Historical multihulls

What a delightful thread! Some comments on Duster and Zarifa/Zarefa.

Duster: There is indeed precious little published material about Duster. What there is all seems to cover the fall of 1894, leading me to believe that W. L. Oliver's photos also date from around that time and not from the late 1870s as is commonly assumed. Note also, that the dry plate which was a requisite for making photos on the water was not yet common in the 1870s, which lends further support to the notion that the Duster photos date from the 1890s or the 1880s.

Duster was invited to participate in a regatta on Oakland Creek on September 16, 1894:

"The Oakland Navy's regular monthly race went off yesterday [September 16, 1894] with the usual amount of excitement. The start was made at 2 p.m., with twelve at the line, three in the red class and nine in the white. ... In the white class the Fredie was the first to get off, crossing 35 seconds after the gun, followed by the Duster at 37 seconds, the Dreamer at 50 seconds, Flash at 53 seconds, Dan at 1 minute, the Whirlwind at 1 minute and 25 seconds, and the Myth at 1 minute and 35 seconds. ... The Duster led this class all the way around on the first half, and went to the front of the fleet on the work home, winning by over five minutes. She is the catamaran that has been seen in these waters lately, and if pushed yesterday could have done much better. This craft is not one of the regular entries in the navy, but went over the course by courtesy of the committee. The regular winner was the Flash, which won by over two minutes from the Nemesis, with the Dan third. ..." (Source: Anon. "The Navy Race. An Exciting Regatta On Oakland Creek Yesterday." San Francisco Morning Call, September 17, 1894, p. 8.)

The next weekend Duster was present at the regatta of the San Francisco Yacht Club off Sausalito. She capsized before the start and was immediately righted again and continued to sail, but did not race:

"... One of the most peculiar accidents ever witnessed occurred shortly after noon. The catamaran Duster was cavorting about the harbor having a real enjoyable time when a squall struck her opposite Hurricane gulch and turned her over. The captain who is a rare sport was out on the leeward boat with a friend of his and their united weight made the craft topheavy and over she went. The funniest part of the accident was that the men on board did not even get their feet wet. As the catamaran turned they walked up and were on the bottom when the Duster settled down wrong side up with care. A number of boats put out to the scene of disaster and the Rover's dingy was first to reach the inverted Duster. It only required a few minutes to right the catamaran and her sporty skipper was soon wiling away as if nothing had happened. ..." (Source: Anon. "A Great Race and The Wind Played All Sorts of Tricks. Catamaran Capsized and the Grade Turned Over." San Francisco Chronicle, September 24, 1894, p. 8.)

Now to Zarifa/Zarefa: She is the real McCoy! Zarifa (sometimes called Zarefa) is one of the four catamarans built by N. G. Herreshoff's catamaran company in 1878! Originally intended for himself for racing in the 1877 New York Bay Regatta, he sold her to Robert Hall of Howe & Hall, a loan brokerage company in San Francisco. Zarifa was shipped to the West Coast on the Abner I. Benyon which left New York on August 16, 1878 and arrived at San Francisco on January 6, 1879, making her the first modern catamaran to round Cape Horn...

Zarifa quickly began sailing on San Francisco Bay (she was skippered by one of the Stofen brothers) and her great speed soon made her well known. In April 1879 she participated in the San Francisco Yacht Club's cruise from Sausalito to Vallejo, but had to be run aground off Point Pissol when her centerboard case started leaking. Watertight bulkheads were put in and she was soon repaired. But, built for more gentle Long Island conditions, Zarifa was clearly overpowered for sailing in the boisterous summer conditions on San Francisco Bay. On June 8, 1879 she broke her mast when returning from Martinez and had to be towed home where she was repaired again. Meanwhile club members continued to puzzle how to class her and came up with the wise solution of putting her in her own catamaran class. Which lead to her "winning" her class in the August 9, 1879 regatta of the San Francisco Yacht Club ... where she was the only competitor! After this regatta Zarifa dropped out of the public limelight.

