Norwegian Steam: Back to Baja

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Back to Baja

This time the weather forecasts were "golden." Geary's sonrisanet forecast, Stan's southern crossing forecast and gribs containing data from NOAA's Global Forecast System (GFS) all indicated that Thursday, March 22, would be the optimal day to depart Mazatlan for Baja. Only a little more than two weeks ago, similar rosy forecasts had induced us to round Cabo Corrientes in weather conditions that turned nasty, resulting in a head injury for Sally. This time it was nearly calm all the way from Mazatlan to La Paz, never more than ten knots of wind for 52 hours. We had a beautiful sail for 10 hours, but the rest of the time we motored. With light winds right on the nose most of the way, motoring saved us an extra day on the ocean.

Actually, not all forecasts were golden. Dulce Maestra, a "buddy boat" which accompanied us most of the time we were under sail, employs a commercial weather routing service which told her to expect winds from the SSW when she crossed 108 degrees of longitude. When Jan of Dulce Maestra told me this, I was surprised since it did not agree with the other forecasts. So I was very interested in seeing whether the commercial service could provide a forecast the free services were incapable of. As it turned out, we saw no SSW wind at the 108th meridian or beyond.

We arrived in La Paz in the early afternoon of Saturday, March 24, 2012. We stopped at the excellent fuel dock at Costa Baja to refuel and to register for a slip at the Costa Baja marina. In the evening we enjoyed a truly exceptional meal at the Azul Marino, only a few hundred paces from the boat. This may well be La Paz's best restaurant.

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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.