.
A plan was hatched, and Flippy was submerged in a passing plate of paella, thereby gaining them entry without further ado.
Once inside the Accordian Festival, Flippy hooked up with his long time Santa Cruz pal, the Great Morgani, he of 150 home-sewn costumes and 45 accordions. The Great Morgani has been playing his accordions on the streets of Santa Cruz for years, and is a local institution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDSnKxviQfc
Flippy likes to dress up as a Morgani accordian accoutrement and hang out.
As local bumper stickers point out:
"Keep Santa Cruz Weird," "We're All Here Because We're Not All There."
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Sailors have been cruising (and racing) the back roads of America for years.
But only recently did a crew of Swedes sail 300 miles across uncharted Nevada desert on a squarerigged schooner, the ASTRAKAN. ASTRAKAN had a professional rigger, Jens Langert, aboard. Jens understood the finer points of sailing land schooners and built ASTRAKAN without shock absorbers, instead using the supple material of wood from slow growing fir trees which provided a tight grained but flexible structure.
For fastenings, Jen and crew chose lashings, which avoided drilling holes in the wooden structure.
ASTRAKAN reached speeds to 25 knots during its 3 week voyage, before reaching the inland port of Black Rock City, NV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97fjOmGg2jc
But only recently did a crew of Swedes sail 300 miles across uncharted Nevada desert on a squarerigged schooner, the ASTRAKAN. ASTRAKAN had a professional rigger, Jens Langert, aboard. Jens understood the finer points of sailing land schooners and built ASTRAKAN without shock absorbers, instead using the supple material of wood from slow growing fir trees which provided a tight grained but flexible structure.
For fastenings, Jen and crew chose lashings, which avoided drilling holes in the wooden structure.
ASTRAKAN reached speeds to 25 knots during its 3 week voyage, before reaching the inland port of Black Rock City, NV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97fjOmGg2jc
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Having grown up in a family where our father was in the marine insurance business, we were used to late night phone calls with often unusual stories of woe. A detached propeller blade putting a hole in the bottom of a boat causing a near sinking? An overhanging whippy dinghy mast poking out the windows of a trans-Continental passenger train while the insuree was parked in a mid-West all-night diner parking lot? If we hadn't heard it all, we certainly did hear a lot.
It is never a happy thing to hear of damage to a boat caused by mis-adventure, whatever the cause. Especially when the boat belongs to a friend and one of our singlehanded family, a participant in the '16 Singlehanded Transpac. The following report is unofficial, abbreviated, second hand, and not meant to place blame. Despite best intentions, I've had my own boat trailer, on loan, mangled while in transit from Hawaii to the Mainland.
In the recent instance, the boat trailer became detached from the tow vehicle while being pulled up the inclined loading ramp, and the boat went for a backwards sleighride down the ramp. Fortunately, no one was injured or killed, although a quick thinking National Cargo Bureau surveyor in the line of fire threw himself over the railing and held on as the boat and trailer rumbled by.
The trailer fetched up on a railing on the bottom of the ramp, and the boat kept going, destroying the rudder and post, and damaging the keel. The mast slid off, taking the rigging and stanchions with it.
The cleanup was hazardous and confusing, and took about 3 hours, using forklifts, straps, and ratchets. Loading of RoRo cargo came to a stop. Ultimately a forklift was used to stabilize the forward part of the hull aboard the trailer, while stacked pallets supported the mid-body. The damaged boat/trailer did not make it aboard the ship, and was left parked in the Hono RoRo container yard.
The ship's officers and crew had no hand in the accident or cleanup, as the cargo is strictly in the care of the stevedores/longshoremen during loading activity.
We of SSS community have great sympathy for all involved, especially for the owner, and wish the best for a satisfactory resolution to this unfortunate incident.
It is never a happy thing to hear of damage to a boat caused by mis-adventure, whatever the cause. Especially when the boat belongs to a friend and one of our singlehanded family, a participant in the '16 Singlehanded Transpac. The following report is unofficial, abbreviated, second hand, and not meant to place blame. Despite best intentions, I've had my own boat trailer, on loan, mangled while in transit from Hawaii to the Mainland.
