Norwegian Steam: Noon Report -- Kauai -- Neah Bay, Day 2

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Noon Report -- Kauai -- Neah Bay, Day 2

The wind has veered a bit, so we sailed the entire day on a close reach. We are really all alone out here. We have not seen any other vessels, nor wildlife other than a few birds. Jean cooked a tasty single-pot pressure cooker meal, with rice, carrots, egg plant, onions, tomatoes, green beans, garlic and spices. The egg plant and green beans were compliments of Clayton, the Japanese-American Kauai native and taro farmer who has been a friend of my Kauai cousins, Bill and Bob Farlander, for 40 years. Thank you Clayton. We have also enjoyed some of your papaya.

Our radio setup has been showing some unreliability. In the future, dear readers, if I am unable to make a blog post on a given day, or even if the posts cease entirely, please do not conclude that some disaster has befallen us.

At 2200 UTC, July 14, 2012, we are at 25 37.089 N, 159 29.388 W. Our day's run was 119 miles.

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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.