Header Photo Monotype du Bassin dArcachon

The Bursledon Blogger got this right. The previous header photo was of a beach gathering of the traditional lug-rigged dinghies from Frances Arcachon Bay. You can read more about the traditional sailboats of the Arcachon Bay over here.

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Breaking News Witty the Kitty Is BAACK!!

Approximately four days after his sudden disappearance, Lene was walking the 150 yards to the shipyards shower/head/lounge when she heard a cat sound. Not the loud yowl Witty is capable of, nor the weak mewl either -- but a cat sound. I got our strong flashlight and we saw what seemed like an orange cat running along a low "catwalk" at the near side of the big building that houses the yards repair shops and parts department. This is 200 feet from us by the docks or 100 as the crow flies.

From bow of ILENE you turn left, right and then right before getting to the right corner of the big building.

I had walked this catwalk

and my had leg crashed through the plywood decking when I put my foot on a spot that was not directly over one of the horizontal 2 x 4s that  support it.

This had been a few days before, during one of my many expeditions shaking Wittys plastic box of treats. Lene ran back to get the treat box and we made our way to the back of the big beehive of bustling activity, now quiet for the night.
Fifteen feet behind it, hidden in woods that have encroached it, is a decaying one room structure (seen at the left in the photo above) under which Witty had apparently found shelter.

He was skittish or fearful and of two minds whether he wanted to be brought back into domesticity/captivity. But eventually his desire for food won out and he approached Lene and after giving him a hand full of food she grabbed him and I carried him back to the boat where we could see him better in the light.
He really looked none the worse for wear, his coat clean and not infested with brambles, though in need of a brushing. No apparent wounds or loss of weight. Alfie, normally diffident toward him as well as toward us, licked him lovingly. We gave him a big portion of food, though not too much because he regurgitates when he wolfs down too much.
Lene is elated!
 The gloom of mourning that had settled over our expedition is vanished.  We are both so happy to have him back,  though he seems to be eyeing the companionway as if he enjoyed his four days of freedom.
We have been notifying all the folks who gave advice and support that the search is successfully concluded. How many of his nine lives are left?

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Header Photo Blue Jay on Megunticook Lake Maine

The previous header photo was of a Blue Jay drifting during the 2014 "Pollys Folly" regatta on Lake Megunticook, Maine. Two of the "Free-for-Alls" that I listed were cancelled this year; Pollys Folly because of a conflict with a Laser regatta, and the MASCF at the Chesapeake Maritime Museum because of Hurricane Joaquin lurking offshore during the first weekend in October.

The Archipelago Rally went off without a hitch with over 40 extremely diverse small boats. Fellow sailing blogger, Tillerman, almost won this years Rally in his RS Aero. The Sebago Cup was mostly an event for the local Sebago Canoe Clubs Laser and Sunfish fleet. The 2015 NSHOF Classic Wooden Sailboat Rendezvous had only one dinghy registered this year. There was, however, a large fleet of restored Stars. My friend, Tom Price, had his 1959 Lippincott racing and sent along this report.

"We launched at AYC on Saturday but it was too rough in the City Dock basin for us so we hauled out again. On Sunday we relaunched and raced. It was a very nice day contrary to predictions, never getting over 15. "Conflict" (and John Sherwood - both classics) did well despite using our 1963 sails (because of their cool yellow color). Keith Donald won with his fully modern wood Star and we were second beating Elliott and # 177 "Trout". Nothing broke and we felt quite comfortable. I did the clinging vine style hiking and it suited the placement of cleats and winch perfectly. It was all reaching so the Stars didnt shine overall ( we were the last start ) but it was a real blast.

Tom Prices restored 1959 Lippincott Star at the AYC dock.

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Header Photo Sabre Dinghy and the Return of the Retro Singlehanders

The previous header photo is of Aussie Matt Kiely sailing the Australian singlehander Sabre class dinghy. The photo was lifted from the South Gippsland Y.C.Facebook page.

