SAILING ANARCHY

Way back when, I used to be really in to go-fast boats and have crewed and worked on various sleds and still entertain the Mini Transat as a possible mid-life crisis event... but by and large yachting media coverage is akin to watching paint dry and if I'm not actually on a boat it just not worth dealing with.... As someone who works in film production, it is difficult to understand just how you can take such a dynamic and ego charged sport and make it... well... boring!

One site I actually look at regularly for yacht racing content that is head and shoulders above the rest is Sailing Anarchy as they actually have a handle of what the big picture is and have the balls to actually call something a pig when it looks like a pig... Plus, they are entertaining so you gotta love these guys!

There was a recent ongoing interchange between Sailing Anarchy and a certain yacht designer that is the stuff of true drama (or at least high comedy) and however you cut it a whole lot more interesting than watching Imron dry... Check it out at www.sailinganarchy.com

WHICH DESIGN FOR LM 4/4/4 ???

What's a poor boy going to do? So many boats and so little time... We seem to be in stasis on the new design for LM 4/4/4 and are currently wrestling with three radically different concepts, any of which would be an awesome boat! But it does underline the whole "there are many and varied ways to skin a cat" and "there is no one true path as far as boatbuilding or boat design goes" philosophies. And, any one who tells you there is, does not know very much about boats.

One of the designs on the short list is George Buehler's Melquiades which, as it happens, was also on the short list for Loose Moose 2. Its salty and with its ample cargo hold gives me a lot of space to store film gear, tools, and a couple of REAL bikes. It is hard comparing this boat to the other two, as one of the others is a ULDB, while the other is somewhere in between, but the fact is they all work, even though radically different. Our friends on Bonnie Lynn love their boat which is not too different and surprises everyone with its performance. They are doing a Atlantic circle in the not to far distant future and have some berths available for a few of the legs.



Bonnie Lynn Schooning!

RABID RIG RANTING

Anyone who knows me knows that I have pretty strong (my wife uses the word "rabid") opinions on various rigs and the whole yacht evolution/design as distorted by Yacht racing rules. So, just thought that I should pass along a couple of books that make interesting reading for those who really want to know how a lot of the boats got to be the way they are. Ready About by Gary Hoyt (the man who is responsible for the Freedom design) is a great book by a man who apparently does not suffer fools gladly....

Aero-Hydrodynamics of Sailing by Czeslaw A. Marchaj is THE BOOK to read if you want to know how sails really work and how 90% of what everyone accepts as fact is not really... Its pretty dense reading and not a good read in the Clive Cussler sense, but the information is awesome.... He also wrote another excellent book, Seaworthiness : The Forgotten Factor

WET ASS CHRONICLES

You may want to give a look over to Wet Ass Chronicles which is one of my first stops whenever surfing the net for sail and climbing content...

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Just to throw a plug in for the film gig...We are doing a video series on the whole boat ting starting with a DVD on anchoring and another on the charter business for those who are considering the whole live on a boat and get PAID for it lifestyle... More in the pipeline as well, so keep an eye out!

PEACHY KEEN

I've recently been talking with Chuck Merrell, a fellow Jessie Cooper builder who is now plying his trade as a naval architect up Seattle way, who sent along a couple of pictures of his newish Pram design that sure looks nice in the attached picture...


....It's his ten-foot Peach Pie design and you may want to check out Chuck's website (http://www.boatdesign.com) where he also has some neat stuff if you are someone who likes dinghies, Junk rigs or up-market shanty boats.

Now if he could just explain where someone can actually live on a boat on the Pacific side of the US of A, I might even be interested in a little "pied a l'eau" up there where it's moist.

STUFF

Anyone who lives on a boat seems to fight a losing battle with stuff.. It just grows... Even the most "If I don't use it in a year I'll throw it out" crowd still winds up with far too much stuff. From time to time I look at some stuff on So It Goes and think to myself, "Well I could always throw it in the dinghy and figure out what to do with it when we get someplace else"...


