Sunday 4/27/14
In April of 1864, the USS “Restless” captured a 36-foot (on
deck) Confederate sailing scow near Crystal River. Gaff-rigged with weighted
leeboards, they were perfect “work horses” for the shallow waters of the Gulf
and a lot of the East coasts.
After three years of volunteer labor by the Crystal River
Boat Builders, the replica “Crystal River” was launched last year. Nearly all
of her construction was of “period materials” including nails rather than
screws.
With the boat show over the remaining boaters were invited
for a sail. With a 12-foot beam and engineless, she’s a challenge to maneuver,
especially in the near constant river current. So a small outboard-powered
tugboat is used alongside. Working way against the flood was very slow and
became dicey when the outboard ran dry of gas. Even with full sail set we
quickly drifted toward the grassy shore, until the fisherman anchor was dropped
and we got re-fueled. Favoring progress over the ground we came about and ran
down wind and when the skipper asked if anyone wanted the helm I was aft in a
flash. I sailed boats up to 110-feet so handling the Crystal River wasn’t a
surprise, except for calling for the weighted leeboards; dropping the lee board
and having the windward board hefted up with block and tackle (the only winch
aboard was for the anchor). I love it when I can focus well enough to run wing
and wing, without a whisker pole, but the block and tackle barn-door rudder got
me a couple of times for an unintentional jibe (oops). When we reached the
turning basin much later we got her broad reaching to 6-knots, a record so far,
this only being her fifth time out since her build! I been feeling bummed that
this was my last day before having to head home but the day’s sail was a
perfect finale and I give a big thanks to skipper Steve Kingery, we even saw a
group of about eight manatees.
 |
| pit crew, Steve, Nick, Dan |
 |
| Skipper Steve |
No comments:
Post a Comment