Norwegian Steam: Noon Report -- Cabo-Hawaii Day 10

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Noon Report -- Cabo-Hawaii Day 10

We have reached the trades! The wind has pulled around so that it is now on the starboard quarter.

During the night one of the mainsheet blocks came loose from its attachment point under the boom, so we just lowered the main and have been getting along without it ever since. We are sailing with just the yankee (a high-clewed jib with an area about the same as that of the fore-triangle). It is hard for Rangval (that's the name of our Monitor wind vane self-steering) to keep us on course because there is a lot of weather helm. I had a spare block and was able to use it to repair the mainsheet. We will try a wing-on-wing sail configuration this afternoon, with the main hoisted with a single reef and the yankee poled out to windward.

This morning I got to test the repair that I made yesterday to the charging system. The alternator worked fine and we were able to put a good charge into the battery bank. While this was happening, I ran the watermaker and our fresh water tanks are now full again.

Our day's run was 129 miles. At 1800 UTC, June 13, 2012, our location is 23 44.037 N, 132 00.698 W.

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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.