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Thread: New Boat 4 Sled

  1. #141
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    Clearing back into the US was problematical. The Customs Agent couldn't understand why our CA boat registration (DMV) said "undocumented vessel." For a few moments, we felt like "undocumented aliens." That was cleared up. But then the Agent wanted to make sure our four apples had stickers of origin on them. Gee Whiz.

    We tied up briefly at Roche Harbor, amidst about 400 powerboats, a similar number of blonde bombshells, and a mere 25 sailboats. The main dock at Roche was pre-empted for a "Dog Show on the Docks." Photo of Roche attached.

    We sought more peaceful anchorage at Garrison Bay, home of English Camp and its 363 year old Big Leaf Maple tree.
    http://www.thesanjuans.com/san-juan-...british-.shtml

    All was quiet in the anchorage, except for a high school tuba player practicing, presumably for upcoming football season. Nearby, a 16' antique motor launch, SMALL FRY, came in from Canada with his one lunger, 1918 East Hope engine beating a tattoo. http://www.vancouvermaritimemuseum.c...artifactid=127

    That night, all was still in Garrison Bay. We could hear the machinery of passing ships in Haro Straits, 5 miles distant. Vancouver is a big port in Canada, and dozen or more large ships per day transit Haro Straits.
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    Last edited by sleddog; 08-22-2012 at 01:40 PM.

  2. #142
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    AlanH,

    The 16' motor launch, SMALL FRY, we encountered at Garrison Bay shows there is every imaginable size and type of vessel cruising up here in the Pac NW. Sailboats only make up about 15% of the fleet, and most all of them have completely enclosed cockpits with expensive dodgers. August is warm up here, and many of these enclosed cockpits were broiling. Enclosed cockpits on sailing craft are mandatory for winter cruising. But they compromise sail handling and visibility.

    SMALL FRY had crossed Haro Straits from Race Rocks, about 25 miles. The owner had the boat tricked out, and was camping aboard under a tarp. I believe SMALL FRY is 1941 vintage, built as a work boat. Supplemental power was two oars. http://www.woodenboat.org/boats/Boat...?processID=579
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    Last edited by sleddog; 08-22-2012 at 12:23 PM.

  3. #143
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    Orca watching, as noted in a previous post, is BIG business in these parts. With spotter air craft and Twitter feeds, the up to the minute position, direction, and speed of resident and transient orcas is known to all commercial outfitters. They "100% Guarantee" orca encounters.

    In Victoria, the outfitters predominantly use 12 passenger RIB high speed inflatables. The passengers are outfitted in Mustang coveralls to presumably stay warm and dry. This navy of RIBS leave Victoria Inner Harbor every day at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. for their dates with the orcas.

    The recent birth of a baby orca was front page news in all the papers. Fines are going up to $2,000 next year for any vessel caught with 200 yards of an orca. Yikes.

    I also mentioned the clarity of sound travel in this area, especially in the evening, night, and early morning. Last night we could hear the cannons fired at Roche Harbor Sunset and Flag Lowering Ceremony, 8.5 miles distant. Voices over water can often be heard at quarter to half mile. The Friday Harbor ferries can be heard reversing engine during docking at 3 miles.
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    Last edited by sleddog; 08-22-2012 at 02:45 PM.

  4. #144
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    I occasionally spend time participating in the Wooden Boat forum, and there's a whole section there on "sail and oar" boats. The idea appeals. If the wind doesn't blow, then row. Then again, that does limit your range, and of course if the boat has a big cabin, who wants to row it?. Guys do sometimes row 20+ miles, personally I think that's a bit much, though 10 miles doesn't phase me if the boat is handy enough and I'm not in a hurry and the tides cooperate. One of the regular contributors sails an Oughtred Ness Yawl, rather modified. Another sails a 15 food peapod. Another sails an Oughtred Caledonia Yawl, and another sails a 16 foot Hvalsoe design.....well, duh. It's Eric Hvalsoe. And so on.

