Subject: [Homestead] More boat stuff you can't liive without
Date: Wed, 01 Sep 2004 15:45:12 -0700
Especially if you are a loner and want to live in an almost tax-free
universe---pulling up anchor and moving on if you become bored. If you
have the mandatory small shipboard workshop under the forward deck, and
any mechanical or electronic skills, I guarantee you will be welcomed
with open arms (and cash) by the residents of small islands. There was
an American who repaired all the equipment of the San Blas Indians in
Panama. I happened to be living with them on their offshore islands
when the American decided to move on---they were really distraught and
completely at the mercy of thieves in Panama City who took their money
and did nothing to repair the equipment expensively flown to them in
little toy Cessnas. At the time I knew Carl Kiekhafer, owner of
Mercury Outboard quite well and I arranged for the two sons of the San
Blas Chieftain to go to school at the Mercury factory in Wisconsin.
http://www.hobo.itgo.com/ (an account of building and sailing a Tom
Colvin Gazelle. Colvin is unexcelled in designing and building welded
steel hulls with lug rig sails---built on the Chesapeake, forgot where.)
When I lived on a 56-foot hermaphrodite rigged two-mast schooner, I
always hoped to replace it with a Colvin Gazelle. My wooden schooner
encased in epoxy-fiberglas was a fine boat in shallow water (retractable
keel), but not something you would want to sail in the open ocean.
Moreover, in bad weather it was impossible to single-hand---hard enough
and not too wise to single hand in good weather. The steering station
was all the way aft behind the cabin, nowhere to install winches and run
cables. I have always had a vast distrust of hydraulics and a vaster
distrust of electrics on a saltwater sailboat. The John Colvin Gazelle
on the other hand was a delight to single-hand with its Chinese lug
sails, and the welded steel hull could lay on a reef at low tide, and
could be sailed or winched off at high tide with no apparent
damage---something you can't do with a wood or fiberglass sailboat. The
only comparative disadvantage is that a Gazelle cabin won't let anyone
six feet two in height stand up, the cabin in my old wood/fiberglass
schooner was about six feet four in height.) Of course if you intend to
run aground on a reef, the ideal sailboat is a twin-keeler. You could
lose two-feet of keel before you had a risk of holing them---and they
float off upright at high tide---never did like a boat laying over on
its side---I get nervous when hatches are under water.
http://www.yachtsdelivered.com/longrang.htm (lot of good info here,
CorTen rust-resistant steel for steel hulls, you will want in your
below-decks toolshop a battery-powered welder to make hull repairs, and
certainly a radar to avoid collisions in poor visibility or darkness.\
You will want to have TWO fresh watermakers---one powered by engine
exhaust heat, and at least one solar-powered, a little one for your
rubber raft if your boat pitchpoles in a heavy following sea.)
http://www.thomasecolvin.com/ (anyone planning to build, live aboard
and sail outside of the pond behind your house, should read these Tom
Colvin comments.)
Peter Dilley's Junk Rig Pages. There are 4 pages and they are hard to
find. Click on "Sailing", on the left, then click on "Junk Sails", at
the top right.
The Chinese Sailing Rig. Derek Van Loan.
Bob Perry's Review of a J35 with Comments about Lug Rigs.
Differences between For/Aft and Modern Rigs. Ted Brewer.
Junk Rig Article. Michael Kasten.
A Tutorial on Junk Rigs.
China Seas Voyaging Society. Junk and Lug Sailing, etc.
Do I like Chinese Lug Rigs, of course---what else could 100lb Mama San
handle in heavy seas or a crowded harbor while Papa San lays catatonic
below, surrounded by empty rice wine bottles)
[Homestead] More boat stuff you can't liive without,
Tvoivozhd, 09/01/2004