Probably the major trend in dinghy racing over the last 30 or so years has been the growth of singlehanded racing at the expense of doublehanded or triplehanded classes. And the trend since the millenium has been the explosive comeback of  what I call the retro hiking singlehanders; those other singlehanded classes designed before, or around the date of the introduction of the Laser (1969). For the most part, these classes are not international (excepting the OK Dinghy and Europe Dinghy); they are popular country-by-country or region, and they attract fleets of thirty, forty or more boats at major championships. They have a builder or two turning out modern hulls, some have carbon masts, many have aluminum. They seem to fill a need in the marketplace that the Laser does not.

I have compiled a list of retro singlehanders. I have excluded the Olympic Finn - 1949 (which has a huge Masters scene) and singlehanders with hiking assists (trapeze, sliding seat). Feel free to add your thoughts about this list in the comments section. (Before the Sunfish sailors jump all over me for excluding the Sunfish from the list - let me state the Sunfish has maintained high levels of popularity in parts of North America and parts of South America for many, many years - I dont see a comeback in popularity - they just maintained it.):

• Solo (U.K.) - 1956 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, full battens
• OK Dinghy (Den.) - 1957 - carbon mast, unstayed rig, short battens
• Streaker (U,K.) - 1975 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, short battens
• Phantom (U.K.) - 1971 - carbon mast, stayed rig, short battens
• Lightning 368 (U.K.) - 1977 - carbon mast, unstayed rig, short battens
• Sabre (Aus.) - 1974 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, full battens
• Impulse (Aus.) -1975 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, full battens
• O-Jolle (Ger.) - 1933 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, short battens
• Larken-Klasse (Ned.,Ger.) - 1920s - wood mast, stayed rig, full battens 
• Europe Dinghy (Moth) - 1960 - carbon mast, unstayed rig, short battens
• Zephyr (NZ) - 1956 - aluminum mast, stayed, full battens

Despite the recent introduction of the "modern" RS Aero, or Devoti D-Zero, with lightweight hulls, mylar sails (correction - the Aero has dacron sails), carbon rigs, it seems the singlehanded market is marching in the other direction. (I must admit the North American market is an anomaly here with not a lot of singlehanded classes under the Laser - still king by a long-shot-, and the Sunfish - a solid runner-up, The other singlehanded classes in North America - like my Classic Moth - are mustering small numbers...Oops! I forgot about the MC scow, now very popular in the U.S.)

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Fleet Building Mutineer Fleet in Grapevine Texas

Its no secret that the most sure-fire way to build a sailboat fleet is to have that one spark-plug; an enthusiastic go-getter who passionately believes this sailboat he/she sails is the best sailboat ever to grace the bounding main.

Here is a video of one such spark-plug, Greg Reed of Grapevine, Texas. His love and passion for the 15 Mutineer sailboat, a sailboat abandoned when Chrysler divested their marine businesss in 1980, is building an orphan fleet in Grapevine Texas. Of note in the video is how the fleet is attuned to bringing up the new racer.

(Anonymous, in the comment section, says both the Mutineer and the larger Buccaneer are still in production. "The Nickels Boat Company in Mich. is still building both boats and the Buc still has a fairly active class. In fact a Club in Alaska recently adopted the Buc as its Club fleet.")

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As a follow-on to Gregs pitch in the video for Grapevine, Texas running the 2014 Nationals...there were 19 Mutineers racing in the 2014 Nationals: Gib Charles, 1st; Ty McAden, 2nd; Uwe Hale, 3rd; and Mr. Mutineer, Greg Reed, 4th.

Grapevine Sailing Club - Mutineer Fleet 2 from russ ansley on Vimeo.

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Yellow Boat 4 twin NQD jets driven by P2632 Brushless Outrunner 3800kv Brushless

Yellow Boat 4 

Twin NQD jets modified with brass stern tubes.

I have alternate nozzels which are a little larger than standard also.

Brass impellers made from cutdown brass props

Two P2632 Brushless Outrunner 3800kv Brushless

 

Stern Tubes brass shafts wrapped in PTFE tape until they fit the tubes. Will be setting up air cooling system with small EDF fan.

