32 S AILING LAKE CHELAN
36 S TEVE CALLAHAN INTERVIEW, PT. 2
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22 C RUISERS' HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
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Product News, Stocking Stuffer Edition
48° North editors review a few bits of kit on our wishlists.
20 These Are A Few Of Our Favorite (BOAT) Things
Lifestyle ideas to improve both cruising and Christmas morning. By Marty McOmber and Deborah Bach
22
Home For The Holidays
A cruising family’s holiday experiences around the world. By Behan and Jamie Gifford
25
Jingle Sails
A 48° North yuletide sailing poem.
FEATURES 32
Sailing Lake Chelan
The many wonders of cruising a mountain lake. By Sharon Podlich
36 Steve Callahan Interview, Part Two
Survival philosophy and an ocean crossing with a PNW legend. By Joe Cline
COLUMNS 26 MY BOAT: Stevens 47, Fluenta
A BC family finds this sturdy vessel for a loop around the Pacific.
28
Tech Talk with SeaBits
See and be seen with modern AIS systems. By Steve Mitchell
RACING 40 Rule Changes for 2021
Our resident rules guru walks us through racing rules updates. By Charlie Macaulay
42 T-birds Continue to Flock in Port Townsend A busy year for a dedicated fleet in a classic PNW boat. By Roland Nikles
44 Championship of Champions
Tight racing in close quarters between some of the nation’s best. By Ben Braden
ON THE COVER, Spray flies while young Barrett Milne charges upwind in his Optimist dinghy on the way to a class win at CYC Seattle’s Turkey Bowl Regatta. Photo by Jan Anderson.
5
Background photo courtesy of Jan Anderson.
CONTENTS
18
DECEMBER 2020
06
Editor THE MOST POWERFUL TEACHER
In keeping with this sudden leeward microburst crash-tack kind of a year, the weekend before 2020’s final issue went to press, Governor Inslee released a new slate of restrictions for this recent and worrying wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Washington state. Just weeks earlier, we had published and publicized (celebrated, really) a quote from the Governor’s Senior Policy Advisor for Outdoor Recreation, Jon Snyder, which clarified that 12 people was the allowable maximum crew size for sailboat racing vessels. The new restrictions dictate that, “Outdoor social gatherings should be limited to no more than five people from outside your household.” Whether you're disappointed about the delay of getting the whole racing team back together, concerned about the impact of these restrictions on many businesses, or disturbed by the present sprawl of the virus (or all of the above) — it doesn’t feel very holiday-ish. It’s not as if the year was a total bust, of course. Recreational boating started as, and remains, one of the safest things we can do in this environment, even if it is a bummer to re-reduce the size of your race crew. Interest in boating, on-water activity, and boat sales spiked this summer (one of 2020’s only happy spikes), and all signs are that this momentum will carry on into 2021 and hopefully beyond. My optimism springs eternal, but there’s no denying that it could shape up to be a difficult holiday season for many of us. I’m afraid we can’t tinsel and twinklelight our way out of this one — even the traditional Christmas Ships festival is canceled. Yet, reflecting on all of this led me to the simple clause that closes the mission of the Northwest Maritime Center: “...the sea is the most powerful teacher we know.” There’s a lot we can understand about 2020 if we view it through the prism of the sea’s teachings. It might reveal that storms pass; that the only constant is variability; that self-reliance and resilience are of paramount importance no matter your surroundings. The sea can show us that fighting powerful natural forces may be an unwinnable battle, but embracing the flexibility to dance with those natural forces brings an appreciation both for one’s environment and one’s own capabilities. The sea always reminds me how connected we all are, even when separated by immense distances. The oceanic wisdom goes on and on. I think I was hearing echoes of that bit of mission because this is a time of year when loved ones wish for and give precious things to one another. Sure, there are stocking stuffers (head to page 19 for some of those), but there’s lots of less tangible giving this time of year, too. In the spirit of the season, may I wish that your hot buttered rum overfloweth, but not on the salon upholstery; that the jingle bells you hear are from reindeer and not your anchor watch app alarm; and that your bilge stay drier than your New Year’s Brut. Lighthearted holiday wishes can seem kind of empty in a winter that feels darker than usual to so many, though. As sailors, we know that we cannot change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust the sails. What I really wish for you this holiday season are the assurances of the sea’s teachings. I wish you more frequent opportunities and more depth of experience on that ever-changing medium that illuminates so much about life and ourselves. I wish you sailing and cruising adventures (with small crews) that bring immense joy, and remind you of connections that know no distance — with this community of boat folk, with your families near and far, and with the natural world we all share. So, I’ll raise a cup of cheer (yes, cheer) to you and yours, to the teacher sea, and to a fresh start in a new year that brings the promise of more rich learning experiences afloat in the Pacific Northwest. With warmest holiday wishes,
Volume XL, Number 5, December 2020 (206) 789-7350. info@48north.com www.48north.com
Publisher Northwest Maritime Center Managing Editor Joe Cline joe@48north.com Editor Andy Cross andy@48north.com Art Director Twozdai Hulse twozdai@nwmaritime.org Advertising Sales Kachele Yelaca kachele@48north.com Advertising Sales: Katherine Kjear katherine@48north.com Classifieds classads48@48north.com Contributing Editor Amanda Swan Neal Photographer Jan Anderson 48° North is published as a project of the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend, WA – a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to engage and educate people of all generations in traditional and contemporary maritime life, in a spirit of adventure and discovery. Northwest Maritime Center: 431 Water St, Port Townsend, WA 98368 (360) 385-3628 48° North encourages letters, photographs, manuscripts, burgees, and bribes. Emailed manuscripts and high quality digital images are best, but submissions via mail or delivered in person are still most welcome! We are not responsible for unsolicited materials. Articles express the author’s thoughts and may not reflect the opinions of the magazine. Reprinting in whole or part is expressly forbidden except by permission from the editor.
SUBSCRIPTIONS NEW Subscription Options for 2020! $39/Year For The Magazine $75/Year For Premium Subscription (perks!) Check www.48north.com/subscribe for details. Prices may vary for international or first class.
Proud members: Joe Cline Managing Editor, 48° North 48º NORTH
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DECEMBER 2020
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Letters
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All the Power You Need
Hearing Voices?
Hello Joe, Thought your readers might enjoy a tale about Boat Spirits. Bet some of you sailors have heard them too... Boat Spirits Cruisers on long passages have heard the voices, but don’t talk about them much. They sound like animated conversations in the other room, like a party you weren’t invited to. Some explanations for these voices include water rushing past the hull, or simply cruiser fatigue following a long watch. Sailors already know that boats have souls, drawn from the fantastic history of the sea. Imagine the war canoes, junks, frigates, schooners—on and on—that have shared the same waters as the sailor’s boat. Is there any doubt that these many spirits from the deep would take residence in boats with soul?
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You could speculate that these spirits don’t just sit in the boat. They become one with the boat’s component parts, depending on their interest. They may consider it their job to be in a rib, rudder, boom, mast, bulkhead, keel, etc. In this manner, the spirits have something to do, and something to talk about to the other spirits. Their conversations may go like this:
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Rib #5 answers back, “Yeah, that’s all well and good, but we haven’t sailed in six weeks. Six weeks!”
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“Don’t worry,” the rudder answered. “Basil has been working like a dog on the foredeck, found some soft spots with his little hammer.” “I knew the wood rot was there. It sort of itches up by the toe rail,” said rib #5.
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The boom chimed in, “Something’s up guys. Basil’s nephew is loading the boat with provisions.”
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“Oh man, the nephew”, the rudder chirped, “I hope Basil shows him how to sail. He never trims the boat. Then holds the rudder hard over and wonders why he can’t get boat speed.” “He’ll learn,” said the bulkhead. “He’s a good cook, and knows his knots. He’s trying, and attitude is everything.”
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The bowsprit spoke, with his booming voice, “The boom is right, something is up. Sonya just drove up and they’re unloading new sail bags. We’re getting new threads! We’ll point higher now for sure.” “Oh my” the mast said, “Hasse sails, and Brion did the standing rigging before he left for a better job doing God’s rigging - we are being done up right!”
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“More groceries” the galley stove bellowed, “We’re going 48º NORTH
9
DECEMBER 2020
sailing!” The spirits hummed with pleasure, sounding very much like the wind.
Discover San Juan Sailing and San Juan Yachting
— Submitted by a sailor who confesses he’s heard the voices.
Jerry Reid S/V Red Stripe, previously of S/V Lotus
Response to 48north.com Post Clarifying Crew Limits
(Editor’s Note: New restrictions released November 15, 2020 have temporarily reduced the limits again to the skipper’s household plus five others. When those restrictions are relaxed, presumably the crew limit is back to 12, as clarified by Governor Inslee’s Senior Policy Advisor for Outdoor Recreation, Jon Snyder.) Joe, The entire sailboat racing community’s thanks to David Miller and Peter Schrappen for persevering and getting the crew limit information out of the state bureaucracy! And thank you and 48° North for the support and prompt publishing of the information. Regardless of one’s opinions of how the state and localities have handled the Covid-19 pandemic, having legal clarity for our organizing authorities allows us to move forward with providing the services our members crave. Looking forward to seeing everyone on the race course soon.
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Hey Joe,
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I have concerns about the recent 48° North post about crew limits. This guidance is totally irrelevant for dinghy racing and scholastic sailing, which are both sailboat racing. There is already a ton of misinformation and confusion out there, and I’m afraid more potentially applicable parameters don’t help the situation.
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There are risks to leaders in our communities deciding to pick and choose which rules to follow or turn a blind eye to altogether. There’s still no real guidance for High School and College Sailing. To me, it’s pretty clear that they both fall under WA State’s guidance for team sports, just like rowing. Singlehanded dinghy racing is probably best categorized by the guidance for non-motorized boat racing, similar to kayak or canoe racing. Both sets of guidance give us a path forward to compete, although HS sailing will probably need to wait until later this spring when Covid levels hopefully reduce. I want to race sailboats as much as anyone (we followed the five person limit on our Olson 30 all summer), but at the very least, I would explicitly qualify your statement about keelboats and clarify that there is more relevant guidance pertaining to dinghy racing. Thanks Joe and hopefully all is well!
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DECEMBER 2020
low tides >> News & Events SEATTLE BOAT SHOW CANCELS IN-PERSON EVENT, ANNOUNCES NEW APPROACH TO VIRTUAL SHOW
January 28 - January 31, 2021 In many ways, the writing was on the wall. Fifty-thousand person events just aren’t happening right now. Yet, there remains a confluence of demand for a way to jumpstart the 2021 boating season — from boaters and industry exhibitors alike — and the Seattle Boat Show has traditionally done just that. The Seattle Boat Show can’t take place in-person in 2021, but this announcement is as much a reveal as it is a cancellation. Thoughtful exploration of a worthy Plan B began months ago, and (full disclosure: I’m on the Board of Trustees for the Northwest Marine Trade Association that puts on the Seattle Boat Show) I believe the capable Boat Show team is putting together a virtual event that breaks new ground in the service it will provide to attendees and exhibitors, the digital experience and environment it will create, and in the amount and quality of the educational seminar content that’s on the docket. As so much is in these times, it’s a compromise, but there’s a lot to be excited about too. - Joe Cline
that will allow attendees to connect with exhibitors in a variety of ways, including an appointment-setting tool that allows them to schedule in-person, Zoom, FaceTime, or phone meetings and boat and product tours as well as live text chat. The threedimensional show floor will feature the classic red carpet and allow boaters to simulate cruising the aisles. The digital show will happen in tandem with satellite in-person special events hosted by dealers and exhibitors around the region. “Interest and demand for boats and accessories are at an alltime high right now, and many industry experts are predicting an even bigger year in 2021. If people wait until next spring to go boat shopping, it may be too late,” said George Harris, president, Northwest Marine Trade Association. “That‘s why we’re so pleased to be able to produce a rich digital experience that will allow boaters to easily shop, tour, and compare boats and accessories all in one place and make a plan for 2021.” The Seattle Show has always been known for the breadth and depth of its seminars and this will hold true for the digital show. There will be more than 100 hours of original boating, fishing, boating lifestyle, and Boat Show University seminars as well as a live video stream during show hours that will feature interviews with special guests, seminar presenters, exhibitors, and sponsors. Harris continued, “One of the other exciting benefits of the digital format is that seminar presenters from across the country and Mexico who might not otherwise come to Seattle to present will be part of the lineup. People from around the country and the world can also tune in to learn about cruising or fishing in our beautiful Pacific Northwest waters.” The digital show will take place Thursday, Jan. 28 through Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021. Tickets go on sale Dec. 15, 2020, which is the same date the seminar schedule will be released. www.seattleboatshow.com
From the folks that put on the Seattle Boat Show: Ongoing Covid-19 restrictions are preventing the Seattle Boat Show from being held in person in January 2021, but are not preventing the show organizers from producing a powerful boating event in January. The show will go on — but in a digital format. The Seattle Boat Show is famous for its wide selection of boats, marine accessories and services, and extensive seminar line up. The digital show will be no different, including the ability to ‘walk’ the iconic red carpet using 3-D technology and take advantage of discounts and show specials that would have been offered at the in-person show. Unlike many virtual boat shows that are simply a static listing of boats, the Seattle show will have a number of digital features 48º NORTH
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DECEMBER 2020
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low tides >> News & Events VASHON ISLAND RACE KICKS OFF SOUTHERN SOUND SERIES December 5, 2020 The annual Southern Sound Series kicks off with the winter Vashon Island Race on December 5, 2020. The Southern Sound Series is a series of four sailing races, hosted over consecutive months by different yacht clubs. This year the series will feature a single/double-handed class to enable more sailors to compete and still comply with Covid-19 restrictions. The Vashon Island Race is hosted by the Tacoma Yacht Club and is a clockwise race around Vashon Island, starting at the south end of the island. Due to Covid-19 related restrictions, no meals or T-shirts will be available as in the past, but advance reservations may be made at the club restaurant by calling (253)-752-3555 (*Editor’s Note: Restaurant availability may be subject to Governor Inslee’s new restrictions released near press time). Space is limited. Dock space will be available for registered participants, and the club guest restroom will also be available. The South Sound Sailing Society will be posting the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions on its website and more information is available on the Tacoma Yacht Club event calendar at tacomayachtclub.org. Registration is open now through December 1 on Regatta Network at regattanetwork.com
Photo by Jan Anderson The series continues with the Duwamish Head Race on January 9, 2021, the Toliva Shoal Race on February 13, 2021, and the Islands Race on March 20, 2021. tacomayachtclub.org
In The Biz...
