Category Archives: Sailboats

Cheap Tricks

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This trip turned out to be the mother of invention.

While we were anchored in our new favorite spot this weekend, the sun came out. Yes, yes, I know what you are thinking. So what? Well, that’s what YOU think. There’s no ‘so what’ about it. When the sun comes out two things happen: people get happy, and people need shade. That’s because up here our delicate skin burns to a rosy crispness after only a few minutes of high-latitude sun exposure, even with loads of sunscreen. We are pathetic sunbathing losers, to say the least. Washington state: land of the pale. I wanted to sit in the cockpit and read Bernard Moitessier’s [amazon_link id=”0924486848″ target=”_blank” ]The Long Way[/amazon_link] so I needed some shade. Out came the UMBINI.

Glad you asked! An umbini is one of Mike’s clever little inventions, proving once again that he is the most brilliant man in the universe when it comes to solving problems in a cost-effective way. As I sat in my warm shade reading I had a sudden flash of inspiration that this blog needed a little infusion of energy in the form of our own ‘Practical Sailor’ tricks. Thus the category of ‘Cheap Tricks’ was born. This is the first post!

You have to read the whole post before you get to see the umbini. This photo is of the home of the most terrifying sea cave, a cave so scary and dark and fraught with diving cormorants that I thought I was gonna die. It's behind the rocks.

The umbini is a creation born, as most are, out of necessity and shallow pockets. The year: 2010. The trip: Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Three weeks of fabulous. The boat: S/V Moonrise, our intrepid Cal 34. Back in the day, Moonrise didn’t even have a dodger, much less a bimini. And the ‘boat kitty’ had no money for one. So we were faced with a lot of sun and weather exposure on this 3 week cruise. We needed something, anything.

During a trip to Costco, probably loading up on supplies, Mike found a ‘sport umbrella’ for 40$. Basically this is a huge umbrella with little side ‘wings’. It’s meant to be used as a portable shade for sporting or music events, or for laying in the park with your best friend. But he thought he could retrofit it to work on Moonrise. And he did!

Here's a teaser view of the inside.

He cut half of the pole off and attached a loop to the top of the thing so it would hang easily from the backstay. Then I cut the fabric on the back side of the umbrella, reinforced the curve with sunbrella, and hemmed it on the sewing machine.  I attached side relief buckles to hold it closed behind the backstay. We attached webbing with grommets around the bottom of the thing and added small bungee cords. These wrap underneath the safety lines and the stern pulpit to hold the sides down. Voila! The Umbini is born!

It is dead easy to deploy and you can even sail with it up as long as you are going downwind. It has two little windows with mosquito netting on them that allow airflow when unzipped. When motoring in fog or rain, it protects the helmsman from getting wet. And, of course, it offers shade from that fair weather friend, the sun. The icing on the proverbial cake was that the umbrella was exactly the right size for our cockpit. I think we will patent these because they are so cool.

Just sailing on the deep blue sea under his umbini! We're sailing under jib alone. And yes, it is summer, in spite of how it looks.

40$ and and about about 2 hours of work. Not bad for a cheap trick. Stay tuned for more cool ideas for ‘thrifty’ sailors!

 

Sloops, Ketches, Cats, and All That Junk

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I’m going through another one of those phases dreamers and planners go through. You know that phase where you allow the mind to wander off into the hinterlands of possibilities and then come back with a few good ideas? That’s the phase I’m talking about. The combination of a curious mind, hours of downtime, and access to ‘The Google’ means that I’ve been engaging in what is becoming known around here as ‘self medication’.

Usually that means I’m looking at boats on Yachtworld, Craigslist, and Sailboatlistings. Okay, well, yes, I’m doing that, of course, but one can only look at the exact same boats for so long before they begin to run together in one’s proverbial mind. So I started focusing on rigs to expand my search criteria.

Here’s the deal: I’m looking for a boat that can take us anywhere we want to go. Anywhere! It has to be comfortable, it has to perform well, and it has to be easy to sail. I am not getting any younger, as proven by my recent birthday. The steps we need to take in order to get this plan off the dock will take a few years, making me that much older when we start out. We want to sail places like down the coast of Chile, Easter Island, the Galapagos and beyond. By the time I get to do that, I’m probably going to be pushing 60. Yikes!

So it occurs to me that I should be looking for a boat that will be easy to sail not only now, but in the future as well. Otherwise, I might not enjoy it as much as I’d like to, and there will be too much of my relying on Mike and his man body (which is also not getting any younger, I might add.) In addition, it’s not so easy to sell a boat in ‘this economy’, so this makes it more important than ever to choose the right boat to begin with. So I’ve been doing some research on different rigs, particularly the cat rigged boats with unstayed masts, and the junk rigs, which also have unstayed masts.

Initially the idea of an unstayed mast filled me with trepidation. But as I began to educate myself more about them I began to change my mind. I like the idea of having less sailing hardware to worry about, and I’m reading that these boats are very easy to sail and do well in all types of seas and weather.  The junk rig has not caught on in the U.S., but it’s making quite a showing in Europe where there is an active Junk Rig Association. Apparently they are now making sails that allow the boats to really give the Bermuda rig some stiff competition.  And for sheer beauty on the water there is nothing to compare. Last year I bought the book Voyaging on a Small Income, by Annie Hill. The title says it all and I recommend reading this book if you, like us, are among the 99%.  The Hills are definitely of the ‘go simple’ opinion. [amazon_image id=”1888671378″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Voyaging On A Small Income[/amazon_image]

This boat is currently for sale in Sydney, BC. I'd love to see it.