Will probably run two 2200mAh Lipos and 50 Amp aero ESCs with big heatsinks


For the cooling I may have the Arduino open and close a vent with a servo if the heatsinks get hot, as well as controlling the fan speed. 

Based on yellow boat plans different deck 390 Grams as shown 
Also Ply fiberglass epoxy catamaran build log

Glass and epoxy inside balsa ply, will epoxy the outside too. Its very strong with builders fiberglass tape and epoxy 

The motors will be mounted further forward on a cooled plate 

Spray rails are bamboo barbecue skewers and wood filler  

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Directors Cut CRAB Delivery Skipper Freedom 21

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Click here for information about CRAB (Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating).

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It somewhat pains me to admit this, but Ive done more keelboat sailing over this past summer than dinghy sailing. Ive been volunteering at CRAB (Chesapeake Regional Accessible Boating - my long time sailing friend, Dick White, is sailing director there) and Ive been kicking around the Bay with various groups in CRABs keelboats, the Freedom 21s, which were designed specifically for handicap sailing.

The blogmeister had to make a singlehanded delivery of a Freedom 21 from the home-port of Sandy Point State Park down to Annapolis (the Freedom 21s were sailing in Boatyard Bar and Grill fundraising regatta off Annapolis that Saturday). I took my trusty pocket waterproof camera and shot a very short video of the 6-7 mile jaunt (including selfie).





I was delivering the Freedom 21 down to Annapolis for the annual Boatyard Bar and Grill fundraising regatta, where, as it turns out, US Sailing had decided to feature this years regatta, and CRAB, in this well done video.




The local Chesapeake Bay sailing rag, Spinsheet Magazine, captured the elusive blogmeister crewing at a previous Wounded Warriors Regatta.

Photo courtesy of Spinsheet Magazine

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Fellow Boaters!

Some of us have put our boats away for winter while some in the south and in the islands enjoy boating year around. Whether you are using your boat or have winterized it, it is a good time to come up with a to do list for your boat for the upcoming season. Some examples of things to add to your list:

• Is your safety gear up to date and does it meet federal and your state requirements? Here is a link for the USCG requirements: http://www.uscgboating.org/assets/1/workflow_staging/Publications/420.PDF
• All boats with living space should have smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms, do you? If so, then this is a good time to change batteries if you have not done so.
• Do you have an EPIRB? If so is the registration and battery in date?
• Remove your hand held fire extinguishers and turn upside down and hit the bottom with your hand, can you hear the dry powder settle? If not your fire extinguisher might be compacted and need replacement. If any doubts you can have inspected professionally. When was the last time the fire extinguisher in the engine room last inspected?
• Check you thru-hull vales, are the handles easy to turn, how do they look, corrosion, when was the last time they were serviced? 
• Check all of the hoses and hose clamps, replace if needed.
• Inspect your fuel lines and condition of your fuel system. Does your fuel system meet USCG requirements?
• If you have lead acid batteries, check the electrolyte, are you batteries secure? Are the wire terminals tight?
• If you have an inboard engine, how is the condition of your stuffing box, cutlass bearing? Is your engine aligned properly.
• How is the condition of your lifelines? I often find lifelines that need replacement because of corrosion and cracks in the swage fittings.
• If you own a sailboat, when was the last time the rigging inspected? 
• On sailboats chain plates are often neglected. Inspect for water intrusion, pitting and cracks. I have found Thermal Imaging to be useful in finding signs of trapped moisture in chain plates embedded in fiberglass.
• If laying your sailboat up for the season, this is a good time to remove your sails and have them inspected at a sail loft. Also it is a good time to order a new sail, some lofts offer discounts over the winter.
• Make a list of improvements you want for your boat and get estimates and see if any yards are offering discounts for work completed over the winter.
• For us with metal boats this is a good time to inspect our bilges, sail lockers, lazarettes, and engine rooms for corrosion. Insure these areas are clean. 

I am sure I could keep going, but you get the idea. I am wishing everyone a safe and enjoyable 2014!
Happy Boating!

