September 2013 - The Grand Bend Yacht Club

Thistles Nationals ,August 2013,
Sandusky, Ohio
Soundings
2013 September issue
WoodAye Launch
By Cathy Dobson,
The Observer/QMI Agency
Jeff Horley of Courtright launched
his 38-foot custom designed
wooden sailboat on Sunday at
Sarnia Yacht Club. Horley worked
on the details of his boat for 26
years and calls her Would..Aye.
Would is the question, he says.
Aye is the answer.
Jeff Horley, above right, and
Bruce Greer, christen the Would...Aye minutes after her launch at Sarnia
Yacht Club. The two men set out to build two 38-foot wooden sailboats
in 1987. Greer’s was launched 12 years ago while Horley worked on the
details of his for 26 years.
When Jeff Horley began building his own wooden sailboat, complete with
Jacuzzi and stained glass, he had no idea it would take 26 years to launch.
But he’s a patient man.
“I spent hours turning the teak board into a deck, four months to make
the riser – which had to be the toughest board on the hull – and weeks
on the wooden steering wheel,” Horley said.
“If I was looking for easy, I would have just gone out and bought a
Fibreglass boat.”
In 1987, he was a 31-year-old process operator at Imperial Oil when he
began his project in a rented warehouse on Vidal Street. His daughter was
four years old. He thought it would take about three years to complete.
Contents
WoodAye Launch
Mythical Navigational Tool
Living the Dream
Early Spring View
GBYC 30 Start
BYC Given Fun Pics
Upcoming Events
Member Holiday Pics
2013 Louis Vuitton Cup
The Larder Greetings
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Click to view The London Power
and Sail Squadron
boating courses
for September 2013.
Most are held in the evenings
at Catholic Central High School.
The rest are offered
at the Squadron headquaters
at the forks of the Thames River.
Soundings submission
deadline for the October
2013 issue is September 25 Page 1
But the design was original and the process was painstaking.
His daughter is now a 30-year-old architect and Horley retired a year ago. It’s been a labour of love, to say
the least, and one he hopes to repeat.
Horley had sailed a wooden sailboat for years named the Craklin when he decided to build his own. The
Craklin was getting old and new wooden boats were obsolete by the 1980s.
Horley and his buddy, Bruce Greer, decided to use the Craklin’s 36-foot hull as a mould to create two new
38-foot hulls.
“No one else has ever done this,” said Horley. “I researched it for ten years and had to learn everything about
it.”
He even called on the expertise of the Craklin’s Toronto-area manufacturer, which had stopped building
wooden boats years before.
Greer and Horley worked on their boats simultaneously in the warehouse, welcoming friends and neighbours
who could lend a hand or just wanted to talk about boat building.
When Greer decided to launch his boat before the interior was complete, Horley decided to move his out of
the warehouse and keep working on it.
“It was less expensive to build myself a shed on my property,” he said. Another year went by.
“We were way too optimistic about the timing but that doesn’t matter,”
Horley said. “The hulls went together quickly. Everything else took forever.”
His wife, Janice, helped throughout the project and did most of the varnishing.
On Sunday, the Horleys transported the newly christened “Would..Aye” from their Courtright
property to the Sarnia Yacht Club and watched as it was carefully lifted into the water for the first time.
A small crowd was there to watch the boat made from Western Red Cedar, Teak and African Mahogany settle
into her berth alongside Greer’s boat. Apart from their names, the two look identical on the outside but have
different interiors.
The Horleys plan to sail the 10,000-pound Would...Aye to Georgian Bay’s North Channel in a few weeks.
“Not many people would spend this many years on a project,” said Horley. “Apart from Bruce’s, there’s no
other wood boat launched in Ontario for the past 50 years.”
Mythical Navigational Tool
Researchers may have found a Viking sunstone
This photo taken in Alderney, one of the Channel Islands by
scientist Guy Ropars shows the Alderney Crystal, a piece of
calcite. Researchers say the rough, whitish crystal recovered from the
wreckage of 16th century English warship may be a sunstone. / AP Photo
LONDON A rough, whitish block recovered from an Elizabethan shipwreck may be a sunstone, the fabled
crystal believed by some to have helped Vikings and other medieval seafarers navigate the high seas,
researchers say.
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In a paper published earlier this week, a Franco-British group argued that the Alderney
Crystal - a chunk of Icelandic calcite found amid a 16th century wreck at the bottom of
the English Channel - worked as a kind of solar compass, allowing sailors to determine
the position of the sun even when it was hidden by heavy cloud, masked by fog, or
below the horizon.