Books
PORT OF BREMERTON ENJOYS MORE PROGRESS AMIDST PANDEMIC, ADDING NEW TENANTS
48° NORTH COLUMNIST AMANDA SWAN NEAL RELEASES SECOND EDITION OF THE ESSENTIAL GALLEY COMPANION
In addition to their recent announcement about a new breakwater for Port Orchard Marina, The Port of Bremerton is excited to announce that five new tenants have leased land or buildings at Bremerton National Airport and Olympic View Industrial Business Park since the year started. In total this brings the number of Port tenants to 68 and provides the area with more than 2,436 Port-related jobs, $137 million in labor income, and $455.4 million in direct revenue. “Even in these difficult times, the Port of Bremerton continues to add new companies and new jobs,” Commissioner Bozeman said. The Port has also recently finished construction on a new 17,433 sq. ft building in the industrial park, and is partway through construction of a new 5,300 sq. ft. building and multiple pad-ready sites along SR 3. These new projects will benefit the community by providing more amenities and family-wage jobs. www. portofbremerton.org
48º NORTH
The Essential Galley Companion has been central to the art and science of cruising cuisine for 20 years. This instant classic was penned by Amanda after more than 345,000 sea miles, visits to more than 80 countries, and experience as a professional chef. Now released in its second edition, Amanda shares new recipes, destinations, and cruising adventures to provide many hours of reading enjoyment and innumerable delectable meal options. www.mahina.com/books
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seventhwavemarine@olypen.com DECEMBER 2020
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Crossword and Trivia
The familiar squeegee, used for vehicle windows, was originally a nautical word for the swab used for cleaning the decks of ships.
ACROSS
DOWN
1 Right side of the boat
1 Propeller
7 Bering or Beaufort
9 Direct the steering of a ship
3 Fisherman
10 Very large wave in comparison with the given state of the sea, 2 words
11 What bergs are made of
12 PC program 14 Sea snail 15 Ocean motions 17 Senior, for short
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, was settled in 1753 and became a major fishing port. In 1921, the town launched Canada’s most famous fishing and racing schooner, the Bluenose, whose image is depicted on the Canadian dime.
2 "___ bad!" 4 Waves that become foam when they hit the shore or a shoal, rock or reef
5 Toward the stern
6 Early 20th century battleship
7 Places for a boat to moor
8 Mature, as wine
13 Exercise class, abbr.
18 Adjust the sails
16 It measures atmospheric pressure
20 Ship which fuels other ships
17 Joined lines together
23 Vessel's angle of tilt
19 Clean the deck
24 Raise
21 In the direction the wind is blowing
25 Shine like a star
More than 20,000 Americans have been killed in hurricanes over the past 150 years. About 80 percent of tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean.
Treasure Island in Lake Mindemoya on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron is the largest island in a lake on an island in a lake in the world. The mostly tropical Indian Ocean is the warmest of the world’s oceans.
by Bryan Henry
The world’s biggest cargo ships are more than the length of four football fields.
DID YOU KNOW?
22 "Michael row the boat ___" 27 ___ hitch- used to attach a boat 26 Width of a boat at its widest to a post point 28 Take back 28 Official in a sports game, for 30 Amazement short 31 Regret 29 Signal 32 Lofty goal
33 Sink below the surface
American Samoa, the only U.S. territory south of the equator, consists of five volcanic islands and two coral atolls. About 900 species of fish are found in the waters surrounding the islands. A lead (pronounced LEED) is a passage through sea ice that’s navigable by a small surface vessel such as a kayak or inflatable boat. The American sperm whale fishery flourished from about 1750 to 1850, reaching its zenith in the 1840s. Sperm whale oil was used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, detergents, candles, printing inks and in tanning leather. It was considered superior as a lubricant for delicate machinery. Whale meat was used in animal feeds and sperm whale teeth were exported to Asia in great quantities for ivory carving. The brain of an adult sperm whale weighs approximately 20 pounds. Humans, by comparison, have 3-pound brains.
Solution on page 49
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DECEMBER 2020
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low tides >>
Products News
B&G V100 & V100-B VHF RADIO, CLASS-B AIS SYSTEMS B&G Sailing Electronics recently announced the launch of its premium multi-station black-box marine radio systems — the V100 VHF series. The V100 and V100-B systems are expandable and customizable to suit any boat and on-water communication need. To give users a clean installation and the freedom of a handheld VHF anywhere onboard, the processing unit can be mounted out of sight, leaving just wireless handsets and charging stations. It includes a GPS receiver and configuration options for up to four wired and four wireless handsets. NMEA 2000 and NMEA 0183 compatible, each unit can be integrated with other third-party systems. The V100-B VHF system features a Class-B AIS receiver and transmitter, allowing users to see and be seen by other vessels with AIS equipment. AIS information can be viewed directly on the radio's screen or via a compatible multifunction device (MFD), or as an overlay on a chart or radar screen. Price: $927-$1,650. www.Bandg.com
DOMETIC–CFX3 55IM PORTABLE REFRIGERATOR/FREEZER Fresh food, cold drinks — besides sailing, that’s one of the main priorities on any cruise, no matter the length. In early 2020, Dometic released their CFX3 line of portable refrigerator-freezers with that goal in mind. With a 52-liter storage capacity that holds up to 83 cans, the CFX3-55IM employs VMSO3 variable-speed compressor cooling technology and a Rapid Freeze Plate (and included silicone ice trays) that can produce ice in a matter of hours. It operates on 12-24 volts DC or 100-240 volts AC, and its optimized software ensures superior cooling, freezing, and energy efficiency. An easy-to-read, high-resolution color display and softtouch buttons allow you to control and monitor the cooler’s performance. And the CFX smartphone app allows remote temperature control via WiFi or Bluetooth and provides performance history. The unit is designed to withstand harsh outdoor environments and can be fitted with a range of accessories including an insulated cover, fridge slide and more. Price: $1,099.99. www.Dometic.com
VICTRON BLUE SMART IP65 CHARGER Victron Energy’s new Blue Smart IP65 Charger is an easy-to-connect battery charger with built-in bluetooth that is perfect for smaller battery banks. Using a seven-step charging algorithm, the IP65 is designed to get the most out of your battery by giving it the power it needs and maintaining its overall health to ensure better performance and a longer life span. Unlike many battery chargers, the Blue Smart will attempt to recharge a deeply-discharged battery by force-feeding it with a low current. Normal charging will then be resumed as soon as there is sufficient voltage across the battery terminals. In many cases, it can bring a “dead” battery back to life. The charger connects with crocodile clips or M8 eyelets and can be left permanently mounted or removed after charging. Bluetooth equipped, you’ll be able to monitor the status of your batteries via smartphone, tablet, or laptop. All settings of the charger can be configured with the VictronConnect app. Price: $127. www.Victronenergy.com
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DECEMBER 2020
low tides >>
Stocking Stuffers
ZHIK STICKY GLOVES
TEAK ADJUSTABLE TABLET HOLDER Available in packs of three, Zhik’s Sticky Gloves are super lightweight and flexible to protect your hands for everyday sailing. They provide high sensitivity and offer great dexterity, and the latex wrinkle-coated palm offers exceptional grip and a soft, seamless nylon liner adds comfort and support. Sizes XS – XXL available. Price: $19.95. www.Zhik.com
Tablets have become a ubiquitous navigation tool on many boats, but finding a usable home for them while underway can be a problem. Now, you can mount your tablet at your boat’s navigation station with this two-piece teak rack. The rack can be mounted to accommodate any tablet size and can be mounted horizontally or vertically — with a charging cable cut-out on the right side. Price: $72.76. www.Whitecapindustries.net.
BRION TOSS SPLICING WAND
ACR OLAS TAG
Make splicing braided and parallel-core rope easier with the Brion Toss Splicing Wand. The wand is basically a long tube containing a hidden snare to hold the tube in place while you work. Slide the tool into the rope, grab the end you want to tuck, and slide the tool out. The tip is specially-shaped to keep from snagging yarns and the wand’s design eliminates the need for taping, deciphering fid lengths, or exerting a lot of physical effort. Price: Starting at $55. www.Briontoss.com.
A must have addition to your safety toolkit, the ACR OLAS provides a simple yet cost effective Personal Locator Beacon for your crew. The OLAS features free mobile app integration and is Bluetooth capable. Able to be worn on the wrist or on your PFD, it is waterproof and has a 3,500 hour battery life when armed. Price: $89.99. wwwAcrartex.com
PELICAN G40 “GO CASE”
MAGMA TELESCOPING GRILL TOOLS
Made in the USA, Pelican’s G40 “Go Case” gives your essentials a crushproof, mobile, and watertight home that you can take on any adventure. It features a convenient carry handle that attaches to backpacks and bags, and includes a rubberized exterior bumper to protect against drops. Inside the case, there is a smartphone divider tray with credit card pockets and a strap to keep your charging cords in place. Price: $39.95. www.Pelican.com
The perfect addition for any griller, Magma’s telescoping grilling tools are made with marine grade mirror polished stainless steel with rubberized soft touch handles for safe and secure handling. You can choose from three usable telescoping lengths to keep your hands at a safe distance from the grilling surface or collapse for space saving storage. The five-piece set includes a convenient carrying/storage case. Price: $82.98. www.Magmaproducts.com.
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DECEMBER 2020
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Three Sheets Northwest
THESE ARE A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE (BOAT) THINGS by Marty McOmber & Deborah Bach If you’ve ever lived-aboard or spent much time on a boat, you probably know it’s the little things — that galley gadget, that tool you can’t do without — that make life afloat comfortable and functional. It’s taken us years to get our boat dialed in the way we want it, and part of that process has been seeking out the items that make our sailboat feel like home during the months we’ve spent living-aboard. Below are a few of our favorite things we have on our Passport 40 Meridian — they’re not specifically boat items, but ones that make our life afloat a little better. These could make good holiday gifts or stocking stuffers for the boater in your life, or perhaps just spark a little joy aboard your own boat. COLLAPSIBLE SALAD SPINNER A salad spinner is a galley musthave for us, but the bulky size of most make them impractical to store on a boat. Progressive International’s collapsible spinners, available in 3-quart and 4-quart versions starting at around $20, have silicone sides that collapse down so they fit easily on a shelf and do double duty as a serving bowl. While some reviewers have mentioned issues with the silicone separating from the plastic surrounding it (possibly from washing it in a dishwasher), we’ve had ours for years and it’s still in great shape. Another indispensable galley item is a small cutting board, also made by Progressive, that costs around $27 and has a collapsible colander and an extendable stainless steel arm. It fits over the sink and the colander easily pops out for cleaning and collecting food trimmings for disposal. We use it pretty much every time we’re prepping a meal onboard. 48º NORTH
STAINLESS STEEL COLLAPSIBLE TOASTER Enjoying brunch in a beautiful anchorage is one of the great pleasures of boating, and it wouldn’t be complete without toast — toast and fried eggs, omelet and toast, avocado toast. For years we made toast in a frying pan, but it took a long time and the bread was never properly toasted. We tried one of those inexpensive camping toasters that the bread stands upright on, but it didn’t toast the bread evenly, and it was flimsy and quickly rusted. We finally found a stainless steel collapsible toaster made by GSI Outdoors that costs around $13 and works perfectly. It’s light (6.3 oz) and tiny, measuring just 6.7 by 5.7 by 0.5 inches. The bread sits on a rack with a mesh screen below that evenly distributes heat and catches any stray crumbs. The toaster comes in a storage sleeve that’s so flat and compact it sometimes gets lost in a drawer or cupboard. TURKISH TOWELS No one likes using a damp towel to dry off after a shower. But it can take quite a long time for a traditional towel to dry if hung up inside the boat. And in the Northwest, relying on the sun to help it dry doesn’t work for about nine months a year. We love the feel of a good, thick towel, but long ago realized they were more likely to get musty than dry. We spent years trying different alternatives, including camping towels made of microfiber. And while they all did the trick, we just didn’t like how they felt against our skin. Then a good friend
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DECEMBER 2020
MPOWERD LIGHTS SHINE WITH JOY One of our favorite parts of cruising is just hanging out in our cockpit, enjoying the colorful Pacific Northwest light show as sunset gives way to twilight. But how do you keep the good times rolling when it finally gets too dark to see? Our solar-powered LED lights from MPOWERD do the trick. Many other boaters and outdoor enthusiasts have already discovered these practical lights and lanterns. No need to run wires for cockpit lighting; just place these inflatable lanterns and string lights where you want them and enjoy hours of cozy lighting. Starting around $25, each light has a small solar panel that recharges the battery, and some models provide a source for charging phones or other devices. And you can choose between white and colored lights. We have a soft white light lantern, along with two coloredlight lanterns. To make our cockpit a little festive, we also bought MPOWERD’s Luci light strings, which we hang from the frame of our dodger and bimini. When not in use, the lantern lights deflate and the string lights pack away inside the powered base for easier storage, which is always welcome onboard.
and seasoned cruiser suggested trying Turkish bath towels. These full-sized towels, made of cotton, are relatively thin and large. But they absorb a lot of water for their weight, dry out quickly and feel great. You can fold them up to get something closer to the feel of a more plush towel. They have held up to years of use, are easy to find online or in stores, and at around $20, are relatively inexpensive. A variety of colors will match most boat décors — and provide an easy way to keep track of which towel is yours. They are also great to bring to the beach as both a towel and blanket and fold up fairly small, making them easy to take anywhere, including to that marina shower. QUICK-DRYING, EXFOLIATING NYLON WASHCLOTH Speaking of showering, we’re always conscious of saving water when showering onboard, and Lunatec’s quick-drying nylon washcloths, which cost around $9 for a two-pack, make it easy to do that. Just lather it up with a little soap (we like Dr. Bronner’s peppermint liquid soap), turn the water off and scrub away. The cloths lightly exfoliate, making you feel so clean you’ll think you just stepped out of a spa. Unlike cotton washcloths, they dry in minutes and don’t smell. And the elastic loop on one corner makes them easy to hang up. We love these so much we have a set at home too, and always take them with us when we travel.
YETI TUMBLER By now, just about every boater has seen a YETI product on a boat. The company is known for their rugged and efficient coolers. While we don't need a separate cooler on Meridian, we have fallen in love with the company’s 10oz. Lowball tumbler. For us, it has become our Swiss army knife of cups. Long ago we discovered that insulated coffee mugs can serve double duty when cocktail hour arrives. After all, why waste a precious resource like ice cubes by letting them melt while drinking from a glass? The size of the YETI Tumbler, which runs about $20, makes it great for a decent-sized cup of coffee in the morning and just right for a mixed drink in the evening. The well-insulated tumbler with lid keeps beverages warm or cold for quite some time. Added bonus: the tumblers come in a lot of different colors, making it easy to keep track of who’s using which cup. While the squat shape of the tumbler might not appeal to everyone — or fit in smaller cup holders — we really like how it sits in the hand, and its low center of gravity makes it less prone to tip over by accident. YETI makes a whole line of different drinkware, with sizes and shapes that ought to appeal to everyone.