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Optimist Pram Project Starting Back

After an exciting summer of sailing and sailboat racing, we are returning to the Optimist project. In the effort to make these boats as inexpensive as possible we have purchased luan plywood to sheath the hull of our boats.

Our decision to use luan was based on information given to us by John Bridges who has been building Optimists since the 1960s. He has built Optimists of luan and they have been in service for over 5 years. That is longer than we will probably need the boats.

We will also be stacking these hulls after sailing them - leaving no water in them to cause problems. Additionally, we will be priming our hulls with CPES (clear penetrating epoxy sealer) as a way to be sure that the absorption of water is slow.

Today, we worked on the hull sides.

1. Working on three boats requires 5 sheets of plywood to complete all the hull skins. 
2. We ripped two full sheets on 16 inches the long way. This gave us 6 strips to use as hull sides.
3. Temporarily attaching one side to trace the contour, we removed the piece and cut a bit proud of the pencil line. 
4. We checked to see if the template piece fit all three hulls - it did.
5. Using Locktite PL Construction adhesive, we laid a bead of glue along the chine and bow/transom about half way down the hull.
6. Starting at the transom we worked forward placing screws about 5 inches apart.
7. We worked in a zig-zag pattern of top then bottom as we worked forward to be sure not to pucker or buckle the plywood.

Starting aft and working the plank forward.

One side of the hull secured and curing.

Three hulls with starboard sides attached.

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Kaagweek 75 Years Ago

Kaagweek and Sneekweek are the two big sailing regatta weeks in The Netherlands. Kaagweek occurs first, somewhere around the middle of July. I came across this historically interesting video of Kaagweek filmed in 1940, seventy five years ago.

Unfortunately the video settings restricts embedding on Earwigoagin, Click here to view the video.

After viewing this video several times, thinking about it and researching, Ive come to the conclusion this sailing regatta video offers up so many layers of meaning and so many unanswered questions, it ranks as the most fascinating sailing video Ive viewed

My first viewings of this video took in the pastoral beauty, the windmills, the myriad of, now traditional, Dutch classes heeling gracefully as they race their way up the small fingers formed by the dike systems, the spectators dining at the waters edge, the formal race committee attire, the pretty women walking the dock, ogled by young sailors. People are having fun, which is the whole point of a sailing week. The soundtrack of wistful swing tunes from that era adds to this period piece.

It was then I realized that the 1940 Kaagweek took place two months after the Nazis had overrun Holland. This Kaagweek was taking place in occupied Holland. Kaag looks to be about 15 km. from Rotterdam and during the invasion, the Nazi Luftwaffe had completely leveled the center of Rotterdam.

The 1940 Kaagweek must have been held with the Nazis approval. The question becomes whether this video was put together as Nazi propaganda to show that "normalcy" had returned to occupied Holland, or whether it was filmed surreptitiously as a home movie by a Dutch videographer. The production values suggests it may have been Nazi propaganda. Of note is at the 8:21 mark of the video, there is a stern-faced spectator wearing the Jewish star.

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Reader WaveDancer disagrees with my assessment that the video was Nazi propaganda. Ive dragged his comment over to the main post:

"I doubt that this video was German propaganda. After the surrender of The Netherlands, it took some time for the German occupation to show its true Nazi colors. PS: Whereas de Kaag is definitely in Holland, Sneek is not! The country should be referred to as The Netherlands. Wavedancer (who was born there, just around that time)"

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Wikipedia states that 205,000 civilians would die in the occupation of Holland with 1/2 of that number being Dutch Jews who died in the Holocaust. Many of those young sailors shown in the video would be forced to labor in German factories during the war. Im not sure how many sailing regattas were still held in Western Europe during the summer of 1940 but by 1941, sailboat racing had ceased (with the exception of the Nantais Moth, which the Nazis and the French Vichy government allowed to be built during the war).

July 10, 2015 also marks the 75th anniversary of beginning of the Battle of Britain, the approximate 2 month air battle where the Nazi Luftwaffe came within a sliver of destroying the British RAF. That the Nazis didnt break the RAF would mark one of the turning points of  World War II. Goering and the Luftwaffe would then turn in September of 1940 to bombing the British cities in an attempt to force capitulation.