“Magic” behind Viking sunstone deciphered
Low-tech Vikings may have used high-tech optics
That’s because of a property known as birefringence, which splits light beams in a way
that can reveal the direction of their source with a high degree of accuracy. Vikings
may not have grasped the physics behind the phenomenon, but that wouldn’t present
a problem.
“You don’t have to understand how it works,” said Albert Le Floch, of the University in Rennes in western
France. “Using it is basically easy.”
Vikings were expert navigators - using the sun, stars, mountains and even migratory whales to help guide them
across the sea - but some have wondered at their ability to travel the long stretches of open water between
Greenland, Iceland, and Newfoundland in modern-day Canada.
Play video: Buried Viking treasure found in Denmark
Le Floch is one of several who’ve suggested that calcite crystals
were used as navigational aids for long summer days in which
the sun might be hidden behind the clouds. He said the use
of such crystals may have persisted into the 16th century, by
which time magnetic compasses were widely used but often
malfunctioned.
Albert Le Floch of the University in Rennes in western France noted that
one Icelandic legend - the Saga of St. Olaf - appears to refer to such a crystal when it says that Olaf used a
“sunstone” to verify the position of the sun on a snowy day.
But that’s it. Few other medieval references to sunstones have been found, and no such crystals have ever
been recovered from Viking tombs or ships. Until the Alderney Crystal was recovered in 2002, there had been
little if any hard evidence to back the theory.
Many specialists are still skeptical. Donna Heddle, the director of the Center for Nordic Studies at Scotland’s
University of the Highlands and Islands, described the solar compass hypothesis as speculative.
“There’s no solid evidence that that device was used by Norse navigators,” she said Friday. “There’s never
been one found in a Viking boat. One cannot help but feel that if there were such things they would be found
in graves.”
She acknowledged that the crystal came from Iceland and was found near a navigation tool, but said it might
just as easily have been used as a magnifying device as a solar compass.
Le Floch argued that one of the reasons why no stones have been found before is that calcite degrades quickly
- it’s vulnerable to acid, sea salts, and to heat. The Alderney Crystal was originally transparent, but the sea
water had turned it a milky white. Le Floch’s paper - written with Guy Ropars, Jacques Lucas, and a group of
Britons from the Alderney Maritime Trust - appeared Wednesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
(Editor’s Note: not mentioned--a compass was also found among the navigational tools.)
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Living the Dream
by George Dutka
During most gathering of boaters it seems the topic of taking off down south aboard a boat seems to arise
in the conversation at some point. We all dream of this but most of us will never accomplish this adventure.
I guess it might just be a bucket list addition. Well here is a story of a new to boating couple that has already
accomplished this bucket list task in their first year as boaters.
Over the Easter weekend we went with our grandchildren for the annual Easter egg hunt on Boler Mountain
in London, Ont. Another set of grandparents stood next to us with a great tan. I asked if they had just come
back from down south. The lady answered, we just came back from our boat in the Bahamas. I mentioned I
also had a boat, a sailboat which I kept in Grand Bend. The lady then said excitedly, we live in Grand Bend
and bought our first power boat, a used 26 footer last summer at Southwest Marine. We spent our first boating
season in Bayfield. The gentleman then added that they had such a great first season on the water they
decided to trailer the boat south to Florida and ferry it to the Bahamas trailer and all for the winter.
Well this story was really getting interesting
to me. I think I may have missed my
grandkids going up the mountain picking
Easter eggs by this point of the conversation.
You could tell quickly how enthusiastic they
were about boating.
After a short time in the Bahamas they
decided they wanted to do all their boating
there and purchased a 40 foot plus trawler
in the Georgetown area. They now have
the 26 footer for sale trailer and all in the
Bahamas if anyone is interested. I don’t
recall their names but the gentleman started
working part time this spring launching
boats for Southwest if you want to hear his
follow-up stories. It appears that they fly
back and forth regularly, spending time in
both Grand Bend and the Bahamas year
round. What a great life!
Early Spring View
An early spring view of Trekker on the floating dock. Fellow
GBYC member Bill Morrison is just two over and at the time of
the photo GBYC member Ted Gillis’s boat is next to mine. As it
turns out there are three ex-GBYC boats in this basin his year.
After 12 seasons of boating in Grand Bend at the GBYC, this
year I moved Trekker (our Pearson 33-2) to Bayfield, Ont. This
was due to very low water in the early spring at the Bend. I am
currently located in the lake front basin on the floating docks bow
to bow as it turns out with my good friend Brad...