    This is why I chose the skerry. It's eminently rowable, and is supposed to sail pretty well, albeit simply. It has a flat bottom so in the rare occasion that I can put it up on the beach, it will sit flat. It tows behind my 4-clyinder truck without a thought. It stores in the front yard and requires no slip fees. It requires no haulout. It requires no insurance, as it's covered on my homeowners policy. The current sail, a-building is cut from a 12 x 14 heavy-duty white polyethylene tarp. If that works, I'll probably ask Synthia to build me a "real" sail. Shelter is provided by a tent-like structure held up by nifty bendable, lightweight aluminum tent poles. That's great in a fog, dew, a sprinkle or blue skies. God forbid that it pours rain! I would love to finish up the skerrys rig and then take it up to South Puget Sound for a 2-3 week summer messabout.

    On the other hand, I wouldn't take the skerry to the Farallones and I don't have a PHRF certificate. It's all a compromise.
    Last edited by AlanH; 08-24-2012 at 01:51 PM.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  5. #145
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    As a complete aside....Skip, you might enjoy this, as others will, too I'm sure...

    Eric Hvalsoe's description, with lots of audience input, on how he came up with the Hvalsoe 16, and where he's going with the whole thing, now.

    http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthre...-and-the-HV-16

    It just goes to show that there's more than one way to have fun at this stuff. For those who are visually excite-able, here's a picture or two of the Hvalsoe 16.



    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  6. #146
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    Alan,

    The Skerry is Beautiful. Internet here on Lopez Island is erratic. Maybe you could tell everyone about Small Craft Advisor? ~ sleddog

  7. #147
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    The Skerry.... Why and how?

    Around the beginning of 2007 I realized that no matter how hard I tried, I wasn't going to be able to A.) launch a kiteship kite, singlehanded, reliably behind any big keelboats mainsail and B.) even if I did, nobody was going to care two hoots and buy one. The pull a boat like nobodys business once they're launched but it was 'way way too much work to get people to try them and the writing was on the wall. That was kind of the last hurrah of my keelboat enthusiasm. I'd had a real change of heart after the 2004 debacle. Seriously, that years failure to finish the SHTP and the ensuing awful trip up the California Coast totally changed my attitude towards sailing. Instead of a joyful thing, sailing became a chore. When I realized in early 2007 (maybe it was late 2006) that I was getting up in the morning and seeing my reflection in the mirror and muttering "failure" to myself, I realized that I had to finish up my business. I had to do a SHTP and finish it.

    So I prepped for the 2008 race and did it. TRUTH - I never took Ankle Biter out for a fun sail. Not once. I took her out to race her in SSS events, to prep for the LongPac and TransPac. I did the work to prep yet another new boat for the SHTP. I'd done it twice before, now I did it again - this time on the cheapest budget I could imagine, because I'd blown a huge wad of dough on the Santana 3030 in 2004 and didn't really have the bucks. It wasn't fun. I was so totally burned out on the whole thing. I sailed up to the Corinthian YC before the race just wanting to get the whole thing over with. Honestly, once I got there I started to enjoy it, and I DID enjoy the race itself, but my race prep days were coming to an end. When I got back from Hawaii, it was time to take a break, and besides, Joan was very, VERY tired of pouring thousands of dollars every year into this hobby.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  8. #148
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    I had by then gotten very sick of Sailing Anarchy and so fed my online sailing surfing need by participating off and on, in the Wooden Boat forum. It's a very different crowd. After about a year, I could start to see the attraction of the "sail and row" mentality. It's low-cost, low-stress, no-racing, easy stuff. I'd always wanted to build a boat, but.....time, you know? I also did some reading about dinghy cruising, which is very popular in the UK and Australia. Lots of the UK sailors get started in Mirrors, and I'd had a Mirror, twenty years ago....great little boat. Probably the most popular dinghy cruising boat is the Wayfarer, and there was a fiberglass Wayfarer sitting on a trailer at Herron Island in Puget Sound where my inlaws had a summer place. "Dinghy Cruising" via "sail and oar" started sounding pretty interesting to me.

