the real American idol

to all those who have served our country, especially those who have laid down their life to protect our freedoms – we sincerely thank you.

a bit of Sunfish history

I saw this article posted a little while back over at the Yahoo Sunfish Sailor Group, and thought I’d share it: written September 20, 1982, so less than a month shy of 28 years ago in Sports Illustrated magazine.  the article was titled: “Here She Is, The True Love Boat.”  it’s an interesting read, and neat to see how some things have changed in the last couple decades since the article was written, as well as how some things have more or less stayed the same.  here are a few of my favorite quotes from the article:

World class racers such as Dennis Conner, of America’s Cup fame, and Gary Hoyt, who developed the Freedom class and won the first Sunfish worlds in 1972, learned to sail at the slim wooden tiller of the Sunfish.

…but when FORTUNE came up with a new list, in 1977, of the 25 best-designed contemporary products, the Sunfish was right there along with the Trimline Touch-Tone telephone, the Porsche 911 S Targa and Adidas running shoes.

on the explanation for the Sunfish symbol:

I drew a circle with a nickel and added the fins and the tail and the eye. Nothing we did was ever really accomplished with too much forethought, you know.

another quote, this one from Will White (quoted in the article),  who says:

The Sunfish is pure sailing—the sail in the wind, the board in the water, and you in the hull in between—one hand on the tiller, the other on the sheet and the wind in your hair. Pure sailboat racing, too. For the racing sailor, it is the essence of yacht racing. It was the first truly one-design boat, rigidly controlled by the manufacturer, with even the sails limited to one loft and very little that could be done in the way of adding expensive go-fasts. No need for a new set of sails every year. No need to keep buying or changing expensive hardware to keep up with the latest sailing theory…

they received some very good publicity at a boat show in New York in 1948:

But they were beginning to think a little bigger and they contacted an ad man, who wangled a very small patch of space for their very small boat on the floor of New York City’s Grand Central Palace, where the 1948 New York National Boat Show was being held. Fortuitously, the Sailfish—that cute little wood chip with its perky lateen sail—wound up sitting right next to a 57-foot Wheeler yacht, the largest boat in the show. The glorious contrast between the two made the Sailfish the talk of the town.

the biggest moment, though, came when LIFE magazine published a story on the sailboats, including some great photos of them being sailed out on the water.  (here is a link to the article.)  if you haven’t joined the Yahoo Sunfish Sailor Group yet, you definitely should, and then search through the “Photo” section there – there is a scanned copy of the LIFE magazine article, in a little bit better quality than the Google Books link. the two magazine articles give a pretty good glimpse into the past, and some good information on how the Sunfish came to be.

sunfish sailing: 2025 and beyond

tillerman‘s writing topic of the month is Sailing in the Second Space Age.  my submission (and pathetic attempt at some lame humor) is as follows:

it’s the year 2025, and with the uptick in global schwarming over the last decade or so, the polar caps have melted significantly, causing the level of the oceans to dramatically rise, sadly wiping out much of the coastline cities in the world (the entire state of Rhode Island was among the first to go).

due to the large loss of land area across the globe, and corresponding increase in water surface area, piracy on the waters has increased exponentially.  as a result, maritime defense spending by the government has followed the general government trend and skyrocketed.  dinghy sailing is all but extinct along the coast of the oceans, largely due to the Defense department piracy prevention plan (PPP) outfitting sharks with some frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads…

the lack of safe dinghy sailing along the ocean coastline, combined with a gigantic increase in the price of oil, has led to a major increase in inland lakes sailing.  the popularity of Sunfish and Lasers has been a blessing for the relative ease of finding a nearby yacht club, as they are popping up everywhere, and you don’t have to go far to find a regatta to participate in every weekend throughout the spring, summer and fall.  sadly, the insane practice of frostbiting has all but been lost (global schwarming, remember?).  unfortunately, the huge uptick in interest in Sunfish and Laser sailboat’s has cleaned out all the parts suppliers… but is that really that surprising?!

the Great Lakes has become the new Cape Cod, as vacationers flock from all across the US to the largest bodies of water NOT protected by the PPP (ie, sharks with lasers).  the Great Lakes are not without their flaws, though, as the dreaded Asian carp have infested these freshwater inland lakes.  thankfully, they are not nearly as dangerous as the laser-wielding sharks, and lucky for us – the government has implemented another fantastic new program (the ACCP) for controlling the Asian carp population….

