Huge sailboat simply built

[Greenseas2]

We are in the process of building a 24 foot San Francisco Pelican and the internal size is amazingly large. The vessel is actually meant to be a small cargo carrying boat for a resident in Andros Bahamas and has had the design modified for a small cabin and large cargo hold. The Pelicans are exceptionally stable and seaworthy, yet economical to build and own. This particular boat is a latrge version of the 12 footer that is specifically design to stand up to the strong winds and steep seas in San Francisco Bay. I have sailed some of the 12 footers and they are extremely stable. The 24 foot size would make an idea cruising vessel. Hopefully we will be able to enter a 12 footer in the March Everglades challenge sponsored by Watertribe. The beam on the 24 footer is a full 12 feet with a 4 foot freeboard.....a lot of boat for the money.

[ron17571]

shoulda included a link to info about this wonder boat.

[Greenseas2]

Sorry, I forgot the link. It is, Community-2.webtv.net/Pelicansailboat/SFPelicansailboats/ The information covers the 12', 16' and 18' Pelicans. For the 24 footer we just doubled the dimensions for the 12 footer and added two watertight bulkheads, one at the front of the hold and the other at the aft end of the hold which is also the forward bulkhead for the small cabin. Very simple and very fast to build. With very shallow draft, the boat can powered to hull speed with a 5hp outboard. For those who might want to convert the boat to a motorsailer, the hull volume provides lots of possibilities to be outfitted as a good cruising boat or liveaboard.

[SAQuestor]

Originally Posted by Greenseas2

Sorry, I forgot the link. It is, Community-2.webtv.net/Pelicansailboat/SFPelicansailboats/

Link does not appear to work. On the tool bar there is a icon for inserting a link. Hover your mouse pointer over the various icons to find out what they do.

[Greenseas2]

Just go to yahoo and type in San Francisco Pelican sailboat and you should find it

[LP]

http://community-2.webtv.net/Pelican...ATS/index.html

[Greenseas2]

Knowledge is never gained too late if it is used. If the boat pictured was built by you, you did a great job. With the San Francisco Pelicans, they provide a lot of utility and can be built for a number of uses including long distance cruising, camp cruising, racing and cargo carrying. We anticipate using a 16 footer for the grueling Watertribe Everglades Challenge in March as it is easily sailed, has shallow draft (4"), can be rowed or poled in the shallow banks of Florida Bay and various "filtering" courses. The 300 mile race doesn't allow motors of any sort and we feel the Pelican is a good candidate for winning the race. The lug sail and jib on the Pelican provide more than enough sail area to move the boat spritely even under heavy loads. Currently we have a 30 foot S2 9.2C sloop, but may scale down to a 24 foot Pelican.

[Guillermo]

In the Ria de Vigo, and also down in La Guardia, just in the border with Portugal, we have traditional boats called "gamelas" which have been around from centuries. They are simple, seaworthy and sail beatifully, with no keel at all, just a huge rudder.

Those San Francisco Pelicans resemble very much our old gamelas, so, perhaps are they inspired in them....?

You may know more about our gamelas by visiting the following sites (In spanish):

http://www.terra.es/personal8/986307044/diana.htm
http://www.modelismonaval.com/magazi...ela_coruxeira/

[Greenseas2]

There is a decided similarity to the boats. The pelican was designed by a San Francisco Bay tug boat captain. In that area there is a large Italian and Portuguese influence though and a distinct possibility of some modeling.

[Guillermo]

These are commercial fishermen's boats and have been in use for that purpose till maybe a dozen of years ago. Nowadays they are used only for recreational purposes in the hands of traditional boats lovers.
When I was a child my family used to spend summertimes at a fisherman's house very close to the beach in the attached photo. We stayed at the top floor of the house and the firsherman's family moved for those months to the ground level floor. The name of the couple were Ramón and Filomena, both of them already dead, being extraordinarily heartly people, and really hard workers. Ramón taught me how to fish, bringing me with him for short fishing sailings many times, when he was fishing in close to home waters. I remember I always tried to help him to launch and beach back again his gamela at the beach in the photo, with the help of a wooden roller, although all effort was done by him, as I was a child and not a very strong one. But he always told me 'well done' when we finished. Wonderful days...

[Greenseas2]

I envy you your childhood experiences with the boats and mentor. One of the attractive features that drew me toward the Pelican design is that they are easily launched and recovered on the beach. While having a large volume that can be adapted to almost any maritime use, the shallow draft and flat bottom (board up) provide access to almost any area that people would want to go. Looking for a safe harbor from an approaching storm is easy compared to deep draft keel boats. Similarly, with the Pelican used as a cargo carrier, the boat can be run right up almost to the waterline on the beach and cargo carried a few feet to dry land by the crew.....no need for a port. The boat is ideal for remote locations. For cargo use, I would build a couple of skegs on the bottom simply to protect the bottom from wear while grounding.

[sharpii2]

Originally Posted by Greenseas2

Knowledge is never gained too late if it is used. If the boat pictured was built by you, you did a great job. With the San Francisco Pelicans, they provide a lot of utility and can be built for a number of uses including long distance cruising, camp cruising, racing and cargo carrying. We anticipate using a 16 footer for the grueling Watertribe Everglades Challenge in March as it is easily sailed, has shallow draft (4"), can be rowed or poled in the shallow banks of Florida Bay and various "filtering" courses. The 300 mile race doesn't allow motors of any sort and we feel the Pelican is a good candidate for winning the race. The lug sail and jib on the Pelican provide more than enough sail area to move the boat spritely even under heavy loads. Currently we have a 30 foot S2 9.2C sloop, but may scale down to a 24 foot Pelican.

Sounds like a good plan to me.

Are you going to have a crewmate or is it just going to be you? Do you plan on sleeping on board during part of the voyage?
If you are going to be two, are you going to sail on a 24 hour basis (probably your best chance at winning)?

Personally, I think the SF Pelican design was a stroke of genius that would be difficult to improve upon. Scaling it up to 24 ft ought to give you one big boat (2.5 to 3.5 tons, loaded)

Best of luck.

Bob

[Greenseas2]

Hi Bob,
The Everglades challenge is a tough one where you do sleep aboard (sporadically) if you want to win. The 16 foot super pelican has plenty of room for sleeping and stowing gear. At this point I have no crew member as getting the boat built is first priority. The Challenge itself would be almost impossible single handedly. I believe the Pelican can do the Challenge course in about 2.5 days.

[Tad]

Greenseas,

At the top of the thread you mention entering a 12' and then further down it's a 16'?

Either one will never average 5 knots for 60 hours, unless you are caught in a passing hurricane. Even a really good 17'-20' will need lots of work to average 5 knots over the ground, and they can't keep it up without rowing hard a great deal of the time. The boats that finish the 300 mile Everglades Challenge in 2.5 days are rigged with tandem oars and they row a lot. I think a great pelican would be heartbreaking to row for any length of time.

I wish you good luck with it. Tad

[Greenseas2]

The intent is to use the 16' super pelican for the challenge. Seaworthyness is more important than speed and finishing the challenge is as good as winning. We may even try a kite sail for addition sail area in modeate breezes. It's a fun thing more than a real race. An important feature is that the flat bottom is easy to launch off of the beach on PVC pipe rollers. No automated launching or trailers allowed. The second is that with shallow draft of 4", the boat is poled more easily than rowed against strong currents in some places on the course.