Well, someone actually took that approach for a solution (if on a somewhat grander scale)... Fifty million dollar yacht "Lady Lola" (205 feet) apparently just did not have enough room for "stuff" in its 924 tons of displacement and, as the helicopter was apparently a bit of an eyesore on the back deck and spoiled the view from the golfing green (GOLFING GREEN???), what better way to solve the problem than to get a bigger tender and throw all the extra stuff on it?!!


Well, it made sense to someone and Lady Lola now sports a nice little tender named Shadow with a helicopter hanger and more room than you can shake a stick at... but one does wonder just when Shadow, at 180 feet, will wind up needing someplace to store their "stuff"...

THE PARTY'S OVER

Well here we are the day AFTER hurricane season (2004) has finished with us for this year and there's still a stray storm running around in the Atlantic... Otto.

All told an interesting year and our decision to weather it out in St. Maarten as opposed to slide down to Grenada was not such a bad one... Now if only we had that kind of luck where national elections were concerned...

PING !

When was the last time you inspected your standing rigging?

Yeah ... me too!

Being someone who has been of the freestanding masts make a whole lot of sense and gone that way with my last couple of boats but now sporting a Marconi rig, nothing makes you look at your rig more than seeing a boat come in with a mast that looks like this...
....Snow Goose, a 114-foot sloop with 138-foot stick, came into the dock next to us looking quite forlorn after a shroud went "ping" in about 15 knots of wind!

This weekend you will find me in bosuns chair at the mast head checking out all the places on So It Goes that could go "PING"

FEIN & DANDY TOOL

For anyone considering a boat project you really should take a look at the Fein Multimaster. Frankly, I am not sure how I managed to build three cruising boats and an untold number of dinghies without this puppy. While I bought it mainly as a sander to get into those difficult corners and such, the various sawblades have come out as the most used attachments. The ability to make precise cuts in hard to get at places is alone worth the cost of admission. For the Loose Moose 4/4/4 I'll buy another of these and have one setup for sanding and the other for blades and would expect the setup to trim at least a couple of weeks off the building schedule!

In my current dinghy project, yesterday I figured I saved an hour of labor in trimming various plywood bits in comparison to the way I use to do it (plane flush).

The downside is that the blades are a bit fragile so a light touch is called for and when it comes time to replace them (you will) they are a tad pricey.

Fein Multimaster Variable Speed

ELEGANT PUNT

As it just seemed silly to be pulling around a 14-foot RIB with a 30HP for passages lasting more than an hour or two, it seemed like a new dinghy was in the cards. Choosing of which has taken me much longer than the building process.

In the past, I cruised quite happily on the various Loose Moose's with Bolger's Tortoise design which performed well... though did make for some comment! Being that we would be seeing clients on occasion, we decided finally on one of Phil's older designs, the Elegant Punt, which I adapted to build using the stitch and glue method. It should be a very good load carrier, row well, putter around OK with the 3HP outboard I happen to have laying around, and is more stable than the Nymph, which was a factor as we dive from the dinghy so being able to get in from the water was a major factor. Plus, it more or less fits on deck so for longer passages we don't have to tow it!

Its actually a pretty nice looking boat!

More after I launch it next week....

Instant Boats - By Harold Payson

Build the New Instant Boats - By Harold Payson

Harold "Dynamite" Payson's web site

INTERESTING WEB SITE

Someone turned me on to this site yesterday: http://www.kastenmarine.com

What great boats! Salty as they come but more important, there is a wealth of great information in the guise of articles. More NA's could take a note on how to educate their potential clients, as well as pretty good info on the various designs on offer!

A COOL PAINT JOB

I remember not all that long ago it seems, in some port over beers that someone from another boat was going on about how free and open-minded the cruising community were... sounded OK until he leaned over and asked what I was sailing.

"Loose Moose" I answered, "the Bolger design"...

