A long lost friend from our days as kids sailing out of Balboa. CHAUTAUQUA's father, Hale Field, along with Lyle Hess, designed and built the Bristol Channel Cutter RENEGADE in 1950.
RENEGADE was 24.6 feet length on deck. Lin and Larry Pardey admired RENEGADE so much, they bought the plans, built their legendary SERAFFYN, and sailed the world, influencing a generation of cruisers.
RENEGADE, though based on the Itchen Ferry fishing smacks of the 19th century, had a real turn of speed. And Hale Field and family, when not cruising to Catalina, knew how to pile on a cloud of sail. RENEGADE went on to twice win the Ensenada Race overall, 1954 and 1957, much to the chagrin of the local hotshots.
Hale Field, an engineer and craftsman of the highest degree, designed and built other small craft. Including the beautiful little schooner HAWK. And with Bill Lapworth, Field built what would become the first Cal Cruising 46, FRAM. FRAM, in the mid -1970's, with Field's family and friends, completed a circuitous circumnavigation of Central and North America.
CHAUTAUQUA, following in her father's footsteps, went on to build the beautiful Bristol Channel Cutter of the same name alongside the Pardey's TALIESIN. That's a story in itself, worthy of a book.
Here's a pic of RENEGADE under full sail from about 60 years ago. Sprits? We got sprit. Topsails? We got topsail. Waterline? We got waterline. And pretty? Not many small boats so beautiful grace my memory.
SPRAY, a 26' (LOD) Bill Garden rendition of the Bristol Channel Cutter, captured our hearts when she was on the market in the mid 70's. Built in 1958-59 of traditional wood construction, she would have vacuumed large amounts of cash out of our wallets had we purchased her. I might have been okay with that - she was a special little boat:
At that time Robert Whitney, a science professor at Cal State Hayward, taught a class called "The Art and Science of Sailing." I used SPRAY as the subject of my term paper. Prof. Whitney was strongly influenced by Garden and SPRAY, later selling his Ranger 29 and buying a Garden-designed cruising boat. I believe he raced his Ranger 29 in the first SHTP.
Yes, RAGTIME, I briefly knew your science prof, Robert Whitney, from the first SHTP in '78. Small world.
Robert Whitney was then racing his Ranger 29 GYPSY. The gale of the first night broke off his windvane, damaged deck gear, and reportedly "filled the boat with water."
Whitney diverted downwind to Monterey to regroup. After repairs, a week later, he again set sail for Kauai, finishing at Hanalei in a respectable 16 days.
Singlehanding was just getting a name in those days, and shortly after we finished the first Singlehanded Transpac, Bjorn Borg was defeating Jimmy Connors at the Wimbledon "Mens Singlehanded Tennis Championships."
SPRAY, like RENEGADE and the Bristol Channel Cutters, is something special. Bill Garden knew how to draw a pretty boat. The photo of SPRAY sailing with a Christmas tree lashed to her masthead is a classic.
Thanks for the nice remembry of Dad and his yachts Skip. My earliest childhood rush was hanging by my knees off RENEGADE's bowsprit and dragging fingers in the sea foam.
A deep low pressure just off Central California coast is generating big waves, some as high as 25'. At sunrise this morning there were swells breaking a mile out, near Mile Buoy, in 60' of water. Santa Cruz Harbor breakwater was in the shorebreak, with sets going over the breakwater, and breaking high against the lighthouse.
4 miles further east, at Capitola, breakers were damaging the Wharf and driving decking into the air. A lady sitting in her car on the Esplanade found herself being set afloat by a wave that broke over the seawall. A big cement bench, weighing several hundred pounds, was launched from the sidewalk onto the street. The police came to the rescue, and closed the Esplanade as water, sand, and kelp made things impassable except to a big dozer.
When last seen, Public Works had a large pump running, attempting to pump foot deep water from the street in front of El Toro Bravo
Exciting stuff for this small town that bills itself as "Capitola-By-The-Sea." Today, "In-The-Sea" would be a better moniker.
Hi Skip, Great pix, really enjoyed seeing a huge storm swell. In my kid surfer days we were all in awe of the Newport Beach locals who lived near the Corona del Mar Jetty. Someone came up with the phrase "dreaded Corona del Mar Jetty" (DCDMJ) which lives in my mind always. Hence the dreaded Capitola shorebreak ( DCS)
We lived on the Balboa side of the Jetty. The noise of the waves pounding into the sand was punctuated by the ambulance sounds as surfers were carried away to mend. I can remember how stupid it was to body surf there, as the minute you caught a wave, you were looking down at sand and rock underneath you, with no way to go but be hammered into it. I believe it was considered some sort of "rite of passage" for most of us local kids to have survived it, during some of the more boisterous stormy seas.
"The noise of the waves pounding into the sand was punctuated by the ambulance sounds as surfers were carried away to mend."
CHAUTAUQUA's recall of the danger of body surfing The Wedge is spot on.
The "Dirty Old Wedge," as it was affectionately known by locals, remains probably the knarliest body surfing site on the West Coast. First created in 1930 with the construction of the Newport Harbor breakwater, the Wedge is located at the extreme east end of the Newport Peninsula in Southern California, across the Newport Harbor entrance channel from Corona Del Mar.
During a summer south swell event, either from a Mexican hurricane or a Southern Hemisphere winter storm, the Wedge creates mutant waves 20 feet and greater in height at the "L" where the West breakwater and the sand beach come together.
Approaching southerly swells reflect off the jetty and combine with the following wave of the set to create a wave significantly larger than either of the two separate waves. These waves are steep, unpredictable, and result in a shore break awe inspiring to behold. Hordes of spectators gather to gawk as surfers flirt with catastrophe.
The backwash reflecting off the beach creates a third, outgoing wave. Strong riptides make it hard to swim to shore. Rescues often are called for inexperienced surfers as they become exhausted and swept to sea in the riptides.
Until the early 1960's, the Wedge was mostly a local happening. If you didn't know what you were doing, you stayed out of the water, leaving it to experienced watermen with their single blue and yellow Churchill swim fins. (Stand up surfboards didn't work at the Wedge, as the wave is too steep.)
Then came the Beach Boys in 1961. In 1963 Dick Dale and the Deltones celebrated surfing the Wedge in their surf genre instrumental guitar music. The Surfer Stomp was being danced at the Rendezvous Ball Room in Balboa, just up the boulevard from the Wedge.
In 1964 the classic surf film "The Endless Summer" had a cameo for the Wedge. It seemed everyone who didn't already know wanted to come see for themselves and body surf the Wedge for bragging rights back home.
It became a right of passage for macho visiting youth to attempt surfing the Wedge. Many were maimed when pile driven head first into the bottom. Deaths were not unknown when the inexperienced were pummeled, held under, or launched onto the jagged breakwater rocks.
By limiting parking and access, local residents, police, and city council tried to stop the crowds assembling. But to little avail, as the ocean was free, and you could enter the area by walking down the public beach.
In modern times, knee boarders compete with body surfers for room at the Wedge. The danger remains.
I grew up in Orange County, and in the early 1970s we girls spent day after day during the summer laying on the beach watching the boys get crushed at the Wedge. A square of cocoa butter was 25 cents @ the surfboard shops on the boardwalk and bikinis were $15.
I started surfing in Santa Cruz in 1956 and became aware of the "Wedge" shortly there after. I always thought of the place as an IQ test, the higher your IQ the less likely you were to go out there!
I never did.
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