In the recent instance, the boat trailer became detached from the tow vehicle while being pulled up the inclined loading ramp, and the boat went for a backwards sleighride down the ramp. Fortunately, no one was injured or killed, although a quick thinking National Cargo Bureau surveyor in the line of fire threw himself over the railing and held on as the boat and trailer rumbled by.
The trailer fetched up on a railing on the bottom of the ramp, and the boat kept going, destroying the rudder and post, and damaging the keel. The mast slid off, taking the rigging and stanchions with it.
The cleanup was hazardous and confusing, and took about 3 hours, using forklifts, straps, and ratchets. Loading of RoRo cargo came to a stop. Ultimately a forklift was used to stabilize the forward part of the hull aboard the trailer, while stacked pallets supported the mid-body. The damaged boat/trailer did not make it aboard the ship, and was left parked in the Hono RoRo container yard.
The ship's officers and crew had no hand in the accident or cleanup, as the cargo is strictly in the care of the stevedores/longshoremen during loading activity.
We of SSS community have great sympathy for all involved, especially for the owner, and wish the best for a satisfactory resolution to this unfortunate incident.
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BobJ
Alerion 38 "Surprise!"
I suspect lots more than a new rudder. The ins and outs of marine insurance/liability/rules/etc. are so arcane you'd think trans oceanic shipping was still aboard Clipper Ships. The boat might well be a ruled "total loss" as it sounds like significant damage might have been done. The owner, or the owner's insurance company, might consider contacting a marine surveyor and Admiralty Attorney in Hawaii for an assessment. I wish everyone the best possible outcome.
I have a sailing friend who works at one of Oakland's container terminals (in the office) and the stories he tells would steer you clear of having anything at all to do with putting things on a ship. When I shipped "NANCY" back from the 2010 PacCup, he helped plan the trailer/ship ride home. We secured everything as well as possible, but that carbon mast sticking over the bow and over the stern sure gave me pause (30' boat/nearly 50' mast). We wrapped both ends with bright colored duct tape securing a florescent "pompon" at either end. We used 4" shipping straps from a flatbed lumber trailer to cinch the boat down and prayed.
I have a sailing friend who works at one of Oakland's container terminals (in the office) and the stories he tells would steer you clear of having anything at all to do with putting things on a ship. When I shipped "NANCY" back from the 2010 PacCup, he helped plan the trailer/ship ride home. We secured everything as well as possible, but that carbon mast sticking over the bow and over the stern sure gave me pause (30' boat/nearly 50' mast). We wrapped both ends with bright colored duct tape securing a florescent "pompon" at either end. We used 4" shipping straps from a flatbed lumber trailer to cinch the boat down and prayed.
Back in ancient times, about 866 AD, a bad ass Viking named Harald Fairhair fought and unified much of the what was to become Norway. Fairhair's victories earned him the title of the first King of Norway, and he was much beloved by his people and feared by his foes who fled his wrath by sailing to Iceland, the Shetland Islands, the Orkneys, and the Hebrides in a desperate mass exodus.
Recently the largest Viking ship of modern times, 115 feet overall, and named DRAKEN HARALD HARFAGRE (English translation: "Dragon Harald Fairhair") was built of oak in Haugesund, Norway, and launched in 2012. As there is no modern tradition of how to build or sail such a ship, it took a lot of shakedowns and trial and error for the crew of HARALD FAIRHAIR to learn the ropes.
Eventually the FAIRHAIR and crew set sail to cross the Atlantic in the footsteps of their Viking forefathers, but without the raping and plundering. A rugged and cold trip it was, but a successful voyage was made from Norway to Iceland to Greenland, Newfoundland, and up the St. Lawrence waterway to the Great Lakes, where she was halted by federal bureaucracy that demanded exorbitant pilotage fees: $400/hour, $9,600/day, the same fees charged a commercial cargo ship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwb8-HGytDE
There was a lot of rightous outrage and growing public support for the FAIRHAIR to continue her voyage to Chicago, Duluth, and ports in between. But the cost was just too much and the FAIRHAIR will have to leave.