Well, he then went on a rant about how LM was an embarrassment to the whole boating community and was a death trap to boot... The fact that we were quite happy on it and had sailed from Europe to Western Africa to the Caribbean quite safely never seemed to make an impression. Simply put, Loose Moose did not look like what his mental picture of a "proper yacht" was meant to look like.

So much for free spirits and open minds... I'm sure now that I am sailing a "proper yacht (i.e. one with a pointy front and rigging), he would be equally scandalized by the fact that we now have an electric motor...

A couple of days ago I saw a South African boat anchored nearby and I thought "here is a fellow soul who feels the need to scandalize the neighborhood from time to time..." I like it!

H-SEASON UPDATE (2004)

Well, various business has kept us here in St Martin for Hurricane season. Frances passed by the other day (though way too close for comfort) but all we got were some evil winds and a backache from doing the getting ready for a hurricane ting. I have always been a proponent for oversized ground tackle and lots of scope. It is always interesting watching the neighbors putting out lots of anchors in curious ways with no apparent regard of what their neighbors are doing or what might happen when the wind shifts.

Just something to keep in mind...

The current threat is Ivan but (knock on wood) it looks like it just may pass to the south of us (maybe a good thing we stayed in SXM), but only God knows for sure and last I heard he wasn't telling...

BACKYARD BOATBUILDING

A great book for anyone contemplating the madness inherent in building a boat is George Buehlers "Backyard Boatbuilding" and while his real heavy but sort of light displacement boat designs may not appeal to everyone (Personally I think they make a lot of sense and have been perusing some of his designs for the Loose Moose 4/4/4 project), his thinking is first rate and any project would profit from his insight if only to cleanse the palette from the same old same old consumer yachting syndrome so many seem to be stuck into... When I built Loose Moose 2 "Backyard Boatbuilding" was a constant resource. For those who like salty you may want to check out George's website (http://www.georgebuehler.com)

Warning rant coming...

Just thinking about George Buehler's designs and website has made me think about something that really gets up my nose... The way some of the naval architects and designers suck you into buying study plans because they won't put even minimum information about their designs on their websites... I have a file cabinet of study plans that I never would have purchased if the NA involved had provided even scant information as to their use or payload, not to mention being coy about the cost of designs and construction... A lot of the time I will see a boat here in Paradise and being impressed I'll check out the designers website to find hardly any information. So I find myself ordering a study plan by Zen, if you will, only to find that the $35 I just spent is for a daysailer... arrrghhhh!!! George Buehler has great info on his site and a lot of designers should take note of how he does it because he's got it right!

GPS & MACs

While it may be said that I am not enamored of gadgets onboard I am really beginning to think that a GPS with chart plotter makes a whole lot of sense...The advantages to have the ability to look at a graphical interface that tells you that "you are here" is pretty much a no brainer! To be honest, a no brainer is needed from time to time as brain power does seem to diminish when doing long passages in bad conditions.

The problem is BOY IS THERE A LOT OF CHOICE!!!

Now my first reaction (remember I’m Mr Cheapseats) is to find whatever is cheapest and does the job, but my second feeling is that this will get used a lot so it just might make sense to do a bit more study and see what works best.

I did come across this one (www.GPSNavX.com) which allows us Mac users to use our Macs and I have to say that sure makes a lot of sense on a lot of levels if we go with a chart table location. The other route is going with cockpit mounting which also has its attractions... But getting back to the MAC option as it is so cheap it almost makes sense to do both... Anyway, I will be looking at this one in depth in the next week or so... expect some more on this subject as it develops...

MULTI THOUGHTS

I should mention that we have another project boat sitting and waiting for us to spruce up sitting on the hard in MD... Just before we had the opportunity to buy So It Goes, I came a cross a very nice Irwin 28 which was in great shape but minus an engine and in need of a new interior. Work, distance and various projects have kept me from it but I do hope that I can get to it sooner rather than later.