    About that time, Joans mothers cancer started getting pretty bad. I spent a bunch of long days and evenings sitting in the hospital or sitting at Joans parents house, "being supportive" but without much of anything to do. So I started designing my ideal sail and oar boat in a free flat-panel CAD program from Carlson Design, called "HULLS".

    I had a few parameters in mind. The boat had to fit in my front yard, diagonally between the corner where the fences meet and the concrete walkway up to the front gate. That meant about 17 feet, maximum loa. It had to be trailerable behind my 4 cylinder truck. I was going to build it on the super-cheap out of 3 or 5 ply, 5/16ths plywood, and 10 foot panels were really expensive, so I wanted to use 8 foot panels. I discovered, through using the HULLS, that about the longest hull I could get from butting 8 foot panels, factoring in hull shape, was about 15 feet. I wanted it to have a flat bottom so that I could beach it on a shell beach in Puget Sound (my in-laws had a house up there) So I designed and designed and designed during that period where mom was so sick.

    Somewhere in there, I made a scale model out of cardboard. It was by no stretch of the imagination perfect, but it looked pretty good, so I changed a few things....filled out the ends a bit, and made another model. That one looked good. I was just about ready to buy the plywood when I discovered the Chesapeake Light Craft Skerry, online. Whoah. This was the *exact* hull I had designed, with all the same features built-in, in a kit....and someone who actually wore the title "naval architect" had designed it. I figured that was a sign.

    Well, one thing led to another, and I discovered that a local guy had bought a kit and burned out on it and given it to the Sea Scouts. I went and saw the boat during a break, doing race committee for the 3BF in 2010, I think. Maybe it was 2009. Anyway, a year later I checked in with them again...they still had the boat. So I bought it and took it home and then took my sweet time finishing it off. It's STILL not done, I need to finish the rudder and install the mast step, and then make the mast.

    There will be a day when I get another keelboat (what I really want is an Olson 25) and race under the Golden Gate Bridge and out to the Farallones with the SSS again. It'll happen, I miss it too much and in time it will be fun, again. But for now....

    I think my big adventure will be launching from Sausalito or maybe Fort Baker, and sailing up the Bay and up the river to Stockton over the span of about 5-6 days. Paul Kamen launched his El toro from Richmond and did it, and this boat is a LOT more seaworthy than an el toro. I realized a few years ago that over the span of almost 15 years where I had four different boats, NOT ONCE did I ever take any of them up to the Delta for the usual Delta Cruise. That's NUTS. I'll camp where I can and snooze on the boat under that nylon tent-top when I can't. I think it would be a riot of fun to take 2 -3 weeks of vacation and do as much of the Puget Sound marine trail as I can, with the skerry. Sail when I can and row when I can't and take my time....I'll be in no hurry.

    Personally, I think it'd be a blast to get a passel of SSS sailors together for that jaunt up the Delta. Bring your Lido or Holder 14 or Banshee or Thistle or JY 15 or FJ or Laser or what-have you. Load some extra clothes and a camping stove and a sleeping bag in a couple of dry-bags or white plastic buckets and GO. I think it sounds like a great old time.
    Last edited by AlanH; 08-27-2012 at 05:06 PM.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  9. #149
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    PS: I think I'm gonna buy a little 2.0 m two-line bridle fun kite to run off the skerry. No spinnaker. I bet I can launch the kite with my hands and steer with my feet.

    What'cha' think?
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  10. #150
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    Quote Originally Posted by AlanH View Post
    Personally, I think it'd be a blast to get a passel of SSS sailors together for that jaunt up the Delta. Bring your Lido or Holder 14 or Banshee or Thistle or JY 15 or FJ or Laser or what-have you.
    One Summer day when I was . . . a LOT younger, I sailed my Banshee from the Benicia Bridge across Suisun Bay and up the San Joaquin to Bruno's on Seven Mile Slough. I was planing pretty much the whole way, at times at the very fine, hairy ragged edge of disaster. By the time I arrived my feet were raw from the soaking and hiking straps. Man that was fun - I loved that boat, all 115# of it.

    Try that today and I doubt I'd make it to Pittsburg.

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