Sea Stories: "We're There" from Richard

18 Jan 24:

From Richard: 

My late brother, Steve and I both shared our life long' love of sailing, especially when it came to spending a day on the water in my 24’00” Raven Class Sailboat,“Proud Mary". Sailing was in our blood. The Raven was not only a comfortable sailboat, but also extremely fast.  

     After Steve unexpectedly passed away in 2021, we installed a wooden bench overlooking the inner Winthrop Harbor here where we spent many summers sailing. A few people have asked me about origin of the phrase, "We're there" on my brother Steve's memorial bench?  

     When Steve would be taking a small group out on the Proud Mary sailing for the first time, they'd be heading out to the harbor and someone would ask, "Steve, where are we going?” Are we going to sail up into Boston Harbor? Or maybe out to the harbor islands? Steve would respond, "where are we going?" "where are we going?""We're there!" "We're sailing!" With Steve, the destination was sailing. We’re sailing! "We're there!”

What a beautiful boat! We need to learn more about that. Also Richard has great stories about dodging airliners near Boston's Logan airport. I always wondered who that was out having fun in a sailboat, while I was having fun bringing my jet in for a landing on runway 4R.

Thank you Richard and Steve and PROUD MARY for sharing your story. We look forward to listening to more.

Drascombe Peterboats 6 Metre and Skiffs

18 Jan 24:

Some eye candy from Doug, whou built Drascombe Perterboats and Skiffs:

All photo credits to Doug. And many thanks to Doug for sharing some of his wooden boat life's work.

Sea Stories: The Mevagissey Race Trophy

18 Jan 24:

From Doug: Pat, now sadly departed this mortal coil, was one of the original owners of Kelly and Halls boatyard at in the UK. He was a highly skilled craftsman and an excellent competitive sailor. He designed and built his beautiful small keelboat named "Gossamer". The boat was a pure sailing boat, fully decked apart from the cockpit and performed really well. 

Every year there was a race from the River Yealm in Devon to Mevagissey in Cornwall, Pat Hall was a regular competitor in the race. One year, he set off as usual in "Gossamer" but there was hardly a breath of wind, so he used his skill and experience to make his way slowly a few miles out into the English Channel, searching for a steady breeze to take him to Mevagissey and the race finish line. He succeeded in finding a breeze and eventually crossed the finish line. He moored up outside of the yacht club and went inside, asking if anyone else had arrived before him. He was told "The race was cancelled because there was no wind!" His response was "No wind, how do you think I got here, I have a sailing boat with no engine and just a small single paddle, so I want the winners trophy." They refused to give him the trophy telling him again that the race was cancelled. His response "If I can sail here, so can anyone else, nobody told me the race was cancelled, I'm taking the trophy." They refused to give it to him, so he took the trophy from the cabinet, marched back to his boat, cast off and sailed back to the Yealm.

Upon his arrival at the Yealm Yacht Club, the Commodore told him they'd received a telephone call from the Mevagissey Yacht Club asking for the trophy back. He said "If they want it back, tell them to come and get it." They never did and he never returned the trophy. 

Perhaps I should have mentioned, Pat was quite a character, a big very strong man, 48 inch chest, 32 inch waist, a hair trigger temper, fiercely competitive and didn't suffer fools at all.

Sea Stories: An Encounter with Lightning by Capn Alan

17 Jan 24:

From Capn Alan: Here is a short scenario that has always left me wondering if I did the right thing in response to novel circumstances.

For several years, I vacationed at Crystal Lake, Michigan in the upper part of the Lower Peninsula near Frankfort, Michigan. At about 12 miles long and about 6 miles across, Crystal Lake is one of the premier small boat sailing venues in the Midwest. The water is a deep cobalt blue, and being only a mile or two inland of Lake Michigan, the wind is usually a steady west to east flow in the teens for most of the summer months. Sailing a small boat on this lake was about as close to nautical perfection as I ever encountered.

