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Thread: New Boat 4 Sled

  1. #3001
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
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    2,095

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    Last year i would have been scanning that beach wrack for a nice potential caber log....no more!
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  2. #3002
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

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    With 3 fronts and associated low passing over SF Bay, in 72 hours we've had 5" of rain tip the gauge on the Capitola Boat Club deck. Snow is visible on the higher mountains surrounding Monterey Bay, and it's been chilly enough that commuters over Highway 17 encountered slush and ice this morning at the summit.

    A sparkling afternoon, and my long time friend, Andre', is singing his heart out in the sun on his favorite willow branch at the Cliff. I named Andre', an Anna's hummingbird, after Andre' Bocelli. And he is now a well known character at the Cliff who likes to show off his emerald and ruby shimmer in the warm sun.

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    The willows are just beginning to bloom, and except for the temperature of 50 degrees while riding my bike to PT, it could feel like spring.

    Here's photos of Andre' during past years. He likes to part my hair with his zippy aerial flybys.

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    I will introduce Andre' to the first person to correctly answer the following question.

    What is fastest for it's length?:

    1) F-35 military jet
    2) A cheetah
    3) the outhaul block on DURA MATER"s boom end gybing in 16 knots of wind.
    4) Andre'
    5) a Peregrine

    I was talking with good friends Maggie and Buzz Ballenger the other day. Buzz is the last aluminum mast maker on the West Coast and will likely retire in the next few years. Buzz told me it is increasingly difficult to get aluminum masts as it is no longer profitable for the aluminum extruders to deal with mast sections. There are only four sources in the country Buzz can order a mast tube. And those are about to become fewer. And no places in the Bay area to get a mast anodized, after the recent closure of Metalco in Emeryville.

    Buzz, Fox, and I were comparing commercial flying with yacht parts. Fox flies tomorrow to New Zealand with 4 lithium batteries in his carry-on for an ex-pat sailor friend with power tools. Whether Fox gets on the plane carrying the batteries is problematical. They are legal to carry on, but only if 100 watts each, or less, and then only if the TSA agent is cognizant of the the fine print. Which Fox is carrying.

    Buzz recalled he once tried to fly back from S.Cal with a solid boom vang off the broken mast of a 50 footer. He was pulled aside and asked to explain why he was carrying a portable rocket launcher/bazooka.

    My experience involved a 5/16" braided rope belt I mistakenly wore through airport security in Boston. The belt was knotted with a square knot, no metal buckle. I was quietly pulled out of line and told to come to an examination room.

    I was told to undress. They apparently wanted to see if the "dynamite fuse" I was wearing around my waist was attached to some explosive up my butt..Fortunately I was able to convince the examiners that it was a rope belt and not a fuse. But they kept my belt to make sure.

    Fox, Buzz, Andre' and me. Terrorists all.
    Last edited by sleddog; 02-06-2019 at 12:25 AM.

  3. #3003
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Montara, CA
    Posts
    803

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    I'm gonna go with the peregrine falcon especially in death bombing mode. A hummingbird's wings beat at a mile a second, but they're not usually flitting about at that speed....Dura Mater has to be a close second though!

  4. #3004
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

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    Hi GAMAYUN,

    Good guess. Peregrine falcons are beautiful and amazing birds. In diving "death bombing" mode, they can go 240 mph. However, the Peregrine is not the fastest for it's length.

    I do know two occasional posters know the correct answer. However they are busy attending a fluffy Bengal, building a half model, and practicing magic. So we may not hear from them..

    Hint: god of war.
    Last edited by sleddog; 02-07-2019 at 07:37 AM.

  5. #3005
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    Los Osos
    Posts
    62

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    Fun reply, Skip. We'll just sit off to the side and wait. Busy as you say.

  6. #3006
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
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    3,688

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    I'm going with DM's outhaul block on a jibe. And if you're talking about the amazing (and blind) Italian tenor, it's Andrea.

  7. #3007
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
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    Quote Originally Posted by BobJ View Post
    I'm going with DM's outhaul block on a jibe. And if you're talking about the amazing (and blind) Italian tenor, it's Andrea.
    Andrea? I'm sorry. I can't go calling Andre' "Andrea." The whole neighborhood calls the little hummer Andre'.

    By the way, Andre', weighing less than a nickel, was crooning his heart out yesterday on a sparkling afternoon, and would extend his shimmering neck in my direction. Go ahead, accuse me of anthropomorphism. Listen here: https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/...m/introduction

    And yes, DM's outhaul block does reach an impressive speed on a gybe in 16 knots, reach to reach. That took a bit of trig to figure out...basically, you don't want a gybing boom to ever hit you! Which is one reason why higher goosenecks are better than a decksweeper (visibility from the windward side is another.)

    Sorry, BobJ, DM's outhaul block on a gybe in 16 knots TWS is not the correct answer....We have to remember with Jackie's new bumblebee spinnaker, her apparent wind may only be 9 knots...
    Last edited by sleddog; 02-07-2019 at 10:14 AM.

  8. #3008
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    Sep 2007
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    3,688

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    The whizzing outhaul block reminded me of what I was going to write in response to that Scampi post.

    As a junior in the newly-minted Island Yacht Club, I was invited to crew aboard Dick Heckman's Tuna 27, Quetzal. We were racing in YRA that Summer and the Scampi was contending in our division. I was assigned to Quetzal's traveler and was as far aft as anyone, which was a good thing that day. During one breezy gybe things got fouled up and the tip of the pole got stressed. Its end fitting broke, sending a chunk of cast aluminum flying towards the cockpit. I heard it whiz by my ear before it hit fiberglass in the stern, taking out a goodly piece.

    After that, Dick experimented with dip-pole gybes, which was odd on such a small boat.
    .
    Last edited by BobJ; 02-07-2019 at 11:27 AM.

  9. #3009
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    Alameda CA
    Posts
    497

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    I'm going with Andre, the hummingbird, clocking in at ~50mph / 385 body-lengths per second.

    and yes, I googled the answer...
    though I did come across this fascinating article, so at least I learned some things in the process.

    https://www.wired.co.uk/article/the-...-a-fighter-jet

    DH
    Last edited by DaveH; 02-07-2019 at 11:46 AM.

  10. #3010
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    577

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    I think the answer may be "none of the above". A team in the Robotics lab at SRI International, from which I retired a year and a bit ago, builds teeny diamagnetically levitated robots and has claimed a world record for speed/size quotient. I'll see if I can dig up a link. Search for SRI micro fabrication if you can't wait.

    Edit: I haven't found the speed claim, but here's a look at the technology:
    https://www.sri.com/work/projects/mi...-manufacturing
    Last edited by Critter; 02-09-2019 at 09:53 AM.

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