August 24th, 2010
Here we are, burning down the Reach. The 25 year-old sails don’t look half-bad. And, no, we didn’t foul that pot buoy.
I know I’ve written here about the 210 before. But this is my first summer actually owning one. As I remarked to Jon Wilson the other day, I’ve never had such consistent fun on a boat. So please permit me to indulge myself a bit, and then call for your comments and contributions.
Last Friday was yet another quintessential day of this spectacular summer. Temps in the 70s, winds out of the west at 15-20 knots, full sun. Aaron Porter, editor of Professional BoatBuilder, came into my office and said, “OK, bub, let’s get going.” Aaron and I have sailed the 210 a lot together this summer.
We rowed out to her here at Boat Heaven. Fewer than ten minutes after boarding, we cast off the mooring… of course tacking into the breeze and short-tacking our way up Eggemoggin Reach. Other than whitecaps, there were no seas. As well as a paucity of other boats. Mostly just us, seabirds, and seals.
We reached into Benjamin River, and then headed back home on a screaming broad reach. (I mentioned to Aaron what old 210er Tom Price had advised: ”The 210 will plane. But she doesn’t like to….”)
We picked up the mooring at 4 pm and headed back to the office. Yet another fabulous daysail.
This thought has occurred to me often this summer: For me, it’s not about the destination but about the exhilaration. [And you thought I was going to say "voyage..."] Being so close to the water, the sails nicely trimmed, sailing through the lee of other sailboats on the Reach… The ease of sailing…. And all this on a beautiful boat.
I’ve experienced feelings similar to this with rowboats, kayaks, canoes, powerboats. Boats of materials other than wood. But never to the degree I have this summer, and with this particular boat. In a word, I LOVE the 210. Oh, we could tart her up and get new sails, complicate her with racing gear… but that would be counter to the joy I’m having. She’s just perfect as is. And I’m not sure this is a feeling I’ve ever had before except on the simplest and smallest of craft.
Once on a windy day at the beginning of the summer, Aaron and I sailed past a Bermuda 40 and a J160. Aaron suggested, “Why don’t you yell over and tell them how much you paid for KATYDID?” True, we weren’t racing. But there is some degree of joy in passing boats far more expensive than the $6,000 I paid for the 210 a year ago.
We’ve only raced once this year, at Eggemoggin Reach Regatta, and it was great fun as well. Here’s a photo (courtesy of Art Paine) showing how we were all feeling. Cap’n Porter at the helm, Kate Holden holding down the critical center position, me thanking the heavens….
More KATYDID IV
For me, the joy is in the simplicity, a feeling like weightlessness….
www.210class.com
Please feel free to comment below. What simple boats elicit similar feelings for you?
Tags: 210, boat, wood boat, wood sailboat
Posted in My Wooden Boat of August 2010 | No Comments »
August 17th, 2010
I was cruising around some of my favorite designers’ and boatbuilders’ websites the other night — as I am wont to do in pursuit of personal and professional edification and for subjects for “My Wooden Boat of the Week” — and I spotted this from Ross Lillistone (Bayside Wooden Boats):
Three Brothers
Ross, as you may know, is a talented designer and builder in Oz. I thought this design looked familiar, and then I read this (part of the design brief):
“Jumping to now –
Ian rang me a couple of months ago to say that he had seen the advertisement for the WoodenBoat/Professional Boatbuilder Design Competition 2 , and said that he thought that something like the boat we had been discussing would fit the design prescription perfectly. So, I started burning the midnight and early morning oil in an attempt to get a design on paper, and to do the required calculations to determine whether such a boat could meet the criteria specified in the competition rules.
Two-and-a-bit months down the track, and I have a buildable design on paper, with two different wheelhouse layouts, and a completed weight analysis. The conservative weight calculations and the comparative data from the hull drawings have allowed me to make some firm predictions regarding speed, fuel consumption, and load-carrying ability.
In broad terms, the character of the design is as follows: -
· Long and narrow with a very fine entry to promote fuel efficiency and smooth running in a short, steep chop;
· Light-weight and simple;
· Hull-form optimised for efficient operation in the semi-displacement speed-range;
· Trailerable.
My performance predictions with 288kg (634lbs) passenger weight and 85kg (187lbs) for engine and fuel are as follows: -
· Assume displacement of 820kg (1804 lbs)
· Salt water
· LOA 26ft 2ins LWL 22.6 ft”
Ross did, indeed, enter her into our Design Challenge II. Although she didn’t win, she certainly is one of MY notables. (Both WoodenBoat and Professional BoatBuilder will be writing about the winners and notables in future issues. To see/read about the winners, click HERE and scroll down the page.)
Ross’ client wanted a improvement on Phil Bolger’s Sharpshooter design for quite a daunting trip.
“Some time ago I received a letter from my long-time boating and bush-exploration friend, Ian Hamilton. Ian seemed to have been going through something of an extended mid-life crisis, but never having been one to comply with convention, his mid-life crisis-driven ideas were not much different from his normal fantasies, and I didn’t pay him too much attention.
Ian’s latest idea was for us (not that I was consulted about the ‘us’ bit) to wander over to Western Australia to spend a few months exploring the Kimberleys. Australia is a very big place – as big as the U.S. – and most of it is made up of desert. In fact, Australia is the driest inhabited continent on the face of the globe: the Kimberleys are as far from where we live as it is possible to get in this country – about 3,500 kilometers or 2100 miles in a straight line, and all across uninhabited desert…
Now, I am interested in the Kimberleys – the fantastic terrestrial and nautical scenery – but I didn’t ever believe that the trip would come off. With that in mind, I let Ian babble on about boats and equipment in the hope that it would all go away. However, he has remained persistent, and for a long time he pushed to have a boat designed which would have the load-carrying ability and the range, to operate in that remote part of the world.”
Western Australia has always fascinated me, especially since I started reading the fantastic novels by Tim Winton.
So, there you have it for this week. I can’t wait to learn how the build process goes for Ian. Ross has a new set of plans available for Three Brothers. Please read all about the design evolution of this interesting boat, here:
http://www.baysidewoodenboats.com.au/
And, as always, please feel encouraged to post your comments below.
Tags: Australia, Bayside Wooden Boats, Design Challenge, Ross Lillistone, wood boat
Posted in My Wooden Boat of August 2010 | No Comments »
August 28, 2010 | Posted in 
