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Thread: New Boat 4 Sled

  1. #2121
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    Alan, as I understand it, the lateral area of any fin keel is pretty much insignificant for resisting lateral slippage unless you're making little or no forward way. They all work by generating lift as the boat moves through the water. And a high-aspect keel as in your picture will produce more lift per unit of lateral area because more of the area is far from the tip, where you get pressure bleed-off as water moves from the high pressure side to low pressure. Of course, having a bulb on the tip further reduces this migration.

  2. #2122
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    Sad news that Santa Cruz surfing legend and pioneer of the wetsuit, Jack O'Neill, has died at age 94.

    After tiring of selling parking meters*, O'Neill opened his first surf shop, a corrugated tin building with a totem pole in front, at Ocean Beach in San Francisco in 1952. Inside, when he wasn't out surfing, O'Neill made foam and fiberglass surfboards.

    Early on, Jack began experimenting with neoprene rubber as possible thermal protection for surfing in local frigid waters. Before O'Neill's early "Short John wetsuit,” people sometimes wore oiled wool or cashmere to stay warm. This clothing was not only heavy and inadequate, but also tended to leave a small oilslick while waiting to catch a wave. Jack's neoprene "Short John" was a better deal, and sold for $25 a pop. For $10 bucks more you could get a full length "Long John" and a small bucket of talcum powder needed to slip into the new fangled gear, something initially disparaged up and down the Coast. Jack just smiled and repeated his mantra: "it's always warm on the inside."

    In 1959, O'Neill closed his Ocean Beach surf shop, loaded two truck loads of gear and kids, and set out down Highway 1 to Santa Cruz to open his second surf shop at the foot of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, adjacent to Steamer Lane.

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    O'Neill set up a 2 used fire hoses from his brother's firetruck at the the local cliff to access the surf below. Sliding down the fire hose was easy. Climbing back up with a surfboard under arm was a different matter. Does anyone remember this, before the steps were carved in the Steamer Lane cliff face?

    Jack O'Neill enjoyed life to the fullest and his pirate's eyepatch image, the result of a surfing accident, only added to his persona. Jack was a gentle person and an early promoter not only of surfing, but windsurfing, catamarans, skateboards, schooners, sand sailors, and hot air balloons.

    One afternoon during one of the ubiquitous surf parties upstairs at the O'Neill Building at Santa Cruz Harbor, Jack decided to go for a balloon flight. By now, to his chagrin, Jack's once red hot air balloon with black lettering was faded to pink. No matter, Jack inflated the balloon with the propane burners on the beach by the breakwater, climbed aboard, and lifted off into the low cloud layer. No one saw Jack after that, not until Jack's sharp eyed wife Marge saw his balloon descend from the clouds and disappear into the kelp off Lighthouse Point, a mile west.

    "RG," who worked for Jack for nigh on 50 years, was detailed by Marge to effect Jack's rescue....neither of the O'Neill Sailing Center's two outboards would start, so RG rigged a Hobie 16, sailed out the Entrance, and out to Steamer Lane. There, in the fog, RG found Jack O'Neill sitting in the middle of his now deflated hot air balloon in the middle of the kelp. Jack was muttering "Pure. Pure." More on this in a moment.

    With difficulty, RG loaded the soaking wet nylon balloon, the propane burners, the basket, and Jack on the 16 foot catamaran. Again, Jack beseeched the heavens with "Pure, Pure!"

    Then what happened next is pure Jack O'Neill: He and RG decided to take the heavily loaded Hobie 16 into the lineup and surf waves! WTF? The tramp on the 16 was so low it was dragging in the water. No matter. To Jack, "pure" meant the intersection of one wind or wave propelled activity with another. Riding a hot air balloon, then being rescued by a small catamaran, and riding the surf under sail, all in the same afternoon, was about as "pure" as it could get for Jack, who rejoined the upstairs party in his wetsuit with a big grin on his face.

