(Returning from the cruise out, approaching the brothers under motor: 6.2 knots Via Engine by Dave) is it a bungee cord?
(Returning from the cruise out, approaching the brothers under motor: 6.2 knots Via Engine by Dave) is it a bungee cord?
I can imagine a few "hinged" things that might function as a mast step and also a rudder pintle/gudgeon setup, but you've got me on it being a "hiking aid". I mean...hiking aid?
boots...wool socks....hiking poles....bandaids!
Last edited by AlanH; 11-09-2020 at 05:18 PM.
1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"
Alan: not talking "poles or bandaids, boots or wool socks", though as kids we used to use wet wool clothing as a hiking aid to increase our weight on the windward rail against the big guys upwind in breeze. I believe such means, i.e. wearing weight belts, water bags, wet clothing exceeding 8 kilos (17.6 pounds) is now outlawed by RRS Rule 43, as well as common sense, unless your boat has lifelines.
Plastic bucket?
Sorry, not a plastic bucket. But a good reminder you can never have too many buckets of different sizes on an ocean crossing. They are inexpensive, light weight, uses are many, and they disappear over the side if not dipping for water correctly (fore to aft). In the 1971 Transpac, the 73 ketch GRAYBEARD was saved by her energized crew when her rudder and skeg tore off the bottom during morning roll call, leaving a football sized hole.
The 5 bilge pumps were unable to keep up with the leak, an estimated 250 -300 gallons/minute. Fortunately a thrifty Scot in the crew, Dr. J.A. MacMillan, had acquired 12 neatly nested plastic buckets in Cape Town during GRAYBEARD's circumnavigation and stowed them in the bilge. A bucket brigade was formed and GRAYBEARD was saved in the 5 hours between the holing of the hull and the arrival of a Coast Guard plane with multiple airlifted gasoline pumps.
During the bucket brigade and parachuted pumps, GRAYBEARD's crew plugged the hole with a sleeping bag and rigged a sail collision mat while the boat drifted under small jib. All this was transpiring while the fleet listened intently on the radio to developments, and we on WINDWARD PASSAGE, leading the race on record pace, stood by to turn back if needed. Fortunately the leak was slowed, and GRAYBEARD eventually was towed the remaining 500 miles to Hono by the Coast Guard sea going buoy tender BUTTONWOOD.*
GRAYBEARD eventually crossed the finish line at Diamond Head under tow by BUTTONWOOD, water still spraying over the side from the pumps and her giant rudder/skeg lashed on deck. As GRAYBEARD entered Ala Wai Harbor in the afternoon, a rousing cheer went up from a large crowd of spectators and well wishers.
"Buckets? We don't need no stinkin' buckets." Wanna bet?
*BUTTONWOOD, a Mesquite class, seagoing, buoy tender operated by the United State's Coast Guard, was a famous ship and roamed the Pacific during, and after World War II, servicing navigation aids and performing many rescues of ships and downed aircraft. Her life tale is epic rivaling Farley Mowat's tug sea stories of FOUNDATON FRANKLIN and FOUNDATION JOSEPHINE.
BUTTONWOOD was home ported at CG San Francisco's Yerba Buena Island until 2000. During this posting BUTTONWOOD recovered debris from the crash of a US Air Force HC-130 off Cape Mendocino in November 1996. She hauled wreckage onto her buoy deck for later analysis on shore which helped solve the mystery why the 4 turbo-prop engines had quit in mid-flight, causing the loss of 10 of the 11 crew.
Last edited by sleddog; 11-10-2020 at 03:50 PM.
rim?
good luck with the under $10 part of that...^