Month: July 2011

  • Pacific Lady

    So while I’ve been waiting on the adjustments to my rudder, I bought a couple of books from Amazon.  Their suggestions are getting better and better.  It used to be they were offering me medical school textbooks — Ugh!  Like I really wanted to be reminded of things I’ve already read!!!  But, their selection offerings work, I guess based on all the clicks I make on “sailing” stuff.  Whee!

    But I didn’t buy this book because of their suggestions.  In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever bought anything they’ve suggested to me.  No, this was a serendipitous find because I messed up my feedback review of a seller, and I was so upset about it, I decided to buy a couple more books from them just so I could leave them positive feedback.  In a search for “sailing” books, I found a bunch.  All less than $3.  So I bought 3.

    One of them was Pacific Lady.

    I post an excerpt below:


    Chapter One

    A Widow Finds the Sea

    I took him home and nursed him.  I rented a hospital bed and put him in our living room.  I gave him formula and painkillers, watching his spirit wither.  He was fed through a tube and lost a hundred pounds.  We lived in a cramped little one-bedroom duplex in West L.A., just behind the dental office where I worked.  In that small neighborhood, my world unfolded — job and home, life and eventually death.  The death of my husband.

    Chuck had cancer.  Fate sent me the sweetest, motherly licensed vocational nurse to care for him through the day, though I went back and forth every hour or so between house and office just to hold his hand for a few minutes or to say a few words.  Before the end, he couldn’t talk.  I would talk to him, but he couldn’t even smile.  He could do little more than move a finger if he wanted my help.  Ten weeks this went on.  Then he slid into his final coma.  Like that, I watched my husband die.

    *** I snipped a few paragraphs here.  About his death.  I see this a lot at work, and I didn’t care to relive this part through someone else’s writing.***

    So I drove toward the tall masts, toward boats tugging at their mooring lines.  Marina del Rey eventually grew to encompass restaurants, shops, high-rise apartments, and whole families living aboard their boats on the water — an entire community unified in salt water and sail.  The world would come together there, against the sea.  But in 1964 it was just the beginning, just a few skeleton buildings, just a few boats and so many empty docks spreading like concrete fingers into the water.

    I sat and watched the boats zigzagging their way up the channel.  Now I know they were tacking — that’s what it’s called.  But that day, I wondered how those sailors knew what to do.  How did the boats know where to go?  I was intrigued.

    And that was it, my transformation.  My genesis.  It was honestly that much chance, or karma or kismet, that brought me to the ocean.  I looked up and saw a billboard for the Al Adams Sailng School, and I thought, “Why not?”

     

    Sharon Adams is the first woman who solo-sailed across the Pacific.  She’s also the first woman who sailed solo from California to Hawaii.  She didn’t really intend to set a record.  She just had the urge to do it.  I really identify with that.  There are so many books on Amazon about how to convince your wife to sail with you, and it seems strange to me that someone would have to convince someone to sail with them.  (Although *I* have had to do that many times with my husband.)  I cannot comprehend not wanting to sail.  So her book (although partially written by Karen Coates), really touched me.  It always puzzles me *why* I have this desire to sail, and my husband does not.  Actually, many women do not.

    Apparently Sharon wonders the same thing, as she says in her introduction at the beginning of the book:

     


    Pacific-Lady-cover

    And yet I chose solitude.  I chose to endure it twice on the world’s largest ocean.  I wanted to cross those waters so badly — why?  Just to say I had?  Truth be told, I’m not entirely sure, even after all these years.  I just felt the need to do it once I’d dreamed up the idea.

     Excerpts are from Pacific Lady by Sharon Sites Adams and Karen Coates.

     

  • More Chinese Junk

    One of these days I’ll actually resume posting about my own sailing.  However, it’ll have to wait until the pintles on my rudder are ground down by a local mechanic.  For now, as before, this website is mostly a repository for links to interesting sailing stuff I find on the Internet, that I re-post in case it goes a-missing, as so much on the Internet is transitory.  I’ve tried posting to my Facebook site, but it gets lost in the shuffle of everybody’s day-to-day inanities that I really don’t care about!  I really wanted a place where the only information on it is stuff that I’m interested in.  It’s not that I’m not interested in my family and friends, but. . . well, why am I trying to explain myself?  If one is a sailor, one understands.  If one isn’t, then one won’t.  Grant me the serenity to know the difference.