One of the mysteries of my life is how my loving mother, with her parents and siblings, endured the chaos, death, and destruction of the London blitz, and later the V-1 doodlebug, and V-2 rocket attacks. I never detected any true bitterness from her. She still maintains the attitude of always looking forward, never looking back - probably a residue of that British "stiff upper lip".  The courage it took to maintain day-to-day living under such conditions still amazes me.

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October 22 26 Sailing Pandora an Aerodyne 47 From North of Essex CT to Hampton VA

This was the third time I have crewed on passages for Bob, the first aboard his new love, Pandora. Before we get to the passage, let me describe her, by reference to his old one, which was a Saga 43, like ILENE.
                        Pandora              ILENE
Length                  47                      43
Beam                    14                      12
Draft                      66"                    58"
Mast Height          64                      63.5
Displacement         11.5 tons           10 tons
So Pandora is the big sister, with a lot more room inside, but not much heavier; due to both longer waterline length and lighter weight she is faster.

Many similarities: Both have the Solent rig for the two headsails, though Pandoras jibs foot is secured to a Hoyt boom, A nice feature is two amidships cleats so that each spring line has its own cleat. She has a solid glassed in hard dodger which is perhaps five feet long, so there is plenty of shelter under the dodger against waves and wind. Unfortunately, that dodger is less than 63" above the deck, resulting in some close encounters with my clumsy noggin. And Pandora has the larger more sophisticated and newer Raymarine instruments with four displays of the chart plotter: (1) at the helm, (2) on the starboard coach roof at the forward end of the cockpit, (3) at the nav station and (4) in the port side pullman berth so the captain can check up on things from his bed! And, like ILENE, she had a head forward of the pullman berth but aft of the chain locker. She has two large lazarettes on the bow, one for the fenders and dock lines and she also has a bow thruster that lowers down from inside the hull when needed and then pushes the bow from side to side. At each side of the cockpit, just aft of the dodger, are two powerful Anderson electric winches to tame the lines which are all led there, and further aft is another pair of winches.

for greater control while still self- tacking. Both boats have the greatest weight at the bottom of the keel, though Pandoras is a bulb rather than a shoe. Pandora has no toe rail and no bolts fastening the edge of the deck to the hull; rather these two major structural parts, both vacuum molded, are glassed together into one very solid piece with a small curve at the edge of the wide side decks. A very clean look.
She has a radar arch and at its port side, on fore and aft sliding tracks, is a davit block for lifting the outboard from the dink.
Friday, October 22
Bob picked me up from the Old Saybrook railroad station about 4 pm. The first thing we did was secure the 15 hp outboard to a pad on the aft rail and hoist up the Caribe fiberglass RIB dink by its nose, over the lifeline and laid it upside down, facing forward under the boom. We deflated it and tied it to itself to make it smaller in order to avoid chafing the lines and increase visibility around it a bit.

Then a delicious dinner at Bobs home cooked by Bob and Brenda, punctuated by the arrival of Gregg and his wife, son and future daughter in law, just in time for desert. After which, we all headed back to the boat so Greggs family could see it and I hit the rack early. I was assigned the quarterberth which is to starboard and has a separate entrance to the aft head. I think I got the best berth on the boat, roomy with no need for a lee cloth, as were rigged for the other berths, and the greatest privacy and shelter from potential cold drafts, while it also boasts three opening ports to catch a breeze in port, though it has two electric fans. Plenty of room for two.
Saturday October 23
In the morning we had to secure the nicely trussed dink to the boat so that potential big waves would not wash it away, rig the lifelines and preventers and deal with one small problem: no autopilot!! Bob did not panic but recalled that the workmen had opened the pod that contains its controls while working on something else. We reopened it, reinserted the plug and voila, the most reliable member of our crew, Auto, was back in action and we were underway at 7 am amidst the fall foliage on the Connecticut River.

Gregg had the helm until we transited Plum Gut and I  took over until we had rounded Montauk Point.

