10-05-2008, 09:32 AM
Ok , I have to admit that I was a sailor growing up to tell my story. This is the world famous Cal-40, and before you judge it, we had dozens of deep sea rods and reels onboard, downriggers, outriggers, nets, gaffs, spears and spearguns, practically an onboard dive shop complete with compressor etc. a depth sounder dad somehow married to some sort of medical device screen as an early fishfinder. much much more, should have sank at the dock. Check this out, we successfully caught flying fish by shining a big light on the mainsail and they would fly right into it at night. Anyhow ya get the picture, we very seriously fished from her and campaigned it racing all over the world, I personally sailed on it over 50,000 miles from '73 to '79, seems like another lifetime.
Was the 1975 Newport to Ensenada race I remember as '75 and '79 were big weather years. The Cal-40 wieghs 21,600 lbs empty and was considered to be an unsafe, grossly over sailpowered vessel when introduced in the early 60's. We never won a single race lol, had way too much stuff onboard and always trolling. Dad was kinda a nut and had a large cut of beef on what should be in the Guinness Book for treble hooks, It was a tossing hook he took the grinder to, I would estimate 8" across (Mustad had nothing on Dad). This was out on 500 feet of 3/8 braided nylon / stainless wire core, with several of those black trucker bungies tied in so as to absorb shock. We were doing around 13 knots under more than full sail, which, powerboaters, is really smoking along on one of those babies and the actual power and momentum involved I couldn't guess how to relate, trust me, it's serious. Next thing is Mr. Hite tapping on the Signet D.A.D. (pretty tech averaging knotmeter of the time) and I'm noticing the spinnaker isn't luffing proper. Hmmm apparent wind speed and direction are real steady, and were now doing only around 11.75 knots.
Now 11, now 10.25, What the... ??? we're all leaning over the rails to see if we picked up a batch of kelp or something ??? now 9 knots, 8.5, at this point my dad even comes up, super rare during his noon Coors nap because the boat is now shuttering , 8 knots, 7.5, 7 , at 6 knots it becomes apparent as the entire boat is being jerked down at the stern to the point where everyones on all fours and grabbing rails. My dad managed to get below and come up with a machete and just as I was reminding him it was steel core, whatever was down there finally snapped the line and the boat just launched. We had seen a couple of Orcas earlier or figured a Large White.[inline "Conser Cal 40 shot cropped.jpg"]
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Was the 1975 Newport to Ensenada race I remember as '75 and '79 were big weather years. The Cal-40 wieghs 21,600 lbs empty and was considered to be an unsafe, grossly over sailpowered vessel when introduced in the early 60's. We never won a single race lol, had way too much stuff onboard and always trolling. Dad was kinda a nut and had a large cut of beef on what should be in the Guinness Book for treble hooks, It was a tossing hook he took the grinder to, I would estimate 8" across (Mustad had nothing on Dad). This was out on 500 feet of 3/8 braided nylon / stainless wire core, with several of those black trucker bungies tied in so as to absorb shock. We were doing around 13 knots under more than full sail, which, powerboaters, is really smoking along on one of those babies and the actual power and momentum involved I couldn't guess how to relate, trust me, it's serious. Next thing is Mr. Hite tapping on the Signet D.A.D. (pretty tech averaging knotmeter of the time) and I'm noticing the spinnaker isn't luffing proper. Hmmm apparent wind speed and direction are real steady, and were now doing only around 11.75 knots.
Now 11, now 10.25, What the... ??? we're all leaning over the rails to see if we picked up a batch of kelp or something ??? now 9 knots, 8.5, at this point my dad even comes up, super rare during his noon Coors nap because the boat is now shuttering , 8 knots, 7.5, 7 , at 6 knots it becomes apparent as the entire boat is being jerked down at the stern to the point where everyones on all fours and grabbing rails. My dad managed to get below and come up with a machete and just as I was reminding him it was steel core, whatever was down there finally snapped the line and the boat just launched. We had seen a couple of Orcas earlier or figured a Large White.[inline "Conser Cal 40 shot cropped.jpg"]
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