Not too long ago some friends in St Thomas with a sister ship mentioned that they get a lot of surprised looks when they sail past some of the 50-foot catamaran charter boats in a 28-foot monohull. But it does make you think just how badly performance on multis gets degraded when you keep piling on the weight. One of these days, I am going to go around and take photos of all the various cats I find and concentrate on bridge deck clearance... might be entertaining!

Of course we keep looking at cats and tris for the LM 4/4/4 project and have been finding that boats that meet our requirements are very few and far between. While there are many many cats and tris chartering and cruising, sadly most of them are not doing it with the performance that we expect from multihulls. One charter boat that has got it right is the awesome Bossanova which I guarantee is not a cat that is going to be passed by an Irwin of any sort (unless it is at anchor!). Tem is an ex-pro skier who was inducted into the boatbuilding madness by his father (they built a tri together) and set out to design and build a cat that incorporated the needs of the charter business (air conditioning, freezer, toys, etc, etc) and he certainly seems to have gotten the mix right.

"H" SEASON (2004)

Hurricane season certainly focuses one's attention on having your boat ready and we are currently seeing a lot of boats here removing masts for the duration of the season. While attractive on some levels, I find it a difficult option as I do like the idea of at least having the option of running if it starts looking evil.

Martinique which while still in the zone has a decent hurrcane hole, though now that we draw six foot (instead of LM2’s 18 inches), hurricane holes are not as attractive or as plentiful as they used to be. The other option is hauling the boat for the season or going out of the zone... All I can say at this point is I am still mulling the options.

SHANTY BOATS

Shanty boats kind of make you think about Huckleberry Finn and Mark Twain, but they certainly make some sense for what most people actually use their boats for. Down here in the Caribbean you don't often see shanty boats but yesterday lo and behold if there was not a very interesting boat that certainly seems to touch on the shanty boat esthestic (if possibly a bit post-modern, with touches of Bolger as well). Hopefully, I will be able to talk to the owner sometime soonish and be back with more, but in the meantime here are a couple of pictures to peruse...

BUILDING METHODS

Kurt Hughes has some very pretty designs and his cylinder mold system sure makes a lot of sense for one off... The other day I heard from Matthew Reynolds, who as it happens built the second Loose Moose (Wizard) for Bob Archibald, anyway he now has a boatbulding concern and recently completed a Kurt Hughes power design that I have always found quite tasty. Looks to be an excellent job and from the looks of his shop he has room for another project... http://catamaranconstruction.com/

WHICH HULL MATERIAL...

Materials... I'll be honest in that I like wood over glass, metal, ferro etc... We currently have a glass boat, but the last three boats before that were wood composite. I have built or repaired both steel and ferro so feel that I have a handle on the plus and minuses of all that we build boats with and, unless I find a great reason I am not currently aware of, my bet is that a wood composite will be in the cards for the next one...
Personally, I think it comes down to what material one feels comfortable... Steel is heavy and cutting it or welding it makes little holes in my pants (plus I have to wear pants which is a pain cause I am really more of a shorts kinda guy...) and then there is that "R" word (yeah I know that wood has its own "R" word but I never use it and just say "we might have a little soft wood here... take it from me "S” words are better than "R" words...). Glass is glass and no one enjoys working with the stuff and so on... But as the old adage goes "don't fix it if it ain't broke" and since we have had such good success with wood composite construction, we'll most likely stay with it unless some incredible plan shows up that calls for something else.

LOOSE MOOSE 4/4/4 WISH LIST

The current Loose Moose wish list... Hmmm... Hard to say exactly, but the high points are that:
• We want to be able to live on it (i.e. not camping, no cutting tooth brushes in half to save weight, and the ability to take a decent shower without resorting to doing it on my knees).
• We work at home most of the time so it has to have at least one dedicated office and another dedicated film edit space...
• As we like Europe AND the Caribbean, it should be able to get us back and forth without too much of a hassle... Actually, that is the 4/4/4 idea... four months in Europe, four months in the Caribbean, and four months to get us from one to the other...

