everglades challenge sailboat

this is from the track leaders site

Sandy Bottom SOS - Last 10 points

#907 on Wed Mar 14 16:49:39 2012 (10 minutes ago). 0.93 mi traveled at 5.6 mph
#906 on Wed Mar 14 16:39:42 2012 (20 minutes ago). 1.44 mi traveled at 8.7 mph
#905 on Wed Mar 14 16:29:42 2012 (30 minutes ago). 1.37 mi traveled at 8.2 mph
#904 on Wed Mar 14 16:19:42 2012 (40 minutes ago). 0 feet traveled at 0.0 mph
#903 on Wed Mar 14 16:09:42 2012 (50 minutes ago). 311 feet traveled at 0.5 mph
#902 on Wed Mar 14 16:03:11 2012 (56 minutes ago). 2.59 mi traveled at 10.0 mph
#901 on Wed Mar 14 15:47:41 2012 (1 hours, 12 minutes ago). 1.90 mi traveled at 11.4 mph
#900 on Wed Mar 14 15:37:41 2012 (1 hours, 22 minutes ago). 1.62 mi traveled at 9.7 mph
#899 on Wed Mar 14 15:27:41 2012 (1 hours, 32 minutes ago). 1.08 mi traveled at 6.0 mph
#898 on Wed Mar 14 15:16:54 2012 (1 hours, 43 minutes ago). 0.71 mi traveled at 4.3 mph
#897 on Wed Mar 14 15:06:58 2012 (1 hours, 53 minutes ago).

 

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Wow, they're almost at Haulover Canal! Wonder if they'll stop there-I imagine that paddling would be a drag about now.....

http://sailnaway.blogspot.com/

 

3 holes is no big deal, and sailing with one instead of two is pretty easy. The tricky bit is storing the unused mast in windy, rough conditions. Another advantage of an unstayed mast is it flexes and spills the wind. The wind strength that this happens in can be engineered fairly precisely, and altered (more/less carbon) after sea trials. Therefore you reef much less often. I would tend to sail with both rigs and let the flex handle the strong winds.

The education happens a lot quicker than learning to sail a conventional boat, and as there is so much less to break, the trials should be quicker as well. Unless you get into experimenting, in which case, they never finish! There are a couple of proa nuts in Texas with off the beach proas. PM me if you want to contact them.

Excellent. Let me know if I can help with either, particularly the masts and materials.

Famous last words!!!! ;-)

Probably cost $3,000 to get it to you. For not much more, you could build it.

Richard,
Excellent idea.

rob

 

"The purpose of WaterTribe is to encourage the development of boats, equipment, skills, and human athletic performance for safe and efficient coastal cruising using minimal impact human and wind powered watercraft based on kayaks, canoes, and small sailboats."

~ Chief, February 2000

I do believe that what we are talking about follows "the wt Purpose" very well. Don't you think?

 

Sure do, but Chief does not think much of proas, banned them for a while, iirc. Not sure if they still are, or not. If they are, it is another reason to get going early, do some proving trips and show him the boat is safe.

 

Banned? I'd think he'd be over that by now, especially compared to what has entered the EC, "wildthing", a windsurfer, etc.

 

Hmm..correct me if I am wrong but didn't Proas in the hands of early Polynesians/Micronesians cross the pacific like taxis crossing Manhattan? Seems feasible that a modern proa would be way safer than those were and they should be allowed in these races IMHO...but on the other hand....I understand. Afterall, crack the door a bit to the wild side and next thing u know...there would be some guy in a barrel with a sail on top, or a couple clowns in a tandem double-kayak with foot pedals...

 

Hello Richard,

I think thats some awesome "out of the box" thinking

Steve

 

You can not leave anything behind, you must carry everything in the boat for the whole event, including any wheels or skids you use for the beach launch.

 

You are correct as per the original rules but for this year things were changed.

There is now the "boat switch rule" where your ground crew can swap you out another boat for the rivers and portage, they will re deliver you the bigger boat later on. There's also the "Daniel Boone Option" and it that's not enough there's the "total weenie option".

So when broken down almost anyway to get thru stage 4 will work. This type of plan is one not yet considered until now!

The chief wants entries, as per the original rules there were hardly anyone interested. I was for the Original Rules, and designed my "Bad Kitty" to fit those rules, mid stream the rules were changed, and really pissed me off!

Is this "bending" the rules? It will be up to the Chief and only he. Besides what can he do? Disqualify me? It hardly matters to me! Anyway, he still has to "decide" if there's gonna be another UFC because he's made mention that "anything can happen, so do it now or ....... maybe miss out!" or something to that effect.

Whatever the case, both boats, Bad Kitty and the Proa (with no name yet) would still have quite useful lives sailing in other events and enjoying life on the Texas coastal waters where they would be perfect for these conditions.

see all the "rules and warnings" here:
http://WaterTribe.org/wt-pdfs/WaterTribeRules.pdf

this line sums it all up:

Note that the Ultimate Florida Challenge may modify these rules from time-to-time based
on conditions. Check the specific event in the web site for these changes.

not all the new rules make it into the .pdf rules file, you got the check the forum.

 

That will almost certainly kill the event. You go to all the trouble of building a boat, or planning around the rules, and than its altered after you get there? So suddenly all your planning was for nothing, and another configuration suddenly has a advantage over yours? That is a stupid and big no-no for any contest, it sucks.

It also sounds like they are getting away from the original intent of simulating long distance adventure travel. of course the really dumb thing about the long portages, is if you were really planning a long distance adventure trip, you would not plan portages that were not easy to do with the boat your brought. You plan around the type of boat you are taking.

 

Ufc / Efc

I don't like the portage thing at all-I want no part of that. But coastal racing in the state of Florida is really something I'm interested in like the catamarans' "Hirams Haul".

 

Sandy Bottom and SOS in the wooden Mosquito Tri is at the beginning of Stage 4 which is the river and portage section.

The tri is up on a trailer and they've switched boats to a Kruger I believe. Initially they planned to use the Original Rules and that would have been nice to see done, oh well.

So as it stands no one has yet taken a larger sailing craft via the Original Rules so I still got the chance to do it and prove it can be done if there is another UFC in the future. If not then I may just have to do an Extended EC which is doing the Everglades Challenge but just keep going, whether there's a UFC or not, or anyone else doing it, it really doesn't matter. I'd not be doing this for prize money, trophy, the record books or a party at the end, it's just a quest to build and prove a boat on a tough course. Later the same boat(s) can be used for other events but mostly just for fun sailing.

 

Thanks for the info, Dennis. I think your ideas have a lot of potential for a portage type challenge race. Be interesting to see how it works out.
Another problem I see with switching boats is that the "rich" teams benefit-they can afford to have someone follow them , meet them etc. where the poor guy in the kayak is on his own. Ought to be a penalty there somewhere...

 

I agree. Switching boats should cause an adjustment in the race ranking or time penalty. A handicap needs to be administered in such a case, perhaps giving an option to do an additional leg in lieu of using the original starting boat throughout.