    Once I get caught up with my links, I will start to log my sailing again, which is something that I originally intended this particular web log to be — a summary of things I learn on each trip, even maintenance work lessons.

    But first, my favorite (aesthetically) sail type!  (From an article at http://www1.chinaculture.org/created/2005-06/21/content_69875.htm


    Typical Models of Ancient Chinese Junks

    Hailed as the country with the longest shipbuilding history in the world, China boasts a variety of wooden boat models, with a total of up to a thousand models by the middle of the 20th century. In ancient times, there were such famous junk (the European word for China’s wooden sailboats) models as the Sha-chuan (sand ship), Niao-chuan (bird ship), Fu-chuan (good-fortune ship), and Guang-chuan (wide ship), among which the Sha-chuan, Fu-chuan and Guang-chuan junks were well known both at home and abroad.


    The Sha-chuan Junk

    sand-ship-junk

    Sand Ship

    Originating in Chongming County of East China’s Jiangsu Province, the predecessor of Sha-chuan junks can be traced back to theSpring and Autumn Period(770-446BC). The model was named “sand-proofflat-bottom ship” during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and “flat-bottom ship” in theYuan Dynasty(1271-1368). Not until theMing Dynasty(1368-1644) was it called “sand ship”.

    The sand ship has many laudable characteristics. First, it is very safe. The flat bottom can prevent the ship from stranding while also helping it to safely sail in wind or waves. Also, due to the flat bottom, the waterline is low, which makes the ship more tide-resistant. Second, the ship, which can sail down or against wind or water, has good navigability. Third, with a large deck and other equipment, the sand ship has the best stability among the ancient ships. Finally, with its many masts and sails, which help to minimize resistance, the sand ship can sail swiftly.

    With both the bow (front end) and stern (back end) square-shaped, the sand ship is also called “square boat.” It is a typical flat-bottom sailing ship with a low freeboard (the distance between the water and a ship’s deck), large deck camber (the arched part of the deck), and a long projecting stern gallery (balcony). Its bow, which is obviously lower than the stern, is convenient for anchoring (as well as pulling anchor) or mooring. Near the waterline, several hardwood logs are fitted to the ship, from bow to stern, to improve its stability. To reduce the ship’s lateral drifting when navigating, a leeboard (plank frame) is fitted on each side, which is a symbol of the sand ship.

    As to the sand ship’s holding capacity, it varies according to historical records: 500 to 800 tons, or 250 to 400 tons, but the large oceangoing vessels of the Yuan Dynasty could hold as much as 1,200 tons.

    During the reign of Emperor Daoguang of theQing Dynasty(1644-1911), there were 5,000 sand ships in Shanghai alone, and over 100,000 in the whole country. Sand ships were widely used, serving both river and sea purposes. Historical records reveal that Chinese sand ships reached Java (Indonesia) as early as in the Song Dynasty (about the 10th century). Frescos depicting sand ships can still be found in India and Indonesia.


    The Fu-chuan Junk

    Fu-chuan-junk

    Fu-chuan Junk

    A type of sharp-bottom sea boat, the Fu-chuan Junk, was named after the producing place — East China’s Fujian Province– and became known for sailing in the southern sea and high seas. During the Song Dynasty, sea boats produced in Fujian were seen as the best, and in the Ming Dynasty, Fu-chuan junks made up the navy’s main force.

    The ancient Fu-chuan junks were usually as high as a building, with each junk having a sharp bottom, a large deck, an up-curved bow and stern, and protection boards on both sides. The entire junk had four storeys. The first floor was filled with earth and stones for stabilizing the ship; the second floor served as the soldiers’ resting place; and the third floor was for controlling the ship. Usually, the soldiers would occupy the fourth floor during battles, to shoot arrows. Installed with strong attacking equipment, the Fu-chuan junks, when pressed down, could sink the enemy’s warships. With a draught (underwater cargo space) of four meters, the Fu-chuan was an excellent deep-sea warship.

    The leading ship in Zheng He’s fleet, called treasure ship, adopted the Fu-chuan model.


     The Guang-chuan Junk

    Manufactured in today’s Guangdong Province in Southern China, the Guang-chuan Junks features a sharp bow and a long hull, with small beam arches and a low deck. The ship body, supported with a keel framework, was closely spaced with ribs and cabins. With a strong structure, Guang-chuan junks had sound navigability and continuity.

