Here's sistership Top Cat's mizzen stays'l:
http://yawls.net/TopCat/TopCat/Under_Way.html#25
Maybe I'll get one with a big exclamation point on it!
Here's sistership Top Cat's mizzen stays'l:
http://yawls.net/TopCat/TopCat/Under_Way.html#25
Maybe I'll get one with a big exclamation point on it!
So where's the boat?
I sailed on SERENA (above.) At the time, she had one winch...
Also sailed on schooner NEW WORLD. She had no cleats.
I've got a mizzen spinnaker for BobJ. With no rigging on his carbon mizzen mast, there is the possibility of the top of the mizzen approaching the main mast for a kiss.
Sounds like I'd better keep the main spinnaker drawing or the whole shebang might swap ends. No time for kissing!
I've heard those asymmetric spinnakers are pretty flash - maybe I should look into one of those.
Winches and cleats? We don't need no steenkin' winches 'n cleats! Not on a yawl!
1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"
Not a happy scene in the NW Passage last night. A rogue iceberg in big current cornered and holed the 11 meter Argentinian ANAHITA in Bellot Strait. The two crew aboard deployed their EPIRB and took shelter on the offending berg as their sloop sank.
Fortunately, there were no bears in the vicinity.
ANAHITA's EPIRB signal was received, allowing a helo from the 327' Canadian Coast Guard Cutter HENRY LARSON to retrieve the shipwrecked crew after 11 hours on the ice.
Currently, the NW Passage still remains impassable, especially Franklin Straits. Everyone is getting impatient for an "opening." Which may not happen this year. Have you got any news of the iceberg?
HAVE YOU GOT ANY NEWS OF THE ICEBERG?
(Les Barker)
On a cold rainy night on a Liverpool quayside
In the years before the Great War
The crowd was in shock at the loss of Titanic;
So proud had they been days before.
Relatives gathered for news of their loved ones,
To read through the list of the dead,
When into the throng came a sad-eyed old polar bear
And to the clerk at the counter he said
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
My family were on it, you see;
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
They mean the whole world to me.
My wife and my children were coming from Greenland
To be by my side in the zoo;
Belinda's my wife, and the eldest's called Bernard,
And Billy, well he's only two.
I know on the ship there were hundreds of people
And I know the iceberg's not yours...
The polar bear's eyes held the start of his teardrops
And he covered his face with his paws.
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
My family were on it, you see;
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
They mean the whole world to me.
It's been over a year since I last saw my children;
I left home to build my career;
I've worked very hard; I'm a star in the circus;
It's all been for nothing, I fear.
That's my face on the poster; we're in town this week;
My children were meeting me here.
Everyone watched as he struggled to speak,
As his paw brushed away one more tear.
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
My family were on it, you see;
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
They mean the whole world to me.
By now all the people had gathered beside him;
His grief was one they could share.
The people around him, in silence and sadness,
Listened to the sad polar bear.
I wanted my children to see me performing
And Belinda, she would have been proud;
At last lost for words, and his tears flowing freely,
The question was asked by the crowd.
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
My family were on it, you see;
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
They mean the whole world to me.
Last edited by sleddog; 08-30-2018 at 08:15 PM.
If you are considering the NW Passage, it's best to have a metal boat. Sometimes things happen "out there." FINE TOLERANCE, a 33 foot sloop, tried for 3 years to get through (2009-2011) Finally, impossibly beset, things turned fortuitous, and they got a tow from Canadian icebreaker SIR WILFRED LAURIER. This is like no tow you've ever seen, and hard to watch.
http://arcticnorthwestpassage.blogsp...rescue-by.html
The good news is this strong little steel ship survived with only a bent rudder and sheared propellor and sails to this day.
Last edited by sleddog; 08-30-2018 at 03:57 PM.
Sled, That WAS hard to watch.
Scrolling down the page, I love the photo of rafted boats including CLOUD NINE (with an SF Bay crew connection) and IDLEWILD. Though not a sailboat, the IDLEWILD story is truly remarkable. She was built far from the ocean by a family of Canadian farmers, literally hauled through the woods with a tractor and launched on the north flowing MacKenzie River, and then subsequently went 'round the world. I truly admire the confident "yup, we can do that, spirit."
http://northwestpassage2014.blogspot...005nwp-on.html
Tom
Last edited by Dazzler; 08-30-2018 at 08:55 PM.