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Thread: New Boat 4 Sled

  1. #3121
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    [QUOTE=sleddog;22780]"Taking the ground," AKA running aground, whether on purpose or by accident, is fading into last century sailing diction. Once an English Admiralty law definition, lest you "take the ground" with your Thames River Barge onto private property as the tide falls.

    The Mahurangi River, 36 miles north of Auckland, New Zealand lies on the east coast of the North Island and trends northwestward for 6 sublimely scenic miles from Mahurangi Harbor, near Kawau Island, into the interior, ending at a waterfall that I wondered if accessible to WILDFLOWER, my 27 foot Tom Wylie sloop that drew 5'3".

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    There was only one way to find out, and that was to ascend the Mahurangi, by necessity near high tide, as at low tide the narrow estuary fully dries.

    The first thing was to find a chart. But as near as I could determine at the time, no chart existed for the Mahurangi except for a hand drawn sketch with notations like "leave broomstick one-half length to starboard," and "nesting swans will be passed to port."

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    No matter, the bottom was mud from the fertile land upriver. My only concern was if we took the ground mid-river, would WILDFLOWER stand on her fin keel overnight without falling over?

    Not to worry. I gently set WILDFLOWER aground near some historical limekilns. And as the tide ebbed, I rigged a plank ashore so as to be able to celebrate Christmas with friends who lived on the nearby hillside.

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    That night, Christmas Eve 1996, I fell asleep to the sound of the Morepork owl, hooting "morepork, morepork.'

    Christmas Day I was back afloat and left my mud berth early, bound upriver for the village of Warkworth. Nothing was open in Warkworth, so I continued up the rapidly narrowing stream, only a boat length wide.

    In the morning mist I could see a waterfall ahead blocking further progress. Pohuehue Falls. It seemed a good idea to turn 180, and slowly approach Popuepue Falls stern first ..

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    Only a few feet from the Falls, and making slow sternway, there was an audible clunk. I'd hit a rock with the keel. Discretion the better part of seamanship, I shifted my single cylinder, 7 hp Yanmar into forward, snapped some pictures, and headed downstream.....past Warkworth, the limekilns, the nesting swans, and broomstick marking the best guess where the edge of the channel was...
    Last edited by sleddog; 04-07-2019 at 10:19 AM.

  2. #3122
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    Pretty little Wildflower

  3. #3123
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    [QUOTE=sleddog;22780]In a long life of taking the ground, extra-ordinary occasions stand out: into a glowworm cave.QUOTE]

    Webb Chiles, on his Moore-24 GANNET, is encountering slow and arduous upwind sailing closing the loop on his solo circumnavigation up the coast of Central America to San Diego.

    GANNET, after 25 days at sea from Panama, has ascended (upwind, up current, hot temps and sun, sheet to tiller steering) 1,700 NM to the latitude of Acapulco at an average SOG of 2.7 knots. Ouch. Although "provisioned for 2 months," I hope he has resupplied and fresh watered from a passing tuna boat in the area. I can't imagine Chiles making San Diego non-stop from his current position, 1,500 NM more straight line miles... but he's a tough geezer in a strong little boat and knows what he's up against.

    https://my.yb.tl/gannet

    After WILDFLOWER and I ascended the Mahurangi River in New Zealand, we had a decision to make: continue west around the world? Or sail 6,000 NM, mostly upwind, back to our home port of Santa Cruz?

    Before making this decision, I wanted to freshen WILDFLOWER's bottom, as well as straighten the aft lower tip of our 2,700 pound lead keel where we had backed into the rock at Popuepue Falls.

    What better place to haul than Doug's Boatyard in Opua, Bay of Islands? The boatyard itself was a small, even serene, Sleepy Hollow, with a single railway leading to a turntable and half a dozen sidings... Here's WILDFLOWER on the hard, ready to be slipped up Doug's railway.

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    Up WILDFLOWER went, winched to the turntable, where a couple of us manually shunted the boat in its cradle onto a short siding... stopping just short of a mossy, dripping cave in the cliff.