    Editor: Maggie

    This information reposted from

  • Sailing == Sanity

    I ended up just ordering a damn rudder. It’s all fine and good to think about wood-working and restoring and all, but at the end of the day, I just want to go sailing. And, Lord knows, I spend enough of my time taking care of other people, I don’t want to spend my time taking care of my boats if I don’t have to.

    Sailing Quotes from http://www.frugal-mariner.com/Quotes_about_Sailing.html

    “A ship is always referred to as “she” because it costs so much to keep her in paint and powder.” -Adm. Chester Nimitz

    “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood,

    divide the work and give orders. Instead,teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea…” -Antoine de Saint Exupery

    “The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage.

    The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting place.” -Arthur Ransome

    “A lot of people ask me if I were shipwrecked, and could only have one book,

    what would it be? I always say ‘How to Build a Boat’” -Stephen Wright

    “A sailing ship is no democracy; you don’t caucus a crew

    as to where you’ll go anymore than you inquire when they’d like to shorten sail.”-Sterling Hayden

    “Bad cooking is responsible for more trouble

    at sea than all other things put together.”- -Thomas Fleming Day

    “The chance for mistakes is about equal to the number of crew squared.” -Ted Turner

    “On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail,
    Reason the card, but passion is the gale.”
    -Alexander Pope, Essay on Man

    “Avoid destructive thinking. Improper negative thoughts sink people. A ship can sail around the world many, many times,

    but just let enough water get into the ship and it will sink. Just so with the human mind.
    Let enough negative thoughts or improper thoughts get into the human mind and the person sinks just like a ship.” -Alfred A. Montapert

    “Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore,

    I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen,
    and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul;
    whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet;
    and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street,
    and methodically knocking people’s hats off – then, I account it high time to get to the sea as soon as I can.
    This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.” – H. Melville

    “He was now convinced that the most valuable sail on board was the diesel.” -Ray Kauffman

    “There are three sorts of people; those who are alive, those who are dead,

    and those who are at sea.” -Old Capstan Chantey attributed to Anacharsis, 6th Century BC

    “Boats, like whiskey, are all good.” -R. D. Culler

    “The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

    “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.” –Norwegian Adage

    “There was a great difference in boats, of course. For a long time I was on a boat that was so slow

    we used to forget what year it was we left port in.” -Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi

    “The average man will bristle if you say his father was dishonest,

    but he will brag a little if he discovers that his great-grandfather was a pirate. ” -Mark Twain

    “It’s scary to have a 30 foot wave chasing you. If you are steering, you don’t look back.

    The crew looks back for you, and you watch their faces. When they look straight up, then get ready!” -Magnus Olsson

    “If you can’t repair it, maybe it shouldn’t be on board.” -Lin and Larry Pardey

    “I love the sea as one loves a mistress and I long for her when I haven’t seen her for some time.” -Alexandre Dumas

    “It’s not the towering sail, but the unseen wind that moves the ship” -Proverb

    “Cruisers’ plans are written in the sand at low tide” – Unknown

    “When in doubt, let it out.” -Unknown

    “You have no right to own a yacht if you ask that question.” -J. P. Morgan Sr., in answer to a question

    by Henry Clay Pierce on how much it costs to own and run a yacht.

    “The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea.” -Isak Dinesen

    “I don’t know who named them swells. There’s nothing swell about them. They should have named them awfuls.”-Hugo Vihlen

    “I loved cruising the coast of Maine . For one thing, it helped me conquer my fear of fog. Not that I have learned

    to feel secure in the fog, but at least I have learned how to grope without panic.” -Herb Payson

    To desire and strive to be of some service to the world, to aim at doing something which shall really increase the happiness and welfare

    and virtue of mankind – this is a choice which is possible for all of us; and surely it is a good haven to sail for.-Henry Van Dyke

    “A boat is always there-you never stop worrying about her whether you are aboard or ashore. She is always a presence in the mind and you’re conscious of her at all times. She may be laid up in some safe berth for the winter or hauled out of the water in a yard, but wherever you may be-at home in your virtuous bed or roistering in some gay spot, a chorus girl on each knee and thick air with flying champagne corks-a part of your consciousness is always reserved. When the winds round the eaves of the house it has a special significance, and you check off in your mind, one by one, the possible sources of danger. Men lie awake worrying about their bank balances, their waistlines, their wives, their mistresses actual or potential; but sailors worry about boats.” -Frank Mulville

