Boat Plans Nz | BCBCBfest!!!

Boat Plans Nz

AHOOOY Intrepid Readers!

Yours truly is back and with a tale of journey to tell!  Actually, SCOUT and I have TWO stories, but they will be added in installments.  The first story is a four day trek on minimal left-over foodstuffs that spanned mid-coast Maine from Belfast-Castine-Brooklin-Castine-Belfast, or as I like to call it, the BCBCBfest! It almost sounds like a famous punk-rock bar that is now closed in NYC, but not quite and probably not as cool.

Lets get this party started, right here on your favorite Amateur Style network!

Red = Sailing
Black = Iron Mizzen
Yellow = Rowing

DAY MINUS UNO (-1)

The first day minus one day was spent with Capn Jon of TWO HEARTED.  He has a new transportation device, an expedition length Old Town Canoe Tripper XL, henceforth dubbed, "THE TRIPPAH." We spent an evening on the Kennebec and trippahed down to a Renys, which is a Maine Institution, like Hamilton Marine, but less marine-y.  I needed a pair of muck boots, and I definitely found them, and for the right price (15$)!  My life afloat has dramatically changed with these boots.  Why did I wait so long? Thank you Renys! (No joke, life changing).

BOOTS! and Capn Jon sprawling around.  But the BOOTS!

DAY UNO

Characteristically late, and catching the last of the outgoing tide before it became a threat to forward progress I sailed out of Belfast Harbor with a stiff Southwesterly sea breeze coming up Penobscot Bay.  Think:  Outgoing tide, incoming wind.  Since I was in a rush, I was in t-shirt and didnt button up the center cockpit under the tonneau cover.  Woops.

Half way across Penobscot to the north end of Isleboro, I ended up stuffing the bow into the chop.  The Sea Pearl has some great design features.  The water I was shipping aboard flowed back to the aft cockpit, and drained out the stern (I thoughtfully opened the plug), and so swamping wasnt too much an issue.  The bow-stuff maneuver was a first time event for me, and SCOUT shook it off and kept marching forward.  I ended up reefing multiple times as the further I left Belfast behind the higher the wind velocity and the steeper the chop.  It got to a point where I was taking so much water I put on my dry-suit.  My heart rate was up, a tad.

I stayed very determined on the north point of Isleboro, because I knew when I cleared that, the fetch would diminish significantly and I could enjoy some calmer waters.  The goal was Castine, and I planned to throw the hook in a little harbor between the Ram Islands.

Entering the lee from Isleboro and calmer waters

Everything is soaked.  Canvas bags worked! Sleeping bag dry.

Four wraps in on the mainsail reef.

Safe harbor in Ram Island with Castine in the distance.

Something big this way comes.

Did I mention my new boots?!  Life is awesome!

DAY DOS

Up and at em early I motored out of the little bay and headed down south to enter the Eggomoggin Reach.  I was somewhat something kind of planning to head to Mount Desert Isle/Acadia and sail up Somes Sound, which I hear is legendary.  However, I was flexible and was going to let chips fall as they may.  Rounding the Head of the Cape the wind picked up and I killed the Tohatsu and fired up the sails.  We had a very enjoyable sail down the Egg Reach, under the Deer Isle bridge, and down to Center Harbor/Brooklin, where we had an interesting and unexpected meet up with the good people over at OffCenterHarbor.com.  They were sailing a 7-strake Caledonia Yawl, and were a little intrigued at SCOUT and I bebopping around the coast like a bunch of worthless bums.  We spent a few minutes discussing particulars, and there is a good chance well see some SCOUT and me over at OffCenterHarbor.com.  I will admit I was somewhat trepidatious, as SCOUT and I arent the most clinical of sailing types, with sails and oar and sacrilegious motors and lots of loud opinions, but as Eric piped up, they are "off" Center Harbor, after all.  I was sold.

Its really a wonderful website with lots of great videos and I highly recommend the subscription, its kind of like WoodenBoat/SmallCraftAdvisor but online and with videos.  Capn Jon certainly likes his. (and thats an endorsement!)  If youre an arm-chair winter-sailor like me, this is a great hint-hint for the better half.  Just sayin.

Sea-side cabin

Fall is coming to New England.  You cant stop it.

Deer Isle bridge.  A rite of passage for all boats.

Apologies about the blurry but this is MARTHA, E.B. Whites boat.  
This is his boat.  No joke. I pass close to legend.

A little Chesapeake skiff. 

I dont know what this is (International 210), 
but it looks fast, and it looks mean, and I want one.

YAY Beetle Cat! I love Beetle Cats. They saved me when I was lost.

Tom Jacksons FAR AND AWAY looking lonely under the green tarp. 
Cmon, Tom, lets go sailing!

SCOUT hiding behind Little Hog

Sunset over the Egg Reach. 

Home sweet home.  Cooking up some random rice bag found floating in the bilge and enjoying
the heat from my German lantern.  Go lantern, go!  Keep the cold and humidity at bay! 

DAY TRIOS

This was day four without a shower and since OffCenterHarbor was coming my way I took a sponge bath of sorts which was cold and exhilarating and brutal all at once.  I will say, that my view from my morning constitutional was fantastic, however.

The view from The Can.

OFC and I did a little sailing and a little video and then I went off to the holey of Holies, Wooden Boat where I totally clinched my "Small Boats" collection with the supposedly LAST 2008 issue left in inventory!  YES!  Years of searching and waiting all for this very moment! Victory is mine with a capital V!  Then there was some more sailing around Center Harbor, specifically with a gorgeous Herreshoff 12 1/2 from 1928 (I may be off on the date but Im damn close, thing was old!) and we had some great sailing together.  She was a beautiful boat and SCOUT totally cleaned her clock. That being said, sailing with a boat almost 100 years old is humbling in ways that is tough to describe, cleaning of the clock non-withstanding.  I dont have a picture of the 12 1/2, and I find this very sad.  I was enjoying the moment, and didnt get the camera out of the bilge.  A win for my memory, a loss for all your intrepid readers.  Apologies.

After some more sailing in Center Harbor I headed back to Castine for night, and ran into a dead calm.  The Tohatsu answered the call to putt-putt, and we motored almost all the way back to Ram Island.  More blasphemy? Or more cruising? I dont judge, too much.

Another perfect morning in Brooklin.
Where were you waking up?
tic toc tic toc tic toc, time waits for no man. etc. etc. etc.

Back under the Deer Isle bridge bound for Castine, under Iron Mizzen power!

Into the sun. Not enjoyable.

DAY QUATROS

So back to Ram Island SCOUT and I awent, where we spent the night again.  This evening was largely burned up listening to people on a beach party, which brought to mind this post from 2012. Read the paragraph below the ferry.  My feelings havent changed. What is with people and noise? Seriously.

After waking up, we waited for the tide to come up across the bar by Nautilus Island, and headed to Castine.  The waiting of the tide clearly illustrated the benefits of the Sea Pearl 21.  I came across Penobscot Bay in a blow and steep chop with little worry, ghosted down the Egg Reach, effortlessly motored back to Castine, and I can cross a bar in 6" of water.  Thats all I need to find a snug anchorage and get to where I need to go.  Six inches of water.

I was tipped off by Capn Jon that Castine is home to lots of Elm trees that somehow escaped the blight.  I found this fascinating, because I grew up listening to the Olde Popster who would tell me about Elm trees that would line all the main streets and provide shade and so on, and how they have all disappeared with the Dutch Elm Disease, and how he would chase ice carriages in summer time for ice-chunks to suck on, and Ye Olde Dayes were not like today with you and your kids and your refrigerators.  And behold, Castine has Elm trees, and they are great to see, as Olde Popster said they would be.

Waking up to more dew and a paradisio anchor hole.  Good holding ground, well protected, morning sun.

All that separates me from Castine

Give me 10 minutes.

Starfish a-plenty! This one is blue.

Crossing the bar with 6" of water.  YES shallow draft!

Castine Town Dock.  Everyone stop. SCOUT has arrived.

ELM TREES

ELM TREE and Congregational Church. Is there anything else more New England?

Another Elm Tree!

Not an Elm Tree.

Sigh, catboats.  So wonderful.  I love New England.

PRESTO? Lets face it, I love sharpies.  Is this the Presto 30?  It has 4 windows instead of 3. Not sure. Regardless, beautiful and capable.  I.Want.One. You want one! This boat also has the Australian rudder-cassette design a-la Goat Island Skiff.  Very excited I was, to see that on a large production vessel.  If anyone knows what this is, please advise.

After breakfast in Castine, I motored out of the harbor, ran out of gas, and ended up rowing most of the way to Belfast.  That was a lot to row, right across the top of Penobscot Bay.  Dead calm, and just me.  Harbor porpoises, seals, birds, and a run in with a fellow TSCA member which precipitated a mid-bay messabout.  Afterwards, a quick stop at the legendary Youngs Lobster Pound, and off to the boat ramp, ending 4 days of wonderful mid-coast Maine cruising.

Rowing weather.  Jeeeezum, its flat. 

Im really not that excited. CCBB represent.

Mid-Bay Messabout.  Thats the tip of Isleboro I was so happy to see three days prior.

THIS IS HOW YOU END JOURNEY. LOBSTER. 

HOWEVER THERE IS A DAY 5 (6)! Stay tuned! SCOUT and I got to Massachusetts land of aggressive driving, lights, noise, Berkshires, Boston, and DAN NOYES New England Dory Man!


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Boat Plans Skiff | Tour du Leman 2006 It cant be done

Boat Plans Skiff

This 160km, non-stop race round Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) was the first big expedition rowing challenge I actually rowed (rather than coxed) in. 

Completing it changed my whole mindset, gave me a belief in what I could do on the water, and taught me the No.1 rule of long distance rowing, as far as Im concerned.

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Event: Tour du Léman à lAviron
Where: Geneva, Switzerland
Distance: 160km non-stop
Time: 16h 23 mins
Boat type: Touring coxed quads (known as "yolettes")
Number of crews in the event: 19
Event Organiser: Société Nautique de Genève

---

Why we finished up doing it
A club mate at York City RC came across a poster for this event whilst visiting a gig club whilst on holiday in Cornwall. It obviously had to be done.

Why it happens 

The event started in 1972 when the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) celebrated its centenary, and each part of this multi-watersport club was charged with coming up with a way of marking the occasion. The "rowing circle" suggested the audacious plan of rowing the whole way round Lac Léman, the lake on whose western end Geneva sits.

Before the race

We were the first crew to arrive in Geneva, and were impressed that, as promised, someone from the club picked us up at the airport. The race fee also promised free accommodation in "dormitories", which turned out to be in the local nuclear bunker. We should have realised: Switzerland provides a bed in a nuclear bunker for every one of its citizens, and in times when theres no immediate threat that the superpowers might press the button, these are made available as accommodation for community events.

See, it was turning out to be an unexpectedly socio-cultural tour already!

Being a mixed crew, we politely split up into girls and boys rooms for the night, and went to bed. We heard various other crews turn up during the night. In the morning, our socio-culural education was further extended, when we realised that continentals just arent aware of British niceties of male/female separation, and that all the rooms had become mixed. Well, no problem. 

On the other hand, we did find the tendency of German rowing gentlemen to wander around in the type of undergarment sometimes referred to as "budgie smugglers", rather more than we wanted first thing in the morning.

But on to the rowing...

We prepared the boat the day before the race by taping up the riggers in case of big waves, and stowing vast amounts of bottled water, jam sandwiches, and other snacks aboard. And then enjoyed the pre-race cocktail party, complete with canapes provided by the in-house restaurant, who were clearly experienced at quite how many nibbles 95 long-distance rowers could pack away.

Crews sprint off the start, en masse.

The race starts when a gun is fired, and the assembled mass of crews, sprint for about 600m past the famous Jet dEau, across the lake before turning through 90 degrees to head out along the Swiss (north) side of the lake. Within a few kilometers, we were past the iconic UN building and the field spread out. Some of the lakeside towns looked charming; many featured little chateaux typical of the region. At Lausanne, where the IOC is based, we said "Wow!" at the sight of  huge Olympic rings on show at the lakeside. 

Somewhere between Nyon ("Nylon without the "L") and Lausanne we finally got the hang of sculling yolettes, which involved rating at 24 and just tapping it along. If you rate lower than that, as we had for the first several hours, its like picking up a floating sack of potatoes every stroke.  You have been warned. 

Navigation
To ensure that all crews really do follow the perimeter of the lake, the organisers issue a number of waypoints round which all crews must pass. We had a borrowed an old hand-held GPS, and programmed the various waypoints into it. Bearing in mind that this was 2006, and the iPhone was yet to be released, we found this rather tremendous, and enjoyed the count downs to each point.