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    Although wetsuits opened up surfing to the masses, Jack's finest legacy is the non-profit O'Neill Sea Odyssey Marine Science Program that has taken nearly 100,000 grade school children onto the ocean off Santa Cruz, teaching them environmental stewardship and marine science aboard his 65 foot catamaran.

    Godspeed, Jack.

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    * When Howard Spruit was a little kid living in Los Gatos, the city decided to put in parking meters. The company that sold them had this deal that they would install them for free, on a one year trial basis. The company believed that the city would like the revenue and decide to keep and pay for the meters at the end of the first year.

    Well, the citizens of Los Gatos hated the meters so much that they decided to tear them out and not pay for them.
    The salesman got burned for the commission and the company had to remove them and repair the holes in the sidewalk. That salesman was Jack O’Neil and because he knew knew Howard was from Los Gatos he never let him forget it.
    Last edited by sleddog; 06-03-2017 at 01:58 PM.

  3. #2123
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    It had never been done before. And never will be repeated. But the time Jack O'Neill flew his hot air balloon under the Golden Gate Bridge bears telling.

    This is a first hand recollection from good friend RG, who was there. I was somewhere else on Sf Bay in 1969, teaching sailing on Shields, or helping resupply the Native Americans who occupied Alcatraz for 18 months.

    Jack O'Neill was good on ideas, a little less so on execution. So one day Jack gets the bright idea to fly his pink hot air balloon under the Golden Gate Bridge. Flying over the GG Bridge would have been ballsy enough. But under the 220 foot high bridge strains credulity. However, RG, who drove Jack's blue 18 foot Chrysler outboard motorboat from Santa Cruz to San Francisco, is probably the most honest person I know, and I do not question his veracity.

    RG in the blue Chrysler, with the hot air balloon aboard, arrived in SF to meet Jack O'Neill. Together they proceeded seaward to Pt. Bonita aboard the Chrysler. Pt. Bonita is 2.5 miles upwind of the Golden Gate, sufficient distance they figured to inflate the balloon and ride it victoriously under the Bridge.

    It was a cold, windy, rough day on the SF Bar as they put the hot air balloon into the water, lit the propane burner and began to inflate. The wind and current seemed to be taking the team inshore faster than planned!

    RG put the outboard into full speed reverse, and with water coming over the transom of the small boat, they motored stern-first and pulled the balloon upwind, away from the Bridge. The increase in apparent wind helped inflate the balloon enough to lift Jack O'Neill out of the water.

    Jack's attachment to the balloon was unorthodox to say the least (this was one of the country's first hot air balloons.) From the top of the balloon downward ran a heavy hawser. The hawser ran through one side of a wooden rope spool on which Jack sat.

    Just as the balloon tender, with RG at the controls, was about to sink, they resumed course for the Golden Gate, Jack hanging from under the balloon while towing RG and the tender below. It was a good thing they were still connected as this ungainly configuration passed successfully under the 220 foot high Golden Gate Bridge.

    Once inside the Bay and clear of the GG Bridge, Jack released the towline and ascended into the thick cloud deck. Then it happened: as Jack's balloon came into the blue sky above the cloud, he came face to face with a small plane out on a sight seeing flight. Shocked by the encounter, the plane's pilot took an evasive maneuver that just cleared the balloon while simultaneously Jack ran out of propane and his burner quit.

    Jack and the balloon descended unceremoniously into SF Bay about 1/4 mile east of the Golden Gate, where RG retrieved his friend and gear.

    What happened next? The FAA got word of Jack's escapade and issued a fine for flying a hot air balloon without a permit. Flying under the Golden Gate Bridge? Apparently legal, then and now.

    Permits? We don't need no stinkin' permits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqomZQMZQCQ
    Last edited by sleddog; 06-03-2017 at 01:45 PM.

  4. #2124
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    The third annual Race to Alaska (R2AK) starting gun goes off this Thursday, June 8, at 5:00 am. 750 miles, no motor, no support, from Port Townsend WA to Ketchikan AK.

    There are 41 entries, of which 21 are multihulls and 3 are Stand Up Paddleboards (SUP). The biggest is a 34 foot trimaran from Isle of Wight, England.

