Norwegian Steam: Skipjack

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Skipjack

Robert Rackl, Clipped In and Ready

Yesterday, February 1, at about 5:30 PM Robert Rackl caught a Mexican black skipjack, trolling a silver spoon from the deck of Norwegian Steam. This was a first for both Robert and for NS. While hove-to waiting for the opportunity to enter Mazatlan during daylight hours, we cleaned, cooked, and consumed the catch. Delicious. The flesh is dark and tastes a lot like tuna.

We were hove-to for eleven hours until it was light enough to see what we were doing. By the time we got under way again, the wind had almost died. At daybreak we were moved smartly by a land breeze, two hours later were becalmed for a short time, then finally carried to our destination by a sea breeze. Classic!

Nice to take a shower and looking forward to a meal in one of several excellent restaurants at this marina.

Our current location in Marina Mazatlan (in GoogleEarth format) is N 23 16.286, W 106 27.275.

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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.