New Boat 4 Sled

[BobJ]

Out of those three I'd take SPIRIT. MASERATI looks like a Cal-Trans project run amok.

Does anyone know who would have owned ORIOLE say, 40 years ago? There's a memory there but I can't piece it together.

[sleddog]

RAGTIME! has a way with words. I concur wholeheartedly that the Volvo 70 MASERATI looks suspiciously like she was designed by CalTrans. When MASERATI is on her keel on the hard, you need a freeway overpass to get up to her deck, 20 plus feet off the ground. Nosebleed anyone? You won't be seeing MASERATI tied up at Sam's for lunch.

Equally unlikely is seeing a Bird Boat reefed.

I am no Bird Boat historian. I believe Jock McLean's father, Scotty, once owned ORIOLE, his third Bird. It is likely Jock who is restoring ORIOLE at KKMI.

Did we know the first Bird, OSPREY may have assisted an escape from Alcatraz? And that Bird Boat owners call their deck sweeping main booms, "Brooms?"

http://www.birdboat.com/Terry%20Norton.htm

[BobJ]

Sailing is first of all a visual reward - there is no place in it for ugly boats, no matter how fast they may be.

[H Spruit]

Sailing is first of all a visual reward - there is no place in it for ugly boats, no matter how fast they may be.

Agreed; The visual rewards of sailing are very important, but the pickle dishes often go to the less than elegant racing machines.
Having said that, I must admit that racing must not be the most important part of the sailing experience.

[sleddog]

Off topic. Bear with me. I grew up sailing in S.Cal. It wasn't until 1962 I first got to sail SF Bay, in the Blue Stars (West Coast Championships). Being a kid, I didn't find it unusual short tacking up the Alcatraz cone for tide relief, getting close up under the Island. What was unusual, seeing as how I missed reading the big warning sign on the NE side of Alcatraz, was the rat-a-tat-tat of automatic weapons fire coming from an overlooking guard tower. Evidently the bored or trigger happy prison guard was warning us off. The top of our main was perforated. But didn't come down.

According to my sailing friends over at SFYC in Belvedere, there wasn't much going on Friday nights back in those days (early 60's). At the time, the Golden Gate Bridge cost a quarter to cross, and had toll booths at both ends.

One of the Bridge toll collectors was Clem Mathis, the singer Johnny Mathis' brother. Clem was a handsome and friendly dude. On Friday nights, the dateless high school girls would pile into a car and drive across the GG Bridge, in order to give Clem a quarter and touch his hand. It was evidently quite a thrill, as the girls would turn around to drive back across the Bridge. And do it all over again, vowing to not wash their hands for a week.

Clem Mathis was a big revenue maker for the Golden Gate Bridge. Now, 50 years on, the GG Bridge toll takers are about to fade into history as automated license plate cameras take over.

[sleddog]

The S.Cal ocean racing community is reeling with the loss of the Columbia Carbon 32 UNCONTROLABLE URGE and one of its crew. The CG helo did another heroic rescue, and pulled the six (one deceased) from a rocky and inhospitable NW (lee) shore of San Clemente Island, where they had drifted, after losing their rudder in the Islands Race. Conditions were 22-26 knots of wind, 8 foot seas and a dark night.

Facts are not yet clear. We do know the newly built UU initially refused offers of assistance from other race boats and the CG after radioing either a May Day or Pan Pan. Reportedly, they elected to seek a private towing firm. We also know from the tracker that UU was about 2-3 miles off the lee shore when the rudder broke and incident began to unfold.

Reportedly, the crew of UU were unable to deploy their liferaft, and their anchor would not hold near shore. Judging from the night vision video on YouTube, the boat likely rolled, near or in the surfline. And was dismasted and de-keeled. Whether the deceased crew drowned, or was entrapped in the wreckage is not clear. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/...ailboat-wreck/

A sad day indeed.

Not the only incident in the Islands Race. At least two other boats received timely Coast Guard assistance for their own problems. One was the F-10 sportboat MILE HIGH KLUB, with an injured crew and who subsequently lost its rudder. Reportedly, MHK's friends organized a replacement rudder, and the CG delivered it, as well as putting a medic aboard. That's service.

[H Spruit]

It is troubling that our sport has shown the ability to kill it's participants, ironically for me, because I gave up motorcycle racing to pursue sailing because motorcycles were becoming too painful!
Sled's report of broken rudders has also impacted my thinking, so I am going to make myself a long sweep oar for an emergency steering devise and to skull my little cruising cat.
I also have a friend who has recently experienced a broken rudder, and has a sculling oar hanging over the door of his garage. I am going to encourage him to take it down to his boat.
I also know that there are race committees that require emergency steering devices to be on board.

[BobJ]

Yes, we do for the Singlehanded TransPac. We've approved sweeps in a couple cases where they were shown to be effective, but they can be hard to store.

I know Greg used to carry STARBUCK's e-rudder for the local ocean races. I think I'll put RAGTIME!'s back aboard. It's carbon fiber so it doesn't weight that much. I can even attach my tiller pilots to it.

I'm very sorry about the loss of another sailor, and a family man at that. I don't know what to say except we can try to learn from these things.

[Jan Brewer]

Hi all y'all, twice now I've tried to type something and it goes away so I'll make this really, really brief.
I too am saddened by the tragic events of UU and hopefully we do learn from these events.

Remember too, just like in LSC, there's the snowball effect that seems to have taken place in these accidents. It seems to be that it's never just one thing, but at least several things combined that ends up with these tragic results.

[Bob Buell]

Re the Bird boat "Oriole", she was raced by the Rumsey brothers, John and Jerry, in mid 60's while I was at CMA, and racing on another Bird.
The Rumseys on Oriole won every race in those days, 1964-1966 (?) John Rumsey became a famous sailmaker & skipper on Ticonderoga, and Windward Passage. The Oriole had their Bird insignia updide down on mainsail, looked like a moustache !!
The Bird boat owned by EZ Davies family was first boat I crewed on in SF Bay 1964, when starting at Cal Maritime Academy.
Good memories from Belvedere and SFYC in those days...Capt Bob