Historical multihulls

Today I received an email from a most gracious Reference Specialist at the Library of Congress, that she had searched in the San Francisco Chronicle during the years 1876-1890, and found no mention of the catamaran Duster.

Rats. I'd been hoping to find a quick answer regarding the date of this picture (which you will now have occasion to view!); but why should the Chronicle have paid any notice to an eccentric little boat, when so much else was taking place every day? The newspapers of San Francisco in these years are chock full of the doings of tens of thousands of people - people who seem to have one foot in a booming cosmopolitan life, and one foot still in the Wild West.


It's now been 5 days since I received the new photo of Duster, and I'm still waiting on the OK for the usage of it.

So I've come up with a temporary measure to put an end to the sufferings of all the avid scholars reading this thread!

You are hereby cordially invited to a modest internet gallery which I maintain, to privately view and study said curious photograph - and please help yourselves to the champagne, cognac, and hors d'oeuvres!

I do ask that you not copy the photo to this site or others yet. I have cropped my larger version, and sized it to 72 dpi per the Bancroft Library's requirements. I will wait with posting the photo to this site, allowing the library the time they need to give such clearance.

...

And Here It IS.

 

Duster

Geez, man that is fantastic! But like a man in the dessert who spots water, I already copied it-but I'll delete it. Thanks for all your effort! There was something about librarian pictures???!

 

So about 18ft ? With the mother of all bowsprits ! Would the helm really balance with that cloud of a headsail out there ?
I reckon the family of this designer could sue Hobie Alter ! As someone said everything old is new again.
Love your work Blackburn.

 

Thank you for your encouragement!

I have a very good friend and sailing companion who is far more technically adept than I. I sent him a copy of the photograph (he was flabbergasted by it) and one of his remarks was that the centerboard on this boat can be moved forwards and backwards so as to keep it in balance; otherwise it would be impossible to sail...

And there's more! I'm keen to hear what people make of it!

 

Why in the world are you limited to 72 dpi?
It is not like these people first published the picture.

 

As far as I know Upchurch, nobody has published this picture before.

And 72 dpi doesn't reduce what you can see, much at all
because I've done it in closeup.

 

Sorry, I thought you said it was published in the San Francisco Chronicle? Some time around 1900? Surely any copyright is gone.

 

...


Back to the new photo of Duster !

(see my post from yesterday #706 above, on how to see the photo!)

Doesn't it look like the beams on Duster flex quite a lot, if you compare them in the two different photos we now have of the boat?

It looks like a different way of allowing the hulls to move, compared to Amaryllis. I'm confused about how the beams and hulls on Amaryllis were connected; some descriptions mention a 'universal joint', and a 1894 description (see quote below) is a little different.

The Duster beams look like they flex, and the 4 links between the beams and hulls are so thin that they must be made of steel? Doesn't look like there are any kind of sockets on Duster.

The struts on Duster also are of thin metal, I guess, there's struts for the bowsprit, the aft sprit, but none under the beams?

Then there is the main strut under the foot of the mast. Under the hull and mast foot is (not an extension of the mast, but) a stouter 'dolphin striker' with what looks like a metal cup on the bottom which links the tensioned wires from the bowsprit and the plate under the baby stay with two other wires connecting to the back beam in a V. Altogether it makes a 'Y' structure, as on Le Black or three of the four AC72's this summer.

Duster looks built with the same kind of attention to lightness, doesn't she? The center hull is unlike anything ever built before. The mainsheet is so thin it must be wire?



Here's how Amaryllis was described in an 1894 compendium on Yachting (my bold):

 

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I received an email a couple of hours ago that my permission has been sent in the regular mail! Very kind of the lady to let me know, since the regular mail wouldn't reach me now for 2-3 weeks...

So here is the same 72dpi closeup which I put up yesterday on my photobucket account, of the second photo of 'Duster' (in the Wm Letts Oliver Family Collection), a photo which I don't think has been seen outside the Bancroft Library's archives before.





I'd be happy to oblige if anyone wishes to see further closeups of details in this photo.

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I'm intending to find out just where on the Bay this photo was taken - if anyone knows, please drop us a line!

 

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Here's what the uncropped photograph looks like.

I don't suppose there were too many people out on San Francisco Bay with cameras in those days.
I'd think the photographer would have been disoriented if he had been told:
One day there will be excellent cameras included in mobile phones.

Lol.

 

The large original is not as sharp as your earlier cropped version; worked it over a bit. Still difficult to see where the sliding board case finishes towards mast - it could go all the way to base at the same depth as the after case sections (that may be water reflections on what appears to be just aft of base, looks like Whitehall after dinghy section including case under pod) or it stops about halfway, although I can't see that point. Whatever, a clever setup ... and dare to say, a cleaner pod than the Herreshoff.
Wonder if the Lake Geneva D35 racing cats paid copyright fees to the pioneering Duster designer.

 

^^^

I think it is totally different from the Herreshoff designs I've seen, Coxcreek*.

(* a term of endearment. I like the primordial mangrove swamp association I have with your old avatar)

Both photos are 72 dpi and I sharpened the closeup. Here below there is a closeup of the centerboard case. It stops just aft of the mast/dolphin striker.

Since you mention the D35's, I think I'll send a message to Seb Schmidt!
And see if we can get him to comment on the design of Duster.







.

 

Thanks Blackburn, sharpened your closeup some more. Looks like the mast and dophin striker post are the same dimensions so maybe one unit ... and the metal straps angled aft are also sort of a forerunner to Alinghi 41 too.

You like the Auckland swampland avatar I used earlier at SA? Not as swampy as your place though; I've watched the Everglades Challenge videos. Although we do have some extensive mangrove areas.

 

When I look at the photo with more of the mast in the picture, then Duster's 'Grand Central' doesn't line exactly with the mast... It must be a strut, and not part of the mast? A mast going through the hull would mean more damage if any part of the rig failed.

Don't you suppose they had enough trouble already, keeping this boat in one piece? Lol.



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Alinghi 41 (1995) has a ways to go before she's as historic as Duster, but she's still sailing around La Trinité and taking part in the Tour de Belle Isle. She was 5th this year, 11 minutes ahead of Sodebo/Coville.

Alinghi/My Way has those 'aft beams' for sheeting the headsails which I was trying to recall in an earlier post. What's the proper name for them?

 

^^ That's pretty cool Blackburn is this the boat that was designed by Morelli and Melvin?