Crystal Lake is one of the premier small boat sailing venues in the Midwest.

On the August day in question, I was sailing an old Super Porpoise, a Sunfish clone a little bigger than its Sunfish ancestor. The boat sported a short mast and lateen sail along with a self-bailing cockpit. On this particular day the wind was light and the atmosphere was uncharacteristically muggy. After an hour or so, I found myself completely becalmed near the center of the lake. Knowing that calms were rare on this lake, I resigned myself to wait it out before wearing myself out paddling for my home beach several miles away. Count this decision as mistake #1. I should have read the ominous signs and paddled to the nearest shore.

The calm persisted. I had a clear view toward the west side of the lake and to my horror I saw a classic line squall bearing down on me and my becalmed boat at an alarming rate of speed. The leading edge of the squall line was jagged, full of rain and possibly hail, and looked grey/white in color – like the underbelly of a Great White Shark (all negative connotations intended!) I had been in several squalls like this before, and while rather exciting, they didn’t strike me as all that dangerous. However, this squall was full of lightning with many full cloud to ground strikes occurring every few seconds. I have a healthy respect for lightning but as the squall approached, that respect starting changing to fear. I knew that life was about to get very interesting in the next few minutes.

Thinking back to my Boy Scout days, I recalled that lightning is likely to strike the highest object on a surface, and at this exact moment, the highest object on my patch of Crystal Lake was the peak of the aluminum gaff on my boat! I considered lowering the sail and unstepping the mast but at the rate the squall was bearing down on me, I wasn’t sure I had enough time, and even if I did, I would still have a partially furled, wet sail and a lot of metal spars on the deck. Abandoning the first plan, I decided to intentionally capsize the boat with the sail still fully hoisted. By standing on the side of the deck and pulling on the mast, I got the boat on its side. I then continued to push the rig down until the hull “turned turtle” and was completely upside down. The lake was over 100 feet deep at this spot, so there was no danger of getting the rig stuck in the bottom and with the boat turtled and the dagger board and rudder retracted, the hull was almost awash or at best a few inches above the surface. I was wearing a good PFD, and swam to the windward side of the hull looping the mainsheet around my waist. I hunkered down low in the water near the hull and braced myself for the onslaught.

Given the short interval between each flash and report, I knew that the lightning was virtually on top of me.

The squall hit only seconds after I got in the water, and it was quite a show. The sky turned black as night, rain and hail pelted the surface of the lake and I estimated the wind at somewhere between 50 and 60 mph. The lake surface went from flat to whitecaps in a matter of seconds. The black sky was punctuated with flashes of lightning, and given the short interval between each flash and report, I knew that the lightning was virtually on top of me.

The squall enveloped me for about 5 minutes, but within minutes, the leading edge of the squall had moved off to the east, the sun came out again, a gentle wind returned and about the only evidence of the storm was noticeable temperature drop of several degrees. I righted the boat, scrambled back in sheeted in to the new wind and returned home without incident.

In retrospect, I have to wonder if I did the right thing. Having a good PFD in the boat and wearing it (which I always do when sailing single handed) was the first good decision. I also knew that I had to reduce sail one way or the other as an exposed sail in a 60 mph wind would have been violently dangerous. But the important question was the lightning factor, specifically was I safer mostly submerged in the lake or by being in the lake was I more prone to the ill effects of a surface strike?

I would be interested in reader comments, so feel free to chime in below.

Sea Stories: Rigging the Day Sailer

17 Jan 24:

Our friend Capn Bill shares a story, back in the day when he was a New Salt and Capn Jack was talking to him about how easy it was to rig our 1971 Day Sailer II CYANE:

"I could get the boat ready in just 20 minutes with your help. Of course, I could do it in 10 without."