Asian Carp Control Program (ACCP)

the Sunfish sailboat, thankfully, has maintained its simplicity over the years with only the usual and random minor changes.  thankfully, the class voted against the implementation of a wing sail, as the current insanity with multiple sail options: class-legal racing sails, class-legal recreational sails, practice racing sails (not class legal), and the non-class-legal recreational sails is more than enough frustration for now… adding a wing sail was just going to put it over the top.

the Sunfish sailboat, now almost 75 years old, continues to have a strong sailing class, and the total number of Sunfish built approaches 1 million.  strangely, though, I haven’t updated to a new fancy shiny version — I’m still using my grossly overweight Sunfish from the 1960′s – she’s hanging on strong, although I’ve yet to finish a regatta on time. with now 15+ years of sailing experience, I can legitimately blame it on the boat, right?  right?  maybe it’s just my daggerboard banging into those dang Asian carp.

until my next update… help out if you can, and carpe carp.

volvo ocean race book 2008-09

the official book of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 is about to be released – supposed to be available in October 2009, but currently only shown as available to pre-order, and only showing prices in Euros.  it is available as a book and DVD combo: http://www.volvooceanrace.org/multimedia/book/

a little history on the Volvo Ocean Race:

The Volvo Ocean Race is an exceptional test of sailing prowess and human endeavour which has been built on the spirit of great seafarers – fearless men who sailed the world’s oceans aboard square rigged clipper ships more than a century ago.

Their challenge back then was not a race as such, but recording the fastest time between ports. This meant new levels of pride for themselves and great recognition for their vessel.

Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race

The spirit that drove those commercial sailors along the web of trade routes, deep into the bleak latitudes of the Southern Ocean and around the world’s most dangerous capes, emerges today in the form of the Volvo Ocean Race, a contest now seen as the pinnacle of achievement in the sport.

…During the nine months of the 2008-09 Volvo, which starts in Alicante, Spain in October 2008 and concludes in St Petersburg, Russia, during late June 2009, the teams will sail over 37,000 nautical miles of the world’s most treacherous seas via Cape Town, Kochi, Singapore, Qingdao, around Cape Horn to Rio de Janeiro, Boston, Galway, Goteborg and Stockholm.

Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race

…During the race the crews will experience life at the extreme: no fresh food is taken onboard so they live off freeze dried fare, they will experience temperature variations from -5 to +40 degrees Celsius and will only take one change of clothes. They will trust their lives to the boat and the skipper and experience hunger and sleep deprivation.

you can get a really good idea of the quality of the book and the amazing nautical photography included by checking out the online sample of Chapter 1 here:  http://emag.digitalpc.co.uk/vem/vorsampler09.asp

I am going to wait a while to see if it becomes available more readily here in the states – and either order it, or have my local library order a copy for me!  I’ll be sure to post a review when I get a chance to see the whole book.

sea fever

from the English poet laureate John Masefield, the poem “Sea Fever”:

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,

And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

I found the poem posted here, at a tribute to Sir Peter Blake:

Simply put, Peter Blake was easily the most accomplished sailor of our time.

.

Blake gained notiriety as a sailor by becoming the first to participate in all five Whitbread Round the World Races (now known as the Volvo Ocean Race). The Whitbread is the most grueling test of sailing skill in existence. It covers over 30,000 nautical miles and lasts 9 months. Held every 3 years, it attracts only the best and bravest. Blake competed in 1973, ‘77, ‘81, ‘85, and was the winning skipper aboard Steinlager 2 in 1989. He won every stage of the race in 1989 and posted the most convincing victory in the history of the event. An event that most accomplished sailors won’t brave a single time–Peter Blake entered five times.