    “I cannot not sail.” -E. B. White

    “If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything,

    perhaps a bit better than most.” -E. B. White

    “The lovely thing about cruising is that planning usually turns out to be of little use.” -Dom Degnon

    “Only two sailors, in my experience, never ran aground. One never left port

    and the other was an atrocious liar.” -Don Bamford

    “Being hove to in a long gale is the most boring way of being terrified I know.”-Donald Hamilton

    “Don’t worry about the world ending today. It’s already tomorrow in Fiji.” -Daria Blackwell

    “If you don’t have deck leaks, how do you know where to store your buckets?” -Captain Larry

    “Every so often I am compelled to go and check to see if the ocean is still there.

    Frequently, if someone else hasn’t done it to my satisfaction,
    I will venture out in my boat to check on the horizon.” -Captain Larry

    “Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit.” -Brooks Atkinson


  • Death of a Boat

    My husband and I spent last Saturday cruising around and looking at boats that had been listed on craigslist.org.  Why?  Well, I was trying to find some spare parts for my Banshee.  But also, about every 2-3 years or so, I get onto a boat-building kick, and I end up looking at plans for building a boat.  And then, I think, it’d be cheaper to try to retrofit an existing boat.

    This particular time, I was inspired by the following threads:

    http://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=15880un — This guy’s work is amazing.  He took a plain jane jon boat and completely replaced the deck and seats.

    http://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=16008&start=105 — This guy’s work is even *more* amazing. He took a piece of junk and made it float *AND* look good.

    It amazes me how expensive boats are right now, even used and junky ones!  So, our options when looking at boats were not plentiful.

    Here are some of the candidates:

    1.  Boat #1:  This was a 1959 Sea King jon boat.  It is so pretty.  The pictures just don’t do it justice.  Beautiful chine.  I wanted to see her in the water, but there were a few problems.

    seaking_0702111107

    0702111106-seakingengine

    The biggest problem is she was title-less, and she is registered for New Mexico.  That alone was a hassle.  She also had holes where the rubrail has come off, and those need to be fixed/sealed before she could be considered watertight.  The engine. . . a very old engine.  The original.  I don’t know what this is.  He tried to tell me it’s a Mercury engine, but it’s not of any model I can find online, and there’s an “M/W” on the side.  MW doesn’t stand for “Mercury Motors.”  So, I don’t know what it is.  I don’t even know if it works, as we were way out there, and I didn’t feel like trekking back home to get a gas can and fill up only to try start up a title-less boat that doesn’t float.

    So pretty though.  I hate to see her die. I do hope someone saves her, but it isn’t going to be me, I’m afraid.

     

    2.  Boat #2:  This was a 1980 inboard boat.  That someone had put a car engine into.  This boat was *way* outta my league in terms of being fixed, or even wanting to be fixed.

    0702111123-boat2

    carengineinboat_0702111125a

    3.  Boat #3:  I didn’t take a lot of pictures of the Banshee.  I was running out of room on my cellphone for pictures.  She is sailable, except she really needs a new rudder.  The owner tried to sell me the line, “She can sail with that rudder.”  But, I remember the time Matt and I got stuck out on the lake, when our wooden tiller handle snapped off the rudder.  So no.  I refuse to sail with a cracked rudder again.  Matt and I fight enough when sailing together, we really don’t need to go rudderless again on a sailing trip.

     

     

  • Rudderless

    I really don’t have time to build a rudder from scratch, but it still is fun to look up other people’s work.  There is an abundance of sailing and wooden boat-building forums these days, which didn’t exist back when I started this web log.

