Seamanship

[charmc]

Watch out Guillermo, Michael Jackson's lawyers will be after you for royalties!

Whoops, maybe not. Last word was they won't do any more legal work without getting paid up front.

[Bergalia]

Originally Posted by charmc

Watch out Guillermo, Michael Jackson's lawyers will be after you...

No, no Charmc - Guillermo deals with little bouys...not boys...

[safewalrus]

Guillermo, how you know my early years were spent in Wales?? No don't answer it would upset the Welsh (there again).......

[Guillermo]

OK mates, there's been enough for the fun. Any other interesting seamanship story to share?


Here a most interesting thought:

"Seamanship is, more than anything else, an art. It is not something that can be picked up and studied in one's spare time. Indeed, it allows one no time for anything else." (Thucydides, 5th Centuary BC)

Cheers

[Guillermo]

Here you have an on-line full version of the Text Book of Seamanship (1891):
http://hnsa.org/doc/luce/index.htm

[longliner45]

ok hows this sound ,imagine going offshore for 7 to 10 days in a 31ft boat ,,all provisions made ,but prepared for the worst.it is december ,the trips are shorter ,because of weather,you have marked all the cans of food because when it gets rough they will be rolling around the wheelhouse.the wind starts blowing from the west,that tells us its gonna get really rough, you have secured your toolboxes so noone gets knoked in the head ,,this is were all your seamanship comes into play ,you have lost one vhf radio because the antenna is busted ,,you have 2 ,,but your now wondering how long the other will hold out ,so far so good.seas are building to 12 ft maybe15.and you just snagged a shimp net in one of your outdrives,,being capton ,you take the job of clearing the net yourself ,after all its your resonsibility ,for crew saftey and all.about now you get it cleared ,your wet cold ,and will eat anything you find ,cooked or not ,you cant sleep or relax,now you have lost your no .1 loran,one radioand the outdrive leg is taking water because the shimpnet has chewed your seals.west wind always blows for at least 3 days,,your really tired .the sea lays down ,..most who are smart would go home ,you not only have your family to feed ,but 3 others as well, ,you repair the seal in the outdrive ,,pick up your fishing gear off deck,,and go to workfor 4 or 5 more days ,,seamanship is being prepard,seamanship is stamina ,and seamanship is being able to improvise,and persavier,,,,seamanship makes us alive with life.......longliner

[Bergalia]

Originally Posted by longliner45

....so noone gets knoked in the head...

Tell us Longliner - did Noone recover from the knoke on the head....

[safewalrus]

Ah Bergalia I see you have lost noone of language skills when you moved to those there foreign parts! You speaka the septic very well!

[safewalrus]

And Guillermo, that me handsom, be the American Manual (as opposed to the Spanish Manule who nothing but an ordinary seaman - sorry poor joke) and it be different to real Seamanship (the British version) or am I, as usual biased?

In the first instance I note the marking of the hand lead to be slightly different - 13 fathoms being marked by three strips of leather, the British version being marked by a piece of blue serge (the cloth was a different kind for each colour to enable it to be felt in the dark - useful if you were 'sneaking' into soundings at night and either you needed to keep your lights out, or get shot at, or it was windy and thus awkward to keep the lanthorn alight (the secrets of a properly trimmed wick are all but gone!!)

[longliner45]

noone was fine,it was his 2 brothers I had to keep an eye on ,,,dammit and notnow.longliner

[rayk]

i,m sorry, I never intriduced myself, when I came to the group, only
noticed the wee note"please intro yourself" today!!

I am a yachtbuilder who for 20 years ran my own custom building yard
in NZ

Let me take you through the last launch and seatrial

I had built the 55 in alloy, on spec, for the Seattle market,Blue
Water Sailing, a mag from somewhere on the east coast were sposed to
write her up, but if they did I never saw the write up.
After 17000 hours of build time, some guy from Aust. found us on the
web and bought her. You can see the pics here somewhere, one is
titled Orams, another is of the transom and the third is us sailing
here across the Tasman
Launching, the truck loaded stern first, and we went down the road at
close to 45-50mph in a full gale, with rain, when we arrived at the
travelift, we discovered that the companionway hatch and doors had
survived the equivelant of an 80mph rain squall and that they were
water tight.

launching in a gale is never fun, engine and steering tests are put
on hold as we manouvere a million bucks worh onto the fuel dock

Down harbour to Westhaven in auckland, home of the CUP. When we
arrive at the marina, we find that the gale is full on and we have to
back into the slip, alas there are no lines!! We make it without loss
of paint
Another nightmare to add to the millions then ensues. what should be
a simple mast stepp excercise turns to putty. The crane and the
rigger are late, the tide is on the turn as they lower the mast into
the boat all 70 feet of it, we have to keep warping her astern as we
look like taking the ground. The rigger drops a 300 lb swaging
machine on the deck which does damage, we manage to swage up all the
shrouds and the stays are left, we motor off with halyards as
temporary staying. the rigger has managed to crack a spreader and
leave the decks liberally plasterd with LANACOATE, which is a natural
product made from sheep not Lama. It then takes him a month to
complete the rig, a job which should take 2 days. we have to reswage
the satys as they are not down to specs.

follow this saga, as we equpe the computers and make ready for the
ocean passage which doubles as a seatrial. follow the sabotage of
the building of the M55 and the full storm mid tasman and the mutiny
of the so called profeesional crew

til later XXX,
ps no spellin correction here

The heights of seamanship.

Stay tuned...