SMALL 12-VOLT CLOCK RADIO In the age of smartphones, the clock radio is fast becoming obsolete as a bedside alarm for many folks. But we still appreciate the dedicated functionality of a clock and being able to just crack an eye open to see the time in the middle of the night without fumbling for our phones. So when I came across this compact clock radio, I was thrilled. The ANJANK clock radio (how’s that for an obscure brand?) ticks all the boxes for use on a boat and comes with a few features that we have since come to love, all for under $20. The most important feature is that it can be powered by the boat’s 12-volt system with a simple USB cable — and by adding three AAA batteries, it will keep time even when our DC outlets are turned off. A nice addition is two auxiliary USB ports on the back of the radio so you can charge your phone or other devices. It’s also small, measuring a little shy of 4 inches across and 2.5 inches tall. The display dims nicely and in addition to the time also includes temperature, so I can see just how difficult it will be to crawl out from my nice warm bunk on a chilly morning. The radio works well and the speaker is surprisingly good for such an inexpensive unit. But best of all — at least to our ears — is that one of the alarm sounds is chirping birds. Seriously, we never knew how pleasant it is to wake up onboard to a natural sound like birds chirping. 48º NORTH
Marty McOmber and Deborah Bach are longtime Pacific Northwest boaters and are the founders of Three Sheets Northwest. You can find them sailing their Passport 40 around the Salish Sea.
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DECEMBER 2020
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Lessons Learned Cruising
by Behan Gifford
HOME FOR THE
HOLIDAYS
As a cruiser, every holiday is a little different. Yet each one retains the important themes of time together (even if it’s a family of two, not twenty) and familiar traditions. When sharing an anchorage with others who are home-away-from-home, a larger celebration often occurs organically. One particularly memorable Christmas Eve for Totem and crew took place on a little island in the Andaman Sea. Inside a wide bay, this anchorage was shared by scattered cruising boats, nomadic Moken seafarers, and longtail Thai fishing boats. As the sun sank into the ocean, dinghies puttered into the beach fringed by cashew trees and the odd bungalow. Each crew had a specialty to share that reflected their home traditions. One passed around a dish of potato pancakes. Another came bearing trays of butter tarts. Someone had champagne. We used our muffin tins to make individual tourtieres (meat pies). Festive attire in the tropics means your cleanest, most colorful aloha shirt — and maybe a Santa hat. Spending Christmas on a tropical beach in gaudy vacation attire with new friends sharing random foods from around the world is entirely unlike family holiday memories from childhood. New cruisers may be apprehensive about the loss of tradition; their kids may wonder if Santa will find them. On our Thai beach, we made memories in the twilight while learning from our fellow mariners, and a squall in the wee hours of Christmas morning did not deter Santa. 48º NORTH
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KEEPING TRADITIONS ALIVE It may seem tempting to wholly embrace the traditions we encounter in our travels. They are wonderful to add, but we think it’s also important to carry notes from the past. For new cruisers in particular, there can be a lot of uncertainty in early months. Keeping traditions provides a touchstone for normalcy; a reassuring pat from the familiar. A bit of planning and a few compromises are necessary, like choosing decorations that are readily stored and less fragile. Having a few ingredients for just the right treats, retaining rituals that don’t need fixing in a particular geography. It’s doable. Part of me really misses the long garlands of fragrant cedar decorating our entryway and living room, those just aren’t possible in the subtropics or tropics. But those things we have retained have provided a foundation to build on, and bring joyful spirit to life afloat. Along the way, new rituals are added to our evolving traditions — just as they would have been on land. DECKING THE HALLS Before cruising, we marked the beginning of each holiday season by choosing our Christmas tree at a farm on the weekend after Thanksgiving. On a boat, the when and how of kicking things off is a little more complicated. What passages do we have planned? If there’s time underway pending, we may wait, and postpone any more ‘delicate’ accoutrement until we’re settled in the place we’ll celebrate. DECEMBER 2020
Often, the kids simply decide one morning that it’s time and the décor stash comes out. It doesn’t take much to transform the feeling aboard — particularly when coupled with the right music to accompany bedecking. Hung around Totem’s cabin at varying heights are starched, crocheted snowflakes; they bring a distinct holiday flair (and the right dose of “fake winter” to a tropical December). A Scandinavian tradition retained from my childhood are gnomes tucked into unexpected places. These nisse — Danish elves — are paper cutouts that peek from behind a picture or dangle from a shelf in suggestion of their impish behavior. A table runner embroidered with Santa Lucia’s candle-lit wreath by my Norwegian au pair in the early 1970s stays out for the duration. A few strands of fairy lights are wound through grab rails, imparting a warm glow that’s special to the season. Each of these have been a part of our holiday celebrations for the entirety of our children’s lives, and none of them are a burden to stow. Other traditions have crept in over the years. A holiday playlist of tunes bridges land life to nomadic travels, and increases along the way. There are worn books with seasonally read stories. Some rituals are borrowed for a shorter duration, like cricket on Christmas day in Australia. Other countries offer distinct memories of that particular year, like the stunning display of holiday lights decorating homes on a canal in Mexico. For many, it’s a tree that makes Christmas. For years, our tree on Totem was a creative exercise: it was outlined on a bulkhead in tinsel, or mimicked by wrapping the mast in tree-like style. Other alternative trees we’ve seen aboard include those crafted of driftwood (hung vertically with increasing size to mimic the shape of a Christmas tree), or layers of felt (with felt ornaments for children to place and move; possibly the ultimate in compact decoration!). The small artificial tree we added some years ago has added a distinct improvement to the holiday ambiance. Strands of exterior LED lights are a welcome boat-electricityfriendly addition.
Mairen (left) and Siobhan (right) open gifts wrapped in outdated paper charts; Bonaire, 2018. STASHING GIFTS “Do your kids not have that materialistic gene in them because they have the minimalist sense from living the boat life all the time?” a hopeful cruiser asked recently. For families with children in particular, the question of how to handle gift giving (and getting) looms especially large. Our holiday gifting, like that of most cruisers we know, is modest compared to mainstream America. Living outside the onslaught of retail marketing for the holidays surely assists. Our approach is pretty typical in the cruising community: a stocking with a few smaller items (candy or other treats), one larger/meaningful gift, then maybe something for the family or an experience for us to share. That’s it. There’s no need to have a pile of gifts waiting on Christmas morning. Some years we’ve done gift exchanges, each member drawing names from a hat. There’s usually a low cap on spend, and an emphasis on handmade gifting. It helps us do what makes this season best — to be truly thoughtful, invest time instead of money, and have fun. TRADITIONAL TREATS The literal flavor of the holidays matters to our family. A few essential ingredients are stashed on Totem to add their taste and texture. Do you know how hard it can be to find applesauce in some regions? Latkes aren’t quite the same without it! The oldest item in Totem’s pantry right now is almost certainly a can of emergency cranberry sauce. Improvising is a basic galley skill, but it’s really hard to find (or substitute) for cranberries. It helps if you’re willing to have some imagination. A big roasting chicken is a fine stand-in for a turkey, and fits better in a boat oven anyway. But I’ll never forget buying a whole — and by whole, I don’t just mean head and feet, it wasn’t even gutted — chicken for our “turkey” in southern Thailand. Don’t nick that gallbladder! Cranberries, applesauce, and elusive turkeys aside, for the most part culinary traditions are highly portable. One of my favorites is baking Sun Bread to celebrate Solstice; it’s
Niall relaxes in the main cabin with his guitar; stockings are hung on the starboard grab rails, lights and tinsel decorate the main cabin. Cape Town, South Africa, 2015. 48º NORTH
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DECEMBER 2020
Waffles and tinted fizzes or egg nog for Christmas morning breakfast in Thailand, 2014; maple syrup is liquid gold and only broken out on special days! composed mainly of flour and eggs. Saffron brings color and citrus peel adds nice brightness, but these aren’t necessary. Fruitcake (it IS GOOD homemade) is adapted to whatever fruit and rum is local! FESTIVE FUN What we remember from holidays, at any time in our lives, are the experiences. Like the bay in Martinique that was flat enough for a day to raft up with another cruising boat to share a big potluck meal. Or the caroling party formed in Mazatlán on our first Christmas as cruisers, back in 2008. We hadn’t been forced through repetitions of a dozen versions of jingle bells for the prior few months and I am certain this added to our enjoyment. Finding mystery stockings (athletic socks, actually) tied to our lifelines with treats for our children (it took over a year to learn the identity of the cruiser behind this random act of holiday kindness!). Booking dinner at a nice restaurant on shore — a rare treat! — with a view through the palms of a turquoise bay in a ritzy corner of Phuket. Being invited to a distinctly Christian-toned government-sponsored party in Indonesia, the most populous 48º NORTH
Muslim country in the world. Last year’s introduction of potsticker-making, when our son’s Japanese friend from college joined us for the holidays. And gatherings like that beach on Koh Phayam, with cruisers lifting each other up by sharing touchstones from their respective holiday customs among a diverse fleet. Back on that Andaman Sea beach, as sunset faded and a carpet of stars rose overhead — the gathered cruising family turned reflective. We shared nostalgia for the traditions we bring, and their faraway roots. But we also celebrated together, and brought new joy to the season. Meanwhile, we retained the essence of holidays: by enjoying time with loved ones, honoring our traditions, and reflecting on what’s important in life.
Behan and Jamie Gifford set sail from Bainbridge Island in 2008 and are currently aboard Totem in Mexico. Their column for 48° North has traced Lessons Learned Cruising during a circumnavigation with their three children aboard and continued adventures afloat. Follow them at www.sailingtotem.com
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DECEMBER 2020
JINGLE SAILS (To the tune of "Jingle Bells")
48º NORTH
(verse) The pressure’s dropping low, And sun lights up the sky. They say it’s gonna blow, So let’s go for a ride.
(verse) Things are calmer now. We’re cleaning up the deck. The spray flies past the bow, Man, this is fun as heck!
Well, sure, it’s Christmas Eve, The fam will understand. With breeze like this you best believe, We couldn’t stay on land.
Here comes a gnarly puff, It’s rumbling toward our kite. The seas are looking mighty rough, My butt cheeks clench up tight.
(chorus) Oh, Jingle Sails, Jingle Sails, Quick cast off the lines. Fenders up and foulies on It's Christmas sailing time.
(chorus) Oh, sheet it in, sheet it in, We’re up on a plane! Oh what fun it is to sail In winter gales again.
Oh, Jingle Sails, Jingle Sails, High-five, I’m full-send. Heavy air, without a care With all my sailing friends!
Oh, sheet it in, sheet it in, “Drive up on this wave.” The bow just submarined once more, That was too close a shave!
(verse) Cruising down the waves, We’re readying the chute. It’s blowing dogs off chains, The crew lets out a “Woot!”
(verse) Our downwind sleighride’s done Dang, upwind sure is cold. Are we sure this is fun? It’s like the damn North Pole!
The mastman jumps the kite, Helmswoman’s at the wheel, The trimmer hauls with all his might And the boat begins to heel.
I’m frozen on the rail, My fingers have gone numb. I don’t want to stay under sail, I want Hot Buttered Rum.
(chorus) Oh, ease the sheet, ease the sheet! We’re going to wipeout. “Blow the vang, you idiots,” The skipper gruffly shouts.
(chorus) Oh, Jingle Sails, Jingle Sails, How does Santa cope? With wind chill setting record lows He might just say, “Uh, nope!”
Oh, ease the sheet, ease the sheet! Hang on for dear life, We’re broaching, let the halyard down And please don’t tell my wife.
Oh, Jingle Sails, Jingle Sails, Santa’s job ain’t fluff: A nightwatch all through Christmas Eve, That old salt sure is tough!
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DECEMBER 2020
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My Boat
1982 STEVENS 47
FLUENTA
How do professional engineers draft a list of requirements for a family cruising boat to sail the Pacific Northwest, the South Pacific, and various offshore adventures in between? They use a Venn diagram, of course. When Max Shaw and Elizabeth Brown-Shaw began their search for a cruising boat, they did just that, and their diagram was grouped as such: “seaworthiness, habitability for a growing family, and within the budget”. That third criteria made the intersection of the diagram’s three circles more of a singular bullet point that read: Stevens 47. In 2011, they bought the boat that met their needs for great seaworthiness offshore, tough construction, affordability, and space for a family of five — a 1982 Sparkman & Stephens designed Stevens 47 they named Fluenta. Homeported in Sidney, British Columbia, Fluenta looked after the Shaws on their 7 year, 36,000-mile adventure around the Pacific with a family of four, and then five. Today, it remains their liveaboard home. They started their adventure in the Pacific Northwest in 2012, worked their way south to Mexico on what they dubbed the “Mechanical Failure Tour of the West Coast.“ They did a refit on the boat and had a baby in Mexico, and then sailed off to the South Pacific in 2014. Fluenta and family ziggaged around the South Pacific and Micronesia for a few years before heading back to Canada from New Zealand via the Marshall and Aleutian islands, returning in December 2019. ABOUT FLUENTA AND CREW Tell us about your boat’s name. Fluenta is Latin for flowing water. In our former professional lives we had rewarding careers but our day-to-day routines were so hectic that we seemed to lack a natural flow. Flowing water seemed like a good mantra as we transitioned from life ashore to full-time cruising. 48º NORTH
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What key cruising gear was on Fluenta when you bought her, and what have you added to get her to your liking? We bought the boat in the Pacific Northwest where it had been sailing locally for years. While she was fully loaded for offshore cruising, the equipment was 15 years old at best, and either did not work or was on the verge of failure. During our “mechanical failure tour of the West Coast” we learned the hard way that some of the new gear that was installed in a hurry failed, too, and there were some definite lessons learned in working with contractors. Despite the difficulties, we made it to the start of the Baja Ha Ha in time and began settling into “real cruising” in Mexico. But, due to the increasing number of failures and our discovery that some of the survey items were more serious than we initially thought, we stopped moving and dropped anchor in La Cruz to focus on doing a refit. The budget had already taken quite a hit by that point and we did much of the refit ourselves, which was an excellent learning opportunity. On top of that, we had always wanted a third child and, sure enough, he showed up mid-refit. Benjamin was born with a waterbirth at a local facility in Puerto Vallarta; and soon thereafter, the work on Fluenta continued. When we found Fluenta, we were less concerned with buying a boat that already had cruising gear than we were with picking the right design and a solid boat. We retained the old watermaker and massive fridge/freezer system but ended up doing a lot of maintenance to both. Fluenta has an oversized windlass, which we love as it does not complain when we use all 330 feet of chain and our big Rocna in 100 feet of water. A lot of the time in Mexico was spent on less glamorous things like replacing most of the below waterline fittings and hoses, all the sanitation hose, and overhauling the heads and winches. We have an in-boom furler that had its fair share of problems, but with some help, we were finally able to get it tamed. DECEMBER 2020
While cruising, we have continually upgraded the systems on the boat as well as keeping up with the routine maintenance that comes with accumulating lots of offshore miles. We replaced most of the electronics, including adding a second autopilot. There was only one small solar panel on the boat when we bought it, but over time we have added solar to now have 600W, plus our wind generator and an old school watertowed generator. 48° North columnist and owner of a sistership, Jamie Gifford, designed a new genoa for us and it took a few recuts to get the staysail to work right with the overall sail plan. For the real boat geeks (like me) I have posted annual reports of our maintenance activities on our blog.
