Single handed sailing

What was it Mom always say about single handed sailing:

- "One hand for the ship, one hand for yourself?

- "Always wear your harness and clip into your lifeline? ...or was it:

-"Fly there instead and stay in a hotel". (actually, I think the only thing she did say was, "where do you stop at night?")

Well, even the great Chuck Handy can go overboard, and he just blogged about it.
Chuck is a circumnavigator and an itinerant (reknowned) boatbuilder who worked here on Cangarda among many, many other projects. Now, on Deviant he's on his way to the Marshall Islands (wherever they are). Clearly, I'm in no position to lecture anyone at any time on any subject, but for crissakes Chuck...at least wear sun block.
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For all the Cangarda blogee's out there, Chief Jordan raised steam this weekend. He fired up the boiler (by hand) and carefully got it up to ~100 psi...even turned over the main engine a half a revolution. Congratulations, Pete.

Brooks Dees' GP 26

On May 1st, Brooks launched Salt Peanuts next door at Bay Ship and Yacht. Right after launching, he sailed it off the dock:

Here's the video of the first sail in what looks like 10 -12 knots off Richmond (you can see Angel Island in the background). Salt Peanuts is a GP 26, a developmental class, which is gaining popularity in Europe. It's the first one in the US, and Brooks designed (and built) it.

Salt Peanuts is featured in this week's Sailing Anarchy, which would be worth a visit even if Brooks weren't the headline. Tri-Coastal homies know that Brooks worked here in the late 90's. He left to work for Jim Antrim. Now his day job is with BS&Y in Alameda. I don't make predictions (especially about the future!), but I'm hoping this is going to be his breakthrough boat.

Check out Brooks' site

Cangarda to go to Mystic

Hot off the press -- Cangarda will be donated to Mystic Seaport! Here's a recent newspaper article. (At least I assume it's a newspaper...it's so hard to tell nowadays when anyone can post a Blog!!!). "A San Francisco area boatyard has just completed a four-year restoration of the yacht. The work included construction of a new hull and restoration of the elaborate Victorian interior and woodwork. The museum said the current owner of the Cangarda, which is one of only three of its kind left in the world, wishes to remain anonymous." Interesting to read "has just completed a four-year restoration"...wonder what all those guys are doing out there today? ;-)

Percy posted a comment asking what the heck happened to Steve Cobb? Captain Cobb was involved with Cangarda since the beginning...in fact, since before the beginning. Here's a link to an article about him that appeared in Power and Motor Yacht back in 2003. Some time ago he sent me a link to some of his Cangarda pictures. Some nice engine room shots, although it's way more crowded in there since those pictures were taken.

I don't know what happened to Steve. I think he may have just got fed up with the slow pace of work...he's married and has a life back in Camden, Me. Email him and ask (steamer@midcoast.com). I believe the owner may not have felt a pressing need to have a licensed captain on board as he intends to operate both the vessel and the steam plant himself (that's the purpose of the plant automation). Even though Cangarda is a yacht, it is subject to federal regulation (assuming it is reflagged in the US) since it has a steam boiler on board. I'm not certain that all the regulatory issues have been resolved.

With regards to Percy's comment about the wisdom taking the vessel and ancient steam plant on a long sea voyage as soon as it is completed (the owner's intention)...well, good luck to "they who go down to the Sea in Ships".

Making steam (actually hot water)

Chief Jordan et al have done as they said they would...fire up Cangarda's burners. Now ladies and gentlemen, here is the first dramatic, photographic evidence of their success.

Apparently, the first step prior to actually making steam is to boil out the boilers to clean out the chemicals and mill scale left over from fabrication. They had to jury rig the burners, blowers, et cetera to make a fire, but...they did it!

Cangarda make steam (um...actual just hot water)

I think Pete is going back to Maine for a coupla' three weeks until the electricians finish their wiring. Next step is regulated steam. Check back for breaking news!

I see the film company put up a link to the movie trailer: http://kailuna.com/ultimate_restorations.html

Check it out and get back to me.

Cangarda update

"I am going to get my nut on this trip, Miles. And you are not going to fuck it up for me with all your depression and anxiety and neg-head downer shit." Jack, Sideways, 2004.

