Return to the Salish Sea

[David Patterson]

These photos are of a 1973 Cape Dory 7 1/2 "Dink" I am in the process of obtaining. I'm not having any luck finding information about sailing and rowing characteristics. If any one has experience with one, I would appreciate hearing from them. Once I get her picked up, which may not be until the Wooden Boat Festival in September in Port Townsend, I'll find out for myself. But I'm impatient to know. Beefy high quality construction and a relatively heavy weight (110 lbs), due to the little craft having a centerboard, are salient characteristics. These photos are by the prior owner. Notice the lifting eyes fore and aft, and the simple wedges at the mast base. The dinghy looks like a toy in them, doesn't she? Was this color scheme an original option? (There is another thread under "Cape Dorys" on the main message board menu of this site, with some information.) Does anyone have line drawings or brochures about these boats? If so, please share. I haven't contacted Robinhood yet to see if they do. This boat is to be my everyday shore boat, not that I go ashore everyday, and will be primarily towed. The two rowing stations will allow bringing a guest aboard easily. Positive flotation, etc. She is a fine little tender, to all appearances.

[David Patterson]

The two boats pictured were probably the only two sailing craft this year to leave the Southern Gulf Islands of Canada, cross the Strait of Georgia, sail up the reaches of Jarvis Inlet, sail through Malibu Rapids, and anchor near Chatterbox Falls of Princess Louisa Inlet...all without motoring and as only part of their sailing cruising. To the left is my little 1982 CD25D CLOUD GIRL. Closer, so seemingly much larger, is a "Harris 30," a one-off cutter: RABANNAH of Salt Lake City, Utah. She was designed by Cody, of the young couple who built her in only two years, using Skene's Elements of Yacht Design as a primary guide, and without CAD. Wood. Engineless, except for the half-horsepower electric trolling motor you can see. (My own power this year is a Honda 2.3, which has seen rare use, and not on the passages described.) Beth built the dinghy, HER MAJESTY. RABANNAH's stern is unique, as is her general aspect, seen in the last photo. (The sail logo and number of the used main are unrelated to the boat.) I'm anticipating acting as third crew aboard, for a race scheduled to be part of the Wooden Boat Show in Port Townsend in September. These two skilled and lively young people work winters and cruise summers, since building their boat. Idyllic.

[David Patterson]

Passing by ZODIAC (previously pictured) on my way to sail in an anchor, I was able to get a photo of her length. At 160' LOA, she is longer than half a football field. Impressive. Notice the black "day shape" she shows when at anchor. Her anchor light is hung on the inner forestay slightly lower down, illuminating foredeck and forward rigging. Most sailors already know that the traditional placement of the anchor light over the foredeck, at the bow, served multiple functions. It marked the position of the boat in the anchorage, of course. It also provided light over the rode and cleating for the crew dealing with the anchor at night. Hands were more free to work with a light already hung. Additionally, it aided other mariners by providing information about the probable size of the craft, it's orientation, and consequently how wind and tide forces might be operating on boats in the anchorage. Not to mention which end of the anchored craft to perhaps pass around, if length was not apparent. In more open water a sail-less boat with a black ball day shape hoisted could be assumed, in the age of sail, to be anchored and not adrift. Lots of functions for one signal. Modern customs may have lost us information. A day shape signal for being anchored is typically marketed as two interlocking black discs, which appear as a sphere once hoisted, yet are easy to stow even on a small craft. The similar radar reflectors are metal colored, which makes distinguishing them easy.

[David Patterson]

To get a photo of our own boats under sail obviously requires either having someone sail it by, or having the aid of other cruisers. Beth Allen Harris from RABANNAH took these of CLOUD GIRL recently. Dinghy towing generates as many opinions among cruisers as ground tackle systems do. In calmer sea states I find having the dinghy close decreases drag. If close in rougher waters, though, the dinghy will swing against the stern. Yet in waves of 3' or 4' she will take on water unless up close. But...then she will try to peck at the stern like an angry bird, especially running in high following seas. Having it on deck would be best, if my boat were large enough. Crossing the Strait of Georgia in a high wind warning (winds to 25 knots, standing waves at times of up to 4' in places, like at the north entrance to Horswell Channel) I needed a cushion or fender for the bow of the dinghy. I had it up close, but with a few gallons of water in it, unfortunately making it heavier. However, I was too busy fighting to keep from broaching to do anything about the dinghy. Had the dinghy swamped, I would have had to cut it away or release the tow line. I keep a serrated sailing knife handy in the cockpit, in case. My 8' Sinbad has been my shore boat for 8 years now, but it needs more repair than it is worth to me. On to the next dinghy, as I will probably go on to my next cruiser at some point. [I've added a page from Bruce Bingham's Sailor's Sketchbook to this post. He designed both the Flicka and the Trinka, among other boats. The book is out of print but very valuable, if you can find one, for "classic" boat owners such as ourselves.]