very calm 600 miles of doldrums in seven days. When the wind would rise to 6 knots, there would be a cheer from the crew and our $200 0.5oz spinnaker would be put into action. Sadly, on the last day of the doldrums it completed its duty and selfdestructed. Phase three was interesting. If things were going to go wrong in this portion of the trip, they could go wrong rather badly. The biggest variable we watched on our way to Dutch Harbor was the low pressure systems rocketing out of Japan’s typhoon-season and heading for the Bering Sea or Gulf of Alaska. This was a bit like the old arcade game of Frogger as we tried to pass between the big systems. At one point we actually turned perpendicular to our track for two days — nobody likes a negative VMG — to give ourselves space between a storm-force system. Needless to say, I downloaded GRIBs from PredictWind twice a day along with the weather fax synoptics. Prior to committing to the passage we studied the weather along the route extensively even running several hundred simulations using historical GRIB data. We spent a lot of time preparing Fluenta in the year leading up to this passage and had already done several thousand tough upwind miles since leaving New Zealand a few months earlier. We had remarkably few failures over the 27 days: our tired $200 spinnaker split, the boom vang’s gas cylinder died, and a casting shattered on the vang that we jury rigged with Dyneema. Our crew did not just weather this passage, but made it possible. The older two children, then 15 and 13, have accumulated a lot of miles and have continually progressed to become great crew, both started standing watches years ago. With at least three people standing watch, it is easy to continue on without getting fatigued. That being said, it was a relief to pop into the Bering Sea and get alongside in Dutch Harbor!
What do you know now about your boat that you wish you’d known when you bought it? Would that have changed your mind? The survey did not show how much work we really needed to do. That said, completing the refit mostly ourselves in Mexico meant we really learned about our boat and know her exceedingly well now. We may have been scared off buying the boat if we knew how much work was required. But it was a great developmental process, if at times frustrating and stressful, to have to learn all the systems on our boat. Ideally, we would have done the refit over several years while living in a house, though this approach would have cut down the time we had available to cruise the Pacific. Describe the most challenging situation you’ve experienced on your boat and how it performed. Our most challenging passage was the 3,700-mile “shortcut” from the Marshall Islands non-stop to Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands. After years of cruising, it was time to head home so the kids could learn a bit about their own country, be closer to family, and participate in some “brick and mortar” schooling, and for me to go back to work. There are various routes back to the Pacific Northwest from New Zealand, none of which are easy or quick. We had already spent a season in the Marshall Islands and were keen to go back, so that was an obvious stepping stone on the long route home. From the Marshalls to Alaska there are two main routes — through the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, and Japan, and then on to Alaska; or direct from the Marshalls to Alaska. We chose the latter, not just because most people take the former route but because it gave us more time in the Marshall Islands and I liked the idea of crossing at right angles to the northern storm tracks. Our longest passage prior to that was the normal 3,000-mile Mexico to Marquesas run. The Marshalls to Alaska passage is not just longer and colder than that one, but considerably more complex. It can be viewed in three phases: In the first phase, we needed to blast through the northeast trade winds for 1,000 miles fairly hard on the wind. The wind averages here are about 15 to 25 knots, so this is a bit tedious, but Fluenta was unconcerned about heading upwind with a staysail and reefed main. The second was our mid-Pacific holiday as we crossed the 48º NORTH
Where do you plan to take your boat now? Do you have another dream destination in mind? Having just finished this seven year, 36,000-mile meandering Pacific loop — from reefs to ice — we feel blessed to have visited so many wonderful places and met so many inspiring people. We still dream of heading back out and, who knows, maybe we will … If you could have any other boat, what would it be and why? We buddy-boated a bit with an Outremer 5X in the South Pacific – one of those would fit us just fine. It really is the best combination of comfort and performance I have ever seen. I also see Steve and Linda Dashew’s Beowulf is back on the market; we could use the extra space for all our toys. I love all the Dashew designs and was delighted to go out with them on their FPB83 Conchise a few years back.
Whether it is a beloved cruising sailboat, powerboat, racing boat, wooden boat, work boat, tug boat or even a kayak or old Laser, we want to share your boat’s story for 48° North’s “My Boat” series. Email andy@48north.com to get started!
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Tech Talk with SeaBits
SEE AND BE SEEN WITH AIS
by Steve Mitchell
Situational awareness while you are on the water is extremely important, and something we all strive to maintain. Every couple of minutes, I do a “360 check” by looking all around the nearby water and horizon to make sure I know what is around me. Pairing a chartplotter with radar is another great way to make sure you know what’s going around you. Automatic Identification System, better known as AIS, is an additional technology that can help you identify the boats near you, and to tell other vessels about you, and so much more. AIS uses VHF radio frequencies to send out messages on two specific channels. Those messages include information about a boat, its location in GPS coordinates, how fast it is going, its heading, and more. That information is available to anyone within range of the signal, as well as online tools such as Marine Traffic. You can leverage that information by having one or more parts of an AIS system on your boat.
Using AIS to see how close I will pass this oncoming traffic 48º NORTH
WHAT DOES THIS GET YOU? If you have a full onboard AIS system that allows you to transmit and receive, not only will you be able to see all of the vessels around you that have AIS, but they will be able to see you as well. Seeing vessels near you is super helpful, and is one of the main reasons people initially look at AIS systems. Once you have this information on your chartplotter or VHF radio, you will never want to be without it. Not only can you see the name of a ship, which is useful when making a radio call to arrange safe passage, but you can also see its speed, size, and information such as Closest Point of Approach (CPA) and Time to CPA (TCPA). — key pieces in avoiding collisions. Closest Point of Approach shows you how close you will pass the other vessel based on both of your current courses. Time to CPA will tell you when you will be at that closest point. These two pieces of information reveal how quickly you need to do something to avoid a collision, or if there will be a collision at all. Many chartplotters will show this information graphically to make it easier to understand, and you can set up alerts and alarms to let you know when someone is too close or on a collision course. Having this information is nice, but also sending your vessel’s information is even better, and allows everyone else to see where you are, how fast you’re going, and your vessel name. This means that they can use it to avoid a collision with you, or simply hail you accurately on the VHF radio. This has come in handy for me a number of times with commercial traffic who would have not known my vessel name without AIS. PARTS OF AN AIS SYSTEM There are three components to an AIS system: the transponder, which sends out AIS messages; the receiver, which listens for messages; and a display of some sort. If you only want to see other boats, then you need a receiver connected to a display, like a chartplotter. If you want your boat to be seen by others, as well as see everyone else, then you need a transponder. Let’s break down each of these so we can understand a bit more about how AIS works, and the best way to get it on your boat.
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AIS RECEIVERS Receivers are easy to get your hands on, and are relatively inexpensive. Many newer DSC-class VHF radios have AIS receivers in them. You can connect those radios to a NMEA 0183 or NMEA 2000 network and have the AIS data from the receiver appear on a chartplotter. Many people connect the VHF directly to the chartplotter to simplify this setup. You can also use the VHF radio display to see AIS targets and other useful information, but most radios are frustrating to use in this mode. The screens are small and hard to work, but it is possible if you just want basic AIS info. Just because you have a DSC-capable radio does not mean it has an AIS receiver in it. Check the specifications of your existing radio, or if you are buying a new one, consider one that includes AIS. This method allows you to use the same antenna you already have in place for your VHF radio to grab the AIS signals and make them available to you, and is one of the simplest ways of getting AIS on board. Many people don’t even know they could connect their radio to their chartplotter and have this information. You can also purchase standalone AIS receivers that aren’t integrated with a VHF radio. They are pretty inexpensive compared to a VHF radio or transponder, but require a VHF antenna splitter or dedicated antenna. They will also most likely need to be connected to your onboard network or chartplotter so you can see the AIS data. These are decreasing in prevalence and popularity, as those integrated into radios become more common. AIS TRANSPONDERS An AIS transponder is a specific device that comes in two flavors — Class A and Class B. Class A systems are usually reserved for commercial vessels and cost many thousands of dollars. They have redundancies built in, transmit their data more frequently than Class B, and allow you to input detailed information about destination ports. Class B transponders are suitable for recreational boats, and come in an older CSTDMA version, and a newer Class B “plus” SOTDMA version. Those acronyms sound complicated, but the utility is easy to understand: the newer version is “louder” and more powerful at 5 watts, and smarter with the way it sends out messages. That means your boat has a higher probability of showing up on other vessels’ screens. If you are looking at purchasing a transponder, I highly recommend making sure it is a Class B “plus” or SOTDMA version for future compatibility. Transponders are purpose built, and can cost from $600$900. They must be programmed with a Maritime Mobile Service Identity, or MMSI, which you might already have with your DSC capable VHF radio, along with the type and size of your boat and where the GPS antenna will be mounted. The nice thing about a transponder is that it is also a receiver, so you can see everyone else who is transmitting AIS data without having to have a dedicated receiver or connecting your AIS capable VHF radio to your chartplotter. Transponders are a bit more involved to install. They require power, a dedicated VHF antenna or splitter to your existing antenna, a dedicated GPS antenna (it cannot be shared), and potentially one or two other connections if you want the data on your network. 48º NORTH
Digital Yachts AIT2500 Class B+ Transponder ANTENNAS Antennas are an important part of a correctly functioning AIS system. Since AIS uses VHF frequencies to send and receive its messages, you’ll have to consider options depending on available space and antennas. For a sailboat, a good quality antenna at the top of the mast along with a VHF splitter is likely the best solution. The splitter will allow both your VHF radio and an AIS receiver or transponder to be connected at the same time. Most modern splitters don’t add loss and have lots of failsafe features. In a single antenna setup, the best choice is an antenna that is made to support both VHF and AIS. A standard VHF antenna will work, but it won’t perform as well for AIS. If you have the space, adding a dedicated AIS is an option as well, although you should make sure your normal VHF antenna and an AIS antenna are far enough away from each other to not cause issues. Having two antennas is pretty typical of many powerboats, and even on sailboats — one on the stern rail and one at the top of the mast. With splitters you can avoid that, and have a single antenna that can actually perform better than two. ONLINE AIS TOOLS Besides locally viewing AIS information, you can use several online tools such as MarineTraffic.com and VesselFinder.com to look for your friends and interesting vessels. These can be helpful when planning to visit a crowded location. You can look online hours before heading there to see how many AIS enabled boats are there, and maybe make a different choice of anchorage if it is too crowded. You can also use various tools on these sites to create “fleets” of vessels so you can track friends or yacht club acquaintances. If you have AIS data on your network, you can also sign up to become a station, where you can submit the AIS data your boat sees to these various services, helping them have more coverage of vessels around the world. There are thousands of base stations,
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MarineTraffic iOS app showing lots of AIS vessels at Sucia Island in May 2020 including many on shore, and mobile stations, like the one I have aboard Rendezvous. I submit my data to four different AIS websites no matter where I happen to be, hoping that information will help someone else looking for a friend. There are also satellite base stations that track vessels far away from land. BUYING AN AIS SYSTEM There are a number of vendors to choose from if you are looking to purchase a transponder. I highly recommend consulting an AIS-specific vendor like Milltech Marine, a local company in Port Orchard, if you have questions about the installation. Doug Miller, a fellow long-time sailor, has helped me with my AIS needs for years , and he can ensure you get the right system with the right antenna, GPS options, and the rest of the details. If you purchase a transponder, they will need information about your vessel, including the length, width and type of vessel, as well as where the GPS antenna will be located. In addition, you will need an MMSI or Maritime Mobile Service Identity, which is a number that identifies your vessel and all of the associated information about it. You can get one of these for free from BoatUS if you intend on staying in U.S. waters, or from the FCC if you plan on crossing international borders. VESPER CORTEX One product that has been making a buzz in the industry for the last year is the Vesper Marine Cortex. This product combines an AIS Class B+ transponder, VHF radio, splitter, wired and wireless handheld controllers, remote monitoring, anchor watch, and AIS/collision avoidance plotter in one product. This is a powerful combination of features that have traditionally been separate devices, and brings some new approaches to how they are used. As an example, you can see all of the AIS targets on the Cortex handset in a plotter-like view, identify those that might be a Vesper Cortex collision avoidance screen showing WSF Tillikum, their orientation to me, and ways to communicate with them. 48Âş NORTH
collision issue, click on them for more details, and even initiate a VHF DSC call with them. This has been a long time goal for many boaters who have tried to combine a DSC capable VHF radio with a chartplotter, only to have parts of it never work. There’s a lot more to this product, including remote monitoring and anchor watch, and I look forward to delving deeper into it. I suspect it could be a favorite for boats looking to simplify the number Vesper Cortex handset showing of devices they have on board, VHF radio screen and in particular for sailboats, both for power savings and using a single antenna for AIS and VHF at the top of the mast. I strongly believe that everyone should have an AIS receiver setup and working on their boat. Being able to see everyone else who is using AIS around you, in particular ferries and other commercial traffic, is critical to being fully aware on the water. Charts and radar are important, too, but AIS has become #3 on my list. If you can afford it, having a transponder so others can see you and your vessel is also a great safety feature. With some of the newer technologies like the Vesper Cortex, these systems are getting easier to set up and use, and offer a wealth of additional features that will only help improve your awareness and safety on the water.
Vesper Cortex remote monitoring and anchor watch screens Steve is a long-time sailor, musician, and tech nerd who loves working on challenging problems. He is the editor of SeaBits.com and spends as much time as possible on the water, enjoying the smell of the sea and the sound of the waves.