Supposedly, I am one of the major neg-head downers of the marine world. (Years ago, a sailing magazine described me as "a bucket of cold seawater in the face of nautical enthusiasm". It's me nature.) And maybe, yes, I've been a little too down on the prospects of Cangarda raising steam and actually navigating any time in the near future.

Today that changed.

Pete Jordan is the real deal. Marine Chief Engineer Motor & Steam any horsepower, Pete is something like Scotty on the Starship Enterprise -- he will make the engines run, even if he has to go down to the Vulcan surface and mine the DiLithium crystals himself.

"I'll get it running alright...it may not be pretty, but it will run."

Innovation in Yachting Part B

"Mast aft rig, mast aft rig, mast aft rig..." Say that ten times as fast as you can and I think it starts to sound rude. Well, it turns out there is a whole internet world out there full of people writing, designing and building these mast aft rigs, which I previously didn't even have a name for. Obviously, I have been living in Plato's Cave, imagining the real world. In fact, thousands of words have been written about this subject, and numerous vessels actually built:

Here's one with a slightly different rig that looks like it's going along okay.

This could be the boat next door in sailing trim

All this and more can be found here: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/showthread.php?t=623 , the scope, and effort of which simply proves the central theme of my previous blog entry.

I taught an Introduction to Yacht Design class years ago at Cal Extension. I tried holding it on Saturday mornings (obviously before my child was born); however, many of the sailors in the class objected to that hour (fruitlessly). They needed Saturday mornings to get ready for racing. I said that there were two kinds of people who were interested in boats, those who actually liked to go boating, and those who liked to stay inside and think about going, and the class was for the latter.

Innovation in yachting

About once a month we have a middle-aged (meaning "old") white man present us with a great innovation in yacht design. He would like us to enable, share and perhaps even invest in his idea. Sailing surface effect catamarans, inflatable trimarans, jet quadramarans, mating the bow of a New England fishing schooner with the stern of a Colin Archer redningskoite, vessels that stick to the sea surface by surface tension... I can state categorically that in the fifteen years I have been in this office, not a single one of those ideas has been offered up by a person of color, a women or anyone under fifty for that matter. They've all been old, white men.

There must be something about marine design that inherently encourages innovation. I'm not talking about not the careful, plodding, boring innovation based on science or previous examples, rather the pure form that comes directly from the unconscious, unmitigated by practicality, expense, or physics. It's probably because there is little or no regulation in yacht design or construction. Commercial ships are subject to a world of regulation, federal and international, governing construction, operation and navigation. But in the US, even large pleasure yachts are essentially free from regulation.

Thus, a mature man can have a vision of a solar powered crystal house, from which the shit flows up hill, but unless it meets the building codes, he can't tie it into the sewer, the electrical grid, or even live in it. He can build a visionary aircraft, but can't fly it anywhere unless a powerful and emasculating goverment agency (that would be the FAA), finds it airworthy. Blind, ignorant government regulators, conspiring to stifle innovation and freedom. It is frustrating to a free man.

At least there is the Sea. If a (white) man can envision his vessel (say a solar powered trimaran built entirely from beer kegs) he can build it, and, if he chooses, sail it out of the Golden Gate, with his whole family of home schooled children on board. No one can stop him.

The Relentless is next door at Bay Ship right now.
Okay, I truly don't know how this vessel sails...maybe it skims across the top of the waves, while the owner and his content crew sit warm and dry below in a spacious cabin, sipping drinks as they reel off the miles. Then maybe not.

Where is the front of the boat? Let's see...look for the rudder. Ha ha, that's a trick question. I guess they took the rudder off to fix it, so it's hard to figure out. I'll make it easy for you, see the propeller...that must be the back.

The big wishbone spar in the back is the mast, which supports the two headstays. The rig is tensioned by the backstay, which is supported by the two jumper struts. I imagine the design concept was that mainsails are bad because the mast interferes with the luff of the sail, especially to weather. Solve the problem by putting the mast behind the sails...voila. I wonder how it goes.

I keep looking for the owner so I can find out more about this innovative vessel. (And if the owner reads this, you may alert me to your presence by throwing a rock at my building.)

