New Boat 4 Sled

[Dazzler]

Max, Great story! It's amazing to look back on those kinds of adventures and wonder, what were our parents thinking?

Regarding the close relative to the FJ, BobJ and AllanH are correct, but it's Sled (even to my surprise) that had the rest of the Banshee story. I briefly worked for Dick Reid on a few Saturdays. My job was to demonstrate the Banshee at waterfront locations while he made a sales pitch.

I PM'd Sled about Tom McCarthy. I recognized him right away, as he was a friend from high school. I knew that he had been Chief of Staff at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, but did not know that he had died.

Tom

[sleddog]

As seen on recent post #1863, our local beach has been reconfigured by recent storms and runoff from Soquel Creek.



This evening, during a minus low tide of grand proportions, all was revealed. The missing beach was there, now extending seawards several hundred yards.

[sleddog]

Seeking information from any who have sailed/cruised Lake Havasu on Colorado River. Launch sites/vehicle security, Topock Gorge, nighttime lowering of water level. contact 831-four seven five-0278 or skipallanatsbcglobal.net

[sleddog]

On another thread it was queried [I]Anyone have experience with wind generators? [/I]

I have, but likely not in the manner needed. My Ham Ferris water generator converted to a wind generator with the addition of a 4' diameter wood airplane prop and bridle. Once it got spinning in about 12 knots of wind, it really pumped out the amps. And became dangerous to lower from its position hoisted in front of the mast.

Dangerous was not an overstatement. The Freya next door at Partida had one. One night in a building northerly, their wind generator got going so fast the housing was glowing orange. It sounded like an airplane taking off until it self destructed.

In Moorea I accidently got my windsurfer mast hit by a wind generator blade. It lopped off the top 2 feet of fiberglas mast clean as you please, with no damage to the wind generator.

[AlanH]

Don't most modern wind generators have "overload protection"....or at least a clampthingy to stop the prop from turning?

BTW, my debit card has an automatic "overload protection" feature, too.

i remember Rob McF at a SHTP forum saying that his wind generator was pretty much useless while going to Hawaii because there was never enough wind velocity over the boat to make it worthwhile. In the anchorage, though, it's great. I recently read a compendium of wisdom-bytes from some puddle-jumpers who wrote the same thing.

[sleddog]

AlanH has given us a great new idea: "Antique Boatshow." Step right up for your appraisal. We know DAZZLER has an SSS T-shirt from last century. Can only imagine what MikeJ has outback. On second thought, maybe the show should be called "American Boat Pickers."

[Philpott]

AlanH has given us a great new idea: "Antique Boatshow." Step right up for your appraisal. We know DAZZLER has an SSS T-shirt from last century. Can only imagine what MikeJ has outback. On second thought, maybe the show should be called "American Boat Pickers."

I love games. What are the rules?

[mike cunningham]

[sleddog]

A sobering story in our local newspaper this morning. This event happened in early November of 2016.



By Dan Haifley, Our Ocean Backyard

Posted: 01/14/17, 8:00 PM PST | Updated: 3 days ago

Ed Grant, a photographer who’s chronicled surfing at the Maverick’s surf break near Half Moon Bay since 2003 and produced a photo book called Piers of the California Coast, is lucky to be alive today. Doing business in the ocean as he does, even (and sometimes especially) in near shore waters, can be dangerous.

Grant and his colleague, Joel Gringorten, headed out of the Pillar Point Harbor on the morning of Nov. 9. It wasn’t a Mavericks contest day, but the swell was big. Many professional surfers were at Jaws at Maui, but there were a number of local surfers at what Grant called “an epic surf day” at Maverick’s.

Maverick’s is well known for being rough and even the most skilled among them face deadly danger there. The same is true for those who venture out into the water to support them, or to photograph or video the action.

Heading out of the harbor mouth in Grant’s 17-foot Boston Whaler and traveling south for three quarters of a mile, he and Gringorten passed the inland side of Buoy No. 3. They subsequently took a right turn to head west toward the reef that produces the waves that Maverick’s is famous for. They were in about 60 feet of water, traveling a route Grant had done more than 30 times.

South of the reef, Grant suddenly saw a wall of water, coming from the deeper waters to his west and heading toward his boat. “Instead of a rolling wave, this one started to break in 60 feet of water,” he said. “It jacked up, peaked, and broke. It was a 30 foot wall of water.”

Grant was about 50 feet from the wave when he saw it coming, so he pointed his boat toward it. The wave broke right in front of his boat and up to 15 feet of rushing whitewater capsized the whaler. “We were turned broadside then the boat flipped, and we were capsized over the side,” Grant said.

The upside-down boat took two more waves and then a third. He was in the water, with a lifejacket on, but with the last wave he ran out of breath. It would be an hour before they were rescued. Although the water is usually cold, in the mid to high 40 degree range, on this day it was at least 55 degrees.

The two photographers, who had lost around $10,000 worth of gear, got separated a few times while waves rolled in from the open ocean to the west. While Gringorten was able to scramble atop the boat’s overturned hull, Grant clung to the side. Joel used an air horn to try and gain the attention of distant boaters. An hour after the small boat was capsized, the two were rescued by a fishing boat.

That day had a high surf advisory, which is not a good time to take a 17-foot vessel offshore. But Grant, who is in the business of surf photography, said that despite the dangers, he would go out again. But not in the same, intense conditions he experienced on Nov. 9.

The boat was carried by currents to Redondo Beach south of the harbor, where it washed ashore. The oil and gasoline was safely removed, and Monte Ashe of TowBoatUS Santa Cruz is waiting for the right conditions to tow it off the beach, and back into the sea in route to the harbor. That may take weeks given the rough winter conditions. “The power and mystery of the ocean and our fascination with it is why were explore it, despite the risks,” Grant told me. He’ll continue to do that, though a bit more cautiously, from now on.

Dan Haifley is executive director of O’Neill Sea Odyssey. He can be reached at dhaifley@oneillseaodyssey.org

[AlanH]

I still have a sweatshirt from my very first Farallones race, which was also in the last century. Somehow, it's kind of too tight, now. Must've shrunk.