Then Bob set the waypoint as the buoy off Cape May. During our days together I learned that Gregg is a great guy. He has long experience with cat boats and currently has a Nonesuch 33, which he aptly calls a modern cat boat, based on its large sail set on a mast that is forward. He keeps her at a club in Stratford on the Housatonic River. I have never sailed on that river but plan to remedy that deficiency this summer. Gregg also races extensively and wins a lot, on other peoples boats, mostly a Saber 35 in the summer and dinghys during the winter frostbite series. Gregg is also the Director of Bridgeports municipal zoo where he has worked for near four decades and has a great eye for seeing and identifying wildlife, at sea and on land.
We used the main and small jib which provided plenty of power on our port tack broad reach out in the Atlantic with the winds from the northeast. We had one encounter with a Russian freighter which overtook us on our port side and crossed in front of us. It appeared that he would pass less than half a mile from us but Bob called him and he agreed to alter course about five degrees to port and thus passed 2.5 miles away. We enjoyed big ocean rollers, perhaps eight feet high but 100 feet apart that we glided over gently, the most lovely ocean sensation. We were averaging better than eight knots and peaking at more than ten.
Today was our coldest day, and the coldest part was during the day. I kept putting on more layers and ended up with pajamas under my jeans and four heavy long sleeve shirt, all under heavy duty foulie tops and bottoms, two pairs of heavy socks in my sea boots, two pairs of gloves, a watch hat and a scarf. But the chill did not get bad at night.

Bob fed us well on this trip. Today it was toasted muffins with our coffee, Grilled cheese sandwiches and in anticipation of the cold, two large bowls of tortilla soup which included all of the meat of a rotisserie chicken.

Sunday October 24
Not many photos at sea so we take sunrises and sets when we can. I requested and was granted my favorite off watch time: 8 p.m. to midnight, when I usually lose steam. But while I slept the Captains orders were wisely amended. We did not need two watch standers at all times during darkness because we were harnessed and tethered to a jack line in the cockpit, mostly under the dodger except when we periodically scanned the horizon and it was not stormy. As a result of this change, I enjoyed the unexpected and unusual luxury of more than seven consecutive hours off at night, taking the watch again from 3:30 a.m. until about eight.

With just the two of us aboard ILENE, we relieve each other more often.  Bob called the weather guru, Chris Parker, via SSB and we learned that the potential stop in Cape May for a day due to  potential bad weather would not be needed. While the wind would eventually come to our bow, it would not be strong and we could just power through it. So we changed the waypoint from off the Cape May harbor entrance to a buoy off Cape Charles, the northern end of the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, and altered course a few degrees to port.  Checking we saw that the dotted line took us very clse to shallow water off shore so we altered course a few more degrees to port to create a buffer. The GPS computed our arrival at about 11 a.m. and I figured another four hours to get from there to the dock in Hampton.
During the afternoon I did what I like to do on friends boats and put about 20 whippings in the ends of Pandoras lines. The wind got lighter and came around to the port beam. We put up the genoa for a while and later used a motor assist, turning it off when the winds looked like they would let us sail. Some hours we made only six knots and that seemed slow on Pandora but many boats cant go that fast at any wind speed. And we did not get the opportunity to see how Pandora does when heeled because this was a no-heeling trip.
Todays menu: gourmet honey-drizzled boat-baked drop biscuits with the coffee, tuna salad for lunch and a pasta with onions, sausages and cheese for dinner, all with chocolate chip cookies, snack bars and fruit. Like I said, no one went hungry. Bob is both cook and captain, and if the crew is not vigilant he washes the dishes too.
Monday October 25
When I came on about midnight, we were motoring and close hauled under main alone. A peaceful watch until the end when I almost damaged Pandora and made a big bang that got Bob out in a hurry. The wind had come further around so that it was now directly on our nose. So I winched in the mainsail to lie directly fore and aft to serve as a stabilizer. But I did not realize that the preventer was still attached and the bang was the giving way of the short piece of Spectra line that held its block to the base of a stanchion. Bob was correctly concerned that the block snapped back and hit and damaged the boat but he conducted a close inspection by flashlight, followed by another in daylight, which showed that no damage had been done. Whew! I like to improve my friends boats, e.g., the whipping, not damage them. I would not have guessed that the preventer, which is used to avoid the accidental jibe on a broad reach, would be engaged when we were sailing close hauled.
At the mouth of the Chesapeake there was a lot of shipping. I learned something about the Bay: there is no inside channel for deep draft merchant shipping heading south through the Bay from lets say Baltimore to Norfolk. What they have to do is follow the channel SE out of the Bay over the northern tunnel of the Bay Bridge Tunnel, and then go back in heading west in the channel over the southern tunnel. We sailed across this while one of the big guys swung clockwise past our stern. Skies were grey today as compared to the sunshine of the prior days. Here is the portion of the bridge between the two tunnels.