The Gaff Rig

Here's a little known fact. The absolute world sailing speed record for absolutely any type of vessel under any sail plan, was made with a gaff rigged sail. (WTF?-- that's impossible!) Yet here is proof, a video of the event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KISRG6USvj4&feature=related

That's Antoine Albeau going 49.09 knots at Les Saintes Maries on the March 5th. But wait, that's not a gaff rig...it's a windsurfer. Well my homies, you're wrong again. Check it:

This an illustration of my current, favorite sail, which is a de-tuned version of the one Albeau just sailed at over 56 mph. Note the sail is square on top, and inside that square top is a gaff, a little carbon fiber gaff. Yes, it's a real gaff and it does everything the gaff on a gaff rig should do.

Windsurfing has ruined sailing for me. I can't stand sailing on a real sail boat anymore. Oh, once a year or so I'll go out and lash around the Bay, just to be friendly, but it all seems so pointless and slow. And the one thing that drives me to desperation is the way the main sail on a typical racer/cruiser sets and is trimmed. The first third of the sail (from the leading edge) is blanketed by the mast, the leech is too tight and they are always oversheeted. (A short aside to all the racer/cruisers out there: you're oversheeting your main. Don't argue with me about this...just ease the sheet out, now.)

How is it that a lowly, ordinary windsurfer out performs huge, million dollar sailing machines? They're the fastest, and yet they have several huge disadvantages: they're small relative to the wave size, the sails are small and low experience the highest wind gradient, and they have a huge bluff body (the sailor) standing to windward of the sail. In spite of those obstacles, they are the fastest. Why? Because of the awesome gaff rigged sails.

Our website has a little bit on the old timey gaff rig. But that's not what I want. Now I have a vision. Every sailing vessel should be rigged with windsurfer sails.

Pier 3 San Francisco at 6:30 am

Waiting for Coast Guard to show up, this is the view from the upper deck of the Flyer at 6:30 am this morning. Beautiful I suppose...if only sunrise could happen at a decent hour later in the day! I believe we avoided an inclining experiment for this vessel and substituted a "Deadweight survey", which is cheaper, faster with only a slight decrease in accuracy.

Alcatraz Flyer (ex Bay Flyer, ex Long Beach Prince) had an accurate inclining experiment and deadweight survey in 1975 (witnessed and approved by Coast Guard), the results of that are still valid. Although Flyer was recently spiffed up and repowered (de-powered), it is possible to calculate the change, if the weights are accurately known, which we do. Since the Cosco Busan disaster, local Coast Guard has be extra careful about vessel inspections.

Cangarda's engine room

I've had a couple of requests (demands) for updated photos of Cangarda, as well as angry comments on the lack of progress. I just walked out there and took some pictures in engine room. It's so full, that it's hard to get away far enough to get an image that conveys the complexity. Here's shot looking down at the foot of the ladder showing some of the piping underneath the sole.

Under the engine room sole

I believe there are twenty-eight valves in the fuel supply located below the engine room sole. Most of those are remotely actuated, computer controlled valves part of the automatic combustion control system. (That's exclusive of the fuel transfer system. See the photo below).

Twenty-eight valves (just for the fuel), located below the sole, all of which have to be correctly operated to maintain combustion...hmmm. There is the theory of the normal accident first put forth by Charles Perrow in 1984 (and lately adopted by Nasa to explain their catastrophic system failures). Normal in the sense that when a system becomes so complicated, failure is statistically normal.
Very neatly made fuel transfer manifold

It's very complicated...how did it happen? I've had many questions in that vein. Originally, Cangarda/Magedoma had a naturally convected, coal fired furnace. The coal fire, raked by hand, boiled water in the boiler, which ran the main engine and auxiliary machinery. The intensity of the fire was controlled by shoveling in more coal and opening the furnace doors to admit more air. The coal soot and ash was blown out the stack, the expended clinkers shoveled overboard, and the permanent nine man crew kept the boat and guests pretty clean with constant hard labor.

The main reason is boats aren't allowed to simply blow coal soot out their stacks and shovel ash overboard anymore. A diesel fire is inherently cleaner, requiring fewer crew to maintain the boat in its lovely state. With controlled combustion and a forced draft, it's possible to get more power out of a given volume. But the power, convenience and cleanliness come at a cost...complexity. I see Jeff and the owner are giving a paper this weekend at the Classic Yacht Symposium at the Herreshoff Museum of Yachting in Bristol, RI. Maybe there will be more information on Cangarda's current status there.