Does not seem all that difficult, but then we want to build it quickly and not have to sell the cat into feline slavery to own it free and clear... and did I ever mention I'm a cheap bastard?...

LOOSE MOOSE 4/4/4

Thinking about another Loose Moose is problematic as our wants are certainly not the needs of the average boater and, while I am the first to admit that all boats are a compromise, I have to admit that our needs just may push the envelope a bit too far.

That said, I do think it is doable and it is only a matter of a couple things coming together that will make the exercise gel in some sort of cohesive manner.

Back when I was in college I was very affected by a couple of books by one of my teachers, Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World and Nomadic Furniture. Design for the Real World is certainly an eye opener and, while not about boats, it is a lot about boats if you know what I mean...

Which brings me to the question... Why is everyone telling me to build a powerboat? Right now power boats are certainly the new thrust of the marine press with a new power oriented mag by the folks at Cruising World... Maybe it is the SUV factor. But there is a nagging doubt in my mind about just how sensible it is to build a powerboat at a time when fuel prices are above the two dollars a gallon mark and we are at war in the middle east...

Of course, most people never move very far or very often in their boats so I guess that fuel prices to some degree might not really matter all that much to some. But call me cheap if you will when it costs me over $30 to fill up my dinghy's gas tank (12 gallons) and I start looking for a decent rowing boat design to build!

But one power boat that certainly does appeal is Reull Parker’s 50-foot power Dory... Now I can't quite see it working for our needs without some sort of sail rig added and it does not quite have the needed room and interior but it is certainly a sweet boat and I admit to noodling some on the study plans to see if a bit of a stretch or crafty rearrangement to the interior just might suffice to make it an option.

Of course all of Parker’s boats have a certain something stylewise (he sure does draw a pretty and salty boat) and unlike many designers he really knows how to draw a boat that is as problem-free as possible when it comes to putting it together. There is another one of his designs that I will talk about later in more detail that is certainly on the shortlist but more about that one later...

OPENING THOUGHTS... (2004)

I have been spending my time of late looking for a boat design that may or not get built in the not too far distant future. Boatbuilding for me is certainly an addiction which I am usually able to keep under control with various upgrades to the current boat (So It Goes), dinghy building, or going off to a war zone and shoot some film for that Kevlar fix... But every few years it is a done deal that I need a REAL fix with lots of wood, epoxy and the screaming noise of money being sucked out of my bank account like wind in the rigging during Hurricane Marilyn.

Face it, I am not really a sane man... My name is Bob and I build boats!

Funny thing is I don't even really like building boats... Let’s be honest building boats is a LOT of WORK and you can ask just about anyone who knows me and they'll tell you I am one lazy dude of somewhat mythic proportions but they also might add that I am pretty cheap as well and maybe there lies the key to the conundrum.

Now don't get me wrong I do enjoy a bit of carpentry from time to time and take quite a bit of pride in a joint well made or a crafty shim, but the ten hour days of building for months is just not fun if you get my drift... Folks who do love to spend years and years crafting boats are the sort that I can't actually fathom... I like getting the job done, getting on the water and going someplace where, with any luck, I'm not going to run into a whole lot of boat folk (make mental note new boat should have a small cannon or at least a very powerful stereo and at least one copy of Trout Mask Replica by Capt Beefheart for chasing bareboaters away because in my version of Paradise there are no weenies anchoring too close in their Bendy Toy bareboats...).

Plus, there is a good chance I will just live with our most excellent Cal 34 and put a bit of the old boatbuilding urge in to some crafty projects to improve its livability and cruising amenities or hell, I might get lucky and find the holy grail of a perfect CAL 40 being sold for a giveaway price... But I digress as I still don't have a design to build and this space on the internet will be partly about my fumbling attempts in finding the "right" design as well as likely rants and caustic comments related things about or around this evil habit we call boatbuilding and hopefully sailing.