    That night, and for two more, I slept aboard WILDFLOWER on the hard at Doug's, especially enjoying the evenings when the mossy cave just forward of the bow came alight with glow worms (Arachnocampa luminosa) unique to New Zealand.

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    Last edited by sleddog; 04-07-2019 at 10:04 PM.

  4. #3124
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    Magical, Skip! More!

  5. #3125
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    Next Saturday, 4/13/19, SSS is running a race "Round the Rocks."

    With 6 days to go, despite efforts, I have been unable to locate Round-the-Rocks Sailing Instructions online. Not on the SSS website, nor on Jibeset.

    Difficult to plan, currents and otherwise, when one doesn't know the race start time, the course, and other pertinent details.

    I do see 59 boats are currently entered, with likely more to come.

    A gentle nudge to the powers that be to enlighten us with race specific info. Please don't suggest attending the skipper's meeting....that's 160 miles RT.

    I do offer a prize, listed below *, to the first who can point us to online Round-the-Rocks race specific docs (SI's). Not last year's SI's or 2017. Nor the standing Notice of Race, Standing SI's, or race replays.

    Here's the prize:* lat/lon of a harbor of refuge 2.5 hours easy navigation from Alameda. Warm, silky smooth waters. Current daytime temps in the 70's. Good views of surrounding hillsides of wildflowers and distant mountains (not the Delta). Quiet except for song birds by day, multiple species of owls at dusk, coyotes in the distance. The darkest and clearest of night skies for Milky Way and celestial viewing, in the water or out.

    A trailerable vessel not needed.
    Last edited by sleddog; 04-07-2019 at 08:40 PM.

  6. #3126
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    Not posted yet. From my e-mails I gather Jim is helping pull together LongPac docs at the moment.

    2018's are good for planning though - RtR doesn't change much from year to year. The long-term forecast is for light wind. I haven't looked at the current yet.

  7. #3127
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    1054 max ebb at the gate.
    Pretty heavily reinforced by the runoff.

  8. #3128
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    I can report that (as of 2012, anyway) Doug's Boatyard in Opua looks just the same. It boggled my mind that a yard could function in that tiny space and on such a slope. I didn't get to see the railway turntable in action, nor the glowworms doing their thing.

    I was there because my brother, two of his daughters, and I were chartering a Raven 31 from Great Escape Yacht Charters who operate out of the floating hut that you can see in one of Skip's photos. Nice boat, roomy and sails well, and a friendly operation, highly recommended if you want to sail in the Bay of Islands.

    Great Escape also has a couple of Noelex 30s, a speedy-looking lifting-keel Farr design. I was strongly tempted by a Noelex that I looked at before ending up with Iniscaw.
    Last edited by Critter; 04-12-2019 at 06:57 PM.

  9. #3129
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    Dec 2012
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    Alameda CA
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    Quote Originally Posted by sleddog View Post
    I do offer a prize, listed below *, to the first who can point us to online Round-the-Rocks race specific docs (SI's). Not last year's SI's or 2017. Nor the standing Notice of Race, Standing SI's, or race replays.

    Here's the prize:* lat/lon of a harbor of refuge 2.5 hours easy navigation from Alameda. Warm, silky smooth waters. Current daytime temps in the 70's. Good views of surrounding hillsides of wildflowers and distant mountains (not the Delta). Quiet except for song birds by day, multiple species of owls at dusk, coyotes in the distance. The darkest and clearest of night skies for Milky Way and celestial viewing, in the water or out.
    SI's are up on Jibset as of this AM...
    https://www.jibeset.net/JACKY000.php?RG=T008165961

  10. #3130
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    Quote Originally Posted by DaveH View Post
    SI's are up on Jibset as of this AM...
    https://www.jibeset.net/JACKY000.php?RG=T008165961
    Thank you, Mr. Hedgehog, for your direction to 2019 online RtR Sailing Instructions. The lat/lon of the harbor of refuge and its warm waters/dark skies is in the mail.

    And thank you also to the RC and SSS race administration, including Jibeset, for the timely directions. You rock. CU out there.
    ~s

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