Accepted knowledge...and the skill trumps tech conundrum.

We've been sitting in Road Bay, Anguilla the last few days...It's nice here!

One of the nice things about Anguilla is that they have a very active ( some might say rabid) racing fleet. Day in and day out the local boats go out...The local sloops don't have engines so they sail...and sail...and sail.

The Anguillan sloops are hardly the thing of high tech. ballast is bodies and sand bags, masts are more often than not started life as a light pole . Slack rigged with jib set flying and not a winch or whisp of carbon and Kevlar in sight it is interesting to note that sailing into Road Harbor which is pretty much always a windward slog the home boys outpoint the cruisers coming in with much more weatherly and teched out rigs...

So how do they do it...Accepted knowledge being that the modern Bermuda sloop is the best to weather!

Well my less than scientific observation has made me note a couple of things about the cruisers coming in here...Not a lot of patience being one... and a motor that works being the other. Almost always a boat will begin to tack in and after the third tack ( or more likely second) the motor comes on the sails get rolled up and they beeline in to the anchorage.

So it goes

The guys in the Anguillan sloops have to sail in...but then from the looks on their faces they are enjoying it and having a fine time of it in the process! Because they do sail and do it a lot it is hardly surprising that they get pretty damn good at it....and did I say these guys sail fast?

Now I'm not a Luddite ( well only a bit) but just maybe the reason people don't go to weather so well is that they simply don't do it enough to upgrade their skill set and part of that is simply always taking the easy road when offered and turning on the engine...Tack in for 45 minutes or motor in ten? Then again once you get better at it maybe its more like tack in for 25 minutes or motor in 10 minutes...

When we were cruising in Loose Moose 2 we got pretty tired of people telling us that we were idiots for having a gaff rig that could not point as high as a Bermudan sloop. Yet time and time again we would outpoint the Bermudan sloops we sailed with simply because we had worked at it (and to be honest the motor was a hassle on LM2) but most of the time we beat to weather we seemed to be the only boat not running our engine...Gaff rig indeed!

So why the mania for boats that point high if you are not going to point high? Inquiring minds want to know!

I'm all for high tech and can gear lust with the best of folk but if I were a betting man I'd always bet on skill over high tech and so called modern design. Skill almost always trumps tech. That is if I were a betting man...

Here is the crew of Sonic with some serious business to windward (it being Miller time)

Speaking of Phil Bolger and Friends...

Phil Bolger and Susanne Altenburger AKA Phil Bolger and Friends have been in the news recently regarding their Green concepts for boats and where they might be a big help to the struggling fishing industry. Check out the article as always when Phil and Susanne say something it tends to make a whole lot of sense...

Speaking of Schooners

Speaking of schooners Phil Bolger drew this boat some while back and it is simply what I'd personally like in a larger size say in the forty foot range! The build was by Sam Devlin of Devlin Design and by all appearances an exceptional job of it.

For those folks who are not "Lug Nuts" the rig is a balanced lug ( as opposed to a standing lug, dipping lug and so on) and in the not too distant future I'll be writing a lot about balanced lugs and just why they may be the best rig around for cruisers...but a LOT more about that later!

Spike Africa

I have always been a schooner guy...There is something about the proportions of a schooner that just cries out to the romantically and nautically obsessed . Sure Schooners badly sailed don’t go to weather like a some think they should but then again all the folks who tell me schooners don’t go to windward with Bermudan sloops all seem to motor to windward anyway So what’s the point? Personally I think most anti schooner folk simply can't handle the fact that you need to be the real deal to pull off being a schooner man.

Speaking of schooners and Schooner Men I can think of no finer example than the Schooner “Spike Africa” designed and built by Bob Sloan who had the right stuff. Like all good schooners is a working boat at heart...equally at home working as a tow boat or being a model/actor in commercials and movies with an impressive resume and it would be somewhat disrespectful to call it a yacht....Spike Africa is the real deal and if you have a spare $595,000 , vision, the right stuff and a romantic soul it could be yours...Spike Africa