[David Patterson]

Reflections on a dead calm.

[David Patterson]

Anchored in the north cove of Friday Harbor, planning to leave the boat while I visit the heat of mid-continental summer, I've elected a fore and aft mooring. Here is a crude sketch from the running sea-letter that I call my journal. Also is a page from Earl R. Hinz's The Complete Book of Anchoring and Mooring. (His book is comprehensive, and not designed to sell you on a particular type of anchor. Worth owning. Maybe this "photo-quote" will get you interested enough.) I would like to leave CLOUD GIRL on a Bahamian moor with a large swivel at the bow, a la Larry Pardey, but I wanted the boat headed into the sometimes dramatic combined ferry and mega-yacht wakes of this anchorage. I have her tucked in a shallow corner (which is why I'm concerned about minus tides) where some of the less-experienced boaters of this high season hopefully won't anchor across my rodes, and pull my anchors with theirs. (Or run smack into my boat!) Anchor floats help with that, but many boaters have no idea what those even might indicate, never mind the utility floats can offer. Tidal range here is 8-10 feet, typically. I'll be back aboard in early September, hopefully after accomplishing some required shore business, and visiting most of my family and friends. I'll be eager to return, after the urban frenzy. I treasure being afloat in natural settings.

[David Patterson]

One more post before August. I thought I had posted this, but in an area of poor cell service it did not send. CALISTO V of Den Haag is a Netherlands craft, sailed by a French couple, whose approach to sailing the Salish Sea was to bring their vessel across the Atlantic and through the Canal. She is left for winters in the water at a city on the sea. They visit for some cruising months each year, tending their business in France the rest of the year. (Europeans, as you have heard, have a different commitment to vacations than we do. Of course, some can afford to.) The couple aboard told me they liked the boat, but found it too "complicated" for sailing easily in the variable winds and strong currents found among the San Juan and Gulf Islands. Alberg's nimble light-air-conscious and heavy-weather-capable designs do very well here. CALISTO V is a striking yacht, even with the crowded decks of a holiday cruiser, making for a beautiful companion in an anchorage.

[tjr818]

Dave,
Beautiful photos, as always. I am wondering, where do you keep your #25 CQR on Cloud Girl? We have the same anchor for Slainte, our CD27 ad we have no good place to store it. I am thinking of building an offset "bow sprit" type of mount, but there is little room on the bow of a CD27.

[David Patterson]

Tim, my 25 pounder is my primary anchor. Keeps me in shape. The windlass is me. I sit to win the anchor, to respect my back, with one foot in the locker and one braced against the bow pulpit. Here, it breaks out easily for me. I've gotten pretty good at using it, since I re-anchor so often. In fact I don't use marinas except to store the boat for longer than a month. It just resides on the boat's standard bow roller, no problems. I keep it pinned in the anchor shaft bracket, adding a tie through the buoy eye when in rough water. I don't want it jumping around when it plunges under, as it was certainly doing during my last crossing of the Strait of Georgia, when I had solid water a few times on the foredeck. My 7kg Bruce, as my cockpit release anchor, lives on the starboard quarter stern pulpit rail. I've described that handy set up in my posts last year, or in 2013. I forget which. My primary anchor gives me no stowage problems at all, it even slides forward while pinned enough to give me access to the anchor locker. I usually "cock" the anchor, as I approach my presumed anchorage, by hanging it from the roller, just above the water. Saves me a moment when I'm anchoring single-handed...which is always. By the way, I keep one other anchor on deck (I won't describe my spares.) it is my fastest anchor for kedging out, though I wouldn't go to sleep on it. It lives on the stern deck, also deploy able from the cockpit if need be, since it is so light as to be a "throwable." A Guardian G-11 with 200' of nylon rode, I can have it aboard my dinghy and deployed in moments. I used it during a soft grounding in Vancouver Bay of Jervis Inlet this year. Three deck anchors seems excessive to typical cruisers, but I rely on them all. Sorry to be so wordy in this response.