    Who are the favorites to finish first and win the $10,000 prize? I'm guessing it will be between MAMA TRIED, the 3 Burd brothers on their 28 foot custom tri from Marblehead (photo 1), and local PT boatbuilder Russell Brown on his 32 foot Gougeon catamaran PT WATERCRAFT (photo 2).

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    Good sailing, rowing, paddling, and peddling to all. https://r2ak.com/2017-full-race-participants/
    Last edited by sleddog; 06-05-2017 at 02:43 PM.

  5. #2125
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    pogen is offline Sailing canoe "Kūʻaupaʻa"
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    I have no idea how people singlehand this (awesome) race. A few do it though. You would need to anchor almost every night, so many rocks and such narrow channels with nasty currents and traffic. I will follow and admire from afar.

  6. #2126
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    Quote Originally Posted by pogen View Post
    I have no idea how people singlehand this (awesome) race. A few do it though.
    More than a few singlehanders in the 2017 R2AK. 15 singlehanders entered... that's 37% of the fleet.

    There's a couple of interesting "sidebet" prizes offered for the R2AK. Small Craft Advisor magazine is awarding $1,000 to the first finisher 20 feet or under LOA.

    The most prestigious award, and the one most respected by the sailors is the "DIRT BAG" Award. This is no monetary prize at all, you don't need it, and goes to the competitor who has the least money into the race. The 2016 winner of the DIRT BAG Award found his boat rotting in some blackberry bushes.

    And then there is the "Buy Back Award," which encourages smaller, less expensive boats. I'll let R2AK explain the "Buy Back Award."

    "We’re going to be on the finish line dock in Ketchikan, with a big Ed McMahon style check. Each team that finishes and rings the bell will get 5 minutes to decide whether or not they will be the one to sell us their boat for $10,000. We made a video about it.

    Maybe it’s an act of charity–if Larry Ellison shows up and sells us his fancy boat for $10k–we would happily take it.
    Maybe your race was enough of a hate mission that you never want to see your boat again.
    Maybe you want a way to legitimately say “I won the $10k in the R2AK.”
    Maybe you have found the fastest, cheapest way to crack the R2AK code

    We don’t care about your motivations–you don’t have to be first, you just have to be the first to say yes.

    We are only buying one boat, first one to say yes gets $10k"


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  7. #2127
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    pogen is offline Sailing canoe "Kūʻaupaʻa"
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    That's amazing. And indeed, that is the full course, not the warmup course PT to Victoria. I think there were far fewer SH entries last time. Well here's good luck to them.

  8. #2128
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    A "shocking" sight: seeing the Kiwi catamaran pitchpole at 2:40 in the below video. Shortly before the start, the Kiwis, having misjudged timing, were slowed by Ben Ainsle to leeward. Then when they bore away and put the pedal down the boat went from 5 knots to 30 knots almost instantly, while also becoming airborne.

    There's not enough duct tape in all Bermuda to fix that wing.

    YiiiII Doggies https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxI...Yyd1Vzbms/view
    Last edited by sleddog; 06-06-2017 at 06:54 PM.

  9. #2129
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    And that is a reason I have decided to leave the racing to the youngsters!

  10. #2130
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    Ran into longtime friend and SSS supporter Robby Robinson the other day at Marin Yacht Club. Robby is a two time SHTP vet, once in 1982 on his Hawkfarm COURAGEOUS, and again in 1988 on his beautiful Chuck Burns 35 ROLLING STONE.

    Robbie alerted me to the news he has taken a step back in time and recently bought the 1938 Myron Spaulding design NAUTIGAL. NAUTIGAL is 38' overall, built in San Francisco by Anderson and Cristofani in 1938, and appropriated by the Navy during WW II.

    Robby plans to bring NAUTIGAL onto the SF Bay race course, a treasure from the past.
    Here's NAUTIGAL sailing along fog festooned Angel Island, sometime in the 1960's. Photo by Diane Beeston.

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