Sea Stories: ONKAHYE Bandits the Navy Regatta

August 1994: As for the Lugger named ONKAHYE, the attached photo was taken in 1994, Corpus Christi, during the annual Navy Regatta. The race is from the Naval Air Station, across the Bay to the downtown marina. The Corpus Christi Yacht Club would sign up military folks on Friday night social, then race from the downtown marina to the Naval Air Station seaplane basin with the yacht owner on the helm, followed by another party in the Officers' Club. On SUnday the teams raced back to downtown with a military member on each helm and a watchful Capn nearby.

I was working the regatta as the beach to boat support crew all 3 days, but on Saturday after the yachts got to the basin, Capn Jack, Skipper (Capn's Daughter) and I put ONKAHYE in at the NAS ramp and sailed her around the point to drop anchor with the big yachts. I got a little nervous as Jack SAILED (ONKAHYE had no motor) between all the shiny yachts to his selected mooring spot, pretty as you please. Jack looked like General Washington crossing the Delaware, standing hup, tiller in hand, threading the needle with his little boat. With ONKAHYE's shoal draft we could anchor pretty shallow, so we dropped the hook and got a ride to shore on a Jon boat. We could have left her on the beach too, but Jack wanted to anchor like the big boys.

Sunday morning I worked the crew to get everyone back out to their boats, and once the yachts left for their race, with a military person on each helm, I took Skipper and Jack back out to ONKAHYE. Plan A was for them to sail back around to the NAS ramp where I'd meet them with the trailer. Jack had a different plan. Once he got Skipper on board ONKAHYE, he pressed her into service and announced his plan to sail 10+ miles across the bay to the downtown marina. He had never sailed across the bay, had always wanted to and said "If I don't do it now, I never will." He had not announced his plan because we are a family of overthinkers, and that can take the fun out of things sometime.

Did I mention it was August in South Texas? We always carried an Aladdin pump jug of water on ONKAHYE, plus towels and hats. Skipper took the few extra bottles of water and towels I had on the Jon boat and off they went. They set a line for the downtown breakwater and off they went, the trip was slow but steady, and hot but not unbearable. The race course took the fleet of yachts past them a couple of times, everyone on the race boats knew Skipper and buzzed her as they zig zagged by. At one point ONKAHYE caught a nice stern wave and dolphin stayed with them for quite a while. Hats dipped in the bay kept the crew cool.

I finished my Landing Party duties and headed downtown with the trailer, getting there in time to snap the photo of them right after they gybed through the breakwater. They had sailed downton Corpus for years, so their approach to landing was very choreographed. Skipper climbed on the aft deck to furl the mizzen, then she took the tiller and let Jack know when to drop the main as they fell off towards the ramp. As they approached the ramp on a run, Audrey had Jack work the furler jib in like easing up on a throttle. Then she'd bring ONKAHYE alongside the dock, pretty as you please, and step off the boat to handle the dock lines (Women's Work), the transition from Skipper to Dock Wench. Jack would pull up the centerboard, ship the rudder and stow the mizzen while I (Landing Party and Trailer Mech) backed the trailer down. Dock Wench would maneuver the boat into the launch slip. Then we had a celebratory lunch at the Lighthouse Restaurant.

So while some folks might appreciate a picture of ONKAHYE with all 3 sails a flyin', we know the significance of the stowed mizzen on that day.

Capn Clark and Admiral Skipper somewhere in Florida. She's on pain meds for a fractured elbow, that's why she's letting me touch the tiller. But notice how close her hand is...

Photo Credit: Capn Aubrey

Sea Stories: Hong Kong to Makow Club

17 Jan 24: 

Sea Story* from Doug about a friend: 

"During his Royal Navy career, the Young Royal Navy Officer (YRNO)** always owned a sailing boat, usually ones he'd designed and built himself. I can recall him telling me about one of the boats that he had as deck cargo on one of the ships he commanded (rank has it's privileges).