We were tied to the dock at 1:30 pm (elapsed time 55.5 hours for the 350 mile course) and celebrated our safe arrival, Bob to the left.

Gregg and I gave Pandoras exterior a soap and water scrubbing while Bob cleaned the interior. Then we showered, accepted a ride from a friend of Bob to the airport to pick up our car, and dined together at a local place and turned in for the night.

Sunday October 26

We rose, packed, breakfasted, thanked and said good by to Bob, had our picture taken and got underway at 8:45 am. Gregg and I took turns and drove across the Bay Bridge Tunnel whose fare has not risen in many years: still $13. The highways of the Delmarva peninsula have improved a lot in the last few decades, however. I had planned to get off at Fort Washington Avenue and 178th street to take the A train home but realized that there was a better drop off point at the Pelham station of the number 6 train. Gregg took over from there and was able to deliver the car to the New Haven airport before the 6:30 deadline.
Bob wrote a blog on a daily basis during out voyage (Google: sailpandora) and has since taken off from Hampton to Tortola, BVIs with another crew.Godspeed! I will read his blog after I post this one. I suspect he will have different observations about our trip together.
This was my last sail of 2015 though work continues on winterization and improvements, so stay tuned.  All told, on ILENE and other boats I sailed or lived aboard on 190 days of the 360 this calendar year. Im satisfied.
I got home in time to take the subway up to 34th Street for a panel discussion about the history on New Yorks waterways, at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. I had suggested this program to all Harlemites but was rather glad that none showed up. While I enjoyed it (it was moderated by Russell Shorto, whose book about Dutch New Amsterdam my book group had read) it was rather limited to the Dutch period and would not have satisfied the 21st Century sailor.

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May 15 16 Colonial Beach VA to St Marys MD and Lay Day There 35 5 Miles

Cool last night. Lene likes fresh air but we kept the hatches and ports closed. We got a late start this morning, 9 am, and it cost us adverse tide until the last eight miles up the beautiful St. Marys River, which was a delicious engineless broad port reach to Horseshoe Bend, with diminishing wind that gradually slowed us from eight to four knots as the headlands on either side cut off the wind. Before this, out in the Potomac, the propeller rattle reappeared and we motorsailed with main and small jib. It was slow at first with light wind and then there were 25 knots, but on our nose, requiring us to beat our way down the Potomac. It was Friday and we saw our first substantial river traffic. A tug was pushing a heavily laden barge in Kettle Bottom Shoals Channel. I called and he asked me to stay outside the channel, which I had planned to do anyway. Also about four cruising sailboats and about ten fishing boats dragging vanes to spread out their lines; they take up a lot of room but we had no close calls. Your photographer was inattentive; sorry.
Horseshoe Bend is roughly circular and about two thirds of a mile in diameter, with water in the teens almost to its edges. On its SE side, near where we anchored in 16 feet of water with 100 feet of snubbed chain, is the waterside sailing center of St Marys College. We are center right. Lots of kids out on skiffs, SUPs, and kayaks. Free use of the schools dinghy dock. A most welcoming place. The school is celebrating its 175th anniversary and has only 2000 students; Lene and I attended much larger schools. St. Marys is

an "honor" college of the University of Maryland. It has the only eating facility in the area, its cafeteria, where you can get all you can eat for $13 for dinner. But with graduation on our lay day, we had their last supper, burgers and dogs. We actually attended the graduation ceremony, why not.  Rashad Robinson, director of The Color of Change, a million member strong on line civil rights group,  gave an address and received an honorary doctorate degree. We stayed until the roll call of the names of the 430 scholars who were awarded their BAs was begun and then toured the campus, which was mostly locked up. We could hear but not see the speakers and a lot more people were seated to the left. The Bend is in the background left. A lovely setting.