    Below, I bookmarked a few links to some good info on building a small dinghy rudder:


    http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-maintenance/38967-need-make-new-rudder.html — Sailnet.com is awesome!

    http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-maintenance/6736-building-rudder-sealing-marine-plywood.html — a thread about sealing marine plywood

    http://www.rigrite.com/Hardware/Rudder_Hardware/Rudder&Tiller_Heads.html#Tiller%20Heads — sells rudder/tiller heads/pintles/gudgeons

    http://www.sailnet.com/forums/seamanship/27069-making-passage-w-o-rudder.html — a thread that discusses what to do in an emergecy, if you lose your rudder

    http://www.oneoceankayaks.com/kayakrudder.htm — kayak carbon fiber rudders (a nice alternative to wood)

     

     

     

     

  • Sailing Solo — The Bare Necessities

    I really really miss sailing my Rhodes Bantam.  However with the Tyke being too young to swim yet, if I go out on it, I must go alone.  Sailing alone necessitates rigging alone.  And this means making modifications to my Bantam’s mast step.

    I’ve looked into converting the base into a hinged mast step.

    Here are links to a few online retailers of sailboat mast hinged steps:

     

    http://www.apsltd.com/c-934-dwyerdinghymastboomparts.aspx

    http://www.rigrite.com/spars/Zspar/Z-Mast_steps_hinged.html

    http://ballengerspars.com/

     

    I’m also hoping to splurge and get some new lines from http://shop.sailboatowners.com, as my current ones are getting kinda crispy from all the UV rays.

     

  • Craigslist — the Great Enabler

    So it’s summer again, and my sailing itch has yet to be scratched. I finally had time to go down to the lake to sail, so I prepared to get the boat ready for it’s first shakedown of the year, only to discover, I am missing the rudder to my Banshee.

    What the hell?

    I searched all over the house, the garage, the other garage. . . to no avail.

    I even called up the city hall by the lake to see if anyone turned one in to Lost and Found.

    Did someone hop over the fence and steal my rudder?  If they did that, they could have easily just stolen the boat.  So no, I must have left it on the dock the last time I sailed it.  Sucks.

    My poor little Wedge has been sitting out in the RV parking lot the last three years, because ever since starting my new job and then having the baby, I haven’t really had time to sail it. Plus, I broke the gooseneck the last time I sailed it, because I didn’t hoist the mainsail high enough before I tried to launch, which meant the first breeze just yanked my boom off the mast.  Luckily, I’d found a car mechanic in town who was able to weld a new boom end onto it. I offered to take him sailing next season, and now I can’t make good on my offer, because I can’t find my rudder.

    So, on to craigslist I went, looking for spare parts, when lo and behold, I find out there’s a Banshee for sail IN MY AREA!!!

    I persuaded the husband to go out with me to look, and it’s in decent shape. Keep in mind, I was hoping to just cannibalize it for parts, but it’s actually not in bad shape. The sail is newer than mine. He had a better kind of fix for the notoriously weak Banshee gooseneck, which I will implement if my boom ever breaks off again. Unfortunately, his rudder and centerboard were in pretty bad shape. Cracked mahogany. Severely cracked.

    I pointed that out to him.

    His reply: “You can make a rudder easily.”

    Says him, who doesn’t work full time (he’s retired, he said), and who doesn’t have a 1 1/2 year old toddler. I do not plan on using a circular saw while babysitting a toddler THAT’S FOR SURE.

    And when I balked at his price because I knew it was gonna cost money for wood to make a new rudder and centerboard, he says, “You can buy it online for cheap.”

    Um, yeah. I did a web-search on marine mahogany back when I was contemplating building a Rhodes Bantam. I don’t know where *he* was looking for mahogany, but it ain’t cheap, honey.

    Still, there is nothing worse than having a sailing itch, and seeing a sailboat that one likes for sail, er sale. Trailer and all. And the trailer is in good shape. ‘Needs air in the tires, probably needs bearings checked, but otherwise fine. It’s a homebuilt trailer, like my current one, and he has the title.

    Argh! It’s too much to have 3 sailboats, isn’t it? Some might consider that hoarding. Ah well!

     

    “One day I shall have two boats exactly the same.
    I shall sail in one and look back at the other
    to extract the last ounce of pleasure from my labour.
    And if it happens that I cannot have two lovely boats
    and become bitter, I shall sail around in the ugliest of boats
    I can find, looking at everyone else’s nice boat,
    whilst they have to avert their gaze from mine.”

    - Colin Mudie, Naval Architect

  • Cutest Cabin Boat Ever

    Adorable! Absolutely adorable!!!! I love his bow sprit, and the roller-furling jib. PDR’s are 8 feet long (minus that bow sprit), so this probably beats the Hen in terms of “smallest cabin sailboat.”