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STRON GE R
TOGETHER Support the Northwest Maritime Center this GivingTuesday. For how to give and more information, please visit nwmaritime.org/givingtuesday
#givingtuesday | December 1, 2020 48ยบ NORTH
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DECEMBER 2020
SAILING LAKE CHELAN
by Sharon Podlich
BEAUTIFUL SCENERY, DIVERSE CONDITIONS, AND SAILOR CAMARADERIE MAKE FOR A MEMORABLE GROUP CRUISE “Tell me in all your travels have you ever found any place better than Lake Chelan?” Our friend, Russ queries my husband, Chuck, as several members of the Lake Chelan Sailing Association (LCSA) await his answer from our socially distanced appetizer hour on the dock at Graham Harbor. There are eight sailboats of various makes and models lined up along the dock, and we have even allowed a couple of powerboats to infiltrate the group. Because two sections of this dock are missing and currently under repair, a few boats are rafted together. It is the first week of August and the LCSA is enjoying its annual trip on Lake Chelan, a 15-plus year tradition. Who participates and how long they can stay changes every year, and it is quite a dance to get sailors on- or off- board midweek as they juggle responsibilities and availability. Emails are shared in late July with logistics of who is arriving and departing, where and when, and all the other details. For this group of friends, it all adds to the adventure of reconnecting in our own beautiful wilderness. What brings this eclectic bunch together in this setting? We are a chemical engineer, a banker, a massage therapist, a retired 48º NORTH
fruit packing equipment engineer, a bookkeeper, a couple of landscapers, a few other free souls and us, retired orchardists. We come from Chelan, Wenatchee, Orondo, and even Seattle. What we have in common is the love of moving along the water using wind as our fuel and a deep appreciation for the wilderness of Lake Chelan. Running northwest to southeast, Lake Chelan is 52 miles long and very deep. With a depth of 1,486 feet, it is the third deepest in the U.S. and actually goes below sea level. Steep mountains make up most of the shoreline. As sailboat owners, we joke that our bow would hit shore before our keel touched bottom along 90-percent of it. Boaters on this lake want (and maybe need) to know where the various docks along the trip are located and plan on a timely arrival. And, as always when boating, it is essential to check the weather conditions. With some of the world's best loved saltwater cruising grounds just a few hours west, there are some who might scoff at sailing on a mountain lake. Why Chelan? The leading response is surely the unfathomable beauty of a freshwater cruising location elegantly nestled in ever-steepening mountains.
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Typical of most locations east of the Cascadian Crest, Chelan also tends to get quite a bit hotter during the prime cruising season, producing a summery (even tropical) vibe that is sometimes missing on the saltwater to the east. For us, another easy answer is the fun of unpredictable conditions. One can start out with sails up and the boat heeling over just a bit — the epitome of a dream sail. However, around the next point in the lake the mountain winds can shift. If the wind is stronger in this section, your boat may suddenly take on an extra 20 degrees of heel and any loose items will fly across the galley as you hustle to reduce sails. Or, you may find yourself becalmed with powerboats running circles around you. When heading towards Stehekin, at the far northern end of the lake, the prevailing wind is generally on your nose while tacking back and forth to make progress towards your destination. Those who are accustomed to open water coastal sailing may find the shifting breeze and more frequent maneuvers tiresome. Though it may sound like frustrating sailing, it is through quickly responding to these rapidly changing conditions that one becomes a more capable sailor. And in this group of Eastern Washington residents, there are some very skilled sailors. Our 42-foot Jeanneau, Wild Cider, is the largest boat in the fleet. Crewed this year by Chuck and me, plus our granddaughter, Eleanor, and pirate cat Earl. Chuck began sailing lessons at eight, Eleanor’s age, in Annapolis Harbor, Maryland. I grew up swimming in lakes in Vermont, but had never sailed until meeting Chuck. This is Eleanor’s second LCSA trip. Marc and Holly Vander Schalie and their family have participated in this outing for 13 years, starting when their sons were 5 and 2 years old. They often have three generations on their San Juan 21, named Kermit. Marc started sailing with his parents at a young age. He and Holly met as toddlers in a playpen while their fathers sailed together. Marc can recommend the most precise ways to tune your sail trim of anyone I have met sailing. Kermit is known in the San Juan 21 race fleet as the “boat to beat.” That isn’t something you’d necessarily expect from an inland lake sailor. Jim Hoffman, a master sailor, spends most of his summers at The Cove, at the southern end of the lake, and tries to get in a daily sail. He has been joined by his granddaughter, Erin, the past few years. Erin has sailed with her grandfather on his Santa Cruz 27, Solstice, since she was a young girl. This year, her friend Adrian, a novice sailor, joined the trip and got several lessons along the way. We even sent Eleanor along for one of Jim’s lessons. Sean and Christia Eppers brought their “new to them” McGregor 26 M motor-sailor. They fill ballast tanks with water when sailing to augment the weight of the shallow keel. When the wind no longer cooperates, they can choose to motor at high speeds by emptying the tanks and engaging the 70-horsepower motor. Christina is the sailor of this couple, Sean is a professional all-around “fix-it-man” and an excellent crew. The group was excited to have Jackson and Amy join us this year. Even though they live in Chelan, it is the first time their schedules have allowed them to join the trip. Their Aquarius 23 is a great sailing and roomy boat. Jackson, who attended school 48º NORTH
with our daughter, worked with the Chelan Boat Company for many years and has amazing knowledge of the lake. Over the course of time, some of our sailors have gone over to the “dark side” and now enjoy this week in a motorboat. But being the kind-hearted, magnanimous souls that we are, we welcome them — without too many jokes, even. Also, we have found an advantage or two to having a couple motorized vessels in the fleet. It makes the ferrying of individuals or making a trip for extra supplies much more convenient.
Some of the LCSA group docked at Graham Harbor. Russ and Debbie Jones, and dog, Sammy, join us on one of these powerboats. All three rank as founders of the Lake Chelan Sailing Association. The Jones’ have a passion for boating safety on Lake Chelan and Russ has been instrumental in getting a rescue boat on the lake. Indeed, all members of this group are sensitive to safety. Crew aboard all boats wear their life jackets while sailing. We understand that things can quickly go afoul, and the time required to fumble for a packed away life jacket is gone before you may be immersed in the cold, glacier-fed mountain lake. Jay and Tina Nyce, planning to retire in Chelan soon, squeezed a few days out of their work week to catch up to us along the way in their motorboat. They traveled with their dog, Lola, and happily helped ferry other crews and their dogs back to Chelan. This year we had out-of-town guests. Mike and Morgan —
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Boston residents enjoying an extended quarantine visit with Morgan’s parents in Chelan — sailed with us using the club’s Catalina 22. Additionally, with 6-year-old Sam aboard, the Wyatt family of Richland joined us on their Montgomery 23, a family-friendly boat with surprisingly impressive performance.
Capt. Chuck towing his “ducklings” behind Wild Cider. With so many great people out enjoying the water and camaraderie with us, it’s hard not to love Lake Chelan. From Graham Harbor, about halfway up the lake, we sailed north until the wind ran out, and tied up at the Refrigerator Harbor dock. Some of us took off early the next morning to meet more crew at Stehekin, while others remained to hike up to Domke Lake for a swim in warmer waters. The three mile trail ascends approximately 1,000 vertical feet and was easily climbed by all ages in our group. We took off later that afternoon and met the rest of our group at Weaver Point. There are many sunken tree trunks and even whole trees in this shallow end of the lake. We recommend coming in along the deeper south shore and checking out the petroglyphs on the rock wall. Keep a lookout on the bow as you head to the dock. Here, we were well-protected from the strong winds associated with an incoming weather change. The wind blew the Stehekin River flow in waves over towards the dock and the boats bobbed like in an ocean tide change. Things were calmer in the morning and we kayaked up the river to a haul out spot and walked to the Stehekin Bakery for a famous cinnamon roll. Some years, we hop on one of our group’s powerboats to ride over to Stehekin Landing and catch the bus to the Courtney Ranch for a wonderful cowboy-style meal that includes many pie options. The following morning, the weather was calm for us to start our return trip south and we again squeezed into Graham Harbor for the night. Our final transit was quiet and offered gentle winds, so our group started pulling out after breakfast to get a jump on the day. 48º NORTH
As serene as the day began, mountain lake weather threw us the wrench we always try to anticipate. As we sailed into the section known as the Straights, we got one. The wind was blowing in the 30-knot range here, but coming from behind, so we were speeding down the lake. Unfortunately for our large headsail, we left it up a little too long when we noticed calmer water ahead. A half-mile before the 25 Mile Creek Campground and Marina, our 31-year-old dacron sail took a gust and split apart. My latest heavy weather sailing lesson was cut short, and we started motoring. So how does my husband answer the question: “Why Chelan?” We have been to many beautiful places over the years, seen some exciting marine life, and experienced great sailing, but there is no denying that Lake Chelan ranks as one of our favorites. Its natural beauty is astounding, and it provides great training for coastal sailing, as the changing conditions keep our skills up, help us hone our teamwork, and make us better sailors. Would anything improve it? Maybe if it had dolphins! The Lake Chelan Sailing Association is more than just a club that puts on a cruise each summer. It has hosted a regatta on Lake Chelan every September for the previous 20 years; which was, unfortunately, canceled this year due to Covid-19. The LCSA offers beginning and advanced sailing courses at no charge every year starting in April. They also maintain a fleet of club boats for use by qualified members on Wednesday evening sails or for a trip up lake on your own time schedule. For us, it provides a wonderful community of friends who share a love of sailing and cruising on our extraordinary home waters.
The San Juan 21 Kermit enjoys a nice spinnaker run down the lake. Chuck and Sharon retired 5 years ago from a 40-year career growing apples along the Columbia River. They bought their other boat, Top Cider, a 44 foot Kelly Peterson and headed for Mexico and have spent four to five months a year touring Mexico and Central America since. Missing sailing in their Washington summers, they bought Wild Cider to keep enjoying Lake Chelan.
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DECEMBER 2020
by Joe Cline
STEVE CALLAHAN PART TWO: VOYAGING AND SURVIVAL PHILOSOPHY Steve Callahan has spent his life around boats — sailing, voyaging, building, designing, and writing about it. He is best known for surviving 76 days alone in a life raft when his sailboat was lost in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. He wrote the best selling book, Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea, about that experience. The following continues from an interview started in the November 2020 issue of 48° North. 48° North: Even though you don’t live here in the Pacific Northwest, one of your many connections to the area is a special friendship with a giant in our regional scene, Port Townsend boat builder and innovator, Russell Brown. Please tell us your relationship with him. Steve: Russell is a little younger than I am. I read about him first in Multihulls magazine. I had built a 28-foot trimaran back in 1974, and my first wife and I lived on board for a while. Multihulls being desperate for stories at the time, they published a little article about us. There was another article around the same time about this young man, Russell Brown, who had built this 30-foot plywood box proa and sailed it off. Another friend had already gotten me very interested in proas. After Adrift, which is what most people know me for — being dumb enough to lose my boat in the middle of the Atlantic and bob for two-and-a-half months across half of it in a life raft — I hooked up with Roger Hatfield who was running Gold Coast Yachts in the Carribean. He gave me Russell’s information, and I looked him up. At that time, Russell was building his third proa. 48º NORTH
We got to know each other, and got to be friends, fortunately for me. He’s a great guy and incredibly talented. He’d sail near where I live in the summer and people would go, “Hey did you see that spaceship landed down on the beach.” Multihulls in general were thought to be pretty weird craft in those days. I did some sailing with him through the years, and one of the best voyages I ever made was when he called me up after he built his last Jzerro and said, “Well, I’m thinking about sailing across the Pacific. Do you want to go with me to Tahiti?” It really was one of the great adventures of my life. He downplays all this stuff, but it was a remarkable voyage by an incredible sailor.
Steve and Russell Brown share a beverage on Brown's proa, Jzerro, while en route to Tahiti.
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Can you give us a few more details about that voyage to Tahiti? When I was 11 or 12 years old and first learning how to sail, I was taken with it completely. While other boys were interested in cars and other things, I was trying to teach myself the rudiments of boat design, celestial navigation, and my afterschool job was helping my dentist build a 40-foot trimaran. A couple of the books that had an immense impact on me were: Robert Manry’s Tinkerbelle, in which he took a 13-and-a-half foot sloop across the Atlantic; and John Guzzwell’s Trekka Around the World; as well as Kon Tiki. They were all small boats. Trekka was 21 feet, about the size of Napoleon Solo, the boat I lost in the Atlantic. I was awed, thinking, ‘You can have a life of adventure and you don’t have to be specially talented, you don’t have to be rich.’ My father was an architect, and I was interested in an efficient use of space. I think boats are incredible human creations that combine dwelling with vehicle with art. With all that in mind, something really attracted me to the proa — they were so simple. You’re going back to the rudiments of efficient sailing. I love that virtually all other boat types build up forces the harder you sail them — monohulls and especially multihulls — with righting moment building up quickly. The proa is kind of the opposite. It starts with maximum stability. People worry that they’re tippy, but I found that they’re incredibly stable. In fact, a lot of the time, you were trying to lighten up the ama to keep it riding kind of light on the ocean.
Getting back to Jzerro, it’s almost full circle, because it’s ancient technology, but Russell brought it forward into the 21st century by building this incredible boat with modern materials — lots of little carbon bits and pieces. What Michaelangelo was to marble, Russel Brown is to composites. It’s a little strange out there in Port Townsend, the land of traditional boat building; but there’s a place for everything. I want to return to some of your experience and lessons from surviving adrift on the raft. I often think of offshore sailing as a series of repairs and/or preventative measures, with a little sailing and even less sleep mixed in. On the raft, how did you find the balance of the projects that you were working on and waiting time. And how did that change over time? It changes in very fundamental ways over time. Through Adrift, I’ve been lucky to get involved with survivors of all kinds of things. Traveling around the world for conferences and events with survival experts, I’ve gotten to meet a film crew that crashed into a volcano, people buried in avalanches, and people held hostage. Everybody has their own model, none of them are universal, and I developed my own. I refer to that process as the Stages of Survival, and mine runs more or less chronologically. There’s the pre-impact — the preparation for disaster and whether you are prepared or not. Then there’s the impact itself — that immediate time when the boat’s holed or I’ve got to run out of this burning building or whatever — and that has its own set of issues. Then there’s a period of recoil, and I call it disorientation and fear; and that is, ‘OK, I’ve bailed out now, but all the old rules of my life have gone away. Everything I thought was normal is gone. How do I make a living in this new situation I’m in?’ And that can be difficult to get through. A lot of people get through bailing out, only to die in that really difficult period of recoil, which is before you reach the stage of adaptation: where you’ve figured out, “I’ve recreated my life here.”