See the full post about Sir Peter Blake and more at the FM Allen Camp Smoke blog.

the wreck of the Minnehaha

a bit of history can be found right off the shore at Camp Arcadia, in the northwest part of Michigan’s lower peninsula, where I just spent a week for vacation with my family.  probably no more than 20-feet from the shore, currently maybe 2 feet deep under the waters of Lake Michigan, rests the remains of the Minnehaha, a 200-ft 4-masted schooner that shipwrecked off the coast more than a hundred years ago. (link to more historical information)

The Minnehaha was a 4-masted, 200 foot, wooden schooner carrying 823 gross tons and 782 net tons…In October of 1893, the steam barge Henry J. Johnson was towing the Minnehaha from Chicago bound for Point Edward at the south end of Lake Huron with 58,000 bushels of corn. At 7:30 PM on October 13, the two ships found themselves off Point Betsie facing 90 mile per hour gale force winds….The Minnehaha ran aground about a quarter of a mile offshore between Burnham and Arcadia. To avoid the waves sweeping the decks, all but one member of the crew, who drowned trying to swim to shore, climbed into the ship’s rigging. As the ship was breaking up, the captain called to the crew to grab whatever would float and go over the side anyway. But only the captain made it to shore safely. One crew member made it to a pier, but was too tired to hold onto a pole used to try to pull him to safety.

Here are some pictures that I have taken over the last few years of vacationing there:

August 2009

in the 3rd picture, you can see the shadows of the shipwreck in the foreground, between my brother-in-law’s Sandpiper 8 sailboat and the beach.  as you can see, the remains of the Minnehaha is very close to the shore.

September 2004

It’s interesting to see how the water level of the lake changes over the years – note in these pictures from 5 years ago, how low the lake levels were – parts of the shipwrecked Minnehaha were actually above the surface of the water, but now in 2009, there is probably at least 24 inches of water above the shipwreck.

double fish trailer

Now that I had 2 Sunfish-style boats, I was presented with the opportunity to occasionally take them both out for sailing.  I suppose that I could have tried to car-top one on our  Chevy Tahoe, and trailer the other… but that didn’t particularly appeal to me.. as the car-topping part was what led me to buy Fish #2 and it’s trailer.  trying to scramble and get ready for a camping trip one weekend, I decided to throw together a frame built out of 2x pine lumber that would allow me to stack the 2 ‘Fish on top of each other, without causing damage to either one’s deck, splashguard, etc.

I made a frame using (2) 2×6′s and (2) long 2×4′s.  the frame is about 4′-3″ wide and 6′-0″ long. the (2) 2×6 boards were roughly shaped, top and bottom, to match the deck curvature for my Sunfish (bottom) and my Super Porpoise (on top).  I also threw a couple diagonal 2×4′s in the front corners, which helps keep the frame from racking when I’m lifting it on and off the lower ‘Fish.  I used a few pieces of pipe insulation over the edge of the 2×6′s to keep from scratching the decks.  the previous owner of my Sunfish had made a nice jig out of wood – shaped like a “Y” sort-of, that slides into the daggerboard trunk, and holds the sails/spars – you can see it sticking out up from the daggerboard trunk on the upper boat. he also had another “Y”-shaped bracket mounted at the front, but to make it work I had to make my own quickly to raise the height of the “Y” to work with the double-stacked Fish. the “Y” I made and the older one are interchangeable, though, so I can switch back to his bracket when I transport just the 1 Fish.

here’s a picture of the final result, from June of 2005:

buying a Sunfish on eBay

digging through all of my sailing notes, registrations, and miscellaneous paperwork that I’ve been saving the past few years, I managed to dig up the original eBay listing for my second boat – this one a true Sunfish, that I ended up bidding on  and winning back in May of 2005:

l960′s era AMF Sunfish Sailboat

Length – 14′Width – 4′- 10″
Complete with mast, sail/spars, sail bag, dagger board, rudder, trailer, and trailer mast/boom brackets.  This boat was made in the mid 1960′s and purchased by my parents in 1971. I bought the boat from my parents 1980 when I moved out on my own.