The saga of the FAIRHAIR is currently ongoing, with a publicly funded, no expense spared visit to the schoolchildren of Detroit. Then the FAIRHAIR will cut short her Great Lakes visitation and depart for the Erie Canal, down the Hudson River, and eventually overwinter in Mystic Connecticut.
There are some great videos online of the FAIRHAIR and her crew. This is not a Moore 24, and the wooden tiller and rudder post look to be the size of a medium size tree trunk, i.e, "massive."
Dimensions of the FAIRHAIR: 115' LOA. 100 tons. 50 oars x 2 crew/oar. 15-30 crew needed to sail. The single sail is 2,800 square feet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bTkmG5b-VQ
Recently the largest Viking ship of modern times, 115 feet overall, and named DRAKEN HARALD HARFAGRE (English translation: "Dragon Harald Fairhair") was built of oak in Haugesund, Norway, and launched in 2012. As there is no modern tradition of how to build or sail such a ship, it took a lot of shakedowns and trial and error for the crew of HARALD FAIRHAIR to learn the ropes.
Eventually the FAIRHAIR and crew set sail to cross the Atlantic in the footsteps of their Viking forefathers, but without the raping and plundering. A rugged and cold trip it was, but a successful voyage was made from Norway to Iceland to Greenland, Newfoundland, and up the St. Lawrence waterway to the Great Lakes, where she was halted by federal bureaucracy that demanded exorbitant pilotage fees: $400/hour, $9,600/day, the same fees charged a commercial cargo ship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwb8-HGytDE
There was a lot of rightous outrage and growing public support for the FAIRHAIR to continue her voyage to Chicago, Duluth, and ports in between. But the cost was just too much and the FAIRHAIR will have to leave.
The saga of the FAIRHAIR is currently ongoing, with a publicly funded, no expense spared visit to the schoolchildren of Detroit. Then the FAIRHAIR will cut short her Great Lakes visitation and depart for the Erie Canal, down the Hudson River, and eventually overwinter in Mystic Connecticut.
There are some great videos online of the FAIRHAIR and her crew. This is not a Moore 24, and the wooden tiller and rudder post look to be the size of a medium size tree trunk, i.e, "massive."
Dimensions of the FAIRHAIR: 115' LOA. 100 tons. 50 oars x 2 crew/oar. 15-30 crew needed to sail. The single sail is 2,800 square feet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bTkmG5b-VQ
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Never underestimate the possibilities of creative thinking on behalf of your yacht's designer.
When I told Howard, WILDFLOWER's designer, that I was cutting off 21" from the luff of the mains'l, shortening the top of the aluminum mast an equal amount, and converting our pinhead main to a square top faux gaff in quest of further righting moment and joining the "Big Boys" in 21st Century styling, his observation was spot on:
Howard wrote:
"I just weighed 21 inches of Hobie 18 mast. It's 3 pounds including main halyard and head patch of mainsail. You'll be increasing the righting arm 2.3%. That 3 pounds of weight on the rail.
And three lbs of weight on the rail is four 12 oz beers! Tell the crew not to pee. We need the stability!"
The head of the square top main twists off (depowers) in puffs is another good thing....
Ask those Wyliecat 30's skippers."
Thanks, Mr. Spruit.
When I told Howard, WILDFLOWER's designer, that I was cutting off 21" from the luff of the mains'l, shortening the top of the aluminum mast an equal amount, and converting our pinhead main to a square top faux gaff in quest of further righting moment and joining the "Big Boys" in 21st Century styling, his observation was spot on:
Howard wrote:
"I just weighed 21 inches of Hobie 18 mast. It's 3 pounds including main halyard and head patch of mainsail. You'll be increasing the righting arm 2.3%. That 3 pounds of weight on the rail.
And three lbs of weight on the rail is four 12 oz beers! Tell the crew not to pee. We need the stability!"
The head of the square top main twists off (depowers) in puffs is another good thing....
Ask those Wyliecat 30's skippers."
Thanks, Mr. Spruit.
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Synthia, Rreveur puppy, and Flippy joined in last evening for pizza night at the Capitola Boat Club and Maritime Museum.
Syn was sporting a new T-shirt she had artistically painted by buying a rock fish from the fishmarket, painting the fish in nice colors, then pressing it on her shirt.