George Dutka
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GBYC 30 Start
by George Dutka
Left to right: Aquavit, Atacuari, Looking Glass,
Soetica, Sailitude, Wind Gobbler,
and Mystic
BYC Given
Looking Glass, C&C3 Mk 1, Before Start
Spinnaker Class Start: Nine Boats
Cruising Class Start: also Nine Boats
Nautilus, Beneteau First 35, Tiller Steering
Summer Heat, Goman 30
Despite superlative starts,
No class breaks in either
division doomed older,
heavier boats to finish no
better than 5th on a shortened, very, light airs race.
The first three placings
were dominated by boats
with displacements under
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3,525 pounds.
Fun Pics
“Yea Gads Woman: I’m a VIKING,
I’m suppose to leave rings on the table!”
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Upcoming Events
Christmas in
September
Turkey
Potatoes
Stuffing
Cranberries
Gravy
BYOB
Cocktails 5:00 - 5:30
Dinner: 6:30 - 7:00
Prize for Best Deocrated Boat
Tickets $15/ea
Regatta Notice
Saturday, August 31st &
Sunday, September 1st
Skipper’s meetings: 09:00
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Member Holiday Pics
Randy & Maureen Lee, Sailitude,
2013 North Channel Holiday, Inukshuk
George Dutka: Bayfield Sunset
Left to Right: Maureen Lee, Randy Brown,
Brenda & Howard Tims, Dave & Ann Bannister,
Jack, Sandy & Rick Zupancic:
2013 North Channel Holiday
Editor’s Note: The original photograph
was very dark
2013 Louis Vuitton Cup
Boat specifications for the 2013 Louis Vitton Cup
Crew 11
Type Catamaran
DesignBox rule
LOA 26.2 m (86 ft)
Race 7: Statistics
LWL 22.0 m (72.2 ft)
Emirates Team New Zealand set a new Louis Vuitton Cup speed
Beam 14.0 m (45.9 ft)
record of 47.18 knots at Mark 3, the windward gate.
Draft 4.4 m (14 ft)
That’s 54 mph, or 79’ per second for the 72’ long catamaran
Hull 5,900 kg (13,000 lb)
The previous record was 44.15 knots
\weight
Average
speed for the entire course=29.24 knots (34 mph)
Mast 40.0 m (131.2 ft)
Total distance sailed for TMNZ = 11.4 n.m.
height (13 stories high)
Wind speeds 18 knots--peak 21.4 knots
Main 580 m2 (6,200 sq ft) (wing and
&
gennaker
Jib
estimate)
Editor’s Note: Fascinating that technology is able to produce
area
a sailboat whose speed triples wind strength
Mainsail 260 m2 (2,800 sq ft) (wing estimate)
area (Tennis court size: 36’x78’=2,808 sq ft)
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The Larder
Grilled Pasta
Grilled market-fresh veggies meet marinated olives and artichokes in this healthy dish made with whole
wheat rotini. So chock full with taste and texture, carnivores won’t complain about this vegetarian dish.
Ingredients serve 4:
1/3 cup (75 mL) each chopped fresh parsley and basil
1/4 cup (50 mL) red or white wine vinegar
1/3 cup (75 mL) extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp (2 mL) each salt and pepper
2 portobello mushrooms, stemmed and gills removed
1 red onion, cut into 1/2-inch (1 cm) thick rounds
1 zucchini, cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch (5 mm) thick strips
4 cups (1 L) whole wheat rotini (12 oz/375 g)
2 cups (500 mL) cherry tomatoes, halved
1 jar (6 oz/175 mL) marinated artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup (75 mL) sliced pimiento-stuffed olives
1/4 cup (50 mL) shaved Parmesan cheese
Preparation:
In large bowl, whisk together parsley, basil, oil, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper; set aside.
Place mushrooms, onion and zucchini on greased grill over medium-high heat; close lid and grill, turning
once, until tender-crisp, 5 to 10 minutes. Cut mushrooms and onion into 1/2-inch (1 cm) chunks. Cut
zucchini crosswise into 1/2-inch (1 cm) thick slices. Add vegetables to bowl; toss to coat.
Meanwhile, in large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until tender but firm, 10 to 12 minutes; drain and
rinse.
Add pasta, tomatoes, artichokes and olives to vegetable mixture; toss to combine. Sprinkle with cheese.
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Greetings
Enjoy Your Labour
Day Weekend
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