On Sunday 27 May 2007 05:16, you wrote: > Okay Tord, you got me in the sailing mood - and my kayak's miniscule > Spirit Sail wasn't enough, so I "crewed" on the Pacific Swift today out > off the Victoria waterfront. It was a perfect day, sunny in the > afternoon and over 30 knots, with the Swiftsure race going on in the > background. I was aloft as the port side scuppers submerged. Awesome! > > The Pacific Swift schooner has over 4000 square feet of sail and is part > of the very worthwhile fleet from the S.A.L.T. Society (Sailing and Life > Training Society), who do challenging sailining adventures for young > people around the island and Pacific Ocean. I climbed to the top of the > mast, wanting to gain a different perspective after 30 years at sea > level in a kayak. > > http://www.schoonerman.com/pacswi.htm > > The ropes we had to haul on were a little thicker than on your Klepper > rig. > > Throat ready? Peak ready? Heave... > Impressive little boat - our 'own' little one looks like this: http://www.gotheborg.com/canton/index.shtml Just on her sail to China and back, to the happy tune of half a billion Swedish kronor, somewhat less in Can$ (for building, crewing (the deck crews are volunteers - the officers pros), and maintaining ship, and crew - food, medicare, et cetera). The plan was that her building would be ready, and the test cruises over and done with, so that she could arrive 'back' at the night Hong Kong got out of British control (New Year 2000), but arrived some years later - always a lack of funds, and mishaps! Her origin was a ship that wrecked when arriving home to Gotheburg, after having sailed all the way to China to buy tea, porcellain & spices. It was then within swimming distance of her home town, when she sank! Today everyone believes it was an insurance scam, especially as lot of the cargo later was saved by deepwater divers - yes they were around even then! Persent version is updated, of course, with what the laws demand today, including a hefty diesel! As she's a PR operation her shedule is faily strict, so she has a time table of sorts, not waiting for wind in the doldrums, for instance! Lots of people have crewed her on her way, both Swedes and foreigners, and nobody knows what will happen when she's back along her own dock - will she sit there till Kingdom come, or? New EU laws demand that officers onboard any commercial ship need to be full-time professionals (if you get paid in any way it's commercial, according to the newly enforced laws), thus a lot of big training vessels here will be forced to stop training people in the art of seaman-ship! And that will include Gvtheborg, of course! Sigh! Tord PS Lucky Norwegians, being outside the EU! *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sun May 27 2007 - 01:52:25 PDT
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