BCC Sea Stories

Ahoy BCC Sailors and John Cole , Since we have BCC contributor’s to this forum ,

that are currently trying to untie the dock lines, and get gone , could we have another item on the forum topic list to click on , titled , Sea Stories ???

Ron Walton of FC Majita and the FC Newsleter Editor , has garnered some very interesting FC newsletter stories, like Mary who careened her FC in Langkawi, to apply antifoul .

We all would benifit from experiences like that , told here .

How about it , John ? Is it do-able ?

Douglas

Douglas,
Sounds like fun reading!
Wayne
BCC Odyssey

Hell No!

Ok , John , “Hell No”, it is !!! , on that, unathorized subject , has anyone other than Roger , used props ,to “stand” their boats , on sand bottoms, to do anti-foul paint work , or other , under water line , hull work , that can explain "How To Do It " , for us , who care to do something different , than use and pay for a travel lift ?

Douglas

Yes, I used to sail in the British Channel Islands which have 30’ tide, so the boat was on the mud half the time.

The boat was a 1905 25’ wooden canoe ender, and we carried two planks that were exactly the length off the distance from toe rail to the bottom of the keel, and were fixed by bolts through the toe rail on each side.

The toe rail was re-inforced to provide adequate strength so that heavy beam winds would not be a problem. The length of the keel prevented the vessel from tipping forwards or backwards.

Hi John, I tried to post this in the new Sea Stories forum, but wasn’t able to get in to post a new thread.

Does anyone know who sent this tape to Sam L Morse , could it have been Doug Schmuch , of BCC Puffin , circa 1985, describing his BCC’s performance, on the Coconut Milk Run, to New Zealand ?

See Attached File :

Hi John, I tried to post this in the new Sea Stories forum, but wasn’t able to get in to post a new thread.

Does anyone know who sent this tape to Sam L Morse , could it have been Doug Schmuck , of BCC Puffin , circa 1985, describing his BCC’s performance, on the Coconut Milk Run, to New Zealand ?

See Attached File :

tmp.JPG

Yes. We hauled out on the beach on the west coast of Costa Rico. There was a group of five cruisers who participated, most being full or 3/4 full keelers. One was a fin keel who was able to do it also.

First we cut down (remote beach in well protected cove)two small trees about 4 inches in diameter and trimmed the branches off. These were 12 feet or so in length and were used to lash amidships as props from sand.

Second, we buried two anchors 75 feet in the sand at low tide…one to port and starboard. Rodes from these were led to masthead halyards and used to additionally stabilize the boats from falling sideways.

As I recall the procedure was to ease the boat straight onto the beach at high tide having first dropped a stern hook. This was to aid if necessary in floating the boat back off and also served to keep the boat from twisting sideways.

The trees were then lashed in place extending from the shear to the ground. As the tide receded the halyard lines to the anchors were kept snug.

This procedure was used for all the boats with only one mishap when one of the anchors dragged a bit and the boat (a Samson 30 foot ferro cement hull) slowly settled onto its bilge without any damage. It floated back up without any down flooding as the tide came in.

Everyone was able to clean their bottoms, wet sanding as the water level dropped and apply at least one coat of bottom paint before the tide returned. I even time to change out a thru-hull without any problems.

Having several boats participate made for easy work setting things up…and promoted some pretty good parties at the same time.

I have heard of cruisers who put their boats close in an parallel to the beach at high tide and simple letting it lay on its bilge, mast toward the land, as the tide went out. This probably works okay but takes two tides(one for each side).

Hi Stan , A Big TY , for your reply .

I had been reading about FC Sapo , “careening” on a S E Asian, Island beach, to apply anti-foul paint to her FC bottom.

I am thinking to do something similar, but have no guidelines on that proceedure.

In one of his classes, Roger once explained about using props admidships, on BCC Xiphias , inorder to do an anti-foul bottom paint job.

I am wondering which method would be more successful, to do an anti-foul paint job to my boat, either props , or “Careening” the boat ?

Mary of FC Sapo , gave an account of her careening Sapo, with a photo , as was writen to Ron Walton, of FC News , some time ago .

I will try to attach her photo, here :

fc10_1.jpg

Careening was carried out on many ships in the past, typically in the Caribbean islands. I think the slope of the beach is important, interestingly I was in British Columbia a wee while ago and in the town of Courtenay they had “racks” built into the harbour wall in town. The boat could simply be “parked” there and when the tide went down …

Obviously the angle of rest must be important, one would not want to flood on the incoming tide. I guess that is where the angle of the beach or shore comes in. Does anyone have a comment on whether the BCC can lie horizontal and recover on an incoming tide.

I think that tying off the mast to beach is advisable.

Hey all,

First, perhaps this careening discussion should be moved to a new thread?

I too am curious about this. I am not sure how a Westsail would lie, but I suspect with her bigger belly, that she’d sit on above the waterline. How does one go about protecting the topsides from getting sanded to bits? I would expect that any jostling incurred by wave or wind action as the boat is settling or rising would have the potential to really mess with the shiny side!

Thank you for your time!
Aaron