New Boat 4 Sled

[sleddog]

Shipmates are a special thing. Special shipmates are a blessing that can not be bought.

Shipmates have something to do with shared misery, getting little sleep for nights on end and knowing what it is like to flop in a sopping wet bunk which is never still while envying those ashore in their dry beds.

Shipmates have something to do with shared danger, when you crawl to the foredeck on a dark and windy night to secure heavy dacron in whipping rain and breaking seas, and you can't quit until the work was done.

Shipmates share a drink in the cockpit, and together swear they will never go to sea again no matter what, until the very next night when the weather is fine, the stars are shining, and we sit on a hatch with other shipmates who are crazy enough to be sailors, and even the quietest of us finds something worthwhile to say.

After years of ocean voyaging, I am blessed to have many shipmates. One special shipmate is Capt. Ivo of the Czech Republic, whom I first met in challenging conditions in 2008 after bringing my 27 foot sloop WILDFLOWER alongside his giant container ship, MSC TORONTO, in gale conditions 400 miles west of Santa Cruz.

Since that fateful day, Ivo and I have stayed in touch, even sailed together on SF Bay. Though a Czech citizen, Ivo is a grad of UC Berkeley and speaks fluent English. Ivo currently works as captain for a United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) , the largest container shipping line in the Middle East. Ivo's current command is the 18,000 TEU (container), 1,209 foot, LINAH, launched last year.



I'm not sure if it was intentional, or if it even matters, but LINAH was built too big to pass through the new, widened, Panama Canal, being 2 meters (6') too long, and 2 meters too wide. Whoops!

Ivo works three months on/off as captain and his ship LINAH is currently in transit from SE Asia, through Suez, to the Mediterranean and Europe. LINAH is outfitted with the latest communications, and our connection halfway around the world is via SKYPE. Here's Ivo and his wife Sonia at home in the Czech Republic.



Good sailing, Captain Ivo!

[AlanH]

My one and only ride on Merlin was in 1979, when I was a summer camp counselor at Kennolyn Camp in the Santa Cruz mountains. She sure looks different, now!

[AlanH]

Congratulations for a group effort (H.Spruit, DAZZLER, and RAGTIME) in answering the design trivia quiz, above.

The correct answers are: LORD JACK is a Cal T/2 Half Tonner, designed by Bill Lapworth in 1971 to the IOR Rule, The T/2 is similar in design to the original Cal 27, which had a pop-top house rather than the fixed house and 5' 8" standing headroom mandated by the IOR Half Ton rule.

Jackie's DURA MATER, a Cal 2/27 designed in 1973, is closely related to the Cal T/2, but has 4" more beam, 5" less waterline, and weighs about 1,300 pounds more.

The pretty little blue boat is Tom Carr's Mirror Offshore 17 BLUEBIRD, designed by van de Standt, designer of STARBUCK and MIRAGE. Tom sailed BLUEBIRD in the 2015 Baja Ha Ha, then trailed north from Cabo San Lucas. He will do the trip again this year, as the Baja Ha Ha committee has again given Tom's well prepared BLUEBIRD an exception to their minimum 27 foot overall length requirement.

Attachment 1866

DAZZLER, (Tom and Sue) win the guest cabin overnight at the Capitola Boating Club and Maritime Museum, with honorable mention to RAGTIME, who wins a personally conducted tour of H.Spruit's historical workshop, canvas loft, and auto repair.

isn't the Cal T/2 27 the exact same hull as the older 27 with the pop-top..which was derived from the flush-deck Cal 28? It's a different hull from the Cal 2-27, though both were done by Lapworth. Another adaption to the IOR rule was to move the boom outrageously high. I don't know the logic behind this, though.

So that's a Mirror Offshore. I've read about them, never had a clue what they looked like.

[AlanH]

Since I've been unable to find the answer anywhere.... back in the 1980's there was an ultralight marketed in Puget Sound called the "Rain Dance 30". I don't know how many were made, but I've been trying to find out more about the boat. Anybody got a clue?

[sleddog]

Though I can't help Alan out with any details about the Rain Dance 30, I can help by offering a quart of Macapuno, Marianne's Icecream most very delicious flavor, to the first who can correctly answer two sailing related questions.

Question #1, Below is a cool shot of IMP taken by good friend Daniel Forester. But everytime I look closely at this photo, I cringe. What is it that gives me, at the tiller, the Willies for the safety of the crew? (Hint, "it" is attached to the clew of the jib.)



Question #2 Below is a cool and innovative design: hard chine, double-ended, slab sided, planing hull. Fractional rigged, bulb fin keel, spade rudder. All the modern stuff of today, this boat was designed in 1936, 80 years ago. What is it?

[BobJ]

Wire sheets (yeow!) and either a Zephyr or Int'l 110. I'll go with a 110.

[sleddog]

Sorry, RAGTIME, no Macapuno for you. But feel free to try again ....
~sleddog

[H Spruit]

Ok~
I am never sure what makes you cringe, but is that a snap shackle on the jib sheet?
And it must be a 110 because there isn't room for 4 on a Zephyr.

[tiger beetle]

Hi Skip -

i would hazard a guess that you'd be concerned about a wire jib sheet parting (though difficult to tell if the sheet is wire) as the sail is lead between the D1 and V1, or alternatively there's something amiss with the lead of the lazy sheet as it threads its way around the shrouds and possibly crossed up with the spinnaker rigging. And that is one smartly-tucked reef on the mainsail, especially in the heat of battle.

the boat, I believe, is the Lawley 225 or the 110. More likely the 225 as I doubt one could get four people on the 110.

great photos!

And what does the helmsman not like about clew attachments? You were there....

- rob/beetle

[BobJ]

Ah yes, the lazy jib sheet appears to be led around the spinnaker sheet. (Or maybe the guy's hand on the winch?) And I agree with the Lawley 225, which the web says was from 1936. The Int'l 110 Class started in 1939, so I was close.

Rob, it was great to see you before and during the Vallejo 1-2!
.