If you said, "Something that every radio DJ would say when playing an old song," you get 2 bonus points. If you said, "What is a radio DJ?" get off my lawn, ya damn whippersnapper. If you said, "A romantic comedy film from 1999, starring Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, and Sissy Spacek," you get 25 bonus points.
I am talking about a blast from our past: I recently heard from the guy who is the current owner of Wide Open. "What's Wide Open?" you ask. Thanks for asking. Wide Open was the F-27 Corsair sailing trimaran we had before Wild Blue. Great boat; fast, sleek, and stable. It could sleep 5 (never slept more than just Joan and me when we had it), comfortable cockpit, great lounging on the nets between the main hull and the amas.
My two favorite memories with that boat weren't while sailing (although it was a great sailing boat): lying out on the nets while watching a meteor shower in South Dakota, and watching dolphins swim around the boat in the moonlight while anchored overnight in the Laguna Madre in Texas.
The reason we sold it: we had ordered Wild Blue and were looking forward to boat cruising US and Canadian waters. A power cruiser with an enclosed helm made more sense for us. Both boats were towable, but going from land to water (and vice versa) was so much easier with the C-Dory. Plus the stand up height (6'10") cabin in Wild Blue vs the 5' cabin height in Wide Open (except for the area right under the hatch when popped up that allowed full standing height when at the galley). Each of those boats were outstanding in their own right.
The gentleman that recently bought the boat has been trying to find information on the previous life of Wide Open (owners, where sailed, upgrades). I was able to fill in some of that; we gave the boat that name. We bought the boat through a dealer in Dallas, picked it up in Corpus Christi. We owned it from 2001 to 2006; sold it through that same dealer (La Vida Starships).
We had the boat in South Dakota and Texas. Kept it at a marina at Lake Angostura in South Dakota, using it on weekends. Then hauled it south for winters in Texas. The top photo above was at Angostura with Steph and Dan, the lower photo was at our dock in Texas.
The boat would fold for towing. Not a fast procedure, but a clever design. Here it is on the trailer behind the American Dream coach we had at the time...
That rig was 78' long as pictured above. Joan would drive separate in the Tahoe we had at the time, acting as the escort vehicle. We couldn't fit in most parking lots or RV parks, so it took some logistics. Once down, the Tahoe (or the Leisure Travel Van) could haul the boat for launching and retrieving at a boat ramp. Setting up or de-rigging the boat was done on the trailer, using the trailer winch to raise or lower the 38' mast. The amas (outriggers) were folded up or extended on the water. Yeah, that part was a lot of work... and the reason we switched to Wild Blue, with our retirement plans for boat cruising.
For as big as that boat was, the design was ingenious and reasonably lightweight to allow for a (supposed) 8.5 foot width for towing. Weight on the trailer was just over 5,000 pounds. While called an F-27, the boat was just over 30' long. In that photo above, you can see the windows on the rear cabin (which would sleep 2, but we used it for storage). Width on the water was just over 19'; the draft (depth) of the boat was 5' with the daggerboard down, 1.2' with the daggerboard and rudder up. The design displacement was just over 2,600 pounds, actual weight with motor and sails was around 3,200 pounds. Keeping the boat light made for faster sailing speed. Top speed Joan and I had the boat was 21 knots (about 24 mph) under sail. Most often, an easy sailing speed would be 10 to 12 knots.
The boat was designed by Ian Ferrier and built by Corsair Marine, which was in Costa Mesa, California, at the time, but has since moved building operations to Vietnam (lower labor costs and less environmental laws for the building materials/process).
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Joan and I reminisced about Wide Open when I told her about getting an email from the current owner. "How did he find you?" she asked.
"Internet search. I was pretty active on the Trailer Sailor Forum and an administrator on the F-Boats forum. He had an older email address for me."
She also said, "That was a younger person's boat... but I guess we were younger at the time." That's relative. ;-) It took both of us to rotate that 30' boat (with a 19' beam) in a 55' wide canal, using a line on the dock and motor power. Once moving forward, we didn't have much steerage until doing about 2 1/2 knots. We could only put the daggerboard down a foot or so until out of the canals, which made the steering less effective. Coming in and out of the canals was always an adventure, if someone on a fishing boat coming the other direction around a corner wasn't paying attention - we would sound a horn blast as we approached a 90º corner in the canal.
When just cruising on the boat, one of us would handle the tiller and mainsail, the other would handle the jib sail when tacking. The sails were big and powerful enough that tightening with a winch was always necessary. When racing, I handled the steering, Joan was usually out on an ama, moving back or forth to give us the best balance for speed. We were a good team. When the wind was howling, we had roller furling for the jib and a roller boom for reefing the mainsail.
The first time we ever saw a Corsair F-boat in person was during a 60 mile race: the wind was blowing like snot, we were on the MacGregor 26x sailboat we had at the time. We were taking a beating in the wind, wet and tired. It was a staggered start - our boat had a slow rating, so we were one of the first to start. Towards the mid part of the race, this sleek trimaran blew by us like we were still tied to the dock. The guy at the helm was steering with one hand, holding a soda in the other hand; his wife and kid were on the upwind net, relaxing; they all waved as they went by. Joan asked, "What was that?"
"Our next boat."
2 comments:
Cool story. I grew up on the Great Lakes and spent tons of time in power boats, not to mention many inland lakes around Michigan. I have enjoyed sailing a few times. We spent a week on an Alaskan friend's Liberty 46 running the Inside Passage northbound between Ketchikan, Petersburg, and Juneau. That included Christmas Tree Lane, a short segment with the highest density of nav markers. I was at the helm on open water as we approached. Alice took over the wheel going in. My friend (Captain Jerry) was somewhat vague about the buoys and instructions. We knew what red and green meant, but what the heck does stacked red AND green on the same buoy mean? Alice said, "Without some direction, I am aiming straight for it". That got his attention and finally some steering advice.
We also raced (a few times) on SF Bay in the late 80's. Alice had a co-worker with a fairly large boat that he liked to race on the Bay. We crewed a few times. He liked to fly the spinnaker, but sometimes the wind was really just too much for that. Alice usually got stuck below deck repacking the spinnaker for deployment in the next leg. Yay. I was strong and mostly had winch duty. However, he was too cheap to buy a second ratcheting handle for the other winch, so it had to be moved from port to starboard when tacking. Sometimes that simply could not happen quickly enough. He saw the light after we dipped the partially inflated spinnaker in the water and tore it. He also mistimed the maximum tide so we spent about an hour directly under the bridge while indicating 7 knots, but moving maybe 100 yards. We only went on one more ride after that. During that trip we were on the Bay, as were several big America's Cup boats. He was not a good captain. He tacked and encroached on their ROW and it was only the excellence of that professional crew that kept us from getting run over by an 80-footer just off Sausalito. Now we are done as crew, at least during races.
I used to enjoy racing. Joan was less enthralled with the competitive nature of it. It is a different mindset than cruising - more like playing chess with a bunch of opponents, while factoring in the weather and watching for wind "tell-tales" on the water. The best was just enjoying time on the water, with no destination: go the direction that gives you the most fun. Not always possible in a (relatively) narrow waterway (like the Brownsville Ship Channel).
It is often said that "sailors have bad memories" - the perfect sailing conditions are few (part of the challenge), but they don't remember the wet and the cold... and they head out to do it again. ;-)
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