• The deck has been repainted (Dupont Imron – Kelly Green) and the hull with Marine Epoxy – White (both via spray gun, not brush). The boat originally had a turquoise green color deck and White hull.
• The deck is in good shape – a few minor scratches and one 6″ length crack in the gel coat in front of splash shield. This hasn’t changed since we bought the boat.
• I added a cleat just behind the dagger board for the mainsheet (line which controls sail).
• Rudder and Dagger board in excellent shape. The original rudder (old Sunfish style) was replaced with the current style design in the 1970′s.
• The aluminum trim surrounding the boat is intact/not broken – no missing rivets.
• The paint on the keel is scratched up from taking in and out of the water. There are a few scratches or either side of the keel. The bottom surface overall is in good shape – scratch free. The trailer pads and bumpers have left some discoloration on the paint.
• The sail is in outstanding shape – always dried out after each use and rolled up when stored – no creases that can cut down the life of a sail. No missing/damaged nylon sail clips. Sail and spars were purchased new in the 1970′s. Lines are all in excellent  shape.
• The cotton sail bag was made by my mom in the late 70′s and has a few holes/tears in it. If you’re good, a sewing machine you could make another one or bid for one on ebay!
• The boat has been garage stored until 6 years ago and since then has been stored outside covered. The sail/spars/mast/rudder/daggerboard have always been garage stored.
• The trailer was made by Midwest Trailer and has the “Shore Landr” brand label on it. The trailer was “painted”, not galvanized. A good bit of the paint has come off and I have never repainted. A wire brush and a can of rustoleum, would resolve if the appearance matters to you.
• The trailer includes wooden sail brackets to make for quick setup and tear down. Trailer lights all function as I’ve maintained/updated wiring as required. Tires both have a lot of tread left on them.

This is a great boat for both adults and kids to learn to sail – relatively stable but fast enough to have a lot of fun. This is a one or two person boat. If you capsize, it’s easy to get back up quickly. Controls are simple – just mainsheet and a rudder – no jib to fuss with! Two people can easily pick up the boat when you’re not using the trailer.

This boat is going unused and my wife wants the space so I’m hoping to find a buyer who will start using this again and enjoy it as much as my family has. Pictures are included but if you’ve questions, please contact me.

The winning bidder is required to pick the boat and trailer – I am not offering shipping. I am not supplying a temporary license plate for the trailer. The boat will be available for pickup to occur between 5/31 and 6/10 – beyond that requires discussion as I may be unavailable due to professional commitments. If you bid and have “negative feedback”, unless you contact me with an explanation. I will reserve the right to not accept your bid.

I was particularly interested in this ebay listing, because the seller happened to be located in the town right next to me, so a maximum expected drive of maybe 30 minutes, depending on his specific location.  I immediately contacted the seller, and asked if I could come and personally inspect the boat prior to making a bid on ebay, which he agreed to (and ended up being only about 10 minutes down the road from me).  Call me foolish/naive/headstrong, but I even brought a wad of cash to see if I could buy it outright then and there… but he felt that since another person had already made a bid on the ebay listing, he couldn’t pull the ad… probably the right thing to do.  so, instead, I kept an eye on the ebay listing, and ended up being the winning bidder!

Again, not sure if it was the wisest, but I think the fact that the boat was so close to me probably swayed my opinion some, and allowed me to bid maybe slightly more than I would have otherwise, knowing that I wasn’t going to have to go pick up the boat out of state, potentially hours away.  this was before I was familiar with craigslist (was it even around then?), which these days would probably yield more local options for buying a sunfish.  again, in retrospect, because I had the opportunity to visually inspect the boat prior to purchasing it – I wish I had done a few things: for example, I probably should have weighed the hull, to get an idea if it was leaky and/or waterlogged, and if the seller had let me, maybe even do a quick leak test to see if I could have found any leaks.  call it a lesson learned, I guess.

Either way, I now had 2 Sunfish-style boats, and finally a trailer to transport one of them, or potentially both of them if need be. why a 2nd fish you might ask?  mostly because I was really frustrated with not having a trailer, and the difficulty I was having trying to find spare (used) parts to fix up the Super Porpoise.  I reckon I could’ve just found an old trailer, but for whatever reason, that didn’t specifically cross my mind.  I figure that now with 2 ‘Fish, as my boys get older and learn to sail on their own, we can take them both out and race the 2 boats against each other.

Now I just needed to get out and start sailing the new Fish!

super porpoise history

after buying and bringing home the super porpoise, I scoured the internet for any information that I could find out about them… without much success.  one of the articles that I found is from January 2003, from the “Holland Sentinel”, a newspaper in Holland, Michigan, that was really more related to the company Michigan Fiberglass Plastics, Inc. that manufactured the Super Porpoise:

….Michigan Fiberglass Plastics, Inc., a short-lived boat building concern here in Holland (1960-1961) and Borculo (1962-1963), was started by Lawrence Valentine Meyering, originally from Chicago and a former lawyer and banker turned manufacturer from Zeeland….