 Across the road from the college is "Historic St. Marys City", which was the capital of the Maryland colony from 1636 to 1695, when they moved the colonys capital to Annapolis. Dont get this place confused with the St. Mary on the St. Marys River at the southern edge of Georgia, where we celebrated Thanksgiving.

This is the frame of "a lawyers house" in the former, and possibly future, historic city. It is there to mark where the house was. If they get money they plan to rebuild it as they have some of the houses, stores, a barn a church and the meeting house.





One of the best features is the Dove, built to resemble  a supply ship that accompanied the settlers in 1635. This one has a diesel, hidden away in its bowels, and GPS as backup to its octant. It actually sails, once a month, in the St. Marys River, and once a year it goes further, such as across the Bay.

Here is the Doves Bosn, Jeremy, a retired navy corpsman. We enjoyed talking with each other.

The colony was founded by Catholics who created the first experiment in what our Constitution now calls "the free exercise of religion". But colonial rule was influenced by the religious war in England between Protestants and Catholics, and the experiment was short lived, when the tides of the war turned.








Here is my land docent, (Is it Gretchen, Im so sorry I forgot your name and Lene discarded the paper on which I wrote it!),

soon to graduate from St. Marys with a Masters in Education and return to teaching HS history. The Historic City might become another colonial Williamsburg or Jamestown  but is suffers from a somewhat remote location. They are conflicted between two methods of restoration. The expensive way requires mega doses of expert historians to get it right and craftspeople with knowledge of  and access to period materials and tools. Much cheaper is to erect a structure that looks kinda like what they think the old building looked like. A complicating factor for them is that the land was put to other uses in the intervening centuries, such as a tobacco plantation with its own greathouse in the 19th Century.
I had never heard of the St. Marys settlement and it is a very interesting place to visit and easy for sailors, near the mouth of the Potomac.

Our last night, we experienced a 35 knot thunderstorm. I put on instruments and sat in the cockpit to check against dragging, but we were not, and once having sustained winds of that strength, we relied on the fact that the anchor had dug itself in deep, and called off the watch for the duration. Just a bit lumpy out there.

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Header Photo Australian NS 14 Down the Mine

The previous header photo was the Australian, two-man, NS 14 dinghy "going down the mine" off of Andersons Inlet, South Gippsland Yacht Club, Inverloch, Victoria.

The NS 14 is an indigenous Australian development class; a two person hiking, no spinnaker class. It is 4.27 meters (14) long and 1.8 meters (just under 6) wide. Those who have read Frank Bethwaites High Performance Sailing know that Franks first forays into dinghy design experimentation were in the NS 14 class and that his successful NS 14 designs were the basis for his one-design Tasar.

The 1960s NS 14 fleet.

Six older NS 14s were imported into the San Diego area around the new millennium and when that effort of fleet building stalled, one or two were brought east, specifically to the West River Sailing Club, with transplanted Aussie, Tony Arends owning one. Sadly I was never around the club when they showed up and missed the chance to take one out for a spin. West River SC already had a fleet of Jet 14s so the NS 14 was again a non-starter in the United States. Im not sure what happened to the boats.

Some more photos culled from the Internet:

The somewhat smallish 9.3 sq. meter sail plans features the now de rigueur square-top (or nearly a square-top) main. The fleet uses a very deep over-rotating mast for more power.

The NS 14 has the modern, double bottom, full draining interior.

To save weight the reverse sheer profile is very "humpy", aggressively turning down at the stern.

Our impressive duo from the header photo, après pitchpoling.

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