The ship was in Hong Kong harbour and there was an unwritten challenge, to sail a boat across the Straights from Hong Kong to Makow and back, something regarded as strictly forbidden by the authorities. Salty Dog and another Officer decided to take on the challenge, they sailed across the Straight to Makow, but a Chinese patrol ship spotted them and started a chase, his sailboat had a Bermudan rig, but the top of the mast was curved aft, it was something a bit experimental at the time, but had been found to improve performance, all to do with airflow and sail profile etc.  His boat was fast and the weather was perfect for sailing, he managed to outrun the Chinese patrol boat, enter Makow Harbour and dropped the sails and hide among the many Sampans and Junks. The patrol boat cruised past without seeing him, as soon as it was out of immediate vision, they hoisted the sails and shot out of the Harbour, luckily the wind had picked up and was in the right direction, the patrol boat came about and resumed the chase, but was unable to keep up with his boat, let alone catch them. So they entered the exclusive "Hong Kong to Makow Club" with a great story to tell.

YRNO told me that he couldn't believe the Chinese didn't notice the curved mast among the straight masts of the Chinese boats, but was probably saved by a lot of weed growth on the Chinese patrol boat hull, because he certainly wouldn't have been able to outrun a Royal Navy Patrol boat.

That was his first involvement with a curved spar rig."

*The difference between a fairy tale and a sea story...a fairy tale begins "once upon a time" while a sea story begins "This is no shit."

**Names redacted to protect the adventurers.

Small Boat Sails and Spars

17 Jan 24:

So far the plan is for Clark to be retired from Delta Air Lines in 2025, and we are looking at a 3rd fun career to keep him out of Skipper's hair. Career 1, Captain of Marines. Career 2, Captain Delta Air Lines. Career 3, Captain of Skipper's Armada. One business we'll dabble in is small boat sails. We can custom design or sew up a kit for hard to find sails, and as serial small boaters we have a deep understanding of what works and what doesn't.

We'll also offer repairs, you cover shipping costs and we'll assess the sail. 

As for spars, we can build up and ship spars up to 7' 10" long. Longer spars are possible too, with a precut scarf that you can glue up. 

And a complete boat? Send us a note and let us know what you're thinking about.

Spoiler Alert: Skipper, a talented seamstress with a Masters degree in Theater/Costume Design, is relaunching her line of Pirating About ™ gear. Need a pirate coat?

POC: lewis.kent@gmail.com (850) 449-4841

Cheers,

"Clark" Kent and "Skipper" Audrey" 

Build A Boat

17 Jan 24:

We have had fun building several boats and completely building a few more. There are many ways to proceed, and we'd be happy to guide folks along a boat building adventure, whether to use a kit, plans, what size, style, materials, tools etc.... Just post questions or your own advice in the comments below. 

Arch Davis Design Penobscot 14 ST. JACQUES.

WoodenBoat Design Nutshell Pram 7' 7".

Lewis Design SCUPPERS. Built from marine lumber scrap, ideal project for families with small kids, or a good little work boat. 
 

Let's go boating!

"Skipper" Audrey and "Clark" Kent

TotalBoat Discount Code

17 Jan 24:

We have bought a lot of TotalBoat products from Jamestown Distributors over the years, so much so we became Ambassadors and got some of our boats in their catalogs, website and videos. THIXO is our Go To thickened epoxy in a tube, or THIXO Flex or THIXO Wood. 

If you have some questions about what product to use, give the Jamestown Tech Team (1.800.497.0010) a call. They sell a wide array of brands, including 3M, Interlux, Pettit, West System... with TotalBoat being the in house brand that they developed after decades of experience. We'll answer questions in comments also. 

EXCUSE ME is held together with THIXO Flex, both the hull and the spars. TotalFair before we primed with TotalBoat Primer. We used Gleam for the bright finish, and George Kirby custom colors for the paint. Then we made the sail from a SailRite kit.

Here's our 5% discount code that takes you to our store portal. Create an account and your products will be shipped same or next day: totalboat.com/smallboats

Cheers,

"Clark" Kent and "Skipper" Audrey