…. After about a year of trial and error and bills piling up, Meyering vacated the building and moved his operation to two rented buildings in Borculo where he expanded the companies offerings to include not only the Lake ‘n Sea speedboat, but also canoes and a small sailboat model called the Super Porpoise. The company remained there until being purchased in 1963, along with its inventory, by Grand Rapids businessmen Richard Levy and Morrie Kleinman….

(hollandsentinel.com – search the archives for the article)

A few more details and specifications for the Super Porpoise that I found at ShortyPen’s Board Boat Sailboat Guide and at the Sunfish Sailor Yahoo Group:

• overall length: 14′-8″
• beam: 49″
• sail area: 85 square feet
• mast height: 10′ overall
• crew capacity: 450 lbs
• hull weight: 155 lbs

my frustration with the Super Porpoise is going to be the difficulty in getting replacement parts… for example, a brand new recreational sail (not class legal, non-racing) can be had for the Sunfish for about $150, but to get a new sail for the Super Porpoise, I got a quote from a sail shop for $375… just a tad more (dripping with sarcasm…).  I suppose I could just take the cheap route, and buy the cheap new Sunfish sail, but the Sunfish sail is smaller (75 square feet) and the Super Porpoise hull is 15 to 20 lbs heavier, so I’d be losing that little bit of extra power from having the larger original sail.

my 1st sail in the super porpoise

after buying my 1st fish ($50, remember!), and suckering my dad into bringing it back home for me in the back of his pickup (in fact, if my memory serves me correctly – I think I even had to borrow the $50 cash at the time to buy the boat, as Arcadia doesn’t have many ATM’s), I transported it to our home (at that time) in Brookville, Indiana (Google map).  the inherent difficulty, though, is that my $50 purchase only bought me the boat… that is, no trailer…. and while the super porpoise is not necessarily too heavy for one person to manhandle, it is rather unwieldy.  especially when trying to car-top the boat on our chevy tahoe – lifting it up on top was a pain.

living a half-mile from a 5,000+ acre lake/reservoir was then both a blessing and a curse – it was a great place to live, explore, and potentially sail, but the curse was not being able to sail on it as much as I would’ve liked… having a trailer would’ve helped out a ton there…  living in the sticks and not knowing many people around has it advantages and disadvantages, I guess.

on to the maiden voyage

summer of 2003: for the 1st attempt at sailing, one of my wife’s high-school friends had brought her family down to visit for the weekend.  her husband, Sonny, and I decided we would test out the new sailboat – the ladies dropped us and the sailboat off at the boat launch, and then drove off with the kids to spend the afternoon at the public beach, where we would sail to meet them.  or so we thought.

a maiden voyage could not have gone any worse.  I was so misled – as we first set off from the boat launch in the northern part of the lake, there was a mild breeze, and we started slowly sailing away (as the girls drove away).  right then, the wind stopped.  completely.  for the next several hours.  sunny and I then took turns paddling with the single collapsible paddle that I had (luckily) brought along.  we adjusted the sails this way.  then that way.  then another way.  pretty much any way we could think of.  for nothing.  we finally gave up trying to “catch the wind”, and just resorted to paddling.

we had to paddle south, through the causeway (Fairfield Road), and towards the public beach… using Google maps, I think I estimated it was close to 3 miles!  by the time we finally made it to the beach to meet up with the wives and kids – they were long gone.  they had left to go back to the house and eat some dinner.  second bit of bad news – it was getting dark.  there was no way we could paddle all the way back to the boat launch before dark.  I still don’t recall how we called the girls – I think I had to use a calling card at the payphone up near the park restrooms (cell phones didn’t even remotely work out here then… not sure if service has improved any since then).  the girls piled the kids back in the tahoe, and came back to the beach to pick us up.  unfortunately, the parking lot was several hundred yards, uphill, from the beach.  somehow, sunny and I managed to lug the sailboat all the way back to the tahoe and lift it back on top to shamefully return home – sunburnt, sore from paddling, with bruised bare feet… but we did get to know each other well those few hours on the boat!