Jzerro flying an a-sail in the Paciifc. Russell’s proa was a 37-foot 2-ton sailing canoe. On board, you’re living really simply, so close to the water. We had a GPS and a compass that we virtually never used — we were sailing to the wind and the waves and the stars. It just gets back to the roots of who I wanted to be as a sailor. The boat was just incredibly fun and incredibly interesting. We weren’t pushing it to make records — I think we averaged only about 150 miles per day. We’d slow the boat way down at night and get some rest. Russell grew up on boats, and one thing he said to me was, “I'm really glad I grew up playing on the ocean.” Even when there were big waves, he had a surfer’s attitude toward the sea. You’re not fighting it all the time. Just like Kon Tiki was more about being there than about getting someplace. I always found raft voyages kind of appealing. Little did I know, I was going to do a little bit of a repeat of my own. 48º NORTH
Steve is world renowned as an authority on survival, and is a featured presenter at conferences around the globe. It does vary in time, especially with the equipment. At first, it’s just figuring out the equipment — how does it work? What are the problems? How can I deal with the most immediate problems? What are the priorities? Am I seriously injured (which you can’t do much about if you’re in a life raft, unfortunately)? Can I avoid or recover from hypothermia (which is a really huge problem for survivors)? All those things can kill you in moments to minutes.
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Then, you get into long-term things. You start thinking about water before you start thinking about food. You might live a week to ten days without water. You can live up to a month without food. I was constantly prioritizing, asking “What needs the most attention today?” I needed to pump up the raft every day. As the raft gets more worn, it leaks more. Then you have a lot of gear that gets damaged, as you say. I had a little spear gun, almost like a toy, that was responsible for getting almost all my food. I was catching mahi-mahi (also called dolphin fish or dorado). They’re big and powerful, so they were constantly breaking this spear gun, and I’d have to tie it back together. I was always thinking about how to make a repair in a way that also rationed my gear. The physical part of me wanted to catch every fish I could, all the time, but it wasn’t practical, because I didn’t know how long I’m going to be out here, I’m endangering my equipment, I’m fishing with a spear stuck through a big, powerful fish as it swims around my inflatable raft in the middle of the Atlantic. You’ve got no backup at that point, so it’s a balance.
Steve demonstrating with his spear gun shortly after rescue. By the time I got through the recoil stage, which was pretty difficult, then I started getting into adaptation — I began to catch fish, and I figured out how to use the solar stills (because they didn’t work the way they were supposed to). Of course, I was managing my use of energy and loss of water from sweating, as well as trying to keep myself warm at night. Sailing, especially offshore sailing, is like you describe. I tell people, “At sea, Murphy’s Law is quite optimistic. Not only anything that can go wrong will go wrong, but even the things that can’t possibly go wrong are going to find some way to screw you.” I found that gratifying throughout my life. I always loved wilderness environments where you’re constantly confronted with solving problems in an isolated environment with limited resources, and where things are used outside their normalized context. I’ve talked to some people who were on a plane that was down on the way to the Bahamas. They went drifting off in just life jackets and whatever they had in their pockets. Two guys were looking at stuff in their wallet, and they found credit cards that were shiny in the moonlight. The next day, they were able to signal an aircraft with their credit cards, which were useless 48º NORTH
in their original purpose, but were shiny waterproof surfaces. In the film Apollo 13, there’s a brilliant scene in which the crew have to figure out how to make a CO2 scrubber out of what they actually have on the spacecraft. All the engineers go, “I don’t know, it’s not designed to do that.” And the guy on the ship goes, “Forget about what it was designed to do, I want to know what it can do.” I think that applies well to sailing. When you go offshore, you have total freedom but you also have total responsibility. I find the two completely linked. It’s the case with people too. I love that about voyaging. It doesn’t matter what your position was ashore or how rich you are. What matters is whether you show up on watch early, whether you can adjust to your surroundings, and that you are there to give a helping hand if it’s needed. That adaptability is a trait in all the good sailors that I know. There’s nothing rigid in sailing. You have to work with the ever changing variables in such a way that you can’t live by one rule or you’ll fail. It makes sense that it is even more important in survival settings, which is really life on steroids. One person’s trauma is a walk in the park to somebody else. Some people thrive on difficulty. Other people just don’t know how to deal with it. Among the survivors that you’ve gotten to know over the years, are they all the type who thrive under difficulty? I don’t know if I can say that, because we all have a limit; none of us gets out of here alive. Sometimes, there are people I consider accidental survivors — people come in and swoop them out of the predicament that they’ve found themselves in. And then there are people like me, who don’t have a choice — if you’re going to live, you’d better do something about it. It’s just like the saying, “Heroes aren't anything special. They are just given a set of circumstances and they step up to the plate.” To me, denial is the number one enemy of the survivor. That’s why a lot of people perish in those early stages. I can’t tell you how overwhelming it is. I beat myself up really badly the first two weeks. “Why am I here? Why did I do this? Why didn’t I make Napoleon Solo a better boat? Why was I so terrible at relationships? Why did I have a failed marriage? Why didn’t I make any money?” You go through the litany of every failure in your life. It can be incredibly depressing. Hope and the will to survive are things you build. There is hope that’s wishful thinking, but that’s not really a functional hope. We create realistic hope by working at it, by chipping away at a problem. You go, “OK, maybe this didn’t work, maybe that didn’t work, but I learned something from that failure.” When Edison was doing the lightbulb, people would ask him, “You did 10,000 experiments, how do you feel about all those failures?” And he said, “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” It’s all a learning experience, and you have to be patient with yourself, which is a skill set of its own. A lot of people look at Adrift, and they look at me or other survivors and they think that we’re heroes. I want to emphasize this: it’s not true. We’re all regular people. To me, Adrift is almost like a confessional. The hero of the story is the sea and the incredible natural world we live in. And the dorado! They were my primary food source. They threatened me, almost killed me at one point, actually. I knew many as individuals. And in the
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end, they brought my salvation, because the ecosystem that they helped create around the raft drew birds to the raft. Local fishermen came out because they knew these birds are a sign that something else is going on in the water. They came out to find fish, and they found me in the middle of it. I was the clumsy human observer of this incredible world we all love. As the years have passed now, especially given the role the ocean played for you, as the hero in your story, can you describe your relationship to the ocean and how it has evolved since you were Adrift? It varies, even on an individual voyage. If I go off on an offshore trip, Bermuda is almost too short. It takes me a few days to get back into the rhythm. For a few days I’m sitting there wondering what the hell I was doing — I don’t need this, it’s cold, it’s bouncy, it’s uncomfortable. But, you get into it, and that’s been true of a lot of things I’ve done. We can have this love/hate relationship with our lives and our environments. Going through it all, you find incredible gifts you could never find in any other way. Being adrift taught me a lot about myself, and that’s a very common feeling among survivors. I don’t know of any survivors I’ve met that regret having that experience. Not one of us wants to go back into it. They are, by definition, sort of hellish experiences. But there’s a great deal of value in that too. Building a boat, sailing a boat, building a house, having a baby — everything that is really worthwhile is a challenge. I find that fulfillment is in a direct
Steve Callahan, survivor, voyager, generalist, philosopher. relationship with struggle. That’s the way it is with me and voyaging. I don’t expect it to be like bobbing around the bay having a cold beer — that’s not why we do it. We go off because it’s an incredibly unique and beautiful environment where we are the small players. We are privileged to have a little taste of that. It’s my whole approach to life, and certainly sailing.
Joe Cline is the Managing Editor of 48° North.
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DECEMBER 2020
RACING RULES
CHANGES FOR 2021
by Charlie Macaulay
Photo by Jan Anderson.
In addition to saying “good riddance” to 2020, on January 1, 2021 we get to say “hello” to a new version of the Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS). The RRS are updated every four years and the new rules automatically go into effect on the first of the year, with one exception: the Notice of Race or Sailing Instructions for an event that begins in 2020 may specify that the RRS for 2017-2020 remain in effect through the end of the event — think Southern Sound Series. Most of the rule changes for 2021-2024 are clarifications, they remove ambiguity in the wording to reinforce the current common interpretation. In other words, they don’t change the way we play the game. However, there are a number of changes that do have a material effect, if only at the margins. The World Sailing Rules Committee (chaired by the Pacific Northwest’s own Dick Rose) has posted a terrific “Study” version of the new rules. It shows all the changes and provides comments with respect to the Rules Committee’s reasons for making each change. You can download it from World Sailing at www.sailing.org/documents/racingrules/index.php Here’s what I think are the most important changes. I am limiting this discussion to changes in Parts 1 through 4. We’ll 48º NORTH
address important changes to Part 5 (Hearings and Appeals) and the Appendices later. Please note, the comments provided below are mine alone and are not official/authoritative interpretations. CHANGES AFFECTING SAFETY: • New Rule 37 requires that when the Race Committee Signals Boat flies Code Flag Victor (White with a Red “X”), all boats must, if possible, monitor the race committee communication channel for search and rescue instructions.
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• RRS 40 (PFDs) has been rewritten. If Code Flag Y is displayed before or with the warning signal, competitors are required to wear a PFD during that race. If the signal is made ashore, then competitors are required to wear a PFD while on the water. The Sailing Instructions or Notice of Race can modify these requirements. • RRS 41 has been revised so a boat that receives help from others to aid an injured crew member or a crew member in danger (e.g., crew overboard) cannot be penalized for accepting such aid — even if they gain an advantage from it. This change was made to ensure that boats do not DECEMBER 2020
refuse such aid (at increased risk to their crew) for fear of potential penalty.
Regulations and replaces former Fundamental Rules 5 through 7. These regulations can change at any time (not a four year cycle like the RRS). In most cases, they are only relevant at national level events and above, but all sailors should be aware of them. They can be found at www.sailing.org/documents/regulations/index.php.
• New RRS 20.4 requires a boat to “make a signal that clearly indicates her need for room to tack” in addition to a hail when “conditions are such that a hail may not be heard.” The SIs or NoR can specify what those other means are, but there is no other requirement with respect to what those means are. Regardless, it is still very important to plan ahead when sailing in heavy air and approaching obstructions. Be safe. Bearing away to duck a starboard tacker is often the safest solution.
• The Part 2 (When Boats Meet) preamble has been revised so the Notice of Race (not the Sailing Instructions) must indicate if the RRS are to be replaced by the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (IRPCAS — sometimes known as the ColRegs). Several Pacific Northwest races, most prominently Swiftsure, replace the RRS with IRPCAS at night.
CHANGES TO DEFINITIONS: • Start and Finish have been changed so the position of a boat’s hull is the only thing relevant to these definitions. No more easing the spinnaker sheet and/or guy to get the kite to project forward and finish sooner. Using the definitions of hull and bowsprit in the Equipment Rules of Sailing, this means boats with bowsprits (fixed or adjustable) can have their sprits — and headsails attached to the sprits — over the line at the start signal as long as their hull is fully on the pre-start side of the line. On trapeze boats, crew can be over the line (reaching down the line) if the hull is not.
• RRS 16.2 (Altering Course) has been revised to read: … on a beat to windward when a port-tack boat is keeping clear by sailing to pass to leeward of a starboard-tack boat, the starboard-tack boat shall not bear away if as a result the port-tack boat must change course immediately to continue keeping clear. The big changes from the previous rule are to limit this requirement to upwind beats (it doesn’t affect “hunting” before the start or in a match race) and to replace “change course” with “bear away.” This means the starboard-tack boat can come up in this situation (without being protested for changing course) since doing so does not affect the porttack boat’s ability to keep clear.
In addition, rules that address starting and finishing situations have been revised to reflect this change. They include all of the start “flag” rules (30.1 through 30.5) and 29.1 (individual recall). RRS 44.2 (taking a penalty) has also been revised where it addresses penalties near the finish.
• Rule 18.1 now has the sentence, “Rule 18 no longer applies between boats when mark-room has been given” added to the end. This removes the ambiguity of when RRS 18 turns off after rounding a mark.
• The definition of a mark still says the anchor line of the mark is not part of the mark. But now, all other objects intentionally attached to the mark are part of the mark. In other words, you can no longer touch the “limiting mark” trailing behind the race committee signals boat at one end of the start line without incurring a penalty.
• RRS 42.3(c) now allows pumping on a beat for boats that can plane upwind. But it is still only allowed when planing conditions are present and still only one pump per wave or puff and only to initiate planing. But it now allows unlimited pumping for foiling boats to get up on foils.
• Obstruction has been revised to clarify that an “object, area or line” so designated by the sailing instructions is an obstruction.
• Part 4 has been split into two sections. Section A addresses General Requirements and Section B addresses EquipmentRelated Requirements. As a result, several rules have been reorganized and renumbered to make the rules “flow” more clearly.
• Sail the Course is a new definition. It pulls the definitional aspects of RRS 28 out of that rule, allowing RRS 28 to be written in the style of a rule. It does not substantially change anything that we have done in the past.
• New RRS 43 consolidates all the references to exoneration in Part 2 into one rule in Part 4, Section A. It does not fundamentally change the concept or use of exoneration, i.e. if you are forced to break a rule by another boat’s action, you can’t be penalized for that. The old RRS 43 addressing competitor’s clothing and equipment has been moved to a reorganized RRS 50 in Section B. Section B Equipment-Related Requirements now references World Sailing’s Equipment Rules of Racing. They can be found at: www.sailing.org/documents/equipmentrules/index.php
• Proper Course now makes it clear there may be multiple options for a proper course by stating that a proper course is “A course a boat would choose in order to sail the course and finish as soon as possible…” OTHER CHANGES • The penalty for a violation of Fundamental Rule 2, Fair Sailing, cannot be excluded from a series score. • New Fundamental Rule 5 makes it explicit that the RRS apply to the organizing authority, race committee, and other race officials.
While these modifications may seem simple, they provide important clarity for racers, committees, and judges. It’s just another way 2021 looks quite a bit brighter than 2020!
• New Fundamental Rule 6 refers to World Sailing
48º NORTH
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DECEMBER 2020
PORT TOWNSEND
THUNDERBIRDS
by Roland Nikles
A HISTORY, AND REVIEW OF THE 2020 SAILING SEASON A successful season of racing on Port Townsend Bay has come to an end. At the center of the planning and implementation, as every year, was the Port Townsend Sailing Association (PTSA). And once again, the Thunderbirds were the big local fleet. Many 48° North readers will be familiar with the venerable Thunderbird, but the boat’s rich Pacific Northwest history is nearly matched in intrigue by the recent coalescence that brought a fleet home to Port Townsend, and Port Townsend sailors to this fleet. Nathaniel Seaborne penned his design for the Thunderbird in response to a 1958 challenge by the Douglas Fir Plywood Association for a design that could be “both a racing and a cruising boat … sleep four … capable of being built by reasonably
Thunderbirds have attracted a wide variety of sailors in Port Townsend, from more casual sailors to highly experienced racers.