[David Patterson]

Pete, a couple more comments, then I'll "stow my gab." For me, anchored-out at least nine months of the year and moving frequently, two areas of cruising skill are co-equal in significance: sailing, to move the boat; and anchoring, to stop the boat and keep it from moving. As a single-hander (and aren't we all at times?) ways must be found to do both effectively and efficiently, or else we are reduced to motoring between marinas...which can be fun enough, I'll grant, though a sad degradation of the fine sailing crafts that our Cape Dorys are. Anchoring cannot be a passive part of cruising, always requiring alert tending at a minimum. Many different ground tackle systems can be made to work, obviously, depending on the experience and sense of the cruiser. But you, among many, already understand this I'm certain. I'm reminded of Joshua Slocum's comment: "With such as love sailing, mother-wit is the best teacher, after experience." I can't even imagine handling his ground tackle on SPRAY. Nor anchoring in all of the places and in all of the conditions that he did, below Cape Horn and elsewhere around the world. I'll look at the bow of CD27 SANGOMA today when I row ashore, if she is in her new owner's slip, to see if John Vigor did something different with it. David, Friday Harbor

[Sea Hunt Video]

This is David's post from 01 October 2013 diagraming his stern release anchor set up:

http://www.capedory.org/board/viewtopic ... id#p171415

David, I erroneously assumed this was your primary anchor release system. I did not realize you have a 25 lbs. CQR as the primary secured on the bow roller and 7kg Bruce as the "back up".

[David Patterson]

Thanks for finding that post, Roberto. My primary and secondary are both actually bow anchors as they are cleated and run. I often have had them both out in exposed anchorages. I suppose whichever anchor goes out first or takes the most load then becomes my primary. That Bruce/Claw is very adequate for these grounds (hardly ever sand). I've been on it alone in Force 6 direct winds before. It would be tedious to fully describe my chosen anchoring system, but I may undertake it some day. (After I make some improvements.) Down to the last shackle and swivel. Not yet though! There are fortunately many effective set-ups to choose from. I think a cruiser needs to love their system enough to feel a deep satisfaction as the anchor is let go and sets, in order to improve the quality of sleep that night. I love my berth, after all. But, I've grown opinionated.

[tjr818]

Ahhhh...a bow roller AND an anchor locker! We do not have those luxuries aboard Slainte. I would love to see pictures of your bow anchor mount and what ever the method is aboard SANGOMA. If I mount the 25# CQR on a roller or a "sprit" about 5" or 6" off center to the Starboard side of the bow I think I can get this to work. That would put the end of the anchor shank right infant of the deck pipe to the chain locker.

[David Patterson]

Tim, I'm surprised to hear you don't have an anchor locker. STORM PASSAGE, an Alberg 29 I was able to look at recently had hers glassed over for off-shore cruising. SANGOMA has a locker, as the photos below show. The offset bow roller allows the point of the anchor to stay clear of the cutwater, while the shank of her 25lb CQR lays along to starboard nicely. The locker can open with the anchor still on the roller. Handy for prepping to anchor, flaking out rode, attaching a buoy, whatever. I'm not aboard until much later. I'm not sure I'll get a photo before I travel, but the shank keeper (or whatever the correct terminology is) on CLOUDIE holds the shank over the locker, blocking opening unless I slide the anchor forward. Easy to work with nonetheless. My locker is farther back a little than this CD27's, which makes the locker very roomy. I keep more than anchors and rodes in mine. But the CD25D has surprises because of no vee berth.

[David Patterson]

Tim, I looked at my bow fitting in comparison to SANGOMA's. They are exactly the same. Also, anchor locker lid and the whole bow are the same. I wonder if Robinhood still has some bronze bow-fittings. The only difference on my boat is a non-original tall shank bracket installed just in front of the locker. I had to put a backing plate on it. Perhaps I should remove it, but I'm used to it now. I think the bows of the 25D and the usual 27 are identical. Year of build the difference with your anchor locker? A custom job? David