Wouldn't it be interesting to go through the records of the San Francisco Yacht Club and see if there is more material concerning Zarifa/Zarefa?

 

Duster and....

Great post,MHP! Thanks.....

 

Plus one

 

...


I'm gobsmacked. Struck dumb. What a post!


(And I have to beg the indulgence of any of you who've noted my curious silence here the last few weeks.

I've been preparing for Christmas, you see. One of the little items on that list is trying to finish the various household improvements which I'd told my darling wife I'd have done in a jiffy, since New Years. New Years at least!)

Meanwhile, MHP has come to the rescue. What a post!

Now I have to go back and read it again, to do it justice.

 

A more recent historical racing multihull it looks like the last of the ORMA 60's Franck Cammas Groupama2 has found a new home in the US. The west coast of the US is building quite an impressive fleet of hot racing multihulls. This little snippet from Cam Lewis.

"Sailing this weekend on Enloe's new ride, American Offshores Racing fleet out west has a new Stallion, the last of the best and fastest Orma 60s ever! The ex Groupama2 , a nice upgrade from the Waterworld boat (Loereal), as Bill Lee likes to promote ( me too ) Fast is FUN"

 

^^^

I used to think Cam was the cat's pajamas.

But these days it seems he's kind of a paid ****, for anyone willing to spend the money on one or another larger multihull.



lol

 

He does mono's too . I guess everyone needs to make a living and it's probably an enjoyable way to do that if you enjoy sailing. The people who are paying him can afford it so It's probably a good arrangement all round.

 

What a classy and interesting comment. Not.

I don't think it did anything for discussing "historical multihulls".

Anyone else you need to talk about? How about the Bilge? Sorry, forgot, wrong forum.

 

MPH receive also my thanks for all this research.

 

Yeah, plus 1 from me and all, MHP

Nothing like good solid hard facts "as recorded" at the time. Good effort.

 

Photo of Groupama2 out racing with it's new owner.

http://bayshots.smugmug.com/Boats/S...03742_k7NGj5#!i=2971034784&k=2VP3BZX&lb=1&s=A

 

Another oldie

Trumpeter, still apparently a goodie....

http://www.raiatea-yacht.com/index.php?page=trimaran

 

Noticed this over on Woodenboat's FB page the 70' Spronk catamaran Ppalu getting a new lease on life at the St. Kitts Boatyard:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151887875027444&set=o.10150140252985603&type=1&theater

Among the "recent posts by others" on WOODENBOAT is this beauty, PPALU. Thanks to D Randy West for sharing and, congratulations: she looks super! A bit of background from Latitude 38 Magazine (Sept. 2013): In one of the most pleasant bits of news we've gotten in ages, we've learned that Caribbean legend D. Randy West and his sweetheart H.Q., after years of longing, have acquired the 70-ft Spronk catamaran Ppalu. Built in the early 1970s of ply and epoxy, she's ketch rigged and has deep v hulls. D. Randy has memories galore from sailing and racing her in the old days, so he's been happily laboring to bring her back up to snuff at the St. Kitts Boatyard. In addition to Ppalu, West has owned two other smaller Spronk cats, the 45-ft Skyjack and the 60-foot Shadowfax. So he knows how to make these light and low-riding cats fly. While D. Randy, who has millions of friends up and down the Antilles, to say nothing of the United States, will no doubt be hitting all the islands showing off his new prize, she'll be based out of Gustavia, St. Barth.

www.latitude38.com/changes/Changes09-13.html#.UsF_PaU-Cao

 

Main hull so slim

Great picture

 

PPALU and inspirations

Thanks for that posting and the photo.

I wonder if Peter Wormwood has seen this? I'll have to see if I can notify him of this happening. Both he and I always admired the 'sleekness' of these Spronk designed and built vessels.

Peter's design Indigo was originally built in St Kitts as well


...some more photos here and next page
http://runningtideyachts.com/design-references/design-references-1.php