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skilled amateur” and, crucially, “outperform other sailboats in its class.” And it did. By 1980, there were more than 1,000 Thunderbirds sailing. Perhaps more impressively, the class association received more than 25,000 requests for the building plans (which first cost $2, and are available today for $60). Thunderbirds immediately showed their speed, beating many larger and more expensive boats. Three sailing enthusiasts in Port Townsend — Jim Daubenberger, who owned a clothing store on Water Street, attorney Glenn Abraham, and physician Bill Scheyer — took notice. In 1963, they commissioned hulls 241 (Zaca), 242 (Dorado), and 243 (Caveat) from Bill Knottingham Marine in Tacoma. “The boats were inexpensive,” says Jim’s son, Joe Daubenberger. “In 1963, the bill of sale for these Thunderbirds was $2,650, including sails and other options,” said Joe in a tribute to his father in the Port Townsend Leader. That’s a little less than what this author paid for a Thunderbird (Falcon, #1177) two summers ago. Putting that in perspective, median income in the greater Seattle Area in 1960 was $6,225, so the purchase of a new Thunderbird in 1960 set you back nearly one half year’s median income in Seattle. Even back then, a Thunderbird was not so inexpensive for most people. Today, median income in metropolitan Seattle is $102,500 (2019) and you can purchase a new J/80 (also 26 feet) for $55,000 — or a little more than one half of a year’s median income. The Thunderbird was the J/80 of 1960. Well, not quite as fast, but much better to cruise!
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As the years went on and the region's economy boomed, more sailors were able to afford bigger, faster boats. In Port Townsend, too, Jim Daubenberger, Bill Scheyer, and Glenn Abraham moved on to bigger boats and longer races. Zaca, Dorado, and Caveat were sold off and fell on hard times, neglected, down on Bainbridge Island, in Port Hadlock, and Port Ludlow. But you couldn’t keep the Thunderbird and Port Townsend sailors apart long. In 2000, Scott Walker purchased an old woodie, Tzieu, which he lovingly restored to pristine condition. John Carey had Coco Solo and raced it avidly. In 2008 Joe Daubenberger attended the 50th anniversary party for the Thunderbird. The event also marked the launch of a beautiful new woodie, Thunderbaby (#1255), which turned out to be the last Thunderbird built. “We kept running into someone who said ‘I have your dad's old T-bird,’” says Joe Daubenberger. The Daubenbergers found Zaca in Port Ludlow, and Dorado in disrepair and with a foul bottom. Both were brought to Port Townsend and restored. Caveat was at the Wooden Boat Center. The three original Port Townsend Thunderbirds had returned like prodigal sons. Suddenly, there was the core for a one-design fleet in Port Townsend. Glenn Abraham’s daughter Anne and her husband, Doug Bolling, owned Raven which they painted shiny black. John Lynes purchased his first Thunderbird in 2008. The Bollings acquired the old family boat, Caveat, from the Wooden Boat Foundation in a trade, and they sold Raven to Stig Osterberg and Steve Scharf. Piper Dunlap acquired Blew Bird and later Magic Bus with fellow 505 sailors. Dale Dunning, the president of the International Thunderbird Association, brought his boat Water Torture to Port Townsend in 2013, and acquired Owl from the Victoria fleet in 2016. Of such stuff a one-design fleet is made: energy, camaraderie, and an infatuation with these funky old boats that are fun to sail, truly inexpensive in this day and age, and still fast. Now, there are many others in Port Townsend. Steve Scharf has personally brought in three boats and has donated a motor yacht committee boat, which is staffed by a regular committee. The Port Townsend fleet was incorporated as International Thunderbird Fleet 33. It is vibrant. And growing. In 2020, the year’s on-water sparring began informally in January, with several Thunderbirds and Bertram Levy’s Murrelet gathering on Saturdays and sailing up to the mooring buoys off Fort Worden, down to the green buoy off the naval facility on Indian Island, and across to the wooden tower off Rat Island — the old anchor point for an anti-submarine net that stretched across Port Townsend Bay during World War II. Twenty-six boats — a happy gaggle of 505s, classic woodies new and old, plastic fantastics, and eight Thunderbirds — showed up to mark the leap year on February 29 for the Shipwright’s Regatta, under snow-capped peaks. Dorado, Raven, and Kuma San took top honors in the Thunderbird class. With the state in Coronavirus lockdown, six-to-eight Thunderbirds raced informally, with family units, singlehanded, or double-handed on Saturdays from March through May. To keep things even, a decision was made not to use flying sails and to use the working jib as a headsail. This proved to be a popular solution and became the model for the formal PTSA 48º NORTH
racing during the balance of the year. PTSA sponsored their Midsummer (June), Catspaw (July), and Dog Days (August) series, which consisted of Wednesday night windward/leeward courses and Friday night romps around the Bay starting and finishing at City Dock. The Wednesdays turned out to be a one-design event for the Thunderbirds. Fifteen Thunderbirds showed up in total, with 7-12 boats on the line each week. Corvo, Owl, and Dorado dominated the summer with Corvo winning the first two, and Owl and Dorado trading second and third. Dorado won the third series, with Raven second, and Owl third. Eleven total boats turned out for the annual Ted Pike Regatta, held on August 22. This is a quintessential Port Townsend event. In normal years it starts on the beach below the Marine Science Center in Le Mans fashion. One crew member from each boat rows, paddles, or swims from the beach to their boat to be pulled up by eagerly waiting crews who may not hoist sail or begin to weigh anchor until the marooned sailor has rejoined the boat. The first turning mark is off the beach near the Point Wilson lighthouse, where the fleet surprised a family on their trawler enjoying lunch tied to a mooring buy. This year the start was from “at anchor,” but the finish still involved sending a swimmer to shore to drink a double shot of rum and ring a bell at the Northwest Maritime Center. Thunderbirds Corvo and Falcon were the top two finishers.
Thunderbirds pace in front of the Northwest Maritime Center. Owl won the single light air race of the Fall Thunderbird Regatta, followed by Raven and Magic Bus. The racing for this season concluded with the Saturday Nightcap series. Raven, Owl, and Corvo bested a field of 10 boats in the Thunderbird fleet. Many of this year’s races have been documented on video by Dale Dunning. Check out his YouTube Channel at OP Sailing for coverage of the Thunderbird fleet. The wind is full of promise for sailing on Port Townsend Bay next year. Classic wooden boats, fast modern racers, and funky still-fast old boats will keep the sailing in Port Townsend diverse and interesting. Photos courtesy of Thunderbird Fleet 33.
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DECEMBER 2020
CHAMPIONSHIP OF
CHAMPIONS
SEATTLE SAILORS AND MOORE 24 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS, BEN AND JENNIFER BRADEN HEAD DOWN TO CALIFORNIA TO TANGLE IN TIGHT QUARTERS WITH SOME OF THE NATION'S BEST. To qualify for the US Sailing Championship of Champions, a sailor must win a national championship regatta in a US Sailing recognized one design fleet, and you must apply to be invited to the regatta. By winning the 2018 Moore 24 National Championship regatta in Hood River, Oregon, we became eligible for application. As luck would have it, our Moore 24 Nationals regatta was held about one week after the cutoff date for application to the 2018 regatta, making it one of the first Nationals eligible for the 2019 Championship of Champions regatta — that year held in Connecticut on Ideal 18s. We applied but didn’t make the cut until about two weeks before the regatta. Too short of a timeline for us to make it happen, unfortunately. Seattle sailors, Dalton Bergan and Ben Glass, won that event. Roll in 2020 with all its challenges and lack of National regattas around the country, and wouldn’t you know it we were eligible again, and thankfully the regatta was to be held on the West Coast for the first time in many years. The 2020 Championship of Champions regatta was to be held in Schock Harbor 20s sailing out of Balboa Yacht Club in lovely Newport Beach, California. The Harbor 20 is a twoperson gentlemen’s boat consisting of a main and jib only with the jib on a boom to help downwind sailing. It’s a somewhat lightly-built, good looking inshore daysailer that has evolved into the local Newport Beach Harbor one-design fleet. No tiller extensions are allowed and you must race with cockpit cushions 48º NORTH
in place. Harbor 20 one-design rules allow for absolutely no hiking and you can’t leave the cockpit during a race to adjust the jib halyard or tack/clew settings. Having won our Moore 24 Nationals by racing three days in Hood River with 20- to 30-plus knots of wind and big waves, needless to say, we were out of our element in Newport Beach. My wife, Jennifer, and I arrived in sunny southern California Thursday morning before the regatta, found our way to the beautiful Balboa Yacht Club, checked in and pulled our first boat — Bow 18. It was a rough boat with older sails and about 25 gallons of water in the bilge. I say “first boat”, because this was a round robin regatta, meaning we traded boats after every three races. They had a 40-foot dock anchored out near the approach to the weather mark and every third race we finished at the weather mark and got in the queue for rotation. We pulled up to the dock, masked up, threw our gear on the dock and then sprayed the boat down with disinfectant cleaners, wiped it off and jumped on the next boat. Honestly, this was the best run program at this regatta — the volunteers really did a great job of making sure we had clean, safe and quick transfers of boats. The organizers made every attempt to keep the boats similar, but jib boom end heights ranged from 6 to 12 inches off deck, some boats had motors, sails were different ages, and each boat had to be sailed differently. Some I could figure out and, frankly, some I could not and we just felt slow through the water.
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For the author and his wife Jennifer, there were a number of factors that left them feeling out of their element, including the Harbor 20 itself. Photo courtesy of Tom Walker. Thursday was practice race day, and we headed out into the harbor, away from the ocean, to the basin between Lido and Balboa islands. The Race Committee set up a quick course and we all practiced and learned a bit about these little boats. Comments of “that would have been a foul if we were actually racing” were heard a couple times. After three practice races, one of which we finished, we learned one major thing — I had to be nicer to Jennifer, who was not in her normal role on the bow, but was acting as a jib trimmer on a boat with a jib boom. That night we made sure to stock up on libations to make the gentlemen’s boat complete. At the time, we had no idea how important this little feature was going to be. Friday dawned sunny and warm, winds were out of the west to northwest (big shifts) and the course was set almost touching Balboa Island. Literally only two boats could pass each other side-by-side between the RC boat and dock to leeward. This feature pushed me to use a dip start more times than I can remember, which worked great actually, as it was easier to get that boat up to speed off the start line. The weather mark was set at the choke point. Imagine the bay shaped like a funnel and just when it gets down to the throat, that’s where you set the mark — only five boat lengths off the dock, leaving five boat lengths for the starboard approach. Think about that for a moment, 19 boats sailed by national champions — good, competitive sailors — converging on a space that can handle only five boats at the same time. I dubbed Friday the “Smash and Bash Championship”. I’ve not seen so many collisions, so many sailors yelling, and so few penalty turns in my life. We honestly didn’t have much of an option when we got to the weather mark. Everyone chose to avoid the dock, but rather hit each other, and marks were fair game. After doing a few circles myself, I realized that I was in the minority of sailors out there by doing them. When I looked back on it a few days later, it really was the Race Committee's fault we all were forced to violate the mark rounding rules. By setting the mark further from the funnel throat, they could have created the separation needed for clean roundings. A learning experience. We often found ourselves at the weather mark in the top 10 Friday, but I wasn’t willing to 48º NORTH
push the rules, or completely ignore them, which turned out to be a hindrance. We finished the day in 19th place out of 19. DFL. I’d like to say the sail back to the yacht club was a sobering one, but the reality was exactly the opposite. We decided if the racing was like this Saturday we would take a tour of the bay and maybe go sightseeing instead. Despite the course issue on Friday, the best part of this regatta was meeting and talking with the competitors and event organizers. We loved getting to know Walter and LeeAnn, the great people from EV Yachting who organized the regatta and were tirelessly trying to make everyone happy and welcome. Hanging out with Stan and Sally Honey, meeting Augie Diaz, learning about the new young up-and-comers — this was a treat we didn’t expect. Saturday’s race course was set much better. I’m told someone mentioned protesting the race committee, but maybe that was just rumor. Anyway, they set the start line with room below it and set the weather mark a bit back from the choke point so there was a nice starboard approach, room for boats to find an opening or simply have an opportunity to find the back of the line if they had to. No collisions, no yelling, clean racing. Absolutely refreshing after Friday, and it kept us in the game. A few top 5 finishes for us, and by the end of the day we had worked up to 16th with a huge point gap in front of us to make 15th.
With only five boat lengths of starboard runway approaching the windward mark, there simply wasn't enough room for all the boats to round cleanly. Photo courtesy of Tom Walker. We did have one amazingly odd weather rounding. The Race Committee has a couple “patrol” boats on the course to direct traffic away from the marks. They keep the Duffys — those little electric boats that rent for an hour or a day to anyone that comes along — out of the way. Every day, there were 20-plus of them scooting around with every type of party imaginable aboard, kids’ birthdays to 21 runs. There were also bar boats motoring around the bay, basically a tiki bar barge with an outboard — full party. But thankfully those had captains aboard, so they were never an issue on the course. The Duffys were a whole other story. In this odd rounding, we came into one weather mark in 6th or 7th and saw a Duffy sitting just below and to the right of
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Beautiful, busy, and geographically limited... that was the racing area near Balboa Yacht Club. Photo Courtesy of Tom Walker. the weather mark. The leaders were rounding and yelling at the Duffy to stay where they were, “Don’t move!” The patrol boat was there but sitting to weather of the mark. We tacked to starboard and, when I looked up from the tack, we were moments away from T-boning the Duffy that obviously hadn’t stayed where they were told to stay. I threw the helm up and coasted head to wind while the hapless father driving the Duffy did little to nothing to get out of the way — total deer in the headlights. I had to instruct him on how to power up and get out of the way while seven boats got ahead of us and rounded the mark. His wife looked at me and said, “Everyone can use the harbor, we don’t have to get out of your way!” Oh my, basic ColRegs instructions could be good for the Duffy rentals… Obviously, we didn’t do well in that race, but this was the moment I met Augie Diaz — one of the world’s most amazing Star sailors — as he ran into my transom and proceeded to barge between me and the mark while I was getting back up to speed from the Duffy incident. Nice guy, though — he did a circle for the foul after a short discussion and even joined me to ask for redress the next morning. Unfortunately, the redress was tossed out as I missed the 20 minute time limit to file after racing due to helping people dock and putting the boats away. Apparently, some rules were followed at this regatta after all. One of the treasures of sailing with this group was the pairing of Chris Raab and Rob Kinney. Remember in the Muppets, those two guys that would bicker at each other incessantly? I think the writer for the Muppets got the idea from Rob and Chris. We found ourselves changing which leeward gate mark we would round so we could do it near Chris and Rob. They would quickly pull away from us again as we were laughing our butts off after hearing their interactions. Truly a gem those two, and they finished second overall. 48º NORTH
Saturday’s racing was followed by the regatta dinner on the patio between the yacht club and the docks. While listening to a great presentation by Stan Honey about the upcoming mixed doubles racing in the Olympics, we took pause as the sun was setting over the ocean to strike the colors from the yacht club yardarm with all the proper pomp and circumstance associated with that moment. It was special to be part of that for a few nights while at Balboa Yacht Club. Sunday dawned with the lightest conditions we’d seen yet. We were not too optimistic, but racing ran again in that shifty light harbor breeze. A few more races, a couple boats I couldn’t make go well, and we were solidly locked into 16th place for the weekend. Not that I had a lot of expectations for this regatta in these particular boats but, as competitors, you always want to succeed no matter what you are racing. I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t feel bad about 16th place, yet when you consider the great competition and the number of teams that have sailed together for years on boats just like these, we probably did about as well as were able to. We ended the weekend with a leisurely sail out past the yacht club to the edge of the ocean to say that, “Yes, we can sail these things on the ocean!” then back to the club to put our gentlemen’s boat away and cheer on the victors in the 2020 US Sailing Championship of Champions Regatta. It was truly an experience we’ll remember for years and is one I am happy to have in my memory, even with the hardships on the water and the poor final finish. The people I met, the efforts of the volunteers, watching the sun set gracefully at the edge of the ocean, that’s why we do this, those are the treasures of the sailing lifestyle. Photos all taken by and provided courtesy of Tom Walker Photography
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Photo by: Andy Li
CLASSIFIEDS
MILLER MARINE 41FT DECK SALON Miller Marine Deck Salon. 12 inch Raymarine touch screen chart plotter, radar and auto pilot. 8.5 ft dinghy, 2.5hp Suzuki motor. Propane gimbaled stove, refridge and freezer. Diesel stove heat, berths for 6, teak interior. Roller furling genoa and spinnaker, composite main, dyneema running rigging. Bernard 360-840-9510. $98,000.
CT 41 KETCH NEAR PORTLAND Classic CT 41 KETCH (1974) Potential cruiser on Multnomah Channel in Portland. Ocean sailing vessel. Good fuel and drinking water capacity. Some cosmetic work needed. FRP hull, Teak decking, 75 hp Volvo Penta diesel (low hours), Aluminum Masts, Windlass, Five Sails. For more information: (503) 309-3097. $20,000.
1986 CAVALIER 39 SLOOP BUILT IN NEW ZEALAND Sloop, tiller steering. LOA 39 LWL 29.6, fiberglass reinforced hull, 120% Genoa, spinnaker, main sail, 3 anchors with chain and rode, Monitor windvane, auto pilot, Isuzo 55hp diesel. Cruise ready. On off interior design with table on bulkhead and captain’s bed. Includes freezer and frig. Call Bob at (510) 421-1768. $85,000.
42' 1980 COOPER 416 Mola Mola is the perfect sailboat for cruising the Pacific Northwest and beyond. With a 14' beam and large pilothouse window. Dual indoor/outdoor steering stations make year-round cruising much more comfortable in our PNW climate. For more information please contact Sara (541) 704-7404. $89,000.
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1965 CHEOY LEE FRISCO FLYER Includes trailer. Installed new Vetus 2cyl diesel engine which has never been opened. New 3 Blade Prop and new SS Prop Shaft. Deck evacuated, sealed and new structural reinforcement. New fiberglass applied. Bulkheads refiberglassed. Interior is 90% removed to set up for racing. More details: (253) 380-8926. $9,500.
1986 HYLAS 47 World class Sparkman & Stephens fully equipped. Beautiful aft cabin w/queen size centerline berth. Many recent upgrades including rerigging, new chainplates, epoxy bottom Fresh bottom paint Nov 2020. Located in Puerto Vallarta. For details: (510) 219-4488 or www.hylas47forsale.blogspot.com $159,000.
YANKEE ONE DESIGN 1949 William Starling Burgess design, 30'-24', built by Stones Boatyard. Restored 2015. Varnished Honduras mahogany on new oak frames, new floor timbers, hull refastened; dry cockpit with rolled teak park benches. Second owner for 46 years. Contact Bob at (916) 783-3150 or stefroche916@gmail.com $75,000.
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47
DECEMBER 2020
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48º NORTH
52
DECEMBER 2020
quality yachts from swiftsureyachts.com The Hylas 49 was designed by the venerable Sparkman and Stephens firm to define luxurious performance cruising. A long waterline, combined with moderate dimensions and ample sail area make the 49 a great performer in all conditions. Built by Queen Long Shipyards in Taiwan, the boat exudes quality with its elegant carpentry and finish work. Stellar Blue is a one-owner boat and has been moored on fresh water since new. Used for family cruising, she made annual voyages to Canadian cruising grounds but never ventured into open ocean sailing. Equipped with electric winches, in-mast furling and bow thruster, she is easy to sail shorthanded. A new LPU paint job and exceptional regular maintenance make Stellar Blue an excellent cruising option or a great platform for taking on any offshore adventure.
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Beneteau First 18
40' Beneteau 40 ‘09 ��������������������� $159,000 40’ Hunter 40�5 ’93 ���������������� �$99,000 CHB Trawler ’94 ����������������������������� $59,900 34’ Nordic 34 ’87 ������������������������ $59,900
What’s Happening 48’ Beneteau 48 ’13 ���������������������Sale Pending 46’ Beneteau 46�1 ’21 ������������������Arriving Sold 45’ Hunter 45DS ������������������������������������� SOLD 45’ Beneteau 45 �������������������������������������� SOLD 41’ Beneteau 41�1 ‘17 ������������������Sale Pending 39’ Corbin 39 ‘81 �������������������������Sale Pending 38’Beneteau Oceanis 38�1 ‘21 ������Arriving Sold 38’ Beneteau 38�1 ‘18 ������������������Sale Pending 38’ Catalina 38 ���������������������������������������� SOLD 37’ Beneteau 37 ’17 �������������������� Sale Pending 36’ Beneteau 361 ’04 ������������������Sale Pending 36’ Islander 36 ‘73 �����������������������Sale Pending 35’ Beneteau First 35 ‘83 ������������������������ SOLD 35’ Beneteau 35�1’21 �������������������Arriving Sold 35’ Gemini 105���������������������������������������� SOLD 32’ Bayliner Avanti 3258 ’95 ��������Sale Pending 30’ Owens Flagship ’50 ���������������Sale Pending 28’ Catalina 28 �����������������������������Sale Pending 24’ Beneteau First 24 ‘20 �������������������������� Sold
2476 Westlake Ave N. #101, Seattle, WA 98109 • (206) 284-9004 Open Monday - Saturday 10:00am - 5:00pm • Sunday by appointment
JAN. 24 - FEB. 1
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MARINE SERVICENTER Serving Northwest Boaters since 1977
NORTH AMERICAN DEALER OF THE YEAR 2020 • 2019 • 2016
SIX NEW JEANNEAUS SOLD IN THE LAST 30 DAYS! LIMITED NEW INVENTORY ARRIVING - CALL NOW! 2020 Jeanneau 410 3C/2H #74565: $319,948 - SAVE $24,680 2020 Jeanneau 410 2C/1H #74656: $334,282 - SAVE $14,556 Arrives August
Arrives End of December
2021 Jeanneau 349 #75403: $198,852 - SAVE $13,390
Order
New Model!
Yours! 2020 Island Packet 42 Motor Sailer : SAVE $70,000
Inside Steering, Galley Up
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49' Trans Pac 49 ’86.............$169,000 u
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2021 Island Packet 42 Motor Sailer: SAVE $70,000
49' Jeanneau SO 49 ’05...........$284,500
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51' Alden Skye ‘80.............$129,500 Re iNg
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2021 Lagoon 42 #57127: $687,524 - SAVE $18,000
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2022 Jeanneau 490 #75822: $529,786 - SAVE $22,784
53' Jeanneau Yacht 53 ’15....$389,500
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Model at Our Dock!
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2022 Jeanneau 440 #75456: $419,346 - SAVE $18,366
2020Next Jeanneau 349July! #74880: $192,490 - SAVE $14,482 One Here
2021 Jeanneau 410 #75452: $348,745 - SAVE $12,435
61' C&C ‘72 .......................$153,900
Order Yours!
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Model at Our Dock!
20 Jeanneau 490 Here #73974: $524,869 - SAVE $29,702 Next One March!
2020 Lagoon 40 - Order Yours! : $528,730 - SAVE $7,300 Arrives February
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19 Jeanneau 440 #73995: $379,985 - SAVE $62,958
The market is red hot!
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51' Beneteau Cyclades ‘06 ���������$199,900 51' Alden Skye‘83......$184,000 ‘80.............$129,500 46' Hunter 47' Bowman 47.............$160,000 ’97.............$169,500 45'47'Jeanneau VagabondSO Ketch ‘83......$184,000 47' Bowman 47 ’97.............$215,000 47' Vagabond Ketch ’06..........$199,500 460 ’01
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Quality Listings Wanted.
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44' Jeanneau 44 ’91 ��������������$119,00044' Spencer 44' Bruce PH ’93........$38,500 43' Wauquiez 44' NauticatAmphitrite MS Sloop’85 MS ’80............$185,000 42 Pilothouse ’06.......$124,500 ’84�����������$149,500 $132,500 42'44'SKNauticat 44 Robert ‘73.............$40,000 44' Nauticat MS ’80 SO ...........$185,000
We Get Results!
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41' Burnham & Crouch ‘63....$69,500 li Ne
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44' Lafitte 44 ’80 ������������������ $89,500 SK 371 42 Pilothouse ’06.......$109,500 43'Christian Jeanneau 43 ’06........$198,500 37' 42' 40' Passport 40 ’84.............$149,900 Swan ‘81...................$69,000 38' Hans MKDS’80.....$72,000
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38' Island34Packet 38 ’90 ����� $139,500 33'36' Islander Freeport PH ’78… $59,500 40' 36 Jeanneau 40 DS ’98..........$99,000 39' Nauticat ‘98...............$239,500 34' Catalina Wauquiez Gladiateur ’81...$35,000 35' Trident VoyagerPH’78..........$59,500 ’86..................$22,500 36' Bavaria ’02................$93,500
Shing Baba 35 ’85 ��������� $98,500 35' Trident Voyager ’78..........$54,900 33' Nauticat 32' Hunter ’02 ��������������� $55,000 20'20'Laser LaserSB3 SB3‘08.. ‘08................... 33' C&C 35' 99 Ta ’05....................$82,000 33' Hunter 33 ’11..................$99,900 MS326 ‘85................$79,900 ................ $19,500 $19,500
See your boat listed here. 44' Bruce Roberts 44 ‘80. .......... $65,000 WE GET RESULTS 66' CNB 66 ‘21 ���������� Arriving SOLD 62' Lagoon 620 ‘20 ������������������SOLD 58' Jeanneau Yacht ‘18 �������������SOLD 53' Jeanneau Yacht ‘15 �������������SOLD 50' Lagoon 500 ‘12 ������������������SOLD 49' Jeanneau 490p ‘21 ����� Arriving SOLD 49' 490 ‘20/’21 ����������� 2 SOLD 41' Jeanneau Island Packet Cruiser ’07$299,000 49' Jeanneau SO 49 ‘05............ SOLD 45' 450620 CC‘20.....Arriving ’98 �������������SOLD 62'Hunter Lagoon SOLD 45' SOYacht 45 ’06 ‘18..............SOLD ������������SOLD 58'Jeanneau Jeanneau 45' Jeanneau 45 DS ’08 � ������������SOLD 50' Jeanneau 50 DS ‘11...Sale Pending 44' 44049p ‘21 ����������������SOLD 49'Jeanneau Jeanneau ‘07 .........$349,500 44' 440490 ‘21...... Sale Pending 49'Jeanneau Jeanneau '19....Sale Pending 44' Jeanneau 440 ‘22....Arriving SOLD 46' Jeanneau 469 ’15................SOLD 44' Jeanneau 44i ‘11................ SOLD 46' Lagoon 46 ‘20.......Arriving SOLD 43' 43 45 DS DS ‘05 �’08............SOLD ������������ SOLD 45'Jeanneau Jeanneau 41' Packet ’07................. SOLD 44'Island Bruce Roberts PH ‘93 .....$38,500 41' Jeanneau 410 ’21 ��� 3 Arrive SOLD 44' Jeanneau 440 ‘20.................SOLD 41' Jeanneau 410 ‘21 ������Sale Pending 41' Jeanneau 410 ‘20 2 Arriving SOLD 41' Jeanneau 410 ‘20 ������������� 8 SOLD 41'Jeanneau Passport4141DS‘89....................SOLD 41' ’14 ������������� SOLD 41'Jeanneau Burnham Crouch '63....$69,500 40' SO&40.3 ‘07 ���������� SOLD 40'J/120 Beneteau 40 ’11..................SOLD 40' ’01 ����������������������������� SOLD 40'Island J/40 Packet ‘90...............................SOLD 38' 38 ‘92 ������������� SOLD 40'Pacific Jeanneau 40937‘13................SOLD 37' Seacraft ’81 ��������SOLD 40'Jeanneau LagoonSO 4037 ‘19....................SOLD 37' ‘01 �������������SOLD 40'Bavaria Nauticat PH ‘85............ .....SOLD 36' 36 ‘03 ��������������������SOLD 39'Jeanneau Jeanneau 39i ‘07/‘08........2 SOLD 34' 349 ‘21 ���������������SOLD 38'Jeanneau Jeanneau 389 ‘20...Arriving SOLD 34' 34.2 ‘00 ��� Sale Pending 38'Hunter Island33 Packet 380 ‘00...........SOLD 33' ‘11 ���������������������SOLD 33' MS ‘85 �����������������SOLD 37'Nauticat Island Packet 370 ‘08..........SOLD 33' 99 ‘05 ������������������������SOLD 34'C&C Jeanneau 349 ‘20... ..............SOLD 31' ‘79 �������������������������������SOLD 34'Cal KMV Grambling ‘74........$24,900 30' MkII ’91.................SOLD ‘90 ���Sale Pending 29'Catalina Island 30 Packet
eattle Sales Office Anacortes Sales Office Anacortes Boatyard Seattle Sales Office & Marina Bellingham Sales Office 206.323.2405 360.293.9521 360.293.8200 2442 Westlake Ave. N. 206-323-2405 1801 Roeder Ave. Ste. 128 360-770-0180
info@marinesc.com | www.marinesc.com
info@marinesc.com | www.marinesc.com
Dan Krier Tim Jorgeson Jeff Carson Dan Krier
Tim Jorgeson
Jim Rard Patrick Harrigan
Jeff Carson
Greg Farah Bellingham
