Norwegian Steam: La Paz for the Holidays.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

La Paz for the Holidays.

All along we had been planning to spend a month and a half in La Paz, during which time we would celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, I would enroll in a Spanish language class and Sally would make a quick trip back to Seattle for dental work. With the latest delay in schedule, it looked like even Christmas in La Paz would be unattainable. If NS were dropped off in Ensenada as planned, there would not have been enough time for her to reach La Paz for the Holidays. Instead, we would most likely have been anchored in some cove or inlet on the outside of Baja. That might have been nice enough, but we had wanted to be in a reliably fixed and easily reachable location at Christmas so that family members could fly down and enjoy the occasion with us.

Suddenly we may have gotten a break! Yacht Path has changed ship on us twice. The first two vessels were not scheduled to visit La Paz. The third and currently designated ship, however, the one named Beluga Elegance (think sturgeon eggs), has added La Paz to the itinerary. I have just arranged with Yacht Path to have NS deposited in La Paz rather than Ensenada. The projected date is December 16. We have our fingers crossed.

Thanksgiving will have been celebrated in Seattle. There will no longer be enough time to learn much Spanish. The dental work has already been done. But maybe, just maybe, there will be caviar on our Christmas smorgasbord!

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Norwegian Steam, the vessel

Norwegian Steam is the name of our 35' sailboat. She was designed by Ted Brewer. About 40 hulls were constructed by Miller Marine on Bainbridge Island, Washington between 1976 and the early 1980s. It is rumored that additional hulls were constructed in eastern Canada. Because many of these boats were completed by owners, there is a very great diversity in the fleet. To learn more about the basic design, you can find information about Ted's Jason design on his web site.

NS was completed by Alan with the help of friends, some of them professionals, over many years. She has been sailing since 2001. She differs from most (perhaps all) other instances of the Jason design in that her mast is 6 feet taller and she is rigged as a racing cutter, with large overlapping staysail. This rig design was inspired by the work of John Illingworth, the great English yacht designer and sailboat racer.

Norwegian Steam, the name

The phrase, Norwegian steam, may originally have been somewhat pejorative. When a vessel was powered by sails or by oars instead of by a steam or diesel engine, it was said to be powered by "Norwegian steam", the implication being that the Norwegians were so poor they could not afford engines for their boats. As time passed, the Norwegians themselves adopted the phrase to indicate a "can-do" attitude or doing whatever it takes to get the job done, even with limited resources or under adverse circumstances.

During the great era of America's Cup racing in J-Class yachts, the term took on a slightly different meaning. Many of the American defender boats had Norwegian crews and thus were said to be powered by Norwegian steam. A website has been dedicated to this bit of history.