Practising swapping before the race.
We didnt get much better at it.

Swapping strategy
Most crews swap the cox every 30 minutes, so that each crew member rows for 2 hours, and then coxes for half an hour. The swapping procedure is rarely elegant. And most of the jam sandwiches met a sticky end under my foot during one of the changeovers.

And back to the rowing again

The day was hot, and we made sure we were drinking plenty, but even so, by the time we go to near the top of the lake, we realised we had over-catered rather in the drinks cabinet, and poured litres and litres of the bottled water wed bought, over the side. Given we were due to pass Evian in due course, this felt somewhat like the a watery equivalent of bringing coals to Newcastle.

Around 5pm - wed done a good days rowing, and rounded the top of the lake. Except we still had to row all the way back down the lake, albeit along the shorter, French side, to our bunker beds in Geneva. Hmm. As dusk fell, we turned on our navigation lights, which allowed us to see what we thought were the crews in front and behind. But frankly there were several little twinkly lights in the distance, and it was impossible to tell what was going on. To paraphrase The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: Lac Leman - its big. Really big.

As we headed away from Evian, things were getting pretty grim, and here I learned one of the key things you MUST know when youre doing expedition rowing (or expedition anything else, pretty much). When you feel so tired that you cant imagine anything can possibly make you feel less tired, including eating, which would require more energy than you can muster anyway, eat. You WILL feel better. Yes, it sounds obvious, But youd be surprised how long it can take the bring to figure that one out, if it doesnt already know, and is having to come up with it for the first time when its tired and hungry.

And then the batteries in the GPS ran out. And in their case, not even the offer of jelly babies was going to persuade them to make any more contribution to the trip. And the problem with this part of the lake is that there are all sorts of bays you DONT need to go into, and one you do, and we frankly had no idea which was which, which got rather stressful. So we finished up "missing a mark" although only after a rather confused, shouted conversation in French with the safety cruiser that was shadowing us, in which they thought we were saying that we wanted to "abandon", when all we really wanted to know was where we were. Maybe "Nous sommes perdus" has connotations of "All is lost" - we never got to the bottom of that one!

On-board entertainment
Strangely, the black comedy of this situation rallied our spirits and soon someone reminded us all how, when we had announced what we were doing at the club, and answered questions like "How many days will that take you?", one of the elder statesmen had pronounced firmly "It cant be done." Actually, we were all fond of the gent in question - whose name was Colin Jones, and having reached the stage where you have either to laugh or cry, we chose the former, and launched into rousing choruses of "Colin Jones, Colin Jones, Colin Jones" to the tune of "Ere we go, ere we go, ere we go." Really, it helped at the time, and youll just have to believe me.

Despite our best efforts, attempts to play "Today I went rowing and I saw..." didnt last for more than a few letters as the boys hadnt grasped that youre meant to "see" things in alphabetical order, so we were mightily relieved when FINALLY we rounded the last corner and saw the lights of Geneva spread out ahead of us.

It gets better and better
After crossing the finish line, and paddling round the club landing stage, we were immensely relieved to find kind helpers to help us drag the boat out of the water (still with too many drinks on board), and we were served with a 3-course meal - SNG are just the best event organisers in the world. Two of us fell asleep after the soup, with our heads on the table, and were mercifully whisked up the hill to the dormitories, whilst the other three made the most of the situation and ate our mains and puddings as well as their own. No point in letting a good lasagne go to waste.

Rule No.2 of long distance rowing (Rule No.1 is EAT):
wear gloves (this was the AFTER photo).

If youre impressed so far with the airport pick ups, the idiosyncratic accommodation, the cocktail party, and boat-carrying help and pasta when you really need it - get this - there was also a Sunday lunch provided the next day after the prize giving. Honestly, if SNG made lager, it would be brilliant.

A couple of FAQ
Q: You were on the water for over 16 hours. Er, how did you go to the toilet?
A: We all agreed never to talk about that again. So were certainly not telling you.

Q: Will you do it again?
A: At the time, the other woman in the crew and I agreed that we were terribly proud to have done it, and there was no need to do it again. Do you think we stuck to that, though? Find out here!

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