Mike has always admired the cat rigged Nonsuch sailboats. Alex Kimball, the man who did the painting of Moonrise, owns a very beautiful Nonsuch and he and his wife live aboard the boat. They plan to take her down the coast of Mexico and through the Panama canal, then continue on to Europe. At a raftup last spring we were able to go aboard Alex’s boat and let me tell you: that is one beautiful vessel. The decks are completely clear of trip hazzards, too. When I heard they were planning to go ocean voyaging in the boat, my ears pricked up. I began to think outside the Bermudian box.

Then, on our recent ferry trip over to San Juan Island, I saw the loveliest boat on the water. It was a cat ketch rig and it was just beautiful. Maybe it was the Freedom 33 cat ketch that is for sale up on San Juan Island. Need to tack? Just turn the wheel. The sails tack themselves. Who knew?

Isn't this lovely?

I don’t know why these boats haven’t caught on around here. According to what I’m reading, they are simple to sail, well balanced, and economical. It’s not like these rigs are new. They’ve been around for ages. The junk rig has the added benefit of having sails that you can make yourself if necessary. In the UK, they race junk rigs alongside Bermuda rigged boats so I guess they are not exactly slow if you have the right sail shape. Alex Kimball’s Nonsuch beat the pants of lots of other boats in one of the Puget Sound Cruising Club ‘races’ this spring. I suspect the lack of popularity has something to do with boats being designed to the rules for racing or something like that.

So I don’t get why I’m not seeing tons of these out on the water. Could it be part of the herd mentality that keeps people from thinking outside the box?  I’d really like to get on a few of these boats to find out. If you’ve ever sailed on one of these kinds of boats, or you know any one who has one, please post. I know just enough about this to be dangerous, but I’d like to know more. What else am I going to do while Moonrise is still on the market?

From the Junk Rig Association site. What's not to love? Go there and check them out.

 

 

And the Winner is… S/V Danger Kitten!

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The real Danger Kitten! Take care!

Andrew and I were having a mother/son conversation recently about the lack of a name for his boat. Andrew was telling me that he feels a little sorry for the boat. He really loves it, but he feels like he is the first owner to feel that way. Even though this little Ericson 25 was well kept and clean, he just didn’t feel like previous owners had given their hearts to the boat. And he couldn’t explain why he felt that way.

I thought it probably had something to do with the fact that the boat had no name. I mean, boats just have names. That’s all there is to it. They are named ‘things’ and this name gives them a sort of consciousness that people who love boats feel in their bones. That’s why we can talk all day long about what we want in a boat, but if the boat doesn’t feel like the right one, it’s not going to become ours. Just like Mr. Right, a boat can look good on paper, but if it doesn’t make our heart throb, we’re going to walk away. It’s beyond logic. Boat lovers know this and accept it. A boat with no name is kind of like an orphan, even if it has an owner who keeps it clean.  A boat with no name is sad.

The name sort of defines the vessel in a way, making a statement about not only the owner’s feelings, but about the qualities of the boat in terms of its personality, at least the personality the owner wants the boat to embody. Additionally it allows people to bond with the vessel in the same way they bond with, say, their pets (sort of). Boats require care, money, and attention and it’s so much easier to spend this kind of energy on something that you feel attached to rather than something that is simply a toy to play with.  So I asked Andrew what qualities he wanted to bring out in his boat.

French Danger Kitten

He had been spending quite a lot of time aboard the little boat and thought she was extra saucy with a bit of an attitude. She wanted to sail fast, but the sail plan was inefficient and pretty much not worthy of the boat’s capabilities. He thought the boat felt young and inexperienced, like no one had bothered to let it explore its limits yet. And it had an edge of danger about it, but mostly in the ‘wanting to explore the world’ kind of danger, an adventurous kind of danger. Nothing serious. He felt like he would need to keep the boat safe while it grew up a bit in this way. He felt like in spite of the boat’s small size, it had a big boat attitude. I mentioned that this could lead to trouble unless kept in check. (A fact that I know all too well.)

Later that evening he came into our bedroom, as he often will, to continue the discussion. He and Mike and I began exploring adjectives and metaphors that might lead to a name. Mike, who likes to name his projects at work, was trying to do something with the word ‘marmot’, a word which he especially likes. (Our family is a little wierd in this way. We like words.) Little, saucy, adventurous, dangerous, disgruntled (don’t know where that one came from), the list went on and it soon became clear that an animal name was needed, combined with an adjective. Sea Monkey was batted around a bit more, but it just wasn’t quite the thing. Mike suddenly blurted out ‘Danger Kitten’, and the conversation just came to a halt, because that was just brilliant. Andrew thought it was a keeper, but wasn’t quite ready to commit.

He decided to spend a little more time on the boat sailing, anchoring, bonding, and then see if the boat lived up to its name. He practiced rolling it off the tongue, saying things like ‘I’m going down to the marina to work on the Kitten’ and ‘The fuse in the Kitten blew again and I’m working on the wiring’ and ‘Danger Kitten and I are going out.’ It didn’t hurt that the name provided endless amusement when talking to his girlfriend, especially in front of her parents. My son has an excellent sense of humor.

Danger Kitten with sword and boots. En guarde!

I believe Andrew is truly in love with his boat. Now that it has personality, it’s even more apparent how much he is enjoying her. He’s practically a live aboard and I know he is already planning how far he can go with this boat.  He left on Friday and has been anchoring here and there, just enjoying being out on Danger Kitten, sometimes with a friend, sometimes alone. He was supposed to come home today, but called and said he won’t be home for a few more days. Let the adventuring begin! If he can bother to get home for a few days, we’ll have a christening party and look for someone to design a logo for the boat. Now, if only I could interest him in writing a blog.

S